Our nonprofit native seed farm, Heritage Growers, is tackling one of the most fundamental — and least visible — environmental recovery challenges facing the American West: the shortage of locally adapted native seeds needed to restore damaged ecosystems at scale. With 208 acres in production, the farm grows and amplifies “source-identified” seed — plant material whose genetic origin can be traced to the specific region where it will ultimately be replanted. This gives the seed the best possible chance to survive.
Founded in 2021, Heritage Growers is currently producing around 40,000 pounds of native seed for restoration efforts throughout the state and is key to helping River Partners’ goal of placing 15 million milkweed plants into the ground by 2030. From providing seeds and plugs to help restore the Klamath River habitat to planning for enough product for 6,000 acres of restoration project implementation in the San Joaquin Valley, Heritage Growers' mission “is to restore habitat for the benefit of people and the environment,” said General Manager Pat Reynolds.
Read more about Heritage Growers in the fantastic article by Reasons to be Cheerful here: https://reasonstobecheerful.world/heritage-growers-california-future/
What lives in a teaspoon of soil? Turns out, THOUSANDS of different species live in a teaspoon of soil, according to results we got back from last year’s eDNA (environmental DNA) research.
In 2025, River Partners scientists collected 600 soil samples in the winter and 600 more in the summer from locations within our restoration sites in the San Joaquin Valley. Through funding from the California Wildlife Conservation Board and in partnership with CALeDNA, eDNA Explorer, and California State Parks, River Partners now has more data about life on our restoration sites, from fungi, birds, and amphibians to vegetation, fish, and invertebrates.
As River Partners Director of Restoration Science Emma Havstad said, “The results are vast, and there’s a lot to comprehend. When you find 3,000 different species in a single sample, what does that all mean?”
Read more about our astounding findings at: /news/what-lives-in-a-teaspoon-of-soil-edna-research-is-revealing-the-hidden-life-driving-restoration-success/
On May 1, about 20 PG&E employees helped plant native vegetation on the last acre of a 106-acre restoration site near Caswell Memorial State Park. Volunteers from PG&E, which helped fund this project, spent a couple of hours planting on a one-acre bunny mound, a graded area at about 8 feet in elevation that will eventually provide refuge, safety, and food for the endangered riparian brush rabbit during extended future floods here.
Last fall, River Partners revegetated this site, which is owned by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, with oaks, cottonwoods, and willows, as well as native grasses, wildflowers, and pollinator-friendly plants. Wildlife that will benefit from this restoration include pollinator species (like the Western monarch butterfly) and tricolored blackbirds. PG&E employees put finishing touches on restoring this riverside habitat. Our day closed with a fun and informative pollinator-count activity, where PG&E employees got an idea of how River Partners scientists observe and tally bees, flies, and butterflies visiting flowers 🦋
Read more in The Modesto Bee’s coverage of PG&E’s day of planting at: /news/local/article315565215.html
📸 1-3 by The Modesto Bee’s Andy Alfaro
📸 4 by River Partners
Big Day of Giving is TODAY—a 24-hour giving event hosted by the Sacramento Region Community Foundation. Can you take three minutes to support River Partners?
Donate here: /organization/River-Partners
Every day, we work to make our river-dependent landscapes and communities more resilient, biodiverse, and beautiful for the benefit of wildlife and people. From restoring riverside habitat for imperiled wildlife to revegetating river corridors that buffer communities against flooding and drought, River Partners' work strengthens the natural systems that Sacramento area residents—and all of Californians—depend on.
Your support creates a Sacramento region and Golden State that's wilder, healthier, and more resilient for generations to come. Thank you!
Last year, Restoration Science Ecologist Haley Mirts conducted some pre-restoration monitoring at our 100-acre Hatmark PG&E Mitigation site in Stanislaus County. As she made her way around the property, she snapped photos of these gorgeous sandhill cranes strolling around and making good use of the open space of what was once agricultural land supporting row crops—note the old corn stalks.
“The cranes show up in that area in big numbers since there’s lots of open fields in that area,” Mirts said. “These birds were making use of the space to dance and forage.”
The end of the calendar year is when sandhill cranes and other migratory birds report to the wintering grounds of the Central Valley—Hatmark is a stop along the approximately 10,000-mile Pacific Flyway. It’s part of the bird’s remarkable migration from their summer breeding grounds in Alaska, Canada, and the Pacific Northwest. They remain in the Central Valley (to forage and rest) through late February, then it’s off once again to their northern breeding grounds through mid-March. Of the two different subspecies of sandhill cranes, the greater sandhill crane (pictured) is the larger. This subspecies is listed as Threatened under the California Endangered Species Act.
See more from our "Eyes in the Wild: A River Partners Wildlife Journal" series: /news/eyes-in-the-wild-a-river-partners-wildlife-journal-november-edition/
This past November, volunteers counted fewer than 13,000 western monarch butterflies overwintering along the California coast—the third lowest tally in nearly three decades of monitoring. The three lowest counts on record have all come in the last six years.
“Western monarchs are in serious trouble. The migration is collapsing,” said Emma Pelton, a senior conservation biologist with the Xerces Society. “Our window for action is narrowing, and our conservation efforts must accelerate.”
River Partners has responded with the largest coordinated monarch recovery effort in the West: 15 million milkweed plants by 2030. The milkweed—the only food source for monarch caterpillars and nursery for their eggs—will be planted in a primary monarch migration corridor, from Redding in Northern California to the Imperial Valley near the Arizona and Mexico border.
“River Partners has a unique opportunity to provide stopover habitat where monarchs can stay and linger and not get exposed to insecticides,” said River Partners Senior Restoration Ecologist Corey Shake. “No one else can quite pull that off at the scale that we do.”
To read more about how River Partners and Heritage Growers, our 200-acre native seed farm near the town of Colusa, are working together to fight the Western monarch decline and bring balance back to this vital pollinator’s habitat, visit /news/planting-15-million-milkweed-to-reverse-the-western-monarch-decline/.
To support River Partners’ work toward 15 million milkweed for monarchs by 2030, visit riverpartners.org/donate.
Associate Restoration Scientist Bella Cardenas was helping Restoration Fellow Jaredth Thor as he collected data for his fellowship project. He was comparing the density of milkweed planted by River Partners at Grayson Riverbend Preserve along the San Joaquin River near Modesto with that at Panorama Vista Preserve near the Kern River in Bakersfield. River Partners restored this nearly 300-acre area in 2022, adding to the constellation of restored sites across many thousands of connected acres in Stanislaus County. Cardenas saw this male native bee sleeping in a gumplant flower. Identifying bee species can be a multi-pronged approach, including examining all around their bodies, so our Science staff simply called this slumbering fellow a native bee.
Because male bees leave the nest permanently after emerging, they are tasked with finding shelter and will often sleep in flowers, which provide a sheltered place to rest, especially within those that close at night for an extra layer of safety. Getting some shuteye in flowers can also be a warm place to nap during the day and the bumblebee can start foraging for nectar and pollen for energy as soon as they wake up. Bumblebees can be especially attracted to gumplant, which are rich in these energy sources for their long day of pollen-collecting. River Partners has a goal to increase the number of pollinator-friendly plants for our imperiled bee friends, the Western monarch butterfly, and other pollinators by adding 15 million milkweed plants across California by 2030.
See more from our "Eyes in the Wild: A River Partners Wildlife Journal" series: /news/eyes-in-the-wild-a-river-partners-wildlife-journal-december-edition/
Our longstanding partnership with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife has meant studying wildlife at a couple dozen units along the 3,900-acre Sacramento River Wildlife Area (SRWA) in Northern California. This includes camera trap photos, like this one of a ringtail taken by a camera at the SRWA’s Colusa Unit, just north of a future River Partners restoration site near the farming town of Colusa.
Also known as “ringtail cats,” the ringtail is a small (usually weighing 1–2 pounds), elusive, and nocturnal mammal in the raccoon family found in diverse habitats from California to Mexico. They can live in diverse habitats like deserts, chaparrals, and oak woodlands, particularly near rocky areas or riparian zones, like this one in Colusa.
The ringtail is a species of special concern and is fully protected in California due to historic over-trapping and current threats from habitat loss and fragmentation. It’s also an important omnivorous predator and prey species within its ecosystem, eating small mammals, birds, reptiles, insects, and native fruits like berries.
See more from our "Eyes in the Wild: A River Partners Wildlife Journal" series: /news/eyes-in-the-wild-a-river-partners-wildlife-journal-november-edition/
Our rivers sustain one of the most biologically rich regions on Earth, and are the lifeblood of California’s communities and world-class economy. Yet today, 95% of the state’s native riverside habitat has been lost, threatening people, wildlife, and the natural systems we all need to thrive.
For over 25 years, River Partners has been doing the hard work of giving rivers new life — and the results speak for themselves:
🌳 4.5 million native trees and plants in the ground
🐟 86 imperiled species protected
💧 11.2 billion gallons of freshwater conserved
🌍 1.58 million metric tons of CO₂-equivalent greenhouse gases captured
💵 $194 million channeled directly to the communities where we work
Restored rivers aren't just good for wildlife — they're essential for people too. They absorb floodwaters before they devastate farms and neighborhoods. They replenish the aquifers our communities drink from. They filter pollution and improve water quality. They create green jobs in rural regions that need them. And they give park-starved communities access to trails, fishing, kayaking, and open space.
Healthy rivers are our first line of defense in a changing climate — and they're one of the most powerful investments we can make in the health, safety, and resilience of the people who live alongside them.
This Earth Day, THANK YOU for supporting the work that River Partners does. All of your likes, comments, shares, partnerships, and donations keep us going. Together we are giving new life to rivers and building a brighter future for California.
Pictured: Bidwell-Sacramento River State Park near Chico, CA before and after restoration. California State Parks partnered with Butte County Resource Conservation District and River Partners to restore the former walnut orchard to mixed oak and riparian forest and improve public access paths for fishing, swimming, and hiking.
✅ #AB2184, The Climate Center's co-sponsored legislation to fund nature-based climate solutions, has passed its first committee! Keep the momentum going by taking action for nature-based climate solutions and sustainable agriculture at the link in our bio. 🔗
Did you know that the Sacramento Valley’s floodplains are essential stopover habitats for millions of birds and waterfowl traveling the Pacific Flyway? This #FloodplainFriday, let’s take a closer look at how revitalizing these floodplain wetlands keeps one of the world’s greatest migrations thriving.
By restoring and reactivating floodplains, we create nutrient‑rich seasonal wetlands that support ducks, geese, shorebirds, and countless other migratory species. These wetlands function like natural food banks, producing invertebrates, seeds, and plant material that birds depend on during long, energy‑intensive flights.
A powerful example of this work is the Lift Station Project at Sutter National Wildlife Refuge. @ducksunlimitedinc , in partnership with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, and the California Natural Resources Agency, finished construction of a $16 million lift station to provide the refuge with a far more reliable water supply.
Historically, low water levels in the supply ditch have prevented Sutter NWR from flooding up to 1,540 acres of managed wetlands early in the season, leaving birds without timely habitat when they need it most.
The new lift station will allow the refuge to draw water even when those ditch levels are low, increasing the likelihood of having habitat available at the start of migration. It even includes fish‑safe screens to protect species like salmon.
Efforts like this don’t happen alone. Collaborative conservation—among landowners, water managers, agencies, nonprofits, and local communities—is how we build resilient wetlands that benefit both wildlife and people.
Let’s keep pushing #FloodplainForward.
Learn more about the coalition’s work: /floodplain-forward/
Our 2026 field work has begun with another Motus set up! As part of our efforts to expand automated wildlife monitoring in California, we just finished designing and installing two Motus wildlife tracking stations for @riverpartners !
One of these stations is in Panorama Vista Preserve in Bakersfield, CA. The other is in Dos Rios State Park, near Modesto, CA. Both stations will help with ongoing tracking of Tricolored Blackbirds.
#motuswildlifetracking #motus #conservation #birdresearch #birdconservation #migration #southernsierraresearch #TricoloredBlackbirds #PanoramaVistaPreserve #DosRiosStatePark
Image Descriptions
Image 1. An old telephone pole stands upright against a blue-gray sky with nine directional antennas on the top. At the bottom of the pole is a mounted solar panel.
Image 2. Two metal poles extend above a building, one with four and the second with five directional antennas.
