SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – California is moving toward a flood-control strategy that aims to give raging rivers more room to spread out. The Central Valley Flood Protection Board adopted the new plan Friday.
California’s flood strategy for more than a century has focused on levees to hold back rivers including the Sacramento and San Joaquin. The new plan also embraces wildlife-friendly flood plains, wetlands and bypass channels. Kris Trjernell of the Natural Resources Agency says the idea is giving rivers more room to move.
Farmers as well as conservation and fishing groups are praising the plan, a rarity in California’s water politics.
Supporters point to Northern California’s Yolo Bypass, where wetlands and flood plains help protect the capital, Sacramento, from flooding, and also support rice farmers, migratory birds, and endangered baby salmon.
