River Partners

A 2022 wildfire burned through a cottonwood forest along the Sacramento River. What grew back was worse: a dense tangle of Himalayan blackberry and grape vine, crowding out native plants and stacking up fuel for the next fire. The vegetation was so thick our scientists couldn't even walk in to assess the land.

So, this summer, we called in a different kind of crew.

Nearly 400 Boer goats spent weeks grazing 40 acres of invasive growth at the Sacramento River Wildlife Area’s Colusa South Unit, in partnership with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. Goats clear fuel with far less ground disturbance than heavy equipment and without herbicides, which is better for water quality and wildlife in a sensitive river corridor. These goats removed a fire risk one chomp at a time. Next up for River Partners: replanting with native vegetation.

Read the full story:

Goats Graze a Path to Wildfire Resilience along Sacramento River - River Partners Targeted grazing used to clear invasive vegetation while protecting sensitive riparian habitat

If this fall and winter’s El Niño lives up to expectations, California is going to get A LOT of rain. In fact, it could be a historic amount of rain, which could lead to possible flooding. One powerful solution would be to capture that rain and could result in huge volumes of water across our landscape. Since 1998, River Partners has been restoring historic floodplains throughout California—turns out that while these can help bring wildlife back to their ancient habitats, they’re also a powerful solution to managing floods, giving water space to slow down, sit, and recharge underground aquifers.

The Los Angeles Times explores how restored floodplains like the ones River Partners has been bringing back since 1998 could be critical to capturing water from the upcoming El Niño.

https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2026-09-26/el-nino-upside

📸 Los Angeles Times

Will El Niño have an upside? California tries to capitalize on big storms El Niño could unleash major storms and flooding. It also could bring precious water to drought-afflicted California.

When our native seed non-profit Heritage Growers grew and cultivated 40,000 plants and 1,500 pounds of locally adapted seed to help restore the Klamath River habitat in 2024, they knew they were making history by being part of the largest dam removal project in American history. And now, more history is being made in those precious waters: Thousands of native Chinook salmon were recorded passing one of the former dam sites in 2024 and 2025. The species has now reoccupied nearly the full extent of its known historical range within the Klamath River.

Restoration works—this project is proof.

Read the story by The New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/24/climate/klamath-salmon-recovery-dam-removal.html

📸 California Trout

Salmon Are Thriving After Klamath Dam Removals, Study Finds The first fall runs of chinook salmon since the project in California and Oregon was completed have surpassed researchers’ expectations.

The Sacramento River has been too warm for Chinook salmon eggs to survive—state biologists estimate 20% mortality so far, with potentially more expected if water releases from Shasta Dam are not sufficient. It's exactly why floodplain restoration along the Sacramento River and throughout the Central Valley matters. The rearing habitat River Partners restores along historic river floodplains gives juvenile salmon food and cold-water refuge once they hatch, helping fish make their long migration to the Pacific.

📸Los Angeles Times

This major California river has gotten too warm for its salmon The Sacramento River has gotten too warm for salmon eggs. Environmental advocates blame the Trump administration for taking too much water out of Shasta Lake.

California Governor Newsom declared a state of emergency this week ahead of what could be one of the strongest El Niños on record. The Sacramento Bee published a great piece about River Partners’ and our allies’ Dos Rios Norte project just north of Sacramento, at the confluence of the Sacramento and Feather rivers and Butte Creek. The article explores what the alternative to walling off the Sacramento River looks like in practice.

The idea is simple: instead of squeezing a river between levees and hoping they hold, give floodwater a place to spread out. Dos Rios Norte floods on purpose, and that takes pressure off the flood system downstream. There are other benefits, too, like improved habitat for imperiled salmon and other wildlife and groundwater supplies.

It's not a fix on its own — no single property is. But multiply it across the valley, and giving rivers room becomes a major strategy for thriving communities and ecosystems in a changing climate.

https://www.sacbee.com/news/weather-news/article316941663.html

Huge thanks to The Sacramento Bee meteorologist Sean Macaday for his in-depth, expertly written story about how restored floodplains, in this case, Dos Rios Norte, just north of Sacramento, could be a tremendous help with seasonal flooding and heavier rain events. The El Niño that's churning in the Pacific Ocean and set to impact California this fall and winter will be the latest test.

El Niño could usher Central Valley floods. One strategy: let it flood like it used to

Central Valley groundwater has been drawn down faster than it’s been replenished for decades. Water tables have dropped, the ground has sunk significantly in places, and expensive infrastructure like roads and bridges has suffered damage. The Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, a 2014 state law requiring local water managers to bring over-drafted groundwater basins back into balance by the early 2040s, sets out to fix that. Doing so means more water needs to go into the ground than comes out of it.

River Partners has long known our statewide restoration work supports that goal. Through a unique partnership with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Stanford University, and Stanislaus State, we now have a new body of research that refines that picture, showing with much more precision how much groundwater our projects recharge, and where.

Armed with this information, River Partners now has a powerful new tool to target restoration where it can deliver the greatest groundwater benefits.

Read more about this groundbreaking groundwater research:

Beneath the Floodplain: How Restored Riverways Are Recharging Central Valley Aquifers - River Partners New study with leading researchers confirms restored floodplains put water back into the ground

Want to learn more about bats, one of the most important and misunderstood mammals in our state? Check out a screening of “The Invisible Mammal,” a documentary exploring bats, biodiversity, and the beauty of the natural world. The screening will take place on Thursday, October 15 at 6:30 p.m. at the Veterans Memorial Theater in Davis. Prepare to be educated and inspired by this documentary about this critical species.

River Partners is proud to be a screening partner for this documentary. If you’re interested, please learn more about River Partners’ research last year into bats living in the Central Valley: https://riverpartners.org/news/what-bats-are-telling-us-about-life-in-the-central-valley/

California’s Tribes and water issues are coming together like never before in our state’s modern history. From California’s commitment to returning millions of acres of land to Tribes and a lack of funding for Tribes to maintain, conserve, or repair these natural landscapes, it will take bold leadership to meet this critical moment. Austin Stevenot, Northern Sierra Miwok and River Partners’ Director of Tribal Engagement, explores endowments for Tribes, collaborating with other groups to help build Tribal capacity to accomplish these goals, and what it means to him to represent River Partners in rejuvenating California’s riparian habitats.

“It’s more than just sharing the landscape; it’s sharing culture again,” Austin said. “It’s reawakening something that was put to sleep, not because we wanted to, but because it was forced upon us, to assimilate, to be separated from these places.”

To read the entire Q&A with Austin, we invite you to go here:

The Leadership a Resilient California Needs Right Now - River Partners A conversation with Director of Tribal Engagement Austin Stevenot on land return, Tribal Beneficial Uses, and what a healthy ecosystem really means

River Partners is hiring! 🎉🦋🌳

We’re looking for a New Business Administrator to work with the organization’s President, New Business Team, and Finance and Administration Teams to help structure and facilitate the delivery of River Partners’ primary lines of business. To learn more about this position, head over to the job announcement here:https://riverpartners.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/2026-New-Business-Administrator.pdf

And to see all of River Partners’ job openings and to apply:
https://riverpartners.org/about-us/careers/