Field Trips

 Sutter Basin Tour 

Tuesday, May 8, 1–5 p.m. Wednesday, May 9, 7–10 a.m.
Buses depart from the Sacramento Convention Center
Hosted by The Natomas Basin Conservancy, Westervelt Ecological Services and Wildlands

An opportunity to visit three giant garter snake mitigation areas implemented under different policies or through different programs. Begin with a visit to several tracts of the Natomas Basin HCP, followed by Sutter Basin Conservation Bank, and ending with a tour of Gilsizer Slough South Conservation Bank.

The Betts, Kismat and Silva tracts (BKS) serve as the Natomas Conservancy’s flagship preserve. It has been 10 years since the land making up this cluster of preserves was converted from a dairy farm with related land uses to a managed marsh and upland habitat unit. In the past few years, the Conservancy has undertaken marsh renovation on the tract, so the preserve serves as an excellent example of a constructed marsh and upland unit that is mature enough to undergo its first round of periodic update and renovation. The 338-acre tract is approximately 1/2 upland (primarily for Swainson’s hawk benefit) and 1/2 aquatic (for giant garter snake benefit since the snake is an aquatic snake). It is an extremely rich habitat for numerous other species – more than 187 species of wildlife use the preserve on a regular basis. It serves as an excellent example of a successful created habitat in a near-urban environment.

Established by Westervelt Ecological Services, Sutter Basin Conservation Bank is a 429-acre bank located in Sutter County, California, ten miles south of Yuba City. The bank is approved by the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the California Department of Fish and Game (DFG) to provide coverage for clients seeking to mitigate for giant garter snake (Thamnophis gigas). This site is a created managed marsh habitat that was made by converting a degraded rice field into six, independently managed slough-type features in the landscape. These sloughs (cells) are supplied with water from a high-line canal through twin-track flashboard risers. Water levels in each cell is managed to optimize utilization for the giant garter snake, including adjusting water levels for the young-of-the-year to avoid predation.

Gilsizer Slough Giant Garter Snake Complex comprises over 620 acres of created and preserved wetland and open water channel habitat dedicated to the restoration and preservation of the aquatic giant garter snake (Thamnophis gigas). Wildlands ecologists and landscape architects designed habitat features to comply with the goals outlined in the Draft Recovery Plan for the Giant Garter Snake (US Fish and Wildlife Service 1999) and created a management plan to maintain the sites in perpetuity. Giant garter snakes are aquatic hunters, so the restored habitat includes open water channels for foraging and movement corridors. The channels are bordered with perennial marsh to provide shelter and cover from predators. Islands and berms provide for basking and winter hibernation. The complex consists of four projects including Phase I and II of the Gilsizer Slough South Conservation Bank which is approximately 380 acres. The other two were large scale mitigation projects for individual clients, Gilsizer Slough Giant Garter Snake Preserve and Gilsizer Slough North Giant Garter Snake Preserve. The sites are adjacent to, or within close proximity to Gilsizer Slough, which is documented Draft Recovery Plan for the Giant Garter Snake as a priority 1 area for preservation and restoration of GGS habitat.

Cosumnes Floodplain Mitigation Bank
Sutter Basin Tour
Van Vleck Mitigation Bank & Gill Ranch Conservation Bank
Liberty Island Fish Bank

EARLY Registration: $45 (before January 25, 2012)
PRE-CONFERENCE Registration: $55 (before March 15, 2012)
LATE Registration: $75 (after March 15, 2012; if space available)
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