River Partners

08/21/2026

River Partners’ mission is to bring life back to rivers by creating wildlife habitat for the benefit of people and the environment. And while our team collects data, plants trees, and rejuvenates floodplains and connected wildlife habitat, Senior Scientist Dr. Sarah Gaffney is asking the critical questions: “Are we doing this right, and how do we know?”

From tracking juvenile salmon populations using advanced eDNA and acoustic telemetry to partnering with world-class universities on research with cutting-edge technology, Sarah’s goal is to ensure our restoration work is backed by rigorous, evidence-based science. With a desire for tangible impacts on California’s landscapes, Sarah understands the importance of getting out to our restoration sites, to experience them through the seasons, and to observe life in the field

“Sometimes what you learn about the site and the ecology comes to you inherently through seeing the site regularly and seeing how it changes over time,” she says.

Read more about Dr. Sarah Gaffney, one of our Restoration Heroes, here:

River Partners plants thousands of trees every year. Dr. Sarah Gaffney is the one asking whether it’s working.

08/11/2026

River Partners is hiring! 🎉🦋🌳

We’re looking for a Marketing and Communications Manager, a communications professional with a demonstrated track record of managing a broad, fast-paced workload with initiative, reliability, and impact. This person will be responsible for executing River Partners’ MarCom program across its full range of functions—restoration program storytelling and marketing, fundraising communications, digital and content strategy, media relations, brand management, and partner and coalition communications.

To learn more about this position and to apply, head over to the job announcement here:https://riverpartners.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/2026-Marketing-Comms-Manager.pdf

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

08/10/2026

As the odds of a strong and possibly historic El Niño rise, so too have conversations about increased flood risk in California this winter, following a long, hot summer and a prolonged fire season.

Climate Scientist Dr. Daniel Swain believes this winter’s El Niño could be historically strong—and he’s not the only one. More and more climate experts are joining the chorus that sees the strengthening El Niño potentially as one of this century’s strongest. But in the bigger picture, a warming California faces a range of potential extreme weather-related threats that extend beyond heavy precipitation and flood risk.

In Part 2 of our conversation with Swain about how our lives are being shaped by weather, he explores how River Partners’ 20,000 acres of restored floodplains alongside rivers reduce flood risk, build climate resiliency, and how California policymakers can help protect the state’s most vulnerable communities.

Read Part 2 of our interview with Swain here:

Climate Scientist Dr. Daniel Swain Explores Options as Possible History-Making El Niño Approaches

08/07/2026

River Partners is hiring! 🎉🦋🌳

We’re looking for a New Business Administrator, working 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/

07/29/2026

When most people hear the word “farmer,” they picture conventional crops. But Heritage Growers Director of Farming Operations Mason Shorts is pioneering a totally different kind of agriculture: farming native plants at scale.

Mason oversees the massive task of growing, harvesting, and cleaning restoration-quality native seeds. From a handful of wild-collected seeds to hundreds of pounds of raw material, his work is helping to break the bottleneck standing between California’s landscapes and large-scale ecological recovery. And once a week, he walks each row on Heritage Growers’ 200-acre farm outside Colusa to collect data and take a detailed look at every single species.

Restoring California starts with the right seeds—and the dedicated people who grow them. From running quality control in the mill to modifying farm machinery through trial and error to sharing his expertise at public tours, Mason is helping Heritage Growers fuel California’s critical biodiversity and climate goals from the ground up.

“At the end of the day, we are not going to make the impact that is needed without large-scale seed amplification like this,” said Mason.

Read more about our Restoration Hero, Mason Shorts, here:

Restoring California starts with the right seeds—and people. Mason Shorts is both.

07/27/2026

As Californians settle into our summer of 2026, a significant El Niño event is brewing in the eastern Pacific Ocean, and it could end up being one for the ages. Water temperatures are approaching historic highs, and, coupled with an already warming climate, experts predict a potentially very wet winter in California.

Climate scientist Dr. Daniel Swain sat down with River Partners for a two-part blog series on the topic. This month, he explains what this year’s El Niño is looking like, how it compares with past events, and what impacts it might have on communities across California. Next month, Swain will be back to explore how restoring rivers reduces flood risk, builds climate resiliency, and how California policymakers can help protect the state’s most vulnerable communities.

Read the first part of our two-part interview with Dr. Swain here:

Climate Scientist Dr. Daniel Swain unpacks the potential for a historic El Niño event in California this winter

07/24/2026

The state’s summers are becoming increasingly hotter and drier—and the unique wildlife that call California home often have to devise ways to stay cool. In some cases, it’s a matter of survival.

In this month’s “Eyes in the Wild” series, we explore how wildlife adapt to heat and contribute to the health of California's unique ecosystems in all seasons. From the Sacramento River in the North State to sweltering Imperial County, find out how these species navigate hotter California summers—and how the riverways River Partners brings back to life help beavers, burrowing owls, and other critters thrive.

To read about how wildlife beat the heat in California this summer, please read our story here:

A look at how wildlife species navigate and adapt to California’s summers

06/30/2026

Two years ago, California did something it hadn’t done in over a dozen years when it added Dos Rios (just west of Modesto in Stanislaus County) to its ranks of state parks after River Partners spent a decade transforming former farmland at the confluence of the San Joaquin and Tuolumne Rivers into what is now a 2,100-acre restored floodplain and riparian habitat. Today, park visitors can enjoy recreational opportunities like hiking, biking, birdwatching, fishing, kayaking, river access, and photography.

At the helm when Dos Rios was officially announced as the newest state park on Earth Day in 2024, California State Parks Director Armando Quintero continues to be inspired by what it provides for wildlife and offers to human communities. Overseeing 280 California State Parks is a daunting task, but if anyone is equipped for the job, it’s Quintero. His passion for the deep, innate human connection to nature bubbles to the surface, and he isn’t shy about expressing his heartfelt sentiments when talking about his work and how state parks across California impact nearby communities.

Quintero reminds us that water is a fundamental issue in California and that it would behoove more Californians to increase our understanding of the water picture in our state. A good place to start is in a place like Dos Rios State Park.

Read our Q&A with California State Parks Director Armando Quintero here:

California State Parks Director Armando Quintero Reflects on the Impact of River Partners’ Crown Jewel Restoration

06/23/2026

Proud to be part of this effort, clearing way for an overflowing San Joaquin River to fill the historic floodplain at Great Valley Grasslands State Park!

06/08/2026

Senior Restoration Ecologist Corey Shake visited one of our newest restoration projects, the 1,721-acre Battle Creek Ranch, which we acquired this year, last fall, to start scoping our monitoring and restoration planning efforts. He and Director of Restoration Science Michael Rogner spotted these fall-run chinook salmon making their way up Battle Creek near the ranch. As one of California’s most important salmon-bearing waterways, Battle Creek is a vital salmon and steelhead stream in the Sacramento River watershed and supports all four runs of salmon, including these fall-run Chinook salmon.

Fall-run Chinook salmon are the most abundant of the four salmon runs in the Sacramento River, California’s largest waterway. An ecological pillar, salmon have long had an intimate connection with Indigenous Tribes throughout our state. Salmon are also a keystone species in the ecosystem. When they aren’t doing well, we know a lot of things aren’t as healthy as they’ve been in the past. Salmon populations in California have declined 90% over the last two decades, forcing the federal Endangered Species Act to list fall-run salmon as a Species of Concern. Ninety percent of their historical spawning habitat has been blocked by dams, leading to cramped living conditions in small river stretches. And drought, historic heat, and low water levels are creating warmer water temperatures, which lead to an inhospitable environment for salmon egg incubation.

River Partners is undertaking several efforts to try to boost salmon numbers within the Sacramento River, from restoring salmon habitat and side channels and learning more about their migratory journeys to our organizational mission to reconnect floodplains. Our future restoration at Battle Creek is yet one more opportunity to help one of our state’s most important fish species. So, seeing this group of salmon in Battle Creek reminds us that every year that passes is an opportunity that shouldn’t be missed to improve habitat conditions for salmon. The offspring of these fish will return in just 2-4 years to spawn themselves, and so our quick action to improve conditions on the river will be paid back relatively quickly in numbers of adult returns. We just have to act, and act now.

To read more about the wildlife River Partners comes across in the field, please read our story here: https://riverpartners.org/news/eyes-in-the-wild-a-river-partners-wildlife-journal-april-edition/