River Partners

06/03/2026

Our regular “Eyes in the Wild” series typically shares wildlife sightings spotted at restoration sites, but we want to highlight something at our Chico office, where we have a small native plant garden that features native plants. These relatively tiny habitats can be vital for wildlife, especially pollinators, and there are even programs that recognize home gardeners (search online for “National Wildlife Federation native plant habitats”). Safety and Office Administrator Mona Dagy planted milkweed plugs here five years ago. Year after year, she and our Chico staff waited to spot one. When the moment finally arrived, Associate Restoration Scientist Jeremy Dustin saw this beautiful butterfly and snapped this photo.

Given that this monarch is a male—determined by a black dot on its hind wing called a “field mark”—and was spending time in the milkweed flowers in mid-May, it was likely dining on the energy-rich nectar for its flight across the Sacramento Valley. If it had been a female, it would either have been drinking nectar or searching for a safe spot to lay her eggs. Since milkweed is the only plant monarch caterpillars can eat, the adult female will first taste the plant with her feet to confirm it is indeed the correct species before depositing tiny, single eggs on the undersides of the leaves or near the flower buds. By laying eggs on milkweed, she ensures her future caterpillars can feed on the plant’s milky sap.

Four decades ago, Western monarchs numbered around 4.5 million. Today, the population has declined by more than 99 percent, driven by habitat loss, pesticide use, and climate change. Our window to reverse the trend is narrowing fast. But River Partners is committed to a bold goal: planting 15 million milkweed plants for monarchs across California by 2030. River Partners is adding milkweed seeds to plugs to our future restoration project plans, from the Northern Sacramento Valley to the Imperial Valley. Our nonprofit native seed venture, Heritage Growers, provides seeds and plants for the vast majority of these efforts.

Read more at:

This month, a honeybee swarm, a mother with her babies, and a special wildlife sighting at River Partners’ headquarters

06/01/2026

Every year, millions of birds, bats, and butterflies move through California’s San Joaquin Valley. And for most of that journey, River Partners has largely been blind to them. But in January, we started getting a little help from a pair of Motus stations. These towers feature multiple antennae that receive signals from tagged wildlife and were installed at Dos Rios State Park (just west of Modesto) and Panorama Vista Preserve (in Bakersfield).

With a clear line of sight, antennas can detect animals within 9-12 miles and will give River Partners a better understanding of migration routes, stopover sites, and the timing of movements in this vital migratory corridor. Motus technology uses lightweight radio tags to provide real-time data on the migration of birds, bats, and butterflies, helping scientists better understand how these species use restored habitats. Traditional Motus tags for birds weigh as little as 0.2 grams. Butterfly tags are even smaller and lighter, weighing a feathery 0.06 grams.

The California Wildlife Conservation Board provided funding for this research, and other key partnerships include Audubon California, California Department of Fish and Wildlife, Southern Sierra Research Station, California State Parks, and Kern River Corridor Endowment.

📸 Butterfly by Kalvin Chan, Motus.org
📸 Bird by Southern Sierra Research Station, Annie Meyer

To explore more about how Motus stations will help River Partners and other scientists and conservationists in California, please read our story here: https://riverpartners.org/news/motus-kickstarts-new-era-of-science-at-river-partners/

05/28/2026

How do you track juvenile salmon on their 100-mile journey? With technology that’s smaller than a fingernail.

In collaboration with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences, we’re using a Juvenile Salmon Acoustic Telemetry System at our 1,600-acre Dos Rios Norte restoration site. By placing 12 underwater receivers, we are listening in on tagged juvenile salmon as they navigate the Sacramento Valley. Each ping gives us the exact date, time, and location—helping us map out their journey, build better habitats, and answer questions about how they got there.

Central Valley Chinook salmon are in serious trouble. Multiple runs are listed under the Endangered Species Act, with populations dropping 90% in just two decades. By tracking their precise migratory movements, River Partners can restore the exact corridors that give these imperiled fish the highest chance of survival. And through scientific efforts and collaboration like this, River Partners will continue to learn more about the salmon in the Sacramento River.

Read more about how we’re listening in on the secrets of juvenile salmon: https://riverpartners.org/news/listening-in-river-partners-tracking-juvenile-salmons-migratory-paths/

05/26/2026

A coyote and an American badger hunting together at night. Quite a sight, huh? That’s what one of our camera traps captured at the Finney-Ramer restoration site that we’re leading with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and the California Conservation Corps, south of the Salton Sea. The collaborative hunting agreement between the American badger and coyote is a fascinating example of “collaborative hunting.” While the scene in the photo may look like two pals hanging out at night, this is actually a calculated hunting strategy that leverages the unique physical mechanics of two very different and effective predators.

Who does the work here in this sophisticated, mutualistic hunting partnership? The American badger typically performs the most physically demanding labor, using its powerful forelimbs and shovel-like claws to breach complex underground tunnel systems in search of prey. Meanwhile, the coyote secures the perimeter, employing its superior speed and height to monitor the many escape hatches of potential prey in a burrow that the badger can’t see while its head is in the dirt.

So, which animal benefits more from this arrangement? Research shows that coyotes hunting with badgers catch prey about one-third more often than they do when hunting alone—it simply waits for the badger to flush the prey out of the hole and saves huge amounts of energy by not chasing prey across open ground. And while the badger’s benefit is less dramatic, the coyote’s presence prevents prey from attempting its getaway above ground, often forcing the rodent back into the tunnel where the badger is already digging for an easy catch.

See more fun critters from our "Eyes in the Wild" series: https://riverpartners.org/news/eyes-in-the-wild-a-river-partners-wildlife-journal-february-edition/

05/22/2026

At River Partners, we’re securing California’s ecological and climate future for habitat, wildlife, and communities. In doing so, we’re also guiding the next generation of restoration leaders to continue that work into the future.

Each summer since 2018, Restoration Fellows have spent eight weeks working right alongside River Partners biologists, ecologists, and project managers, with a front-row seat to the inner workings of large-scale restoration at one of California’s leading restoration organizations. This summer, River Partners is offering early-career professionals in our Chico and Modesto offices hands-on field experience, learning about our riparian ecosystems and how to restore them, and a learning pathway.

From soil sampling and vegetation monitoring to GIS mapping and report writing, Restoration Fellows gain practical, real-world skills that set them up for success in the conservation field.

“There are a lot of opportunities to learn what you do and don’t like in this field because there are so many different pathways you can take to still fulfill that natural resource career mindset,” said River Partners Restoration Science Ecologist Restoration Fellows Program Coordinator Holly Ferrara. “There are so many different ways you can make a difference in the environmental world.”

Read more about our Restoration Fellow program here:

River Partners is providing early-career professionals a front-row seat to large-scale environmental change

05/20/2026

Heritage Growers’ Wildland Seed Collection Assistant Manager Madison Cline was on an early-morning seed-collecting outing with her team at the 7,500-acre San Joaquin River National Wildlife Refuge, where River Partners has restored around 2,500 acres of native habitat. Heritage Growers is our nonprofit native seed farm, growing and amplifying source-identified native seed for large-scale restoration. While collecting bur-marigold seeds, an excellent pollinator plant that flourishes in wetlands, river edges, and marshy areas, Cline captured this video of a beaver cruising along in the San Joaquin River.

After nearly being wiped out in the early 1800s during the “California Fur Rush,” when trappers killed hundreds of thousands of beavers statewide for their pelts, protective laws in the mid-20th century allowed them to rebound slowly. Today, they have recolonized many of their natural environments in the Central Valley, though they face new challenges from urban development and industrial agriculture. Thanks to continued conservation efforts by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and Tribal partnerships, beaver populations continue their upward trend in our state.

Given protection and space, beavers are adaptable and can be found in multiple Central Valley waterways, yet hidden in plain sight. Often dubbed “ecosystem engineers,” their dams transformed the Central Valley into a massive mosaic of wetlands, which continue to support the incredible biodiversity of the 10,000-mile Pacific Flyway and provide nurseries for salmon. Other benefits from the work of these busy water engineers include encouraging groundwater recharge (their ponds slow down water, allowing it to seep into the ground), water quality (their wetlands naturally filter waterways before it hits the main river channels), and wildfire breaks (lush, wet meadows created by beavers can act as natural firebreaks in dry grassland areas).

See more fun critters from our "Eyes in the Wild" series: https://riverpartners.org/news/eyes-in-the-wild-a-river-partners-wildlife-journal-january-edition/

05/19/2026

Over the last three years, with $40 million of funding from the California Wildlife Conservation Board, River Partners has been preparing a suite of 10 restoration projects in the San Joaquin Valley (called our SJ10 projects) for implementation. After three years of assessments, permitting, planning, and finalizing restoration plans, we’re thrilled to report that all 10 projects are at “shovel-ready” status—meaning we are ready to begin implementing restoration of an additional 6,000 acres in the San Joaquin Valley.

It’s the mission of River Partners to give life back to California rivers. And we’re doing this work at landscape-scale. This is the story about how River Partners reached this point with the projects, where each of the SJ10 projects is located, and how each project is unique, and how together they’ll double the acreage of restored floodplains in the Central Valley to protect our communities and wildlife from the endangered Western monarch butterfly to the San Joaquin kit fox.

Read more about River Partners’ SJ10 projects here:

River Partners ready to double acreage of restored floodplains in the Central Valley, boosting critical habitat, flood safety, groundwater supplies

05/15/2026

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:

At Heritage Growers, every acre is being cultivated to repair ecosystems and help the Golden State meet its ambitious conservation goals.

05/14/2026

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:

River Partners harnesses cutting-edge science to understand more about life beneath the surface of our restoration sites