FEATURED STORY: Water policy in California is defined by fighting. Plans to fix the system languish for decades, and if they’re implemented, they end up in court for many more years. The Floodplain Forward Coalition has broken out of that paradigm.

It sounds like the setup to a bad joke: a fish guy, a water guy, a farmer, and a bird guy walk into Washington, D.C.

But Floodplain Forward isn’t a punchline, it’s a partnership. The coalition brings together landowners, irrigation districts, universities and conservation groups, proving that smart policies can foster collaboration and protect threatened wildlife.

Not so long ago, California’s watercourses brimmed with life. It’s said you couldn’t wade into a stream without salmon and steelhead trout making themselves known. The Sacramento River, the state’s largest, once supported abundant runs of Chinook salmon and steelhead. Today, populations are in decline — and in recent years, not a single spring-run Chinook has been detected, according to The Nature Conservancy. Experts say dams and diversions, pollution, drought and warming waters have all played a role.

So what can be done? For starters — feed the fish. When California’s rice fields are flooded in the off-season, they produce a buffet of bugs that can help sustain migrating salmon and steelhead. It’s just one of the ways Floodplain Forward and its partners are reimagining farms as habitat to help restore native fish and waterfowl populations, and it’s the kind of thinking (and cooperation) needed to preserve cherished wildlife for generations to come.

– Dakota Morlan, managing editor

Other stories you may have missed: 9 New Food Items for the Ninth Year of the Golden 1 Center

There will be nine new entries to represent the ninth year of the Golden 1 Center, including a chicken-and-waffle sandwich, porchetta fries and bao buns. And once again, the Kings and their food partner Legends Hospitality made the effort to have the ingredients locally sourced.

An ADA Lawsuit Could Sink Your Small Business | Opinion

In 2024, California was the state with the highest number of ADA cases filed, and this is a common theme for California nearly every year. Here’s how Senate Bill 84 could protect business owners from shakedowns.

Art Exposed: Luka Vergoz

A wooden garden appears to be growing inside Davis’ Third Space Art Collective at “Forming, Here, Again,” a solo exhibition by Luka Vergoz open until Nov. 3. The organic, seemingly random shapes in Vergoz’ art are born out of his choice of materials: the scraps left behind on a woodshop floor.

Welcome, Fall, and All Your Beauty

“We were driving through a small town in northern New Jersey one October when we saw a huge pile of leaves someone had raked into a mound. We looked at each other with big smiles, pulled over, ran with abandon and jumped into that leafy patch. No, we weren’t schoolgirls having fun, but three women in their 50s reliving their childhood,” writes Editor Judy Farah.

Recommendations From Our Staff

Judy: Most of the time, I thank my late father for giving me a love of sports. But sometimes, my devotion costs me a lot of time. Like Monday night, as I tuned into the World Series at 5 p.m., I had no idea that darn game wouldn’t end until midnight! It was the equivalent of watching two games! The Dodgers versus Blue Jays lasted 18 innings, tying for the longest World Series game ever. And even after that, a friend who knew I was up called to discuss the game. I had press day for Comstock’s the next day and knew I wouldn’t be my freshest. But it was an exciting, historic game that I’m glad I watched. 

Jennifer: During the U.S. government’s short burst of interest in public transportation that took place in the 1970s (spurred mostly by the oil crisis), American cities were experimenting with more than the light rail systems we see in Sac and similar-sized metros today. One fascinating solution, deemed a compromise between Americans’ need to reduce car congestion and their distaste for public spaces, was “personal rapid transit,” a system that sends small cars along a track to specific stations instead of running along a set line. It’s easy to think of the logistical tangle this would be, especially with 1970s technology, but one system was built and is miraculously still running today in an unlikely place: Morgantown, West Virginia. I highly recommend this retro documentary about its development for the soundtrack alone, all for-purpose composed by electronic music pioneer Gil Trythall.

Odds and Ends

From recycling to winemaking, our October issue spotlights six multigenerational businesses with roots in the Capital Region. Read it today on your computer, phone or tablet.

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