Here in mid-November, the flood from October 24th's record storm, where over five inches of rain fell in 24 hours, is still slowly receding on the Bufferlands, at Cosumnes River Preserve, and other areas of Sacramento's low floodplain. It's disorienting to recall that most of us were still in varying levels of fire anxiety just prior to the storm, but now, with some additional modest rain, the immediacy of two years of extreme drought has also receded. A few days ago, November 12th, was the first time I was able to access large portions of the west side of the Bufferlands, and only then by wearing hip boots.
Bufferlands in Flood, Image by Chris Conard
Assessing the area after a flood is always interesting and a bit foreboding. Some of you who have visited the Bufferlands may know that the flood waters of Morrison and Laguna creeks are drained by a large pumping station into the Sacramento River near Freeport, and this takes time (because of the high levees, there is no direct connection). The west side of the property is so low in the floodplain that much of it is under five feet above sea level (the post-storm flood came to about nine feet), and the bottoms of the managed seasonal wetlands are as low as three feet below sea level. This bowl is filled by flooding and can take weeks to go down. When the water is high, it even connects with the Delta. The concerns upon checking range from whether the berms, valves, weirs, and roads survived the flood, avoiding sinkholes hidden beneath the remaining flood waters (I've gone for a few unintended swims over the years), and seeing how horrible the flood of new trash from upstream dumping in the creeks is going to be.
Cooper’s Hawk drying out, Image by Chris Conard
And of course, the birds and wildlife adapt out of necessity, and take advantage of new conditions where they can. The few features on the property that had water prior to the storm were being heavily used by ducks and waterbirds. After the storm, they cleared out to newly flooded areas. But as large areas were newly flooded, the first flocks of diving ducks arrived, with nearly 200 Ring-necked Ducks, a few Canvasbacks, Lesser Scaup, Buffleheads, and Ruddy Ducks. I saw my first Short-billed Gull (formerly Mew Gull) for the season, also checking out the new conditions. A huge dead catfish (about 28") was an interesting find. Less welcome than a dead fish were used hypodermic needles washed downstream and flood damage to roads around the wetland cells that will need to be repaired next season. Like the birds, there's no choice but to take what the flood provides, good and bad, and proceed.
-Chris Conard
Ring-necked Duck, Image by Chris Conard