Dos Rios Norte is being redesigned to receive floodwater rather than remain a conventional rice farm. The 1,600-acre property lies in the Lower Sutter Bypass near the meeting of the Feather and Sacramento rivers and Butte Creek, where water has risen as much as 20 feet in recent springs. Its conversion is intended to give high flows more room to spread while restoring native habitat.
River Partners acquired the former farm in 2023 with a $22.6 million grant approved by the California Wildlife Conservation Board. The Lundberg family, which had farmed the property for generations, sold the land and remained as tenants, according to the Sacramento Bee. River Partners describes the work as a 10-year restoration transition from rice fields to native vegetation and estimates that the project could replenish 15,000 acre-feet of freshwater. That estimate is the nonprofit’s accounting, not an independently measured result.
A project inside, not instead of, the flood system
Dos Rios Norte is one property within a much larger network of bypasses, levees and diversion structures. The Sutter Butte Flood Control Agency says properties south of Yuba City remain vulnerable to flooding from the Sutter Bypass, whose levee is owned and maintained by the state. That vulnerability places a limit on what a single restored floodplain can accomplish: the project may store or spread water on its own acreage, but it does not remove risk across the surrounding bypass or communities.
The restoration plan calls for reconnecting the floodplain and planting native trees and other vegetation. The site already provides habitat for Central Valley Chinook salmon, and River Partners has identified the Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians as a project partner. The long-term flood-reduction performance of the restored property, however, remains to be demonstrated through future high-water events.
A completed comparison farther south
A useful comparison is River Partners’ completed work in Hamilton City along the Sacramento River. In July 2024, the organization finished the project’s final habitat-restoration phase, restoring nearly 465 acres of former farm fields with 67,000 native trees and plants alongside a 6.8-mile levee setback, according to River Partners.
The comparison has clear limits. Hamilton City was a completed flood-damage-reduction and habitat project involving a levee setback, while Dos Rios Norte is a larger property still moving through a multiyear restoration process. The two projects nevertheless illustrate the same broad planning idea: flood protection can be paired with ecosystem restoration rather than relying exclusively on higher or stronger levees.
Part of a broader planning approach
California’s Central Valley Tributaries Program reflects that multi-benefit approach by funding projects that reduce flood risk while improving fish and wildlife habitat and downstream water quality. That policy direction provides context for the Dos Rios Norte grant, but it does not establish that the property will produce a particular level of flood protection or groundwater recharge.
The land is also being used before the full restoration is complete. During a five-week summer test, fallowed fields were temporarily flooded through BirdReturns, a partnership involving The Nature Conservancy, Audubon California and Point Blue Conservation Science, creating shallow wetland stopovers for migratory shorebirds along the Pacific Flyway, according to River Partners.
Why the timing matters
The project is being advanced as California approaches another potentially wet winter. The Sacramento Bee reported that NOAA sees a 75% chance that El Niño will remain at record strength through the end of 2026 and that climate models point to above-normal December and January precipitation in California. Seasonal outlooks describe broad probabilities, not a site-specific forecast for Dos Rios Norte, so they cannot determine whether the property will flood or how much water it will receive.
That uncertainty matters in the Central Valley, where large populations and extensive development occupy land behind levees. Dos Rios Norte may provide additional floodplain capacity and habitat, but its role is complementary: broader protection still depends on the condition and operation of the Sutter Bypass, nearby levees and the region’s wider flood-control network.
