Climate Change induced problem: more dramatic and devastating floods.

River Partners’ solution: restore floodplains and boost habitat restoration with modern agricultural techniques.

This article in the NY Times gives a fascinating glimpse into how one nonprofit, River Partners, has been bringing together scientists and farmers to restore floodplains and natural habitats in California.

River Partners‘ work is a great example of how we can use tools and knowledge that we already have to mitigate effects of climate change and revitalize the natural environment on a large scale.

The team at River Partners is combining modern agricultural planting methods, technology, and in-depth ecological understanding to help restore the environment. Their work brings together unexpected big highly productive juxtapositions, like replanting native trees and bushes with modern farm equipment, in carefully planned rows.

The results of their unconventional techniques are that they are restoring crucial wildlife habitats in a big way, allowing floods to revitalize depleted aquifers, and reestablishing buffers between flooding rivers and human life. This brings about financial gains from reducing the impact of floods, as well as the cascading benefits of habitat restoration for our whole ecosystem.

River Partners is advancing “floodplain habitat connectivity to benefit people and wildlife.” (www.riverpartners.org)

We were somewhat shortsighted to dam up waterways and settle in floodplains to begin with, so in many ways River Partners is just helping us move out of nature’s way and get back to coexisting with the planet.

River Partners’ effective methods of engaging agricultural techniques for large-scale habitat restoration are innovative and inspirational. Let’s see more thoughtful action like this.