The Delta Plan is built on two Coequal goals – water supply in balance with the needs of the ecosystem. But written into the very plan itself is a clear follow-up – that actions taken to support this balance must also bolster the idea of the Delta as a Place. 

But what does that really mean? After all, any physical location can be “a place”, and not many other places have both state and federal legislation written about them! This very question is at the center of this episode of the Delta Dispatch, where we speak with guests Blake Roberts (Delta Protection Commission) and Elizabeth Patterson (Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta National Heritage Area Advisory Committee) to learn about the people, stories, and heritage that earned the Delta a spot as a nationally recognized heritage area – and a place truly worth celebrating.

The Delta Dispatch Episode 6 - Destination: Delta

In this podcast, reporter Alastair Bland and UC Davis PhD student and fish researcher David Ayers discuss the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, its fish, its marshlands, its flows, and its future. Ayers explains the focus of his research, which seeks to reveal how underwater topography in the wetlands fringing the estuary affects interactions between predators and small fish. While restoration projects often focus on adding more water to this ecosystem and encouraging that water to overflow the river's banks, Ayers says small fish need more than just water and wetlands to survive. Variation in habitat features, such as the width and depth of wetland channels that wind through these ecosystems, create a complex, dynamic habitat and may offer juvenile Chinook salmon and Delta smelt better odds at evading predators like striped bass, largemouth bass, and channel catfish, and, in the long term, better odds at surviving as species. 

David Ayers is a PhD student in the Wildlife, Fish, and Conservation Biology Department at the University of California, Davis. Ayers graduated from the University of Idaho in 2009 and arrived in the Sacramento San-Joaquin Delta in 2014. He quickly became intrigued by the region’s complex ecological challenges. Later, in 2018, he joined Andrew Rypel’s Aquatic Ecology lab at UC Davis and initiated a project to investigate fish habitat use in the Delta. Ayers recently received a Delta Science Fellowship, a competitive grant hosted by the Delta Science Program and the State Water Contractors. This award allows researchers to investigate key topics related to water management and ecosystem health in the San Francisco Bay-Delta. Overall, Ayers’ research focuses on understanding how aquatic habitats structure ecological processes and influence fish distribution, habitat use and predation dynamics. Ultimately, he hopes to generate findings which can help optimize habitat restoration activities and achieve conservation goals for native fishes in the Sacramento San Joaquin Delta.
 
SCIENCE IN SHORT is co-produced by Maven’s Notebook and Estuary News, with support from the Delta Stewardship Council. The opinions expressed do not reflect those of our funders, employers, or supporters. Delta Stewardship Council. The opinions expressed do not reflect those of our funders, employers, or supporters.

Science in Short Podcast

SCIENCE IN SHORT: How fish interact with wetland topography

It might be a stretch for many of us to see the relationship between keeping the Estuary healthy and racism in our communities. Guest reporter Liz Juvera asks four women working at that nexus to discuss how their organizations have responded to the Bay Area equity gap and the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020. Interviewees include: Baykeeper’s Sejal Choksi-Chugh; the City of Oakland’s Shayna Hirsfield-Gold; the SF Bay Conservation and Development Commission’s Nahal Ghoghaie, and the Bay Area Climate Adaptation Network’s Yeshe Salz.  (Score by Art Swisclocki and Joel Kreisberg. Illustration by Amy Tam).

The Delta Dispatch Episode 6 - Destination: Delta

Science & Climate Stories, California

Related tracks