Agriculture and Environment: Rice

Better Management Practices: Manage Rice Fields as Wildlife Habitat

Rice fields provide considerable food for waterfowl.

Even so, this function could be improved considerably with a few rather small changes in management. Where game species are abundant, payments for hunting can increase producer income considerably. In California, several management changes have improved habitat for wildlife.

Earlier flooding of the fields with existing nutrient-rich water has been shown to improve wetland food production for wildlife. Planting and harvesting rice later in the year makes waste grain available to waterfowl when they are migrating.

Finally, managing some areas next to rice fields as habitat with natural grasses and sedges provides both cover and food for waterfowl.

Rice fields make excellent stopover points for migratory birds. In California some 95% of all wetlands have been lost, greatly reducing available stopover points. In northern California 500,000 acres of rice fields provide roosting grounds as well as food. The California Rice Straw Burning Reduction Act of 1992 has forced many rice farmers to use winter flooding of rice fields to assist in the decomposition of waste rice straw.

This winter flooding in turn has helped provide winter habitat for millions of migratory birds and other wetland species. The fields are a resting ground for an astonishing 3 to 5 million migrating waterfowl every year on the Pacific Flyway and are home to over 141species of birds, 28 species of animals, and 24 species of amphibians and reptiles. Thirty of these species are listed as endangered, threatened, or species of concern (California Rice Commission 2001).