Flooding, climate concerns spur demonstrations in Sacramento area

Edward Ortiz in the Modesto Bee: Concerns that area rivers will flow high in winter and that extreme weather events will result in floods were on the minds of 50 people who gathered Saturday morning at the Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area levee as part of a worldwide demonstration.

That event dovetailed with the recent release of a report that predicts that, locally, climate change will result in more rainfall earlier in the winter and less snowpack runoff later in the season, causing rivers to remain fuller for a longer period of time.

The Davis event was part of "Climate Impacts Day," organized by the international climate campaign  Events took place at more than 1,000 locations in 150 countries. In the Sacramento region, a similar group gathered at the Guy West Bridge in Sacramento. In Davis, the emphasis was climate change and how it may affect flooding, especially at the Yolo Bypass and levees regionwide.

"We're standing at a very significant space," said Don Saylor, a member of the Yolo County Board of Supervisors. Saylor motioned to the hundreds of cars racing past on Interstate 80 and the contrast that made with the rice paddies of the Yolo Bypass below the causeway.

It is to that area that water typically is released when reservoirs and rivers grow full during extreme wet weather. "Flood control issues in the Sacramento Valley have always been a significant aspect here … and as climate patterns change – and there are greater periods of intense rain inundations – those issues will be of great concern," Saylor said....

Mallards in flight at Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area, Sacramento River flood control bypass, Yolo County, California. Shot by Dave Feliz, Area Manager of the Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area, aka Yolodave, public domain