California Winter Rice Habitat Incentive Program
Program Overview
Winter-flooded rice fields provide vital habitat for wildlife in the Central Valley, but this practice has been declining in recent years. In response, the California Legislature passed Assembly Bill 2348 in September 2018, establishing the California Winter Rice Habitat Incentive Program (CWRHIP) to encourage continued winter flooding of harvested rice fields. These flooded fields meet about 75% of the energy needs of dabbling ducks and a significant share of the needs of migrating shorebirds in the Sacramento Valley.
CWRHIP pays landowners and lessees to manage their properties for waterbird habitat. Participants must flood harvested rice fields for at least 70 continuous days between October and March, and properties that hold water through the critical January–mid-March period receive extra points in the ranking process. Properties within five miles of an active military or international airport runway are not eligible (see maps of closure boundaries).
Payment rates vary by location: producers on the east side of the Sacramento Valley receive $15/acre, while those on the west side receive $30/acre. The higher west-side rate reflects higher water costs and a sharper decline in winter flooding in that area.
Program Details
Winter 2026-27: The Application Period is still TBD.
- There is $1,440,000 available for landowner contracts.
- Eligible fields must be:
- 40 acres minimum size
- Must have been planted to rice in 2026
- Must be farther than 5 miles from Beale AFB and Sacramento International Airport.
- Must be flooded continuously at 1-12 inches in depth for 70 days between Oct 15 and Mar 15.
- Applications will initially be capped at 1,000 acres each. Once every qualifying applicant has received funding under that cap, remaining funds will be used to cover additional acres beyond 1,000 for those applicants.
- Please read the Practice Requirements page thoroughly before submitting your application.
- Please also read through the Ranking specifications if you want to consider ways to increase your ranking score.
Donations made to the Foundation
Many rice farmers in the Sacramento Valley of California use water to decompose their remaining rice straw after harvest. This post-harvest flooding creates over 300,000 acres of surrogate wetland habitat between October and February, the peak of migration season. While this flooding is key to the survival of millions of wintering waterbirds there are many species that migrate early or late and arrive in the Sacramento Valley to find little to no flooded habitat. By focusing on the shoulder season, both before and after the typical post-harvest flooding period, the Foundation can provide a critical source of flooded habitat when it is most scarce and therefore most needed. Furthermore, many of these shoulder season migrants are shorebirds which require shallower water than is typically provided during the normal post-harvest flooding periods.
