November 25, 2024
This article appeared in
River Partners’ 2024 Impact Report: Confluence
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Once a patchwork of agricultural fields in the heart of the Central Valley, the state park at Dos Rios is today a maturing native forest, home to dozens of native wildlife and plant species. In California’s most park-starved region, community members today can walk through restored riverside trails.
This is what California’s future can look like. River Partners has already made this vision a reality at our 1,600-acre Dos Rios Ranch Preserve located west of Modesto, which officially opened as California’s newest state park in over a decade in June 2024.
Dos Rios provides a blueprint for future multi-benefit riverway restoration. It delivers water conservation and replenishment, wildlife habitat, flood safety, and more. At the state park dedication on Earth Day, state leaders touted River Partners’ restoration vision, work, and stewardship.
Governor Gavin Newsom shared, “This park is a key asset to fighting the climate crisis, home to the state’s largest floodplain restoration project.”
Opening Dos Rios is a game changer. It provides a new model of multi-benefit park that also reduces flood risk for local communities, provides a refuge for local residents during worsening heat waves, and restores the natural environment of the Central Valley to benefit local wildlife.
Wade Crowfoot, California Natural Resources Secretary
California Department of Parks and Recreation Director Armando Quintero called Dos Rios a “park of the future,” adding, “The vision for Dos Rios is a journey into the past, revealing a lush Central Valley and a local escape – adjacent to two rivers and a wildlife refuge.”
Ali Manzo, California State Parks Interpreter at Dos Rios, says “Dos Rios is not just a park. It’s a community treasure that offers peace, adventure, and a vital connection to nature.”
Here, at the heart of the Pacific Flyway, a global migration mega-corridor, we have seen the return of Swainson’s hawks, least Bell’s vireos, yellow warblers, sandhill cranes, and the formerly endangered Aleutian cackling goose. The riparian woodrat and riparian brush rabbit, one of California’s most endangered mammals, have also returned to their native homes. State Park Interpreter Ali Manzo recently shared about how important Dos Rios is for the survival of the riparian brush rabbit on Instagram in a series called “Tuesday Talks.”
Over the past 5 years, we planted more than 12,000 milkweed and other pollinator-friendly plants to help slow the decline of the Western monarch butterfly—part of the largest coordinated monarch restoration effort in the West. The park also provides a place for Indigenous peoples to connect to their ancestral lands at a special cultural-gathering area, planted in 2021 and protected in perpetuity with a one-of-a-kind cultural easement.
There, Native community members have a place to gather native plants for basketweaving such as sedge, dogbane, and deergrass safely and freely.
Dos Rios shows us a future in which restoration of river corridors supports wildlife and healthy communities. This special place shows us that together, we can restore our riverways and allow nature and people to thrive.
Doesn’t that future look bright?
Dos Rios is open for visitors Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 9:00am-5:00pm. Learn more about the park and upcoming events here.
Banner photo: State park ranger Caitlin Torres leads a public tour at the newly opened state park at River Partners’ former Dos Rios Ranch Preserve near Modesto. Photo courtesy Le Devoir
