The Hamilton City project is the first riparian restoration effort undertaken by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The total project cost of $81.7 million includes setting back 6.8 miles of levees and is cost-shared amongst federal, state and local partners. River Partners won a competitive federal construction bid to restore over 1,400 acres of habitat at the newly-created levee setback area along the Sacramento River.
And in July 2024, River Partners completed the second and final habitat restoration phase of the innovative project, restoring River Partners restored nearly 465 acres of former farm fields along the banks of the Sacramento with 67,000 native trees and plants. River Partners will continue irrigating and monitoring the restored riverway forests for three years, after which irrigation will be turned off and nature will take over.
Project Impact
1,400 acres restored
261,000 trees planted
6 priority species protected
PLUS
6.8 river miles restored and earned contract revenue rolled into new conservation projects
About the Hamilton City Project
Nestled amongst several units of the 3,900-acre Upper Sacramento River State Wildlife Area and the 10,300-acre Sacramento River National Wildlife Refuge, the northern Sacramento River supports outdoor recreation for all of California. In the 1850’s, lands in this area were developed for orchard crops. Repeated flooding and harmful nematodes in the soil were a way of life for decades.
Conducted in partnership with The Nature Conservancy; California Department of Water Resources; Reclamation District 2140; Paris Kincaid Wasiewski LLP; and Larsen, Wurzel, and Associates, this was the first project in U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) history to use ecosystem restoration and wildlife benefits to offset flood-risk engineering and management costs. It serves as a model for additional federally funded flood protection and habitat restoration projects throughout the state and across the nation.
Starting in the 1970’s, flood-prone lands in the area began to be converted to managed wildlife areas. It took 20 years of negotiations for the lands within the levee setback area near Hamilton City to be acquired from willing sellers at fair market value for purposes of flood damage reduction and ecosystem restoration.
River Partners is returning revenues from this large-scale contracting project into more conservation work across California. Since 1998, River Partners has used this “earned-income model” to re-invest profits from contract work back into on-the-ground restoration projects.
