The Sacramento Valley Regional Report includes climate science, impacts, and adaptation information for Butte, Colusa, Glenn, west Placer, Sacramento, Shasta, east Solano, Sutter, Yolo, and Yuba counties.
The Sacramento Valley region stretches across most of the Sacramento River Watershed, extending from the Sacramento River Valley floor to the foothills of the Sierra Nevada and Klamath mountains and the northern Coastal and southern Cascade ranges. On its way southward, the Sacramento River brings water to neighboring communities, field crops, orchards, rangelands, and ecosystems with critical terrestrial and aquatic habitats before feeding into the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.
Indigenous peoples, including the Wintu, Yana, Nomlaki, Konkow, Patwin, Nisenan, Miwok, Maidu, Shasta, Achomawi, Atsugewi, and Okwanuchu, have long stewarded the Sacramento River system and continue to lead as caretakers of its lands and waters today. The region’s approximately three million residents are concentrated in urban areas, particularly the Sacramento metropolitan area, but five of the region’s 11 counties remain majority rural. Across the socioeconomically and demographically diverse population, a unifying attribute is the value residents place on the natural and agricultural landscapes that surround them.
Throughout the last two centuries, water flows, connectivity, and ecological resilience in the region have been significantly altered through gold mining, land conversion, and infrastructure. Today, the Shasta, Oroville, and Folsom dams feed into the State Water Project and Central Valley Project, which together provide a portion of drinking water for 25 million Californians and irrigation for 4.5 million acres of agricultural land. Projected climate impacts such as more frequent wet years and bigger swings between wet and dry extremes present major challenges for water resources and flood risk management in this region. Community-based and nature-based solutions are being implemented across the region to build resilience to such climate impacts.
Sacramento Valley Regional Report
Coordinating Lead Author
Helene G. Margolis, UC Davis
The full report will be available soon.