The Abridged version:
- Operations at Cosumnes River Preserve, which is partially managed by the Bureau of Land Management, are being scaled back due to the federal government shutdown.
- Trails remain open, but programming, some wildlife management and tours have been put on hold due to the loss of federal volunteers.
- Two parking lots and the visitor center are also closed during the shutdown.
Right around the time the federal government shut down in early October, sandhill cranes started arriving on their yearly trip to Cosumnes River Preserve in Galt. As they settle in for the winter, the birds are unlikely to notice the closed parking lot or shuttered visitor center.
But human visitors hoping to catch a glimpse of the distinctive cranes will have to contend with scaled back operations at the preserve until the government reopens.
“It is the season of the birds, so our sandhill crane tours have had to be canceled,” said Maddy Barton, volunteer and outreach coordinator for Cosumnes River Preserve.
Officials at Cosumnes River Preserve, which is operated in part by the federal Bureau of Land Management, have had to restrict some access and cease certain management operations at the preserve as the federal budget battle in Washington D.C. drags into its third week. The shift has come at a time of year when school buses full of kids and carloads of birdwatchers normally arrive at Cosumnes to watch flocks of waterfowl swim, fly and wade through the preserve’s habitat.
“This is a really important place to educate the public, being so close to some of our major metropolitan cities,” Barton said.
Critical management activities on hold
Much of the preserve remains open to the public because it is jointly managed by The Nature Conservancy and other partners, in addition to BLM. Visitors can still access trails, restrooms and the upper parking lot. However, the boardwalk parking lot, visitor’s center and lower lot are closed. Programming and some wildlife management activities are on hold.
“All of our volunteers are federal volunteers, so they’re not able to continue their work out here,” Barton said. That means interpretive programming, including guided walks and tours will be on hold until volunteers can return.
Not only that, the preserve’s volunteer-led waterfowl survey, which has been helping officials determine management actions and the needs of birds for almost 20 years, will lose valuable data.
“Now we’ll have a fairly large hole and that information can’t necessarily be replaced,” Barton said.
One stop along the Pacific Flyway
An ongoing shutdown could have broader implications for migrating birds. Barton said that with BLM employees working at reduced capacity and without pay, meeting habitat management needs is more difficult. One of those needs is the flooding of ponds to create critical habitat for migrating waterfowl.
“If we don’t have water, they don’t have places to stop over and feed along the Pacific Flyway,” Barton said, adding that many of the refuges in the Sacramento and Central Valleys are operated by the federal government.
More responsibility for visitors
Despite the scaled back operations at Cosumnes, visitors can still appreciate the unique riparian and floodplain habitat on their own. But, according to some, that comes with increased responsibility.
“It’s really up to those still visiting the parks to pack in and pack out,” said John Forbes, a birdwatcher visiting Cosumnes on Monday morning.
But there’s only so much visitors can do. Until the federal government reopens, business as usual at Cosumnes River Preserve remains on hold. That is, for the humans at least.
Daniel Hennessy is a reporter at Abridged.