Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area Land Management Plan

The Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area Land Management Plan was developed in 2008 by the California Department of Fish and Game and the Yolo Basin Foundation.

Yolo Basin Foundation response to Yolo Bypass Salmonid Habitat Restoration and Fish Passage Project Environmental Impact Statement and Environmental Impact Report

Yolo Basin Foundation Letter re Yolo Bypass Salmonid Project – FINAL copy (pdf)

YBF Board of Directors Memo re Salmonid Project w Attachments (pdf)

Yolo Bypass Working Group

The Yolo Basin Foundation initiated the Yolo Bypass Working Group in 1998 under a CALFED Ecosystem Restoration Grant. This ad hoc stakeholder group is very successful and continues to meet as needed. Over 40 people representing a wide range of stakeholders with an interest in the Yolo Bypass regularly attend these meetings.

Participants include landowners (farmers, ranchers, duck hunters), Department of Water Resources, Central Valley Flood Protection Board, CA Department of Fish and Wildlife, US Fish and Wildlife Service, Natural Resources Conservation Service, Dixon and Yolo Resource Conservation Districts, Sacramento Area Flood Control Agency, Yolo County, City of West Sacramento, City of Davis, California Waterfowl Association, Ducks Unlimited, Sacramento Yolo Mosquito Vector Control District, American Rivers and others.
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Recent Studies Related to the Yolo Bypass

Tule Canal Charrette Outcomes (June 2021)
Yolo County facilitated a two-day virtual workshop/planning charrette to bring diverse stakeholders together to develop a shared vision for the Tule Canal within the Yolo Bypass. Prepared as the final component of the December 2020 Yolo Bypass Drainage and Water Infrastructure Improvement Study Update, the workshop included 71 participants including farmers, policy makers, landowners, hunters, conservation scientists, educators, engineers, and ecologists. The outcomes included support for three actions: a multi-functional Tule Canal, a Yolo Bypass strategic plan, and a Yolo Bypass governing entity. The vision synthesized from the contributions of the 10 workgroups is as follows: “We envision a transformed Tule Canal as an integrated corridor, which engages people, sustains farmers, protects property, and provides diverse wildlife habitat.” (Executive Summary)

Yolo Bypass Drainage and Water Infrastructure Improvement Study Update (December 2020)
Yolo County prepared this Yolo Bypass Drainage and Water Infrastructure Improvement Study Update (Study Update) to identify specific drainage and water infrastructure improvements within and directly adjacent to the Yolo Bypass that would benefit farmers and wetland managers. This study builds off of the original Yolo Bypass Drainage and Water Infrastructure Improvement Study that the County prepared in 2014 (2014 Study). The Study Update identifies twelve specific drainage and water infrastructure improvements or project concepts that were identified through a series of interviews with local stakeholders (i.e., growers, landowners, and local organizations with an interest in the Yolo Bypass) and were refined from a list of 91 preliminary project concepts. The twelve project concepts were selected based on the benefits they would provide, their readiness to be constructed, the potential for local matching funds, their eligibility for state and federal funding, their costs, and whether they have a local sponsor or champion.

Yolo County Datasharing Proposal (March 2020)
Yolo County partnered with the San Francisco Estuary Institute to develop a proposal to consolidate and share data related to the Yolo Bypass. Funded by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife as part of the Yolo Bypass Westside Tributaries Flow Monitoring Project, the proposal outlines recommendations for a centralized data portal, provides cost estimates, and includes an initial list of potential Yolo Bypass data sources. The proposal will serve as the foundation for a future grant application to develop the portal.

Yolo Bypass Westside Tributaries Flow Monitoring Report (March 2020)
The Yolo Bypass Westside Tributaries Flow Report is the result of Yolo County’s work in coordination with cbec ecoengineering to collect and analyze flow and stage data on four westside tributaries to the Yolo Bypass: Knights Landing Ridge Cut, Cache Creek Settling Basin, Willow Slough Bypass, and Putah Creek. Funded by a California Department of Fish and Wildlife grant, the new data will improve westside tributary inflow estimates into the Yolo Bypass, as well as westside tributary hydrologic assumptions used in the Yolo Bypass Salmonid Habitat Restoration and Fish Passage Project (Yolo Bypass Salmonid Project) inundation analysis (USBR and DWR, 2019) . The new data also can improve local agency reporting of Yolo Bypass inflows, help decisionmakers better understand existing conditions, and inform evaluations of the benefits and impacts of future management proposals within the Yolo Bypass.

Yolo Bypass Studies sponsored by Yolo County in partnership with Yolo Basin Foundation and others

The following studies were conducted under the direction of Yolo County with assistance from Yolo Basin Foundation and others as a way to provide technical information for the development of the Yolo Bypass Salmonid Habitat Restoration and Fish Passage Project and to improve conditions in the Yolo Bypass due to the expected increase in the frequency and duration of flood flows in the future. Proposals for stakeholder communication and governance in the future will be added soon. 

• Yolo Bypass MIKE-21 Model Review: Strengths, Limitations and Recommendations for Refinement (Sept. 2012)
• Yolo Bypass Flood Date & Flow Volume Agricultural Impacts Analysis Final Report – April 2013
• County of Yolo Delta Priorities 2012 (Board Adopted)
• Waterfowl Impacts of the Proposed Conservation Measure 2 for the Yolo Bypass – an effects analysis tool, July 16, 2012

To access any of these studies, please click the following link to the Yolo County Delta eLibrary.