New Guidance On California Central Valley Levee - Vegetation Management Effective Immediately

Following the symposium, senior leaders representing the US Army Corps of Engineers, the State of California Reclamation Board, California Department of Water Resources, the California Department of Fish and Game, the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service, and representatives of local flood control agencies met to discuss how they could cooperate in achieving better levee safety while protecting and enhancing the environmental values that natural vegetation along levees also provide. This new effort called the California Levee Roundtable (Roundtable) agreed to collaborate to draft a phased, system-wide plan that will result in both short and long-term actions to address public safety and public trust obligations. Due to the complexity of the issues and the desire of all to work in an effective collaborative fashion, Roundtable participants agreed that levee-maintaining districts should defer any substantial vegetation removal along levees while this plan is being developed. A draft framework for the plan will be available for stakeholder review in early 2008.  Please see the joint communiqué that was released by the Roundtable on September 21, 2007 for more detail.