Explore more of the survey data yourself with this interactive web app. To learn more about flood preparedness in the Delta, please visit DeltaFloodReady.com.
Pretty much the entire Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta is a floodplain, where the chances of flooding in any given year are as high as 1 in 10 in some areas[1].
But the Delta Residents Survey found that only about a third of rural Delta residents and a fifth of Delta city dwellers have flood insurance.
Studies show households without insurance take longer to recover[2].
Given the risk, the number of households with insurance may seem low. But Michael Mierzwa, a civil engineer for the California Department of Water Resources, noted this is actually above average. Statewide, about 2% of property owners have flood insurance.
He said there are two likely reasons for the Delta’s higher participation rate: One is the Delta’s generational experience with flooding. Memories run long here.
The other is that mortgages issued in flood-prone areas require flood insurance.
But is this participation rate good enough in the flood-prone Delta? No, Mierzwa said, it should be 100%. “You need something in that area. Even if you’re levee protected, the levees are not foolproof.”
Why Don’t More People Get Insurance?
Kathleen Schaefer, a doctoral student in civil and environmental engineering at UC Davis, said research shows three things will get people to invest in flood insurance:
The issue must rise to a level of concern. “The year we sold the most flood insurance policies in the state was the year of the Godzilla El Niño,” she said, referring to the winter of 2015-16.
Their neighbor buys flood insurance or they know someone who has it.
Flood insurance is affordable.
Affordability is a key issue in the Delta, where many of the small towns have high rates of poverty. This is why Schaefer has worked with the Delta Region Geologic Hazard Abatement District on a pilot program to provide inclusive flood insurance to property owners in Isleton.
Photos: Isleton flooded in 1972 following a levee break (photos: Department of Water Resources)
One goal of the program is providing a disaster recovery benefit in the event of a flood – a modest no-strings-attached payout to every property owner to help with the immediate costs of flooding, such as finding temporary housing in a hurry.
This is called parametric insurance, which provides a fixed benefit based on a pre-defined trigger, or parameter. For Isleton, it would pay if a sensor at the city’s wastewater pumping station detected more than 16 inches of water.
The payout would not be enough to cover the cost of repairing or rebuilding a flood-damaged home, Schaefer said, but the goal is to provide cash when households need it most.
And given that half of Isleton property owners don’t have flood insurance, Schaefer said, it’s a big improvement over the help people would get now. “Everyone pays a little, everyone gets a little,” she said.
She pointed out the National Flood Insurance Program doesn’t pay anything for alternative housing. And for what it does cover, the property owner must pay contractors with their own money first.
The Delta Region Geologic Hazard Abatement District
The pilot started two years ago when the city of Isleton formed the Delta Region Geologic Hazard Abatement District. Its boundaries are the same as the city’s, but it is a separate entity with authority for managing geologic and flood hazards.
The district was recently awarded pilot funding of $100,000 per year for two years by the Department of Water Resources. It will use the funding to work out the details, including how much the disaster recovery benefit will cost and how the money would be paid out.
The money can also be used to pay for the policy initially. But to get off the ground, the proposal will require voter approval, because property owners in the district would ultimately pick up the costs of the policy.
“The voters have to decide,” said City Councilman David Kent, who serves on the board of the district.
“What I want to do is make them a deal,” he said. “Your residence is in proximity of a 30-foot wall of water. The deal is the economy of scale at the government level can protect you. But it can’t do it without the standard mechanism of collecting funds.”
Schaefer puts it another way. “There are two certainties in life: We will all die, and levees will eventually fail. The big question is, which will come first?” she said. “We have life insurance to protect our families if we die before the levee fails. The goal of this program is to protect families if the levee dies first.”
Isleton as a Model
While parametric insurance is not a new concept, Kent said, funding it with a geologic hazard abatement district is. Only one other place has tried it – New York City – and that program has no long-term funding yet.
If Isleton is successful, the Department of Water Resources will be looking to apply what is learned there to other Central Valley communities interested in this kind of protection.
“The state’s role in this is to help them start the process,” said DWR’s Mierzwa. “What we get out of it is a community that’s more resilient, and we learn from the process and can help kick off community-based flood insurance in other small communities.”
The next Delta Region Geologic Hazard Abatement District board meeting will be held at 6:30 p.m. Nov. 20 at the Isleton Community Center. The public is invited to attend.
What policies would Delta residents support for adapting to environmental changes in the region? Given nine choices in a recent survey of Delta residents, only one garnered majority support: increasing state funding for sustainable agriculture. This is one example of what that looks like.
Rice farming can be an antidote to one big Delta problem: subsidence – the sinking of heavily farmed soils well below adjacent river levels.
But while flooded rice slowly rebuilds subsided soils, it comes with its own challenge: Water on those rice fields must be kept fresh for the crop to survive. That means pumping water off the fields and into the river, then pumping fresh water back in.
The fresh water is easy to come by on Staten Island, because the 9,200-acre farm’s riparian water rights have always met its needs.
But pumping water off the island has two costs: The biggest is the power bill to pump water 30 feet up and over a levee, which is on the order of $750,000 a year for the entire island. The other cost is that it is replaced by taking more water from the river.
A solution to this problem: Recirculate the water. Recirculation keeps it fresh, gives pesticides time to break down, and reduces how much water Staten Island has to take out of the river in the first place.
Building such a system is simple, said Jerred Dixon, director of the Staten Island Preserve. What’s not so simple is the permitting process. That’s where the Fish Friendly Farming program came in.
Operated by the California Land Stewardship Institute, Fish Friendly Farming works with farmers to reduce the amount of pesticides that leave their farms and get into rivers and streams. CLSI received a grant from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Conservancy to implement a Fish Friendly Farming program in the Delta, and one of the projects it completed with that grant was a recirculation system for a portion of Staten Island. (See a video about the project.)
Pumps push water up and over a 25-foot levee into the South Mokelumne River through four massive pipes.
For some farms that work with CLSI, being able to market themselves as Fish Friendly Farms is a huge selling point, particularly for vineyards that have more direct relationships with the consumers of their product, said CLSI Science Director Laurel Marcus.
But for others, what’s more important is helping them do the good things they want to do by easing the regulatory compliance burden. “The government gets what it needs, the growers get what they need, the environment gets what it needs,” she said.
That was one of the drivers for Staten Island, which is owned by The Nature Conservancy and used as a living laboratory for wildlife-friendly farming.
The other was mastering the process.
This effort was a first for CLSI and Staten Island, which means it went slowly – it took about a year and a half.
But the next effort will be easier. “The more you do things, the faster things usually go,” Dixon said. “You learn those quick routes and the shortcuts to get these things done.”
Jerred Dixon, director of the Staten Island Preserve, stands at the recirculation pump that was part of a Delta Conservancy Fish Friendly Farming grant project.
He would love to add more recirculation projects to the island. In addition to the rice land, Staten Island also has some wetlands where his goal is to use no water diverted from the river. “I could put 10 of these (recirculation pumps) on the island and make a real difference,” he said.
But he’d also love to see the practice take off throughout the Delta.
“If we can get this streamlined where we have a lot more recirculated water in the Delta, it makes water a lot more available, and it makes it more economically viable for Delta farmers as well,” he said.
“If you want to learn about it and get the lowdown, you can talk to me,” Dixon said. He can be emailed at jerred.dixon@cfrstaten.com.
Tricia Canton (Photo courtesy of Delta Sculling Center)
Water defines the Delta, and access to water defines people’s connection to the Delta.
For both Dr. Pat Tirone and Tricia Marie Canton, there was no access in the beginning. Their early time as Stockton residents was completely disconnected from the water that flows through the city.
“I lived here for three years and didn’t know the Delta was here,” said Tirone, a physical therapist and graduate of the 2024 Delta Leadership Program.
When she first stumbled onto a city park with water access, she saw not the water and boat ramp that were hidden from view, but a private boat club, and it was unclear whether she even had the right to access the water.
Then she came across a rowing club that was raising money at a shopping center one day. That’s when she learned the public does have access to the water, and that there were ways to enjoy it without buying a power or sail boat or joining an exclusive yacht club.
That launched her into something that would become not just a personal passion, but a professional one: sculling.
Canton’s path was different. Born and raised in Stockton, she discovered her love of water only when she moved to Southern California to attend UC Irvine, becoming an avid beachgoer.
Then in 2014, at the age of 28, she had a ruptured brain aneurysm and three strokes that nearly killed her, leaving the entire left side of her body paralyzed. Her family was told she would probably never walk, talk or even breathe on her own again, and they moved her back to Stockton to take care of her.
This is where both Canton’s and Tirone’s stories would meet.
Pat Tirone
As part of Tirone’s rehab work, she spent much of her time taking her clients into nature, often at Berkeley’s Bay Outreach and Recreation Program, which had an entire barn full of adaptive recreational equipment. But as soon as her clients were discharged from rehab, their access to those opportunities ended.
“My husband listened to me complain that there was nothing like that in our community and finally told me to put up or shut up,” Tirone said. So together they started the Delta Sculling Center in Stockton in 2013, buying boats, renting storage space for them, and acquiring gear needed to adapt to rowers’ various needs.
“Rowers joined us as volunteers, and all a sudden we had a whole program,” she said.
Canton learned about Delta Sculling Center in 2022.
Being immunocompromised, she had been confined to her home since the beginning of the Covid pandemic, and her rehab stopped during that time. As the pandemic was receding, her doctor told her about a program that teaches people with disabilities to row, and that’s when she contacted “Coach Pat.”
The Sculling Center had a way to compensate for poor grip in her left hand: a Velcro connection to the oar, and a handle that would release if the boat turned over so the connected oar wouldn’t drag her down. The Center also had gear that would help her climb into the boat. And of course, volunteers who would row with her.
She used her arms more in her first session than she had the entire time since the aneurysm, and rowing has increased her endurance and strength. Just last week, she set a new personal record: 7 km on a day when her goal was 5.
But it’s about more than that. “On land I have to worry about gravity, other people, and the terrain – if it’s slippery, if there’s an incline, if there’s gravel, if there’s sand,” she said. “On the water, I’m just free.”
Beyond that, nature is endlessly delightful, a chance to encounter ducklings growing from one outing to the next, sea lions swimming near the boat, herons threatening to “drop bombs,” or the rush of dozens of blackbirds lifting from a powerline all at once.
And then there are the local landmarks, like the miniature Statue of Liberty at the confluence of the San Joaquin and Calaveras rivers. Canton rowed there recently with Tirone’s husband Bob, and they spontaneously sang God Bless America.
Experiences like these are what Pat Tirone cherishes about her time on Delta waters as well. “The other day, I was out rowing by myself and the sound of all the birds at 6 in the morning was just overwhelmingly beautiful,” she said. “I just turned the recorder on my phone on, laid it down on the deck of my boat and captured their beautiful music. In the middle of Stockton! What a gift.”
All people need to be able to connect with this gift – the water that is the lifeblood of the Delta – is access.
Learn more about:
The Delta Sculling Center. The center is a non-profit whose mission is to provide inclusive rowing opportunities to people of all abilities. Tagline: “Where EveryBODY Sculls,” and “EveryBODY” includes adults of all ages, military veterans with disabilities, and middle and high school aged youth, especially those who come from under-resourced parts of the region.
The Delta Aquatic Center. The Delta Sculling Center has been instrumental in the development of the Delta Aquatic Center of Stockton project, a new facility in Stockton that would increase access to the water for the community. A $2.5 million grant from the Delta Conservancy is funding planning for the project.
When Azorean Portuguese arrived in the California Delta during the Gold Rush, they brought with them a Medieval tradition that has proved resilient in a sea of constant change: the Holy Ghost Festa.
“My dad always talked about ‘the footsteps, the footsteps, the footsteps,'” said Jim Souza, one of the organizers of the Freeport/Clarksburg Festa. The oldest in the Delta, it was founded in 1893, and has been held at the same hall since 1905.
“He was referring to the fact there was a lot of history there.”
The particulars of this tradition have changed, but its core tenet remains the same: feeding people, for free, as an act of generosity and sharing.
Festas began the 1400s in mainland Portugal, inspired by the lore of Queen Isabel, who took food from her own table to feed the poor during a famine. But their roots trace back even further to a radical utopian ideology promulgated by an Italian monk born in 1132. (Story continues below photos.)
When the Portuguese settled in the Azores in the mid-1400s, they took the tradition of Festa with them, and it thrived there, even as it mostly died off on the mainland. Azoreans comprise the bulk of Portuguese who immigrated to California in the 1800s, and the tradition followed them here.
For Souza, Festa has always been part of his life. “I was born into it,” he said. “My parents were involved in it. That’s where they made their first connection!”
As a kid, Festa meant getting a new pair of jeans and cowboy boots and maybe a hat that he’d wear to the dance. “And obviously you’d see all your cousins and Portuguese friends and whoever else came along,” he said.
Festa also involves the crowning of a young queen, in honor of Queen Isabel. Professor Diniz Borges, the founding director of the Portuguese Beyond Borders Institute at Fresno State, said the queen is a feature that arose in California.
“There were no queens in the Festas in the Azores. We don’t know where or why it started, but they’ve become part of the tradition in California,” he said. And now some Azorean Festas have begun adopting the tradition.
The Queens Court in television news coverage of the 2024 Freeport/Clarksburg Festa – click to watch video.
An even newer evolution is the growing presence of non-Portuguese at Festas. “More and more they attract a lot of outsiders,” Borges said. “I’m happy to say we now have queens who are not of Portuguese backgrounds, and people playing in marching bands who are of different ethnicities as well.”
But there is one constant that dates back to Medieval origins: “They are religious in nature, but the church doesn’t control them,” Borges said. “There is a Mass, there is a coronation, but the whole idea of the serving of food free of charge to everybody, the idea behind the celebration, whether it’s music or parades or whatnot, is it’s all done by a committee of men and women.”
Souza became the youngest president of the Freeport/Clarksburg Festa’s organizing council at 17, and he remains a key organizer to this day. It is a mountain of work – “five days of preparation, one day of festivities, one day of cleanup.”
But it’s worth it.
He tells the story of a psychic advisor who came with a potential buyer to view the property next to the Hall where the Festa is held. The advisor told the buyer he could see someone on one side of the property who wasn’t happy.
“What do you see over there?” the buyer asked him, nodding at the Hall, Souza recalled.
“There’s just nothing but happiness,” the advisor said. “There’s children everywhere and they’re all smiling.”
Video screenshot of One Struggle One Fight marchers as they left Locke in March 2009
Gay activism in California is often associated with cities. But in March 2009, a group of activists took their cause on a march through the rural Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta – not a region known for protest marches or gay activism.
The trek was a five-day walk from San Francisco to Sacramento to call for the repeal of Proposition 8, the gay marriage ban that California voters added to the state Constitution in 2008. Organized by One Struggle One Fight, the march went through Walnut Creek, Antioch, Isleton, Locke, and Elk Grove before finishing at the steps of the state Capitol.
Three of the Delta’s five main counties voted in favor of Prop 8, so it might not have looked like sympathetic territory. But march co-leader Seth Fowler said that was part of the point.
“One Struggle One Fight was about direct action and talking to people. There was a really big urban/rural divide, and the question was, ‘How do we make queer people real to people who are mostly just interacting with headlines about us?’”
One answer: by walking through their towns.
He said there were times on the march when he could sense discomfort among people they interacted with.
But there were also many warm welcomes. What the 30 or so marchers were doing “is such important work” the Rev. Christy Parks-Ramage told them when they gathered at the First Congregational Church of Antioch. “And it’s work that we as a congregation have struggled with.”
The church had recently become “open and affirming,” officially welcoming LGBT people in its ministry. The decision caused a split, and so many congregants had left that the church was selling its building to forge a new path.
The marchers also found welcome in the tiny town of Locke, with a population hovering around 70. Locke was built by Chinese immigrants in 1915, two years after the state passed a law forbidding land ownership or long-term leases by non-citizens, so they couldn’t own the land they built on. (So-called Alien Land Laws were invalidated by the California Supreme Court in 1952.)
In an email to fellow organizers, Fowler described his advance visit to Locke, where he met with the Locke Foundation and discussed the march going through the town. “They were receptive and excited at the prospects of becoming the Gayest Town in America, if only for an evening,” he wrote.
The wooden statue of Guanyin, bodhisattva of compassion, now lives in the Locke home of Deborah Mendel and Russell Ooms (not pictured).
When marchers spent the night in Locke, they stayed in a former Baptist church. “There was a really large wooden statue there of Guanyin, the bodhisattva of compassion,” Fowler recalled. “It felt like a very lovely synchronicity to have this being of compassion watch over us as we slept there.”
He reveres Guanyin to this day.
Russell Ooms, who owned the church building at the time, said the group was delightful. “Locke is a quiet town, and suddenly it was filled with energy,” he said. “It was exciting. They were exciting.”
The marchers left behind a gift for the town: a donation to the Locke Foundation, commemorated in a tile that now lives at the Locke Memorial Park. And at least one of the townspeople – Stuart Walthall – joined them at the march’s finale: a rally at the Capitol.
Scenes from the Cherry Pit and Ah-May’s Strawberry U-Pick in Brentwood and Victoria Island Farms/Sabbatical distillery in Holt.
U-pick season has begun, and Northern California families are flocking to Delta farms to pick their own cherries, strawberries, blueberries, and more.
U-pick is an experience that combines a drive through the countryside, family time, tradition, fresh air, walking, perfectly ripe fruit, and connections with the farmers who produce America’s food.
It’s farm-to-table eating without a grocery store or a restaurant as middleman. And it’s the freshest fruit possible without the responsibility of managing a farm year-round.
Families we spoke with recently at the Cherry Pit in Brentwood all had stories to tell.
The Carter family came from Groveland – near Yosemite! – to continue an 11-year tradition that began when they lived in Half Moon Bay. The Gonzales family from Oakland had been picking there for 16 years, and proudly pointed out their teenage daughter, whose mother was still pregnant with her on her first visit.
Kyle and Caitlin Martin live in Brentwood and figured it was time to start checking out the local farms with their son Campbell, and they had a luscious Black Forest Cake in their future. Danny Pham and his uncle Thu Vo come at the beginning of every season, and Pham was planning to take 100 pounds of cherries back to Vietnam.
The u-pick experience is equally important to farmers, who get to forge connections – and share their world – with consumers.
Victoria Island Farms in Holt began blueberry u-pick operations in 2020 at the beginning of the Covid pandemic, when people were looking for opportunities to get outside and do things together.
“Blueberries are perfect for social distancing,” said farm co-owner and fourth-generation farmer Jack Zech. “You just send one family down each row.” Even as the pandemic waned, the program remained popular.
Financially, the u-pick operation doesn’t move the needle for the farm, Zech said. “But it makes our employees happier. They like it when people come see what they do and appreciate it. There’s a sense of pride that people come out.”
One year after the farm began u-pick, it opened a distillery – Sabbatical – that visitors can tour and shop at as well. “A lot of the older dads aren’t trying to go out there in the heat,” Zech said. The distillery, with its shaded patio, gives them another option.
For some farms, u-pick is an important part of their profitability. When customers pick their own, the farmer doesn’t have to pay for picking, packing, or shipping, said James Chinchiolo, owner of Lodi Blooms.
And he was unprepared for how popular it would be. “We get upwards of 2,000 visitors a day. The first year it happened, it scared me!”
The opportunities for agri-tourism keep growing.
In 2002, there were just 39 farms offering “agritourism and recreational services” in the six Delta counties (Alameda, Contra Costa, Sacramento, San Joaquin, Solano, and Yolo), according to the USDA Census of Agriculture.
In 2022, the count stood at 150.
Ready to start picking?
If you’re looking to visit a u-pick in the Brentwood area, there is a website dedicated to local farmers with a map and details about what’s available at each farm as various crops ripen: https://harvestforyou.com. You can also type “u-pick near me” on your phone’s map app during your next drive through the Delta.
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