Jacob Katz is on the hunt — not for geese or ducks. On a farm about 40 minutes north of Sacramento, he wades through a rice paddy with an aquarium net in hand. But he’s not fishing.
“We’re going bug hunting,” Katz says.
The senior scientist for California Trout, a conservation group with a focus on protecting wild fish, is at River Garden Farms. Founded in 1913, they typically grow things like corn, wheat and around 5,000 acres of rice — the kind local sushi restaurants use.
But today, he’s working on a pilot project with UC Davis to create what they call “floodplain fatties” — a nickname for the well-fed baby salmon and smelt who will eat his bugs while swimming through the Sacramento River.
LINK (via: NPR)
