Ducks Unlimited, Inc Introduction In addition to working with the USGS Western Ecological Research Center team led by Joe Fleskes on defining the feasibility and strategies for tracking a variety of key avian habitats in the Central Valley. Ducks Unlimited focused on mapping Central Valley rice habitats that provide large bioenergetic inputs to overwintering waterfowl and shorebirds in the region. The first year of the project characterized rice fields and their winter- flooded state in the Sacramento Valley. This report summarizes our findings and reviews our future plans to quantify foraging habitats in the Central Valley .
