Delevan National Wildlife Refuge
Map SatelliteLying twenty-four kilometers (15 miles) southeast of the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge and three kilometers (2 miles) west of the Sacramento River, this former grain-farming area was established as a Wildlife Refuge in 1963.
The area is managed as a waterfowl refuge, with approximately a third of the area planted with rice and millet. About 250 hectares (600 acres) are ponded during the fall and winter months. The remainder is pastureland and uplands with a variety of grasses, primarily exotic. There are some cottonwoods, Populus fremontii, and willows, Salix sp., along the drainage canals. Cattails, Typha sp., and bulrush, Scirpus sp., are present in the permanent wetlands.
Up to 750,000 individual birds may be on the Refuge during the peak season.
Integrity: Artificial waterfowl habitat with dikes and levees.
Use: Research, educational, hunting, fishing. During the hunting season observation areas are limited to the public roads.
March 1976
Inventory of California Natural Areas
Revision © 2009 Steven Louis Hartman