California leads effort to let rivers roam, lower flood risk

By KATHLEEN RONAYNE
Associated Press

MODESTO, Calif. (AP) — Giving rivers room to breathe by restoring their floodplains is at the center of California’s approach to lowering flood risk. The Dos Rios Ranch Preserve is an example of California’s effort, the broadest in the nation to rethink how rivers flow as climate change alters the environment. It sits on farmland that’s been remade to look how it did 150 years ago, before levees restricted the flow of major rivers in the state’s Central Valley. If the rivers swell from heavy rains, they will be able to flow over their banks onto the property. The goal is to both reduce flood risks downstream and let ecosystems flourish.