News.bytes Extra, issue 565

Improvements 'Taking Root' in Sacramento River Bend Area

A panoramic view of Coyote Pond in the Sacramento River Bend Area.

Years of work by BLM specialists in various disciplines are paying off with benefits to people and wildlife in the Sacramento River Bend Outstanding Natural Area near the northern California communities of Redding and Red Bluff.  Natural features and developed recreation sites  are attracting increasing numbers of wildlife, hosting growing populations of aquatic life and providing more recreation opportunities for residents and visitors to the region along the Tehama-Shasta county border.

BLM Wildlife Biologist Gary Diordoni says that BLM's development of the Bass Pond and Coyote Pond has provided more fishing opportunities, including a pier accessible for those with disabilities.  There are miles of recreation trails for hikers, horseback riders and mountain bikers, and areas well suited to hunting upland birds, including wild turkey.

Diordoni says the BLM Redding Field Office staff has focused on projects including fish planting, noxious weed eradication trail development in a continuing effort to enhance public enjoyment of these public lands in the rapidly growing Northern Sacramento Valley.

The area provides public access to more than 17 miles of the Sacramento River.  It  features oak woodlands and rugged upland areas with vistas of Mt. Lassen, a slumbering volcano in the heart of nearby Lassen Volcanic National Park.

An inviting spot in the Bend area

A view of the Sacramento River with a feature called "pig rock" in the foreground

Information on the area is available at www.blm.gov/ca/redding.

- Eric Coulter, BLM Redding Field Office (January 2013)

BLM California News.bytes, issue 565 -- To subscribe to News.bytes, send an e-mail to: mailto:Join-Newsbytes@List.ca.blm.gov OR visit our News.bytes subscription page.