PG&E adds 106 acres to river preserve near Modesto. Bunnies, butterflies benefit
Pacific Gas & Electric Co. has paid to restore 106 acres of riverside habitat west of Modesto.
It was the latest of the projects that mitigate the environmental effects of operations in the utility’s vast service area.
This one wrapped up May 1 at the west end of Beckwith Road, about nine miles from Highway 99. It is at the north border of the San Joaquin River National Wildlife Refuge, which totals about 7,500 acres.
PG&E did the project with the nonprofit River Partners, a leader in restoration in California. Planning help came from the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, which owns the refuge.
The utility does not disclose its costs for such projects, said an email from Jeff Smith, manager of operations communications. He did say that PG&E has benefited more than 10,000 acres in the Central Valley, coastal areas and elsewhere.
The latest project ended with a workday for about 20 of the utility’s employees. They came from office and other jobs in several counties to help plant the final acre.
“It’s great; we’re giving back to the community,” said Adrienne Lewis, who helps run the mitigation program.
These were not technically volunteers, as PG&E pays its employees when they take part in various causes. This time, they also got a lesson in wildlife monitoring from the River Partners staff.
The site had been owned by the Lyons family, well-known for conservation efforts amid its extensive farmland. Until last year, the land was part of a refuge program where summer grain crops are left as food for winter waterfowl from Alaska and Canada.
What was planted on the former farmland?
The permanent refuge planting began in November, by paid River Partners crews. The details:
- About 60 of the 106 acres will become riverside forest, with oaks, cottonwoods, willows and more. It will absorb floodwater in wet years.
- An additional 20 or so acres got native grasses and wildflowers, for animals that prefer open areas.
- The remaining land is mainly for the riparian brush rabbit, an endangered species. It feeds and shelters in wild species of rose, blackberry and other shrubs. A one-acre portion was graded into a mound so the bunnies can escape future floods. Most of the refuge’s other wildlife thrives when the water rises, as it often did in the millennia before dams and levees.
The project is close to where the Stanislaus and San Joaquin rivers join. Another tributary, the Tuolumne River, is part of the new Dos Rios Ranch State Park. River Partners led its restoration with help from the Yosemite Rivers Alliance and other parties.
The just-completed project will not have public trails. It does have a parking lot during winter to view birds visiting from the north. Among them is the Aleutian cackling goose, saved from extinction with help from the Lyons family and others. Bill Lyons Jr. was a food and agriculture secretary under Gov. Gray Davis and remains active.
What creatures will use the restored habitat?
The new site aims at a few other species, as explained by Corey Shake, senior restoration ecologist for River Partners:
- The western monarch butterfly breeds only in milkweed plants in summer. The refuge is part of a life cycle that takes the species across several states.
- The tricolored blackbird needs tall grass to hatch its eggs. A shortage of natural habitat has prompted it to use dairy feed crops instead. This species also gets help from a federal program that pays farmers to postpone the harvest.
The PG&E workers, for their part, favored the shade of a large oak tree when lunch arrived.
The crew had begun its day with advice against sunburn, mosquitos, ticks and poison oak. It also learned of some of nature’s helpers, such as pollinating hummingbirds, butterflies and bees.
The monarch, Shake said, “can go all the way to Idaho, Oregon, British Columbia in multiple generations and somehow find their way back to California in winter.”
This story was originally published May 10, 2026 at 7:00 AM.
