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The Feather River State Wildlife Area is 2,522 acres of dense riparian forest on both sides of the Feather River, bounded in the south by the Sutter Bypass (opposite Nicolaus) and in the north by the Abbott Lake area (opposite Plumas Lake), plus the Shanghai Garden Park and Boat Ramp farther north, in Yuba City. The main access point is the Star Bend Park and Boat Ramp on Feather River Boulevard just west of Plumas Lake. Some areas of the Feather River State Wildlife Area cannot be reached except by boat. In all parts of Feather River State Wildlife Area, beware of poison oak, rattlesnakes, and ticks.

The 3,700-acre area of the Feather River from Nicolaus north to the Star Bend Unit, much of which is included in the Bobelaine Audubon Sanctuary and/or the Feather River State Wildlife Area, is the largest contiguous example of mixed riparian forest remaining in California's Central Valley.1 According to some estimates, as much as 89% of the riparian forest in California's Central Valley has been destroyed during the last 150 years.2

Units

Rules

Fishing, bird watching, and wildlife viewing are allowed. Coyotes, river otters, ash-throated flycatchers, black phoebes, and a wide variety of warblers and waterfowl species live here.

Camping and trailers are not allowed.

Possessing rifles or pistols is not allowed. No hunting and shooting is allowed in Shanghai Garden Park and Boat Ramp or the Bobelaine Audubon Sanctuary (the latter of which is not part of the Feather River State Wildlife Area but is geographically right in the middle of it). In the other units, however, hunting is allowed from July 1 through January 31 during open seasons for authorized species, and during the spring turkey hunt when only turkeys may be hunted. Game species include deer, pheasant, rabbit, tree squirrel, waterfowl, wild turkey, pheasant, quail, and dove.

The O'Connor Lakes Unit is closed from March 1 through June 30 every year.

Links

California Department of Fish and Game: Feather River Wildlife Area

Footnotes

1. Sutter County General Plan § 9.8 Biological Resources, 1994
2. U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service: Sacramento Fish & Wildlife Office: Species Account: Valley Elderberry Longhorn Beetle

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