Animals
Read about the amphibians, birds, fish, insects, mammals, reptiles and invasive animals in the Yuba-Sutter area.
Plants
A valley oak next to the Yuba River in Sicard Flat. Photo by queerbychoice.
The Yuba-Sutter area is part of the ![[wikipedia]](http://wikispot.org/wiki/eggheadbeta/img/inter.png){kind=small}
California Floristic Province, which is one of the world's foremost biodiversity hotspots. This means that it contains an unusually high concentration of plant species that grow nowhere else in the world but here. The Yuba-Sutter area in particular is home to at least fourteen governmentally protected rare or endangered plant species: ![[WWW]](http://wikispot.org/wiki/eggheadbeta/img/sycamore-www.png){kind=small}
Geyser's rosette grass, fragrant fritillary, Roderick's fritillary, Northern California black walnut, Colusa tidytips, false Venus' looking-glass, Quincy lupine, Layne's ragwort, Hartweg's golden sunburst, coastal sage scrub oak, pine rose, Suisun marsh aster, Pacific Grove clover, and El Dorado mule ears.
There are five native plant communities in the Yuba-Sutter area. The majority of the Yuba-Sutter area belongs to the central oak woodland plant community, but the Joesphine, Marchant, Progress, Robbins, and Subaco areas of Sutter County belong to the valley grassland plant community, while the Brownsville, Camptonville, Challenge, Dobbins, and Strawberry Valley areas of Yuba County belong to the yellow pine forest plant community.1 In addition, the shores of rivers and creeks throughout both counties belong to the riparian forest plant community, and floodwater overflow areas such as the Sutter Bypass belong to the freshwater marsh plant community.
The eight largest plant families in the Yuba-Sutter area, by number of native species found in Yuba and Sutter counties, are the aster, grass, pea, plantain, lily, sedge, rose, and phlox families. Garden-worthy native species include many beardtongues, bentgrasses, buckthorns, buckwheats, buttercups, California lilacs, clovers, cluster-lilies, conifers, coyote mints, daisies, deervetches, fritillaries, godetias, hedgenettles, horsetails, Indian paintbrushes, larkspurs, lupines, maidenhair ferns, milkweeds, monkeyflowers, mule ears, native edible fruits, oaks, onions, oniongrasses, phacelias, roses, rushes, ryegrasses, sedges, skullcaps, tulips, violets, willows, willowherbs, wood ferns, and woodland stars.
Some of the worst Invasive Weeds that people continue to plant in the Yuba-Sutter area include Russian olive tree, common fig tree, common velvetgrass, Italian ryegrass, parrot-feather watermilfoil, Himalayan blackberry, Himalaya berry, and bigleaf periwinkle. In addition, although silverleaf cotoneaster, English ivy, and Chinese tallow tree have not yet been found in Yuba or Sutter Counties, they are currently spreading out of control in adjacent counties.
Water Conservation
The Feather River is the main source of water for the California State Water Project, providing water to central and southern California.
Sewage in the Yuba-Sutter area is treated at Stonegate Village Sewage Treatment Plant and Wheatland Water District Wastewater Treatment Plant.
Ecological Preserves
Pollution
Land and Water Pollution
There are no Superfund sites in Yuba or Sutter counties. However, Beale Air Force Base in Yuba County has released a total of 129,512 pounds of federally classified Toxic Release Inventory chemicals to land. The main chemical released is xylene (mixed isomers). Exposure to xylene from soil or groundwater can cause headaches, dizziness, confusion, balance problems, breathing problems, memory problems, delayed reaction time, loss of muscle coordination, stomach discomfort, and irritation of the skin, eyes, nose, and throat. At very high levels, it can cause unconsciousness and death. People who drink contaminated groundwater or who dig or garden in soil contaminated by leaking underground storage tanks are at risk of these symptoms.
Sutter County is ranked in the 90th percentile for most sheep waste created among all counties in the United States, but it is not known to contain significant toxic chemicals from non-animal sources.
Air Pollution
The average lifetime diesel soot cancer risk for a resident of Sutter County is 1 in 6,618. This risk is 151 times greater than the EPA-determined acceptable cancer level of 1 in a million.
The average lifetime diesel soot cancer risk for a resident of Yuba County is 1 in 10,417. This risk is 96 times greater than the EPA-determined acceptable cancer level of 1 in a million.
In both counties, the lifetime cancer risk from diesel soot far exceeds the risk of all other air pollutants tracked by the EPA combined. The cancer risk from all other air pollutants combined is 1 in 35,714 in Sutter County and 1 in 41,667 in Yuba County.
