Mike Cook presented a beneficial approach to flood protection in the Central Valley at Chico State Monday.

Mike Cook is the Regional Director of River Partners, a non-profit organization founded in 1998, that brings about solutions to local flooding.

“The focus of our work is large scale implementation, repairing habitat restoration projects and repairing habit is defined as basically the forests that grow inside the actual flood way along the river trees,” Cook said.

Their goal is to reduce the amount of flooding that have affected areas within the Central Valley, including the Chico area.

River Partners’ solution plan to avoid flooding:

• Creating levees at the edge of the bank of rivers.
• Armoring banks of levees by planting trees and shrubs.
• Accounting hydrology, soils, river hydraulics and wildlife species.

  “As we’ve seen with recent rain events these are going to help us better prepare for extreme weather that are results of climate change,” Cook said.

  Jacqueline Morales can be reached at [email protected] or @jackie_theorion on Twitter.