Dear Modesto City Council Members:

As you work to update the City’s General Plan, we urge you to make the health of the Tuolumne River a top priority. The Tuolumne is a vital resource for our community, providing drinking water, recreational opportunities and critical habitat for fish and wildlife. The Tuolumne should be treated as a central, inviting feature of Modesto, like rivers are for other great cities.

We encourage you to work closely with the Irrigation Districts, the Sustainable Groundwater Agencies, conservation organizations and other stakeholders to develop a plan to capture potential floodwater and store it in our groundwater basin for the benefit of people, farms and the Tuolumne River ecosystem.