About

The following information was originally published in the 2023 Summary Report (available on the home page).

Research Team

  • Dr. Jessica Rudnick - Social Science Extension Specialist, CA Sea Grant & Delta Stewardship Council

  • Kenji Tomari, MS. MA. - PhD Student, University of California Davis

  • Dr. Kristin Dobbin - Assistant Professor of Cooperative Extension, University of California Berkeley

  • Dr. Mark Lubell - Professor, University of California Davis

  • Dr. Kelly Biedenweg - Professor, Oregon State University

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the many community groups and Delta residents who made this research possible by participating and providing genuine input in the community meetings, focus groups, interviews, and surveys that informed this work and the results presented in this report. In addition to Delta residents, many additional project partners contributed to the success of this effort. The research team would like to thank the following people and groups for their support:

Delta Stewardship Council and Delta Science Program

The Delta Stewardship Council’s Delta Science Program was established to provide scientific information and syntheses to inform environmental and water decision-making in the Delta. The program fulfills its mission by funding research, synthesizing and communicating scientific information to policymakers and decision-makers, promoting independent scientific peer review, and coordinating with Delta agencies to promote science-based adaptive management. The Delta Science Program provided funding for the Delta Residents Survey research project to fill a research gap identified by the 2020 Social Science Strategy for the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta (Bidenweg) and the 2022-2026 Science Action Agenda (DeltaScienceProgram).

Special acknowledgements of the following Delta Stewardship Council staff who supported the DRS effort to exceptional degrees are merited. Thank you to Lita Brydie (former Program Analyst) for her work through her Master’s Capstone project to support qualitative data analysis informing this project, Annie Merrit (Environmental Scientist) for her help in the community outreach campaign, Rachael Klopfenstein (Program Manager) for her management of the funding contract for this project, Louise Conrad (former Deputy Executive Officer of Delta Science Program), Laurel Larsen (Delta Lead Scientist), and Jeff Henderson (Deputy Executive Officer for Planning and Performance Division) for their consistent support and attention to this research effort, and to Emily Ryznar, 2021 California Sea Grant State Policy Fellow within the Delta Science Program, for her contributions to background research efforts.

Sacramento State University Institute for Social Research

The Institute for Social Research (ISR) supports community partners in finding data-informed answers to their most pressing questions. ISR offers a broad range of expertise in conducting applied survey research and working with state government agencies to inform program and policies across the state. Special thanks to Julia Tomassili, Robert Rodriguez, Mayra Adame, Sebastian Cambre, and Shannon Williams on the ISR team who supported the Delta Residents Survey research effort by providing expertise on survey sampling and survey design, translation, programming, and distribution of the survey to respondents, and collating, cleaning and anonymizing survey data.

Survey Advisory Committee

Advisory committee members volunteered their time, expertise and effort to support the Delta Residents Survey research effort, meeting three times over the course of 2022 to advise on survey design, support community outreach and survey beta-testing, and provide feedback on draft survey materials and results. Committee members are not listed in any particular order.

  • Ajay Singh - Sacramento State University, Environmental Studies

  • Alejo Kraus-Polk – UC Davis, Geography

  • Alex Thompson - San Francisco Estuary Partnership (former 2021 California Sea Grant State Policy Fellow)

  • Caleb Scoville – Tufts University Campbell Ingram – Delta Conservancy

  • Darcie Luce – San Francisco Estuary Partnership

  • Darcy Bostic – Rural Community Assistance Partnership

  • Erik Vink – Delta Protection Commission (former)

  • Gilbert Cosio – River Delta Consulting

  • Isa Avanceña – Valley Vision

  • Josue Medellín-Azuara - UC Merced, Agriculture Economics

  • Krista Harrington – Oregon State University

  • Lita Brydie - former Delta Stewardship Council staff; Oregon State University Master’s Capstone project supported this research

  • Megan Wheeler – San Francisco Estuary Institute

  • Michael George – Delta Watermaster’s Office (former)

  • Randy Fiorini - Former chair of the Delta Stewardship Council

  • Rosemary Kosaka – NOAA Fisheries Southwest Fisheries Science Center

  • Tim Stroshane – Restore the Delta

  • Virginia Gardiner – Delta Protection Commission

  • William Muetzenberg – Public Health Advocates

  • Brett Milligan- University of California Davis

  • Matto Mildenberger- University of California Santa Barbara

  • Tanya Heikkila - University of Colorado, Denver

  • David Trimbach- Oregon State University (former)

  • Kristi Matal - Office of the Delta Water Master

  • Barbara Barrigan-Parilla – Restore the Delta

  • Bob Erlenbusch - Sacramento Regional Coalition to End Homelessness

  • Matt Holmes - Little Manilla Rising

  • Sherri Norris - California Indian Environmental Alliance

Funding

Data collection for this project was funded by a contract agreement between the Delta Science Program, Delta Stewardship Council (Contract DSC-21143), California Sea Grant, and California State University Sacramento. The contents of this report may not necessarily reflect the official views or policies of the State of California.

Data Analysis

We are very grateful to Thomas Lumley for the {survey} package he developed in R to support complex survey analysis, and for the {Tidyverse} package developed by Pivot.