ABSTRACT
The loss of wetlands in the Central Valley of California is nearly complete. Of two million hectares known to have existed before European invasion, little more than 50,000 hectares—less than 3%—remain in the twenty-first century. Helen Verran, feminist philosopher of science who has long worked with decolonizing knowledge practices among the Yoruba in Nigeria and the Yolngu in Australia, said it best: what matters is GÇ£doing difference differently. At the same time, the Central Valley is home to the largest group of wintering waterfowl in the US, and serves as overwintering and breeding grounds for millions more that migrate between the Arctic tundra and South America every year. So many birds move through this particular north-south route called the Pacific Flyway5 because so much of their habitat is gone; there just aren’t that many places for the birds to go anymore.
