Cover: Due to considerations of air quality, traditional burning of rice straw is now heavily constrained in California. As this has left present rice farming practices in the Sacramento Valley in a fluid state, the farmers are experimenting with a variety of straw disposal practices like (i) chopping of straw in the fall; (ii) wet rolling of straw (see cover); (iii) disking of straw in the spring; or (iv) removal of straw in the fall from the fields. Most of these practices are applied in combination with winter flooding of the fields, which is thought to enhance straw decomposition and does restore water fowl habitat along the Pacific Flyway. Currently, about 50% of all the land used for rice production in the Sacramento Valley is winter flooded. See Eagle et al., "Rice Yield and Nitrogen Utilization Efficiency under Alternative Straw Management Practices," p. 1096-1103. Photo by Jack Kelly Clark.