Contract workers plant willow poles along the Sacramento River near Paintersville, Calif., Feb. 11, 2013, as part of a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Sacramento District project to preserve riparian habitat following emergency levee erosion repairs between 2007 and 2009. The Sacramento District worked with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service to design the project for habitat benefit, and is the first Corps district to receive a variance under the Corps’ levee vegetation policy to plant willows near the levee after engineering analysis showed they won’t threaten the levee.