Many years ago I spent some time in the San Joaquin Valley. Farmers there told me the top soil is very deep and very rich. If you water it, plants grow like crazy. If you don’t water it, it reverts to the semi desert it was. To give up this potential bounty to protect a bait fish is crazy. But that’s what’s being done and has been done for years.
Silicon Valley used to be “The Valley of Heart’s Delight.” Fruit was planted starting in the 1880s and covered the valley with fruit trees in a few years. The soil is incredible here (if you don’t have clay by the bay). A house a few doors down was rebuilt 15 years ago and they dug a basement. They had topsoil down 15 feet and then hit a cobblestone ancient riverbed!