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SACRAMENTO, Calif.
_ Mike Chrisman, who served as California natural resources
secretary for seven years under former Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger, was elected president of the Water Education
Foundation’s board of directors. He follows in the footsteps of
his father, Ira “Jack” Chrisman, who was the Foundation’s
founding president in 1977.
“The Foundation is near and dear to my heart,” said Chrisman, who
runs his family’s ranching and farming business in Tulare County.
“My father and I both viewed his dedication to the
Foundation as a true personal legacy and I’m proud to follow in
his footsteps as board president.”
Join us for one of our highly praised
water tours as we visit such iconic places as Hoover Dam and the
Salton Sea, the Northern California headwaters near sparkling
Lake Tahoe and deep into the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and San
Francisco Bay. Each tour stop uncovers a wealth of knowledge
about water issues and challenges, and plenty of questions for
our expert speakers.
Discounted early bird registration is still available for all
tours except the Central Valley Tour. Here’s a rundown of the
upcoming tours:
Our annual Water 101 workshop, set for Feb. 20 at
McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento, is just three weeks away.
This popular event offers attendees the chance to hear from
experts on the basics of California water law, policy, hydrology
and geography.
In addition to the workshop, attendees can also opt to join the
second-day tour (Feb. 21) that will showcase innovative water
projects and partnerships in the Sacramento region.
Twenty-three early
to mid-career water professionals from across California
have been chosen for the 2019 William R. Gianelli Water
Leaders Class, the Water Education Foundation’s highly
competitive and respected career development program.
The class will spend the year examining how water management can
respond to climate change in California and offer policy
recommendations for adapting a water system built to collect
snowmelt to one that can respond to more rain and longer droughts
that result from a changing climate.
As our Lower Colorado River
Tour weaves its way downstream from Hoover Dam March 11-13,
participants will learn about the important role the river’s
water plays in the three Lower Basin states of Nevada, Arizona
and California, and how it helps to sustain their cities,
wildlife areas and farms.
Nearly 5.5 million acres of farmland in the river’s basin rely on
the ‘lifeline of the Southwest’ to grow a wide variety of
crops.
What is groundwater, and how is it
managed in California?
Until recently groundwater, the water stored within the Earth in
the spaces between sand, soils and fractured rock, was not
routinely regulated in California. This changed in 2014 when the
state Legislature passed the
Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) as a
framework for local and regional agencies to develop and
implement sustainable groundwater management plans. The Jan. 31
deadline is fast-approaching for groundwater managers in
California’s critically overdrafted basins to submit long-term
plans to the state for review.
Go deep inside Hoover Dam, one of
the nation’s most iconic structures, during a special “hard hat”
tour as you learn about one of the nation’s largest and most
managed rivers during our Lower Colorado
River Tour March 11-13.
You’ll pass through elevators and doors that are closed to the
public as Bureau of Reclamation managers give you an inside look
at the dam’s operations. Highlights include walking inside the
2,080-megawatt hydropower plant, traversing interior service
passages and inspection tunnels, and seeing architectural designs
of a past era. Afterward, you will have an opportunity to explore
the expanded visitor center and walk the top of the dam for
an unforgettable view before getting the latest hydrology update
on Lake Mead’s levels and operations.
2020 will be a busy year for water
resource issues in California and the West, and the Water
Education Foundation’s team of veteran journalists will stay on
top of the stories through our Western Water online news and our
daily Aquafornia news aggregation.
We’re already planning a full slate of articles for Western
Water news for 2020, a year that is likely to bring
noteworthy developments for water resources in California and the
West — from groundwater sustainability plans, to climate change
preparations to addressing demand and supply imbalances on the
Colorado River. We’ll be looking at stories that explore these
and other issues this year. You can sign up here to be alerted when new articles are published.
Curious about water rights in
California? Want to know more about how water is managed in the
state, or learn about the State Water Project, Central Valley
Project or other water infrastructure?
Sign up for our Water 101
workshop on Feb. 20 to hear from experts on these
topics and more. Then join us on Feb. 21 for an optional
tour that will get you up close with innovative water
partnerships, projects and programs that serve as models
statewide.
Happy New Year to all the friends, supporters, readers, and tour and workshop participants of the Water Education Foundation! We’re grateful to each and every person who interacted with us in 2019 and supported our mission.
As we turn the page to 2020, we’re looking ahead to a few changes.
We’re putting together an exciting lineup of Foundation
conferences for 2020! Mark your calendars now for both our Water
101 workshop, scheduled for Feb. 20 at McGeorge School of Law in
Sacramento, and our annual Water Summit, scheduled for Sept. 24
at the Westin Sacramento. Stay tuned for further announcements on
other events we are planning for 2020.
The 2019 Water Leaders class
organized by the Water Education Foundation completed its year
with a report outlining policy recommendations for better
managing the increasing risks of wildfire and impacts on water
supply and quality.
The class of 23 from
various stakeholder groups and backgrounds who hailed from cities
and towns across California had full editorial control to choose
recommendations.
The Colorado River is arguably one
of the hardest working rivers on the planet, supplying water to
40 million people and a large agricultural economy in the
West. But it’s under duress from two decades of drought and
decisions made about its management will have exceptional
ramifications for the future, especially as impacts from climate
change are felt.
Our
latest article in Western Water, our flagship
publication, explores the debate over whether incremental change
or a grand vision is the best approach to resolving the most
pressing issues facing the Colorado River.
You can now register for our full slate of water tours for 2020
as well as our Water 101 workshop. Register up to six weeks
before any tour for “early bird” pricing!
Here are the details on all of our 2020 tours and the Water
101 workshop:
Applications for one of our most
popular programs, Water
Leaders, are due Monday, Dec. 9, by 5 p.m.
Launched in 1997 and now led by Executive Director
Jennifer
Bowles, the Water Leaders program gets you
out of the office and into the field — whether it’s on one of
our water tours to
the Delta or the lower Colorado River, or meeting with your
assigned mentor.
Time is running out to score a sweet
holiday gift deal for the water wonk in your life with a special
discount on our popular poster-size maps, layperson’s guides and
other water publications.
Until midnight Monday, use the discount code
HOLIDAYSALE19 at checkout to save 30 percent off
your purchase price for maps and publications.
You can also get a gift certificate to send someone to one of our
2020 water tours or our Water 101 Workshop. See below for
details.
And if you’re planning to do other Cyber Monday holiday shopping,
you can help support the Foundation by shopping through
AmazonSmile,
which will donate to the Foundation 0.5 percent of the price of
your eligible purchases. Learn more about this special donation program
here.
Score a sweet holiday gift deal for
the water wonk in your life with a special Black Friday/Cyber
Monday discount on our popular poster-size maps, layperson’s
guides and other water publications.
Use the discount code HOLIDAYSALE19 at checkout
to save 30 percent off your purchase price for maps and
publications. This limited-time discount starts today
and runs through midnight Monday, Dec. 2.
You can also get a gift certificate to send someone to one of our
2020 water tours or our Water 101 Workshop. See below for
details.
And if you’re planning to do other Black Friday/Cyber Monday
holiday shopping, you can help support the Foundation by shopping
through AmazonSmile,
which will donate to the Foundation 0.5 percent of the price of
your eligible purchases. Learn more about this special donation program
here.
It’s been a year since two
devastating wildfires on opposite ends of California underscored
harsh new realities facing water agencies serving communities in
or adjacent to the state’s fire-prone wildlands. Fire doesn’t
just level homes, it can contaminate water, scorch watersheds,
damage delivery systems and upend agency finances.
Our
latest article in Western Water,
our flagship publication, explores the hard-earned lessons water
managers have gleaned from the Camp Fire that swept through
Paradise, in Northern California, and the Woolsey Fire along the
Los Angeles-Ventura County border in Southern California. These
lessons are still being absorbed by water managers around
California a year later as they recognize that emergency
preparedness plans of yesterday may not be adequate for the
wildfire reality of today.
Registration is now open for one of
our most popular annual events, the Water 101 workshop, to be held Feb. 20 at
McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento. The workshop also includes
an optional tour the following day that will feature
collaborative and innovative water projects and programs.
Water 101 covers California’s water basics including the history,
geography, legal and political facets of water in the state,
as well a look at hot topics and current issues of concern.
Taught by some of California’s leading policy and legal
experts, the workshop offers attendees the opportunity
to deepen their understanding of the state’s water resources.
