Our California Water Map, recently updated, is one of our
most popular products. We also offer magazines, documentaries,
posters, layperson guides and more. Our catalog offers a wide
array of resources to help you understand the complex issues of
water in California and the Southwest.
Project WET is an award-winning, nonprofit water education
program and publisher. The program facilitates and promotes
awareness, appreciation, knowledge, and stewardship of water
resources.
Join the Water Education Foundation, an impartial
nonprofit, in its mission to create a better understanding
of water issues and help resolve water problems through
educational programs.
California’s groundwater is a great natural resource and has
contributed to the state becoming the nation’s top agricultural
producer and a leader in high-tech industries. Groundwater is an
asset that is increasingly relied upon by municipalities,
industry and agriculture and it will play an important role in
the future sustainability of California’s overall water supply.
Ranchers and conservationists in the
headwaters of the Colorado River decided that to get something
done to benefit the ranches, the fish and the river, they needed
to work together. Their partnership, which could serve as a
template for similar regions across the West, is the focus of
a new article in our flagship publication, Western
Water.
The article by the Foundation’s team of veteran journalists
explores what drove the need to act, how the partnership came
together and some of the projects undertaken to improve
irrigation for ranchers and habitat for fish.
The Santa Barbara region’s recovery
from drought often has lagged behind much of the rest of
California due to the nature of its watershed. But a variety of
efforts are underway to enhance the region’s limited local water
resources.
Our new Edge of Drought
Tour Aug. 27-29 explores the connection between the area’s
distinctive hydrology and the lurking threat of drought and
persistent water scarcity with an up-close look at water projects
and programs across the southern Central Coast.
Arizona, Nevada and Mexico will be required to take less water
from the Colorado River for the first time next year under a
set of agreements that aim to keep enough water in Lake Mead to
reduce the risk of a crash.
The premise of the Senate Bill 1 is simple: to maintain
environmental and worker safety standards that the state has
had in place for decades, even if the federal government rolls
them back.
During the drought of 2012-16 landowners pumped more and more
groundwater to compensate for the lack of rain. Thousands of
wells ran dry. As a result, California passed a law requiring
water users to organise themselves into local Groundwater
Sustainability Agencies.
Ranchers and conservationists in the headwaters of the Colorado
River decided that to get something done to benefit the
ranches, the fish and the river, they needed to work together.
Their partnership, which could serve as a template for similar
regions across the West, is the focus of a new article in our
flagship publication, Western Water.
Wetlands are among the most important ecosystems in the world.
They produce high levels of oxygen, filter toxic chemicals out of
water, reduce flooding and erosion, recharge groundwater and provide a diverse
range of recreational opportunities from fishing and hunting to
photography. They also serve as critical habitat for wildlife,
including a large percentage of plants and animals on
California’s endangered species
list.
As part of the historic Colorado River Delta, the Salton Sea
regularly filled and dried for thousands of years due to its
elevation of 237 feet below sea level.
The most recent version of the Salton Sea was formed in 1905 when
the Colorado River broke
through a series of dikes and flooded the seabed for two years,
creating California’s largest inland body of water. The
Salton Sea, which is saltier than the Pacific Ocean, includes 130
miles of shoreline and is larger than Lake Tahoe.
Drought— an extended period of limited or no precipitation— is a
fact of life in California and the West, with water resources
following boom and-bust patterns.
No portion of the West has been immune to drought during the last
century and drought occurs with much greater frequency in the
West than in any other regions of the country.
