Find out what the Water Education Foundation is up to with
announcements about upcoming events, tours, new Western
Water articles on key water topics and more!
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Registration is now open for one of
our most popular events, the Water
101 Workshop, to be held this year virtually on the
afternoons of April 22-23.
The annual workshop serves as a refresher for more veteran water
professionals and a good statewide primer for others.
Participants will come away with a deeper understanding of the
state’s most precious natural resource.
Twenty-three early
to mid-career water professionals from across California
have been chosen for the 2021 William R. Gianelli Water
Leaders Class, the Water Education Foundation’s highly
competitive and respected career development program.
The Water Leaders class includes engineers, lawyers, resource
specialists, scientists and others from a range of public and
private entities and nongovernmental organizations from
throughout the state. The roster for the 2021
class can be found here.
Our daily news aggregation known as
Aquafornia keeps you
up-to-date on the most pressing water issues in California and
across the West.
Curated by veteran journalist Alastair Bland and
managed by the Foundation’s news and publications director
Doug
Beeman, Aquafornia gives you the latest articles on
groundwater, Delta issues, the Colorado River and more through an
easy-to-scan headline format.
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?
Mark your calendars now for our virtual Water
101 Workshop for the afternoons of April 22-23 to
hear from experts on these topics and more. Registration
is coming soon!
Groundwater keeps the San Joaquin
Valley’s orchards, vineyards and fields vibrant and supports a
multibillion-dollar agricultural economy. But that bounty has
come at a price. Overpumping of groundwater has depleted
aquifers, dried up household wells and degraded ecosystems.
Now, hundreds of agencies in California have the task
of making things right in their respective groundwater
basins. The latest Western Water news is a
special report exploring how two different farming
regions in the San Joaquin Valley are approaching the problem and
their proposed solutions to achieve groundwater
sustainability.
Despite the ongoing pandemic, the Water Education Foundation
team continues to churn out water news, maps
that provide visual context to key water topics and guides that
help deepen your understanding of California’s most precious
natural resource.
In any given year, whether it’s a wet
winter or a dry one, groundwater is a critical source of water
for California, providing 40 percent to 60 percent of the state’s
supply. Some areas of the state are entirely dependent on
groundwater.
To help you learn more about the importance of groundwater, the
Water Education Foundation has an array of educational materials
on this vital resource. And next week, the Foundation’s flagship
publication, Western
Water news, will publish a special report
examining how two local groundwater agencies are taking different
approaches to achieve sustainability in the San Joaquin Valley,
one of the most critically overdrafted regions in the state. You
can sign up here to be
alerted when this special report is published.
Our 2020 Water Leaders class
completed its year with a report outlining policy recommendations
for adapting California water management to climate change.
The class of
23 up-and-coming leaders from various
stakeholder groups and backgrounds – engineers, attorneys,
planners, farmers, environmentalists and scientists - had
full editorial control to choose recommendations.
For nearly a full year, the ongoing pandemic has disrupted the daily lives of many. Keeping students engaged in their education despite school closures and the limitations of distance learning has been a challenge for teachers, professors, parents and educators at water districts.
For those interested in online educational resources for water, we continue to provide a variety of videos and materials, as well as updates and other water-related information about the COVID-19 pandemic.
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 2020, especially as we pivoted our in-person programming to virtual platforms.
As we turn the page to 2021, we’re looking ahead to a year of hope that COVID-19 will no longer be a major threat to our health and well-being.
But, with the pandemic in mind, our team is planning a hybrid year starting with virtual water educational experiences and, if deemed safe by health officials, a return to in-person events in the second half of 2021.
Since 1997, we have been running
California’s preeminent water leadership program,
graduating more than 400 engineers, lawyers, scientists,
farmers, environmentalists and others who care deeply about the
future of water in our state.
Our Water Leaders
program aimed at early to mid-career professionals is second to
none, even when the pandemic hit, forcing the 2020 class to meet
virtually for much of the year.
It’s your last chance to sign up for
our San Joaquin River
Restoration Tour this Thursday (Dec. 10) as we
embark on a virtual journey to learn how one of the nation’s most
ambitious river restoration projects is shaping up.
It has been over two years since a Foundation tour last visited
the San Joaquin River downstream of Friant Dam near Fresno to see
firsthand the progress toward reviving populations of chinook
salmon in the river, so don’t miss this opportunity to get an
update!
The San Joaquin River was the focus of one of the most
contentious legal battles in California water history related to
providing in-stream flows for fish, leading to the creation of
the San Joaquin River Restoration Program in 2006.
Register now for the Foundation’s
final online event of the year as we embark on our virtual
San Joaquin River
Restoration Tour next Thursday (Dec. 10) to learn
how one of the nation’s most ambitious river restoration projects
is shaping up.
It has been over two years since a Foundation tour last visited
the San Joaquin River downstream of Friant Dam near Fresno to see
firsthand the progress toward reviving populations of chinook
salmon in the river, so don’t miss this opportunity to get an
update!
Apply for our 2021 Water
Leaders class by Dec. 21, and if you work for a public
water agency that is a member of the Association of
California Water Agencies you could be eligible for a
scholarship.
Our William R. Gianelli Water
Leaders Class is a competitive, one-year program
attended by early- to mid-career, up-and-coming leaders designed
to deepen understanding of California water issues and build
leadership skills by studying a water-related topic in-depth and
working with a mentor, among other activities.
Here’s a sweet deal for the holidays
that won’t last long: Get the paperback “Water & the
Shaping of California,” a treasure trove of gorgeous
color photos, historic maps, water literature and famous sayings
about water for just $22.75 – a 35% discount.
“Water & the Shaping of California” is a beautifully designed
oversize book that discusses the engineering feats, political
decisions and popular opinion that reshaped nature and society,
leading to the water projects that created the California we know
today. The book includes a foreword by the late Kevin Starr, the
Golden State’s premier historian.
As we wind down to Thanksgiving and look back on this challenging year, feelings of gratitude well up.
We are grateful most of all for the health of our team at the Water Education Foundation. And we are especially grateful for those who supported us along the way, allowing our talented team to pivot in-person educational opportunities about California’s most precious natural resource into virtual experiences.
It’s your last chance to sign up for a few events this week:
Today at 3 p.m.: Are you considering applying
for our 2021 Water Leaders
class or supporting an applicant as their
boss?
Sign up for a 30-minute Q&A
session at 3 p.m. with Executive Director Jenn
Bowles, who will offer details on the one-year program and tips
for completing a solid application. The program deepens
knowledge on water, enhances individual leadership skills and
prepares class members to take an active, cooperative approach to
decision-making about water resource issues. Get more info on the
free Zoom event and learn
how you can sign upto attend.
It’s workplace giving season, the
time of year when anyone in the workplace can show their support
for the organizations and causes they love.
The Water Education Foundation is now part of federal, state and
private programs allowing donations through payroll deductions.
Like many nonprofits, the Foundation is
“mission-driven but revenue-dependent.” We need
your continued support, especially in a challenging year like
2020, to keep programs like Project WET going!
Grab your ticket for our Nov. 19 Central Valley
Tour to explore water supply challenges in the San
Joaquin Valley, one of the nation’s most productive agricultural
regions. You’ll hear from farmers, water managers, disadvantaged
communities and others about how they’re meeting those
challenges.
During this three-hour online event
starting at 2:30 p.m., we’ll take you deep into the San Joaquin
Valley to hear how farmers manage surface water for various crops
and orchards, and how they are responding to mandates under the
state’s Sustainable Groundwater Management Act. You’ll hear from
the valley’s disadvantaged communities and learn how
subsidence from groundwater pumping is affecting surface water
facilities. You’ll visit key infrastructure, including San Luis
Reservoir, Friant Dam and the Friant-Kern Canal. You also learn
about managed wetlands, see a unique feature to one of the
region’s rim dams, and hear about efforts to put water back
in the ground. Get tickets here!
A limited number of need-based scholarships are available
for the tours. Contact Nick Gray at
ngray@watereducation.org for more information.
As we countdown to the Thanksgiving holiday, we still have a lot
going on at the Water Education Foundation over the coming weeks.
And you can now get your copy of our
updated Layperson’s Guide
to Water Rights, which is hot off the
press!
Among our upcoming events:
This Thursday (Nov.
12): Our Northern California
Tour will hit the road at 2:30 p.m. on a virtual
exploration of the Sacramento River and its tributaries, where
you’ll gain a deeper understanding of issues associated with
a key source of the state’s water supply. Participants will
visit Oroville and Shasta dams, rice fields and wildlife refuges,
and hear from farmers, biologists and water
managers. Get your ticket for the
three-hour virtual journey here.
