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Our yearlong Water Leaders program is aimed at providing a deeper understanding of California water issues by attending water tours, studying a topic in-depth and working with a mentor.
You can apply for the 2019 class today; the deadline is Dec. 4. Download an application here. Make sure to read tips on applying first.
Tomorrow’s weather forecast may be spot on, but can we ever get accurate precipitation forecasts weeks to months in advance?
At Water Year 2019: Feast or Famine, a one-day workshop Dec. 5 in Irvine, scientists from NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, the Western Regional Climate Center and the California Department of Water Resources will offer insights into the latest research on improving long-range weather forecasting and what it means for water management.
Registration is now open for one of our most popular events – Water 101, which for the first time will include an optional daylong tour examining one of California’s most critical resources, groundwater.
Water 101, to be held Feb. 7 at McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento, details the history, geography, legal and political facets of water in California as well as hot topics currently facing the state. Taught by some of California’s leading policy and legal experts, the workshop gives attendees a deeper understanding of the state’s most precious natural resource.
Our one-year Water Leaders program gets you out of the office and into the field – whether it’s on one of our water tours to the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta or the lower Colorado River, or meeting with your assigned mentor.
Mentors play an important role in the program as they conduct a shadow day with class members and help to shape ideas for the class project on a key water topic. The project is turned into a report with policy recommendations that is presented to the Water Education Foundation’s Board of Directors toward the end of the year.
Just because El Niño may be lurking off in the tropical Pacific, does that really offer much of a clue about what kind of rainy season California can expect in Water Year 2019?
Will a river of storms pound the state, swelling streams and packing the mountains with deep layers of heavy snow much like the exceptionally wet 2017 Water Year (Oct. 1, 2016 to Sept. 30, 2017)? Or will this winter sputter along like last winter, leaving California with a second dry year and the possibility of another potential drought? What can reliably be said about the prospects for Water Year 2019?
At Water Year 2019: Feast or Famine?, a one-day event on Dec. 5 in Irvine, water managers and anyone else interested in this topic will learn about what is and isn’t known about forecasting California’s winter precipitation weeks to months ahead, the skill of present forecasts and ongoing research to develop predictive ability.
A few tickets are still available for our Nov. 7-8 San Joaquin River Restoration Tour, a rare opportunity to see firsthand the progress toward restoring populations of spawning salmon to the river.
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 1983, a landmark California Supreme Court ruling forced Los Angeles to reduce its take of water from Eastern Sierra creeks that fed Mono Lake. It marked a dramatic shift in California water law by extending the public trust doctrine to tributary creeks that fed Mono Lake, which is a navigable water body even though the creeks themselves are not.
Some 35 years later, an appellate court in Sacramento for the first time has concluded that the same public trust doctrine used in the Mono Lake decision also applies to groundwater feeding the navigable Scott River in a picturesque corner of far Northern California.
Join the team at the Water Education Foundation, a highly respected and impartial nonprofit that has been a trusted source of water news and educational programs in California and across the West for more than 40 years.
“Dry, hot and on fire” is how the California Department of Water Resources described Water Year 2018 in a recent report.
The 2018 Water Year (Oct. 1, 2017 to Sept. 30, 2018) marked a return to dry conditions statewide — and with much of Southern California receiving half or less of its average annual precipitation — following an exceptionally wet 2017.
Was 2018 simply a single dry year or does it signal the start of another drought? And what can reliably be said about the prospects for Water Year 2019? Does El Niño really mean anything for California, or is it all washed up as a predictor?
At Water Year 2019: Feast or Famine?, a one-day event on Dec. 5 in Irvine, water managers and anyone else interested in this topic will learn about what is and isn’t known about forecasting California’s winter precipitation weeks to months ahead, the skill of present forecasts and ongoing research to develop predictive ability.
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.
On our San Joaquin River Restoration Tour, Nov. 7-8, we will visit all five reaches of the project – from Friant Dam in the Sierra foothills near Fresno downstream to Hills Ferry. We will meet with restoration specialists, water managers, environmentalists, farmers and fish biologists to gain a deeper understanding of this complex issue and see the program’s progress firsthand.
As we near the end of 2018 with a few more events, our 2019 calendar is starting to fill up. So save the dates for the following tours, workshops and conferences.
2018
Nov. 7-8: San Joaquin River Restoration Tour:
Participants of this tour snake along the San Joaquin River to learn firsthand about one of the nation’s largest and most expensive river restoration projects. More info here.
People in California and the Southwest are getting stingier with water, a story that’s told by the acre-foot.
In the latest Western Water news, writer Gary Pitzer takes a look at how a long-time rule of thumb describing water use—that one acre-foot of water could supply two urban households for a year —is getting a rewrite as household habits and improved technology help people make the most of the water they have.
Here’s a special holiday gift offer for the water wonk in your life: The California Water Bundle — our beautiful California water map and Layperson’s Guide to California water.
The California water bundle features our redesigned California Water Map and the most recent version of the Layperson’s Guide to California Water.
Regularly priced at $20 for the map and $15 for the guide, this bundle allows you to purchase both of these high-quality products for $30. Please note they ship separately.
Applications for one of our most popular programs, Water Leaders, are now available for the 2019 class.
Alums of our one-year program say they gained invaluable contacts, exposure to different viewpoints, core knowledge and a big-picture view of California water.
Alums include Newsha Ajami, director of Urban Water Policy at Stanford University’s Water in the West; Jessica Pearson, executive officer of the Delta Stewardship Council; Martha Guzman Aceves, a member of the California Public Utilities Commission; Chris Scheuring, managing counsel for natural resources at the California Farm Bureau Federation; and Dave Eggerton, ACWA’s new executive director designate.
Explore more than 100 miles of Central California’s longest river, subject of one of the nation’s largest and costliest river restorations. Our San Joaquin River Restoration Tour on Nov. 7-8 will feature speakers from key governmental agencies and stakeholder groups who will explain the restoration program’s goals and progress.
The Colorado River is likely headed to unprecedented shortage in 2020 that could force water supply cuts to some states, but work is “furiously” underway to reduce the risk and avert a crisis, Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Brenda Burman told an audience at the Foundation’s Sept. 20 Water Summit in Sacramento.
Only a few tickets are left for our annual Northern California Tour, Oct. 10-12, when we will venture deep inside Shasta Dam and tour wildlife refuges and rice fields as we learn about water use and salmon restoration efforts in the farm-heavy region.
In addition to Shasta Dam, we will see newly accessible views of the Oroville Dam spillway and get an on-site update of repairs to the cornerstone of the State Water Project, including live camera feeds from the ongoing construction site.
Our Oct. 10-12 Northern California Tour will explore the myriad agricultural uses of water throughout the Sacramento Valley, including the latest ways in which farms are adapting to changes in California’s groundwater and surface water resources.
The valley, the northern portion of California’s Central Valley, is known for some 2 million acres of farmland irrigated by the Sacramento River and its tributaries, along with groundwater. Primary crops grown in the region include rice, peaches, plums, tomatoes, walnuts and other nuts.
Attending our annual Water Summit on Sept. 20 is more than just hearing in-depth discussions on the hottest water topics.
Mingle and network with attendees at the hosted reception after the conference beside the Sacramento River, and bid throughout the day on some fun outings and baskets of California products during an auction that benefits our yearlong Water Leaders program.
Auction items also feature lunch with water policy experts, including:
