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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Fun, friendship, invaluable
contacts, exposure to different viewpoints, core knowledge
and a big-picture view of California water are all elements of
our popular and respected Water Leaders program aimed
at early to mid-career professionals.
Alums include Sean
Maguire, State Water Resources Control Board
member; Newsha Ajami,
director of Urban Water Policy at Stanford University’s Water in
the West; Dave Mooney, Bay-Delta office manager, Bureau of
Reclamation; and Martha Guzman
Aceves, a commissioner with the California Public
Utilities Commission.
The Water Education Foundation’s
just-released 2019 Annual
Report takes readers along to see the array of educational
events, trainings and articles we produced last year to create a
better understanding of water resources in California and the
Southwest.
The Annual Report, whose release was delayed due to impacts from
the COVID-19 pandemic, recaps the Foundation’s efforts for
the year in words and photos.
Join us this fall for engaging virtual journeys into key
water regions across California, including our Oct. 8 Bay-Delta
Tour.
Each tour event will include:
An overview presentation of the region’s critical topics
A guided video tour of key locations — farms,
wetlands, dams and reservoirs, wildlife habitats — to
gain a stronger understanding on a variety of water
supply issues and the latest policy developments
Live Q&A with experts featured in the video so
attendees can dive deeper into the topics
As part of each event, participants will receive one of
our popular Layperson’s Guides and be entered into a drawing
to win one of our beautiful water maps.
Join us for an Oct. 8 virtual
journey into California’s most critical and
controversial water region in the state: The Sacramento-San
Joaquin Delta.
The Delta, a 720,000-acre network of islands and canals, supports
the state’s two large water systems – the State Water Project and
the federal Central Valley Project – and together with the San
Francisco Bay is an important ecological resource.
There’s still time for K-12
educators in the Sacramento region to sign up for an Oct. 3
workshop exploring activities to engage students in the study
of local watersheds and their connections to the Pacific
Ocean.
The workshop is part of Project WET (now called Water Education
Today), an international, award-winning nonprofit water
education program and publisher of materials geared toward K-12
educators. The Water Education Foundation is the coordinator for
Project WET in California.
Register here by
Sept. 25 for the Oct. 3 workshop that includes an online
study at your own pace and a socially distanced field trip
at the Effie Yeaw
Nature Center along the American River. Cost is $18.00 (plus
a nominal Eventbrite fee) and includes a copy of the
Project WET 2.0 and Aquatic WILD guides.
Practically every drop of water that
flows through the meadows, canyons and plains of the Colorado
River Basin has reams of science attached to it.
Snowpack, streamflow and tree ring data all influence the crucial
decisions that guide water management of the iconic Western river
every day.
Our
latest article in Western Water news
examines a new report that synthesizes and provides context for
that science and could aid water managers as they prepare to
rewrite the operating rules for a river system so vital to the
Southwestern United States and Mexico.
In California and across the West,
some people face persistent challenges in trying to gain
access to safe, reliable and affordable water to meet their
everyday needs. In some cases, people are left without water
as wells run dry during drought or they have no access at all to
running water – a troubling deficit when hand washing is touted
as necessary to protect against the coronavirus pandemic.
Communities of color are most often burdened by these challenges.
Our water tours are lauded because
they are both fun and educational. You can still experience both
Aug. 6 when your favorite tour guide
Nick Gray takes you on a virtual
journey across a Sierra watershed during our Headwaters Tour.
Registration is now open for our
virtual Headwaters
Tour with an exclusive screening of a video that takes
viewers on a journey across the upper watershed of a major
Sierra-fed river to learn the important role forests play in
California’s water supply.
You’ll go to the crest of the Sierras to learn how the state
measures snowpack, to a meadow restoration deep in the
forest and along the American River in the foothills where
water is diverted for homes.
Follow us on social media channels,
including a just-launched Instagram page to
learn about issues key to understanding water and what the Water
Education Foundation is up to.
We regularly post on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook. Now we are
hosting an Instagram page to cast a wider net in our efforts to
educate the public about critical water resource
information.
The Salton Sea in California’s far
southeast corner has challenged policymakers and local agencies
alike to save the desert lake – a vital stopover for
migrating birds – from becoming a fetid, hyper-saline water
body inhospitable to wildlife and surrounded by clouds of
lung-choking dust.
The state of California, long derided for its failure to act in
the past, says it is now moving full-bore to address the sea’s
problems, with ambitious plans for wildlife habitat expansion and
dust suppression.
The
latest article in Western Water examines the
state’s efforts, the longstanding concerns of people living and
working around the Salton Sea and how those concerns are
affecting Colorado River management.
Our Headwaters Tour is going virtual
next month with an exclusive screening of a video that takes
viewers across the upper watershed of a major Sierra-fed river to
learn the important role forests play in California’s water
supply.
You’ll go to the crest of the Sierras to learn how the state
measures snowpack, to a meadow restoration deep in the
forest and along the American River in the foothills where
water is diverted for homes.
Our popular Layperson’s Guide
to the Delta has just been updated to reflect the
latest information about efforts to reconcile ecosystem needs of
the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta with its role as California’s
vital water delivery hub as well as its place as an important
agricultural region and a popular recreation destination.
The Delta is the largest freshwater tidal estuary on the West
Coast and is a unique resource and distinct feature of Northern
California’s landscape. The water that flows through the Delta
provides a significant portion of drinking water for more than 29
million Californians, serves a $50 billion agricultural industry,
is home to native and nonnative plants and animals and is a
crucial part of the state’s two largest surface water delivery
systems – the State Water Project and the federal Central Valley
Project.
Since 1997, more than 430 engineers,
farmers, environmentalists, lawyers, and others have graduated
from our William R. Gianelli Water Leaders program. We’ve
developed a new alumni network
webpage to help program participants connect and keep in
touch.
Colorado is home to the headwaters
of the Colorado River and the water policy decisions made in the
Centennial State reverberate throughout the river’s sprawling
basin that stretches south to California, Arizona and Mexico.
The task of working with interstate partners to address the
challenges of the Colorado River Basin while balancing competing
water demands within the state of Colorado rests largely with
Becky Mitchell, director of the Colorado Water Conservation
Board.
In the
latest article in Western Water, Mitchell
talked about her state’s plan to address an expected water supply
shortfall, climate risks and the prospects for future Colorado
River operations as the river system deals with prolonged
drought.
An
online short course starting Thursday will provide
registrants the opportunity to learn more about how groundwater
is monitored, assessed and sustainably managed.
The class, offered by UC Davis and several other organizations in
cooperation with the Water Education Foundation, will be
held May 21 and 28, June 4, 18, and 25 from 9 a.m. to noon.
Sprawled across a desert expanse
along the Utah-Arizona border, Lake Powell’s 100-foot high
bathtub ring etched on its sandstone walls belie the challenges
of a major Colorado River reservoir at less than half-full.
Recent studies point to warmer and drier conditions ahead, with
reduced runoff into the Colorado River. Meanwhile, the Upper
Basin is looking to use more of its share of the river’s waters.
On the horizon is a rewrite of the operating guidelines for the
river, and already there is talk about how changes to those
guidelines could affect Lake Powell, a key reservoir in the
Colorado River system.
The latest article in Western Water explores the
different concerns being raised around the Colorado River Basin
and how the river’s challenges could play out in Powell’s future.
Our daily news aggregation known as
Aquafornia keeps you up-to-date on the
most pressing water issues in California and across the West.
Now, it features a special COVID-19
news feed where you can find articles related to coronavirus
and water, such as efforts to get federal funding to help
struggling ratepayers, tracking the virus through wastewater
and addressing water systems as people head back to work.
Dear Friends and Supporters of the Water Education Foundation,
At the Water Education Foundation,
we focus on telling the complex story of water in California and
the West because of its critical role in sustaining our lives,
growing our food and nourishing our environment.
The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of water
even more – in fighting the virus by washing hands and tracking
its movement through wastewater.
