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On our upcoming Lower Colorado River
Tour, you will not only meet water experts across the
Southwest and tour key infrastructure such as Hoover Dam, but
also enjoy recreational and cultural attractions.
Have you ever tasted a date shake? This treat is exclusive to
California’s southeast corner, where the Coachella Valley is
known as the nation’s largest date-growing region. You’ll have
the chance to enjoy one as we make a pit stop at a farm store.
One year into the job, State Water
Resources Control Board member Joaquin Esquivel has been struck
by the complexity of the board’s work and how difficult it is to
set statewide policy that accounts for the geographic and
stakeholder diversity of California.
World Water Day is today, March 22,
and to mark the occasion the Foundation is offering a special 20
percent discount on our beautiful poster-size maps, layperson’s
guides and other water publications.
Use the promo code WORLDWATERDAY when checking out of our online
shopping store.
Our California Water
Map highlights the dams, reservoirs, canals, rivers, lakes
and other water bodies throughout the state and shows how water
moves through California. Another recently updated map is the
California
Groundwater Map, which illustrates how groundwater works, the
locations of groundwater basins around the state and the
challenges from overuse.
The San Joaquin Valley, known as the nation’s breadbasket, is one
of the nation’s most productive agricultural regions.
During our three-day Central Valley Tour, March
14-16, you will meet farmers who will explain how they
prepare the fields, irrigate their crops and harvest the produce
that helps feed the world. We also will drive through hundreds of
miles of farmland and visit the rivers, dams, reservoirs and
groundwater wells that provide the water.
A drought has lingered in the
Colorado River Basin since 2000, causing reservoir storage to
decline from nearly full to about half of capacity. So far this
year, a meager snowpack in the Rocky Mountains hasn’t helped
much.
In fact, forecasters say this winter will likely go down as the
sixth-driest on record for the river system that supplies water
to seven states, including California, and Mexico.
On our Lower
Colorado River Tour, April 11-13, you will meet with water
managers from the three Lower Basin states: Nevada, Arizona and
California. The three states are working to finalize a Drought
Contingency Plan to take voluntary cuts to keep Lake Mead, the
nation’s largest reservoir, from hitting critical levels and
causing a shortage declaration.
Water rights and water for the
environment — there may be no California water topics more
contentious than those two. In the latest Western Water
in-depth article, writer Gary Pitzer takes a look at proposals to
give something akin to a
water right to the environment to protect fish and
ecosystems.
California mandates, such as
Executive Order B-37-16, require urban water agencies to
develop contingency plans for more frequent and severe drought
conditions. How can Southern California agencies most effectively
do this in the face of uncertainty?
Researchers and climatologists are constantly improving their
ability to predict weather patterns such as atmospheric rivers.
Participants at the April 19th Paleo Drought
Workshop in San Pedro will learn the latest in seasonal and
sub-seasonal precipitation forecasting from NASA Jet Propulsion
Laboratory Researcher Mike Deflorio.
On our three-day journey along the Colorado River, April
11-13, you will learn about one of the largest and most
managed rivers in the nation and go deep inside Hoover Dam, one
of the nation’s most iconic structures.
World Water Day is March 22, and to
mark the occasion the Foundation is offering a special 20 percent
discount on our beautiful poster-size maps, layperson’s guides
and other water publications.
Use the promo code WORLDWATERDAY when checking out of our online
shopping store.
Our California Water
Map highlights the dams, reservoirs, canals, rivers, lakes
and other water bodies throughout the state and shows how water
moves through California. Another recently updated map is the
California
Groundwater Map, which illustrates how groundwater works, the
locations of groundwater basins around the state and the
challenges from overuse.
Weave through the nation’s
breadbasket and get a better understanding of water issues and
challenges in the San Joaquin Valley on the Foundation’s Central Valley Tour March
14-16.
Sign-ups are now underway for the tour, the first of the
Foundation’s six general tours for
2018.
California’s 2012-2016 drought
revealed vulnerabilities for water users throughout the state,
and the long-term record suggests more challenges may lie ahead.
An April 19
workshop in San Pedro will highlight new information about
drought durations in Southern California watersheds dating
back centuries.
Our tours are famous for not only
being packed with diverse educational opportunities about
California water, but showcasing local culture. Our Central Valley Tour on March
14-16 lets you unwind at a few San Joaquin Valley gems and
hear stories that go back generations. Act now to take advantage
of our special early bird discount, it expires Tuesday, Feb.
20th at 6:00 p.m.
The Salton Sea, California’s largest
inland body of water and an important stop on the Pacific Flyway,
is struggling ecologically and shrinking as water is transferred
from surrounding desert farms to San Diego County.
On our Lower
Colorado River Tour, April 11-13, we will visit this fragile
ecosystem that harbors 400 bird species and hear from several
stakeholders working to address challenges facing the sea,
including managers of the Imperial Irrigation District, the
Salton Sea Authority and California’s appointed “Sea Czar,”
assistant secretary on Salton Sea policy Bruce Wilcox.
Join us this spring on our
Bay-Delta Tour, May
16-18, as we start out exploring the Sacramento-San Joaquin
Delta, a 720,000-acre network of islands and canals that provides
a funnel for drinking water for more than 25 million Californians
and irrigation water to 3 million acres of farmland.
The homeless face myriad challenges,
not the least of which is gaining access to clean water for
drinking and sanitation. Western Water writer Gary
Pitzer takes a look at
a new effort in Southern California that could help water
agencies find solutions to the vexing challenges the homeless
face in gaining access to clean water.
Western Water, a trusted
news source on water resource issues since 1977, is now online
with a Q&A with climate scientist Daniel Swain and an On the
Road feature about Mendota Pool, one of the stops on our Central Valley Tour next
month.
Learn from top experts at our
annual Water
101 Workshop about the history, hydrology and law behind
California water as well as hot topics such as groundwater,
climate change and the Delta. For the first time, the workshop
offers an optional tour of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta the
next day.
Some of the biggest decisions in
California water come from the Legislature. In recent years,
state lawmakers passed the Sustainable Groundwater Management
Act, perhaps the most important water-related law in 100 years.
Water in the Central Valley supports
more than just farms and cities – it supports ecological wonders,
endangered species and a diverse array of wildlife.
On our Central Valley
Tour, March 14-16, you will visit wildlife habitat areas –
some of which are closed to the public – and learn directly from
the experts who manage them, in addition to seeing farms, large
dams and other infrastructure.
Twenty-two early to mid-career water professionals have been
chosen for the 2018 William R. Gianelli Water Leaders Class, the
Water Education Foundation’s highly competitive career
development program.
