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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California’s complicated water
rights system was highlighted in recent years as state
regulators curtailed some water rights due to the drought. That
action prompted some water rights holders to go to court to
retain their rights. Others called for a revamping of the water
rights system all together. And more recently, some have called
for giving a water right to the environment.
Our Water
101 Workshop is a unique, once-a-year opportunity designed to
give newly elected water district directors and other
participants a chance to go beyond the headlines and gain a
deeper understanding of California water.
Participants at the Feb. 22 workshop at McGeorge School of Law in
Sacramento will learn from top experts about:
Last year’s winter rains left the San Joaquin Valley’s reservoirs
at above-average levels. But groundwater depletion and the
resulting ground subsidence continue to beset farmers and water
managers. What does this year hold? And will there be enough
water to satisfy the competing needs of farms, people and the
environment?
Your best chance to understand the challenges and opportunities
of this vital resource in the nation’s breadbasket is to join us
on our Central Valley
Tour, March 14-16.
Three new members have joined the Water Education Foundation’s
33-member Board of Directors for 2018. They are Dana “Bart”
Fisher Jr., a farmer in the Palo Verde Valley, Yung-Hsin Sun of
Stantec, and Richard Aragon with Rancho California Water
District.
Happy New Year to all the friends and supporters of the Water Education Foundation!
As we turn the page on 2017 and the year that the Foundation celebrated its 40th anniversary, we are looking ahead to exciting changes for 2018.
To start, our popular Water 101 Workshop in February will for the first time include an optional field trip. This year, we will be delving into the Delta for a one-day tour to give participants a close-up view of one of the most pressing and controversial places in water.
Our flagship publication, Western Water magazine, will soon become a completely online news resource free for anyone to get up to speed on the critical water issues facing California and the West. Pulled together by veteran journalists at the Foundation, Western Water has been the trusted source for coverage of the policy, science and legal issues surrounding water since 1977. You can sign up here to get notified via email of our latest articles. If you already get our digital magazine you will automatically be signed up.
Tickets to the Water Education Foundation 2018 water tours are on sale now!
Our tours are legendary for being packed with educational
experiences you will not find anywhere else, networking
opportunities with water professionals and fun adventures
through the American Southwest.
Drought and climate change are having a noticeable impact on the
Colorado River Basin, and that is posing potential challenges to
those in the Southwestern United States and Mexico who rely on
the river.
In the just-released Winter 2017-18 edition of River
Report, writer Gary Pitzer examines what scientists
project will be the impact of climate change on the Colorado
River Basin, and how water managers are preparing for a future of
increasing scarcity.
The Water Education Foundation has hired veteran journalist
Douglas E. Beeman as its
news & publications director as it prepares to move more of its
journalism online, announced Jennifer Bowles, the Foundation’s
executive director.
Starting in 2018, the Foundation’s premiere water resources
magazine, Western Water, will join the world of online
media where it will increase the pace of its coverage and expand
its reach via social media. Western Water currently is a
quarterly print magazine.
The 2017 Water Leaders class
organized by the Water Education Foundation completed its year
with a report outlining policy recommendations for the
future of water storage in California.
The class of 20 from
various stakeholder groups and backgrounds that hailed from
cities and towns across the state had full editorial control to
chose recommendations. While they did not endorse a specific
storage proposal, they recommended that California:
You still have a few days left to score a holiday water bargain:
The California Water Bundle — our beautiful California water map
and Layperson’s Guide to California water.
The California water bundle features our newly 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 $25. Please note
they ship separately.
Deepen your knowledge of California water issues at our popular
Water
101 Workshop and jump aboard the bus the next day to
visit the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, a 720,000-acre
network of islands and canals that supports the state’s water
system and is California’s most crucial water and ecological
resource.
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 newly redesigned California Water
Map and the most recent version of the Layperson’s Guide to
California Water. Order here by Dec. 18
to make sure it arrives in time for Christmas.
There is a sense of urgency regarding how the overallocated
Colorado River is managed amid looming shortages and a grim
climate change forecast.
People who have dealt with river management issues for decades
are girding for a heightened degree of activity that calls upon
years of trust and collaboration to compose a plan for equitably
sharing a vital resource.
Water is one of California’s most important resources. And since
1977 the Water Education Foundation has been helping
policymakers, teachers, journalists and the public gain a better
understanding of water in California – and the challenges the
state confronts as people weigh how water should be used,
especially in times of scarcity.
Fun, friendship, invaluable contacts, exposure to different
viewpoints, informative tours, core knowledge and a big-picture
view of California water. These are some of the things past Water
Leaders say they have gained from our yearlong program for early
or mid-career professionals.
Registration is now open for one of our most popular events -
Water
101, which for the first time will include an optional
daylong tour of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to give
participants a close-up look at the hub of California’s water
system.
Water 101, to to be held Feb. 22 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.
The Colorado River supplies water to nearly 40 million
people in Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico,
Utah, Wyoming and stretches into Mexico.
Text on this beautiful, 24×36-inch map, which is suitable
for framing, explains the river’s apportionment, history and the
need to adapt its management for urban growth and expected
climate change impacts.
Our popular and widely celebrated water
tour program is offering six tours in 2018. Tickets are
now on sale.
In addition to our five annual tours below, we will be offering a
two-day Headwaters Tour in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. We
offered this tour in 2017 to great success and have received
requests to conduct it again.
The only thing predictable about California’s climate is its
unpredictability and variability.
Large parts of the state feature a Mediterranean climate with wet
winters and long, dry summers. The presence or absence of just a
few large storms in California can make the difference between an
above-average water year and a drought. Climate change threatens
California through more extreme events – hotter, longer droughts
and severe storms that strain the existing flood management
system.
One of our most popular events, Water
101 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 the leading policy and legal experts in the
state, the one-day workshop gives attendees a deeper
understanding of the state’s most precious natural resource.
