Blog: Safeguarding the future of California’s freshwater ecosystems
Climate change is transforming California’s ecosystems, threatening vital habitat for many native species. There is an increasing likelihood that many species will be lost. That’s why Ted Sommer, former lead scientist for the California Department of Water Resources, and Jennifer Harder, a professor at the McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento, are joining forces this year as our 2023–24 PPIC CalTrout ecosystem fellows. We recently asked them to tell us more about what they’ll be working on, which they’ve dubbed the “Ecofutures” project, and what might appear in a series of policy briefs they will write. Tell us about the Ecofutures project—what is it, and why is it important? Ted Sommer: Even with rapid action on carbon emissions, climate change is going to severely affect our waterways. Ecosystems are not going to heal on their own, so we need to come up with some management strategies to help them—and the native species that reside within them—survive.