Opinion: Kern River flowing year-round through Bakersfield will be spectacular
Congratulations to Bakersfield for boldly moving forward with new flows for the Kern River. This piece adds perspective from up north in our Great Central Valley. Winters and Davis in the 1990s were where Bakersfield has been in recent decades. Putah Creek’s channel courses through Winters and Davis. (Putah, by the way, is really a river with about half the typical flow of the Kern!) With no guaranteed flows for lower Putah Creek since construction of Monticello Dam and the filling of Lake Berryessa in the 1960s, our waterway’s habitat was dwindling and public access was shabby. Deep into a 1980s drought, our creek’s alarm went off. Children at Davis’ summer camp saw fish flapping in the mud. Parents were appalled, the city of Davis was embarrassed and those who value nature were dismayed. Dirt bikes could roam 20 miles of dried channel.
-Written by Joe Krovoza, the former chair of the Putah Creek Council.