The Biden administration will pay farmers in the Western U.S.
to save water as the region contends with historic drought. The
Department of Agriculture announced Thursday that it will
invest up to $400 million in paying farmers in 11 states to
reduce their water consumption while continuing to produce
commodities. The department said the action is expected to
conserve up to 50,000 acre-feet of water — or about 16 billion
gallons. … The water districts preliminarily selected to
be part of the program include parts of Idaho, Utah, Oregon,
California, Washington state, New Mexico, Wyoming, Texas,
Montana, Colorado and Nevada.
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday said it won’t
rehear a challenge to long-term water contracts with
California’s Central Valley Project brought by a group of
environmental organizations concerned about the welfare of
endangered delta smelt. After a three-judge panel denied the
organizations’ appeal in May, none of the circuit’s other
judges asked for a vote to bring the petition before an
11-judge panel, the San Francisco-based appellate court said.
The denial of a rehearing may very well mean the end of the
almost 20-year-old lawsuit over the renewal in 2005 of the
long-term contracts between U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, which
operates the Central Valley Project, the largest federal water
management project in the United States, and agricultural,
municipal and industrial water users who hold senior water
rights to the Sacramento River.
The massive dam-removal project on the Klamath River, near the
California-Oregon border, has faced all sorts of challenges.
The newest one may be the most unexpected: wild horses. In
recent months, more than 100 free-roaming horses have descended
on the dam sites, eating and crushing the new grasses and
shrubs being planted in areas where the dams once held
reservoirs. The plants are intended to help revegetate the
formerly submerged lands and prevent soil from slipping into
the newly flowing river. While the horses possess a distinct
rugged beauty and are cherished by some, managers of the dam
removal say the equines could undermine the vast replanting
effort that’s vital to the project.
… The [Park Fire] … has swept through the Big Chico Creek
watershed, a 240-square-mile area in and around the City of
Chico. While the city itself has been largely spared, the blaze
has devastated a surrounding ecosystem familiar to Emily
Schlickman, assistant professor of landscape architecture and
environmental design at the University of California, Davis.
She and her students had been studying the Big Chico Creek area
before it went up in flames, looking at ways to make it more
resilient to wildfires—and in turn reduce the risk of a blaze
spreading through the city itself. … Schlickman studies how
land use planning and landscape management can support
adaptation to climate change.
