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The Water Education Foundation’s second edition of the Layperson’s Guide to The Klamath River Basin is hot off the press and available for purchase.

Updated and redesigned, the easy-to-read overview comes as the nation’s largest dam removal project is underway with the first of four Klamath River hydropower dams demolished this year.

The Layperson’s Guide covers the history of the region’s tribal, agricultural and environmental relationships with one of the West’s largest rivers. The river’s vast watershed straddles Cailfornia and Oregon and hosts one of the nation’s oldest and largest reclamation projects.

Since 1977 the Water Education Foundation has worked to inspire better understanding and catalyze critical conversations about our most vital natural resource: water.

This is not a mission our impartial nonprofit can carry out alone.

Today on Giving Tuesday, a global day of philanthropy, please consider making a tax-deductible donation to support the important work we do to provide impartial education and foster informed decision-making on water issues in California and the West.

The climate-driven shrinking of the Colorado River is expanding the influence of Native American tribes over how the river’s flows are divided among cities, farms and reservations across the Southwest.

The tribes are seeing the value of their largely unused river water entitlements rise as the Colorado dwindles, and they are gaining seats they’ve never had at the water bargaining table as government agencies try to redress a legacy of exclusion.

Kurtis Alexander, an enterprise reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle with a focus on natural resources and the environment, was named the 2023 recipient of the Water Education Foundation’s Rita Schmidt Sudman Award for Excellence in Water Journalism.

Alexander said he was honored to receive the award, which acknowledges outstanding work that illuminates complicated water issues in California and the West.

“Recognition from one of the state’s top authorities on water really means something,” Alexander said. “Covering water as a journalist is not always glamorous or easy. But the Water Education Foundation has long helped promote the work of journalists and others examining water issues as well as offered a wealth of helpful information through its website, newsletters and education programs.”

The tribal policy advisor for California’s water management agency will be the keynote speaker for our Oct. 25 Water Summit in Sacramento.

The event’s full agenda can be viewed here featuring engaging panel discussions focused on our theme, Taking on the Improbable in Western Water.

Exclusive Water Summit Sponsorship Opportunities Available

The Water Education Foundation’s 39th annual Water Summit will be held Wednesday, Oct. 25, in Sacramento with the theme, Taking On the Improbable in Western Water. Exclusive sponsorships are available for the breaks, lunch and evening reception, all of which are prime networking opportunities for the water professionals in attendance.

A new but little-known change in California law designating aquifers as “natural infrastructure” promises to unleash a flood of public funding for projects that increase the state’s supply of groundwater.

The change is buried in a sweeping state budget-related law, enacted in July, that also makes it easier for property owners and water managers to divert floodwater for storage underground.

​You can now register for the Water Education Foundation’s 39th annual Water Summit. The one-day conference will have leading policymakers and experts sharing the latest information and insights on water in California and the West. The event includes an evening reception for networking with speakers and fellow attendees from a variety of backgrounds.

The Klamath River Basin was once one of the world’s most ecologically magnificent regions, a watershed teeming with salmon, migratory birds and wildlife that thrived alongside Native American communities. The river flowed rapidly from its headwaters in southern Oregon’s high deserts into Upper Klamath Lake, collected snowmelt along a narrow gorge through the Cascades, then raced downhill to the California coast in a misty, redwood-lined finish.