Facing the challenges of sustainably managing and sharing water,
our most precious natural resource, requires collaboration,
education and outreach. Since 1977, the Water Education
Foundation has put water resource issues in California and the
West in context to inspire a deep understanding of and
appreciation for water.
Taking a steady pulse of the water world, the Foundation offers
educational materials, tours of key watersheds, water news, water
leadership training and conferences that bring together diverse
voices. By providing tools and platforms for engagement with wide
audiences, we aim to help build sound and collective solutions to
water issues.
What We Do
We support and execute a wide variety of programming to build a
better understanding of water resources across the West,
including:
Mission: The mission of the Water Education
Foundation, an impartial nonprofit, is to inspire understanding
of water and catalyze critical conversations to build bridges and
inform collaborative decision-making
Vision: A society that has the ability to
resolve its water challenges to benefit all
Where We Work
Our office is located in Sacramento, CA.
Connect with Us!
Sign up here to get email announcements
about upcoming workshops, tours and new publications.
You can learn more about the daily comings and goings of the
Foundation by following @WaterEdFdn on Twitter,
liking us on Facebook or
following us on
LinkedIn.
Join us May 7 for a “virtual” open
house to learn more about how we are educating and fostering
understanding of California’s most precious natural resource -
water – through the COVID-19 pandemic.
During the open house, you can chat with our staff about our
water tours, conferences, maps, publications, and training
programs for teachers and up-and-coming water industry
professionals. You’ll also be able to learn more about how you
can support our work.
William R. Gianelli, the Water
Education Foundation’s second president and a leading figure in
California water during construction of the State Water Project,
died March 30, 2020, in Monterey County. He was 101.
Mr. Gianelli was president of the Foundation from 1985-1989 and
made a major financial donation that helped the Foundation create
an educational program for young professionals from diverse
backgrounds, which was named the William
R. “Bill” Gianelli Water Leaders Class in his honor. The
year-long program began in 1997 and now includes more than 400
graduates.
The islands of the western
Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta release tons of carbon dioxide — a
greenhouse gas — into the atmosphere as the rich peat soil that
attracted generations of farmers dries out and decays.
An ambitious plan now in the works could halt the decay,
sequester the carbon and — just as important — help protect
California’s vital water conveyance system by offering farmers
and landowners an incentive to change how they use their land.
The
latest article in Western Water explores how the
plan would work, looks at the concerns of some in agriculture,
and talks with one farmer who’s willing to give it a try.
Weave through the nation’s
breadbasket and gain a better understanding of water issues
and challenges in the San Joaquin Valley on the Foundation’s
Central Valley Tour
April 22-24.
This tour visits farms and major infrastructure, such as
Friant Dam near Fresno and San Luis Reservoir, the nation’s
largest off-stream reservoir near Los Banos and a key water
facility serving both the State Water Project and the federal
Central Valley Project.
The 2020 Anne J. Schneider Lecture,
which encourages professional and personal commitment to water
law and policy and the conservation of our special landscapes,
will feature two distinguished speakers: Jennifer Harder, an
associate professor at the McGeorge School of Law, and Brian
Gray, a senior fellow at the Public Policy Institute of
California’s Water Policy Center and professor emeritus at UC
Hastings College of the Law.
The islands of the western
Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta are sinking as the rich peat soil
that attracted generations of farmers dries out and decays. As
the peat decomposes, it releases tons of carbon dioxide – a
greenhouse gas – into the atmosphere. As the islands sink, the
levees that protect them are at increasing risk of failure, which
could imperil California’s vital water conveyance system.
An ambitious plan now in the works could halt the decay,
sequester the carbon and potentially reverse the sinking.
Our tours are one of the best ways to learn about water issues in
California and the West. You come face-to-face with
infrastructure that moves water to cities, farms and wildlife
refuges, hear directly from farmers, environmentalists and
other stakeholders and understand the critical role water plays
in sustaining life, growing food and maintaining wetlands
and other water bodies for the environment.
Join us for one of these upcoming tours. Act fast! Early-bird
prices are still available for the Central Valley and Bay-Delta
tours.
There’s just one week left
until our Water 101 workshop
and optional tour! Register today for this once-a-year
opportunity!
Attendees at the Feb. 20 workshop will hear from a variety of
experts about important and current issues in California water
management and policy, including the Delta, sustainable
groundwater management, Gov. Newsom’s draft Water Resilience
Portfolio, impacts to water resources from climate change and
more.
Shortly after Gov. Gavin Newsom
called on state agencies to deliver a Water Resilience Portfolio
to meet California’s urgent challenges — from unsafe drinking
water and climate change risks to severely depleted groundwater
aquifers and declining native fish populations — he appointed
Nancy Vogel, a former journalist and veteran water communicator,
to pull it together.
In an
interview with Western Water, Vogel explains how the
draft portfolio released Jan. 3 came together, its expected role
in helping to guide policy and investment decisions related to
climate and water resilience — and why the portfolio should
matter to average Californians.
For the first time, participants on
the Foundation’s Lower Colorado River
Tour will enjoy a scenic journey on the river through
portions of the Havasu National Wildlife Refuge, including Topock
Gorge and the Havasu Wilderness Area.
Seating is limited for the March 11-13 tour, so register here
to ensure your spot!
Our annual Lower Colorado River tour explores the critical role
the river’s water plays in the three Lower Basin states of
Nevada, Arizona and California, and how it helps to sustain their
cities, farms and wildlife areas.
Shortly after taking office in 2019,
Gov. Gavin Newsom called on state agencies to deliver a Water
Resilience Portfolio to meet California’s urgent challenges —
unsafe drinking water, flood and drought risks from a changing
climate, severely depleted groundwater aquifers and native fish
populations threatened with extinction.
Within days, he appointed Nancy Vogel, a former journalist and
veteran water communicator, as director of the Governor’s Water
Portfolio Program to help shepherd the monumental task of
compiling all the information necessary for the portfolio. The
three state agencies tasked with preparing the document delivered
the draft Water Resilience Portfolio Jan. 3. The document, which
Vogel said will help guide policy and investment decisions
related to water resilience, is nearing the end of its comment
period, which goes through Friday, Feb. 7.
Our annual Water 101 workshop, set for Feb. 20 at
McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento, is just three weeks away.
This popular event offers attendees the chance to hear from
experts on the basics of California water law, policy, hydrology
and geography.
In addition to the workshop, attendees can also opt to join the
second-day tour (Feb. 21) that will showcase innovative water
projects and partnerships in the Sacramento region.
Twenty-three early
to mid-career water professionals from across California
have been chosen for the 2019 William R. Gianelli Water
Leaders Class, the Water Education Foundation’s highly
competitive and respected career development program.
The class will spend the year examining how water management can
respond to climate change in California and offer policy
recommendations for adapting a water system built to collect
snowmelt to one that can respond to more rain and longer droughts
that result from a changing climate.
As our Lower Colorado River
Tour weaves its way downstream from Hoover Dam March 11-13,
participants will learn about the important role the river’s
water plays in the three Lower Basin states of Nevada, Arizona
and California, and how it helps to sustain their cities,
wildlife areas and farms.
Nearly 5.5 million acres of farmland in the river’s basin rely on
the ‘lifeline of the Southwest’ to grow a wide variety of
crops.
Go deep inside Hoover Dam, one of
the nation’s most iconic structures, during a special “hard hat”
tour as you learn about one of the nation’s largest and most
managed rivers during our Lower Colorado
River Tour March 11-13.
You’ll pass through elevators and doors that are closed to the
public as Bureau of Reclamation managers give you an inside look
at the dam’s operations. Highlights include walking inside the
2,080-megawatt hydropower plant, traversing interior service
passages and inspection tunnels, and seeing architectural designs
of a past era. Afterward, you will have an opportunity to explore
the expanded visitor center and walk the top of the dam for
an unforgettable view before getting the latest hydrology update
on Lake Mead’s levels and operations.
What is groundwater, and how is it
managed in California?
Until recently groundwater, the water stored within the Earth in
the spaces between sand, soils and fractured rock, was not
routinely regulated in California. This changed in 2014 when the
state Legislature passed the
Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) as a
framework for local and regional agencies to develop and
implement sustainable groundwater management plans. The Jan. 31
deadline is fast-approaching for groundwater managers in
California’s critically overdrafted basins to submit long-term
plans to the state for review.
2020 will be a busy year for water
resource issues in California and the West, and the Water
Education Foundation’s team of veteran journalists will stay on
top of the stories through our Western Water online news and our
daily Aquafornia news aggregation.
We’re already planning a full slate of articles for Western
Water news for 2020, a year that is likely to bring
noteworthy developments for water resources in California and the
West — from groundwater sustainability plans, to climate change
preparations to addressing demand and supply imbalances on the
Colorado River. We’ll be looking at stories that explore these
and other issues this year. You can sign up here to be alerted when new articles are published.
Innovative efforts to accelerate
restoration of headwater forests and to improve a river for the
benefit of both farmers and fish. Hard-earned lessons for water
agencies from a string of devastating California wildfires.
Efforts to drought-proof a chronically water-short region of
California. And a broad debate surrounding how best to address
persistent challenges facing the Colorado River.
These were among the issues Western Water explored in
2019, and are still worth taking a look at in case you missed
them.
Curious about water rights in
California? Want to know more about how water is managed in the
state, or learn about the State Water Project, Central Valley
Project or other water infrastructure?
Sign up for our Water 101
workshop on Feb. 20 to hear from experts on these
topics and more. Then join us on Feb. 21 for an optional
tour that will get you up close with innovative water
partnerships, projects and programs that serve as models
statewide.
The Water Education Foundation’s tours offer participants a
first-hand look at the water facilities, rivers and regions
critical in the debate about the future of water resources.
From recent news articles to publications, maps and tours, Water
Education Foundation has everything you need, including the
award-winning Layperson’s Guide to the Delta.
