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.
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 application period for our 2024 Water Leaders class is
now open, and don’t forget to sign up for our virtual
Q&A session on Oct. 31 if you are interested in
applying or supporting a candidate.
Check out the interesting lineup of topics and speakers for
our Oct. 25 Water Summit; the agenda
is now posted.And don’t miss out on
snatching up a sponsorship for our annual event!
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.
In this Issue: Water leader applications for
2024 will be coming out soon! And don’t forget to join us at our
annual Water Summit Oct. 25 when we’ll be talking about taking on
the improbable; and check out our latest Western Water
article about a little-known change in law that will benefit
groundwater in California.
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.
The bus is nearly full for our
special, one-time onlyEastern Sierra
TourSeptember 12-15 that will
journey from the Truckee, Carson and Walker river basins to
Mono Lake and on through Owens Valley to explore, in part, a
major water source for Southern California.
Registration has only been open for a few weeks and the
buses are already nearing capacity for
our fall tours along the
Eastern Sierra and across Northern
California! See below for more details and reserve
your spot soon for both don’t-miss, firsthand experiences
before they’re gone. Plus, mark your calendars now for
our Water Summit in Sacramento, the Foundation’s
premier annual event.
Grab a ticket while they last for
our fall tours along the
Eastern Sierra and across Northern
California. See below for more information and
registration details on both don’t-miss opportunities to
get a firsthand look at the facilities, the rivers and
regions critical in the debate about the future of water
resources.
We’re hiring a development director – check out the posting
below!
Don’t miss your opportunity to hop aboard our
Headwaters Tourlater this
month as we head into the Sierra Nevada to learn
about upper watersheds and the critical role they play in both
water supply and quality across California.
Plus, mark your calendars now for our fall
programs, including:
A new underground mapping technology
that reveals the best spots for storing surplus water in
California’s Central Valley is providing a big boost to the
state’s most groundwater-dependent communities.
The maps provided by the California Department of Water Resources
for the first time pinpoint paleo valleys and similar prime
underground storage zones traditionally found with some guesswork
by drilling exploratory wells and other more time-consuming
manual methods. The new maps are drawn from data on the
composition of underlying rock and soil gathered by low-flying
helicopters towing giant magnets.
The unique peeks below ground are saving water agencies’
resources and allowing them to accurately devise ways to capture
water from extreme storms and soak or inject the surplus
underground for use during the next drought.
“Understanding where you’re putting and taking water from really
helps, versus trying to make multimillion-dollar decisions based
on a thumb and which way the wind is blowing,” said Aaron Fukuda,
general manager of the Tulare Irrigation District, an early
adopter of the airborne electromagnetic or
AEM technology in California.
The Water Education Foundation’s
just-released 2022 Annual Report recaps how
we returned to hosting in-person events and tours and
expanded our programs across the West as the global pandemic
began to wane early in the year.
Our Headwaters
TourJune 21-22 will take
you into the Sierra Nevada to explore the impacts of
this year’s historically large snowpack, reported at well
over 200% of average. Remaining seats are limited so don’t
miss your chance to examine water issues happening upstream that
have dramatic effects throughout the state.
What exactly is an ‘average’ snowpack and how is it measured? How
are those measurements then translated into forecasts of
California’s water supply for the year, and is climate change
making our reliance on historical patterns as a predictor
obsolete? You’ll get an opportunity to learn about
these topics directly from experts including Sean de
Guzman, manager of the California Department of Water Resources
Snow Surveys and Water Supply Forecasting Unit.
Our Headwaters TouronJune 21-22 returns in
person for the first time in four years and seats are filling up
quickly! Don’t miss your chance to venture from the
foothills of the Sierra Nevada to Lake Tahoe to examine
water issues happening upstream that can dramatically affect
communities downstream and throughout the state.
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.
