An ecosystem includes all of the living organisms (plants,
animals and microbes) in a given area, interacting with each
other, and also with their non-living environments (air, water
and soil).
Ecosystems are dynamic and are impacted by disturbances such as a
drought, an extraordinarily freezing winter, and pests.
Longer-term disturbances include climate change effects.
Ecosystems provide a variety of goods and services upon which
people depend. Ecosystem management emphasizes managing natural
resources at the level of the ecosystem itself and not just
managing individual species.
The California Legislature was the first in the country to
protect rare plants and animals through passage of the California
Endangered Species Act in 1970. Congress followed suit in 1973 by
passing the federal Endangered Species Act.
Last year, Pacific Gas & Electric announced that it would
demolish the [Eel River's] Scott and Cape Horn dams and
decommission the entire Potter Valley power project.
… Removing the dams will help restore natural river
flows, which will improve fish habitat along the Eel River.
That’s been a longtime objective of the Round Valley Indian
Tribes. The tribes have strong historic and cultural ties to
the river and its bounty. When the dams come down, the Eel
River will become the longest free-flowing river in California
according to fish advocates. Salmon, steelhead and trout all
will benefit. Lake Pillsbury will disappear. Demolition is not
restoration, though, and there will be ripple effects on other
nearby natural areas.
Fishers are fighting tire companies’ attempt to dismiss an
Endangered Species Act suit over the use of a rubber additive
known as 6PPD, which harms salmon, telling a California federal
judge the companies are trying to delay accountability…
Two Tahoe towns are saying no to plastic water
bottles. South Lake Tahoe’s ban on single-use
plastic water bottles and paper cartons is slated to go into
full effect next month, soon after neighboring Truckee
passed an ordinance to implement a similar
ban. … The League to Save Lake Tahoe found that
single-use plastic bottles are one of the top five types of
litter in the Tahoe Basin, Truckee’s news release
states.
Southern California’s Imperial Irrigation District, which
supplies water to farmers who grow most of the nation’s winter
vegetables, planned to start a conservation program in April to
scale back what it draws from the critical Colorado River. But
a tiny, tough fish got in the way. Now, those plans won’t start
until at least June so water and wildlife officials can devise
a way to ensure the endangered desert pupfish and other species
are protected, said Jamie Asbury, the irrigation district’s
general manager.
Steelhead (Oncorhynchus mykiss) exhibit some of the most
diverse life history traits among all Pacific salmonid species
and play major cultural, economic, and recreational roles
throughout the Pacific Coast. Steelhead are unique from their
resident rainbow trout counterparts in that they follow an
anadromous life-history, meaning they migrate to the ocean as
juveniles and return to spawn in freshwater streams and rivers
as adults. Rainbow trout, on the other hand, remain in
freshwater streams for their entire life. Unlike most of their
Pacific salmonid cousins, steelhead are iteroparous, meaning
that they can spawn more than once in their lifetime. This
adaptation allows steelhead to have a more flexible lifecycle
that can be advantageous during warmer or drier seasons,
especially near the southern end of their distribution in
California’s Central Valley.
California State Parks’ Division of Boating and Waterways is
offering grant funding to prevent the further spread of quagga
and zebra mussels into California’s waterways. Funded by the
California Mussel Fee Sticker (also known as the Quagga
Sticker), the Quagga and Zebra Mussel (QZ) Infestation
Prevention Grant Program expects to award a total of up to $2
million across eligible applicants. Applications will be
accepted from Monday, April 1 through Friday, May 10, 2024.All
applications must be received by 5 p.m. on May 10, 2024. The QZ
grants are available to entities that own or manage any aspect
of water in a reservoir that is open for public recreation, is
mussel-free, and do not have an existing two-year QZ Grant
awarded in 2023.
A new research paper published recently in Annual Review of
Earth and Planetary Sciences, coordinated by scientists from
The University of New Mexico and collaborating institutions,
addresses the complex nature and societal importance of Grand
Canyon’s springs and groundwater. The paper,
“Hydrotectonics of Grand Canyon Groundwater,” recommends
sustainable groundwater management and uranium
mining threats that require better monitoring and
application of hydrotectonic concepts. The data suggest an
interconnectivity of the groundwater systems such that uranium
mining and other contaminants pose risks to people, aquifers,
and ecosystems. The conclusion based on multiple datasets is
that groundwater systems involve significant mixing.
A vast burn scar unfolds in drone footage of a landscape seared
by massive wildfires north of Lake Tahoe. But amid the expanses
of torched trees and gray soil, an unburnt island of lush green
emerges. The patch of greenery was painstakingly engineered. A
creek had been dammed, creating ponds that slowed the flow of
water so the surrounding earth had more time to sop it up. A
weblike system of canals helped spread that moisture through
the floodplain. Trees that had been encroaching on the wetlands
were felled. But it wasn’t a team of firefighters or
conservationists who performed this work. It was a crew of
semiaquatic rodents whose wetland-building skills have seen
them gain popularity as a natural way to mitigate
wildfires. A movement is afoot to restore beavers to the
state’s waterways, many of which have suffered from their
absence.
Today, legislation to protect California’s iconic salmon and
steelhead trout authored by Assemblymember Diane Papan (D-San
Mateo) was approved by the Assembly Committee on Transportation
with a bipartisan vote. The S.A.L.M.O.N Act (Stormwater
Anti-Lethal Measures for Our Natives Act), would mandate the
development and implementation of a regional strategy by the
Department of Transportation (Caltrans) to eliminate (a
contaminant from tire rubber) from stormwater discharges
into specified salmon and steelhead trout-bearing surface
waters of the state.
Near the California-Oregon border, reservoirs that once
submerged valleys have been drained, revealing a stark
landscape that had been underwater for generations. A thick
layer of muddy sediment covers the sloping ground, where
workers have been scattering seeds and leaving meandering
trails of footprints. In the cracked mud, seeds are sprouting
and tiny green shoots are appearing. With water passing freely
through tunnels in three dams, the Klamath River has returned
to its ancient channel and is flowing unhindered for the first
time in more than a century through miles of waterlogged lands.
Birds and people need clean and abundant water in rivers,
lakes, streams, wetlands, and marshes in landscapes throughout
the country. Today, the White House is announcing several
new initiatives to celebrate World Water Day and protect
waterways, and access to clean water, across the country.
… The announcements are paired with updates from
previous water-related commitments from the Administration,
including historic levels of Bipartisan Infrastructure Law
funding for conservation in places like the Everglades, the
Great Lakes, and the Delaware River basin, safeguarding
wilderness and cultural areas to protect them from pollution
and development, and building resilience to climate change in
places threatened by flooding, drought, and wildfires like the
Colorado River Basin.
Fresno’s largest body of water — and likely its most diverse
wildlife habitat — shimmers in silence on a sunny spring
afternoon. … Where we’re at is Milburn Pond, a reclaimed
gravel mining pit that belongs to the San Joaquin River
Ecological Reserve and is managed by the Department of Fish and
Wildlife. … Listed at 287 acres, Milburn Pond is large
enough to be considered a lake. Except for the fact that it’s
not surrounded by land on all sides. … Now, though,
there’s a state-approved proposal to isolate the pond that has
been kicking around since the historic 2006 settlement to
restore river flows and self-sustaining salmon runs. It’s a
plan Moosios and others believe would irreparably harm this
little-known or observed wildlife sanctuary — even though less
destructive and expensive options have been proposed that would
accomplish virtually the same stated purpose. -Written by columnist Marek Warszawski.
… Riparian forest is a rare sight in the Central Valley.
About one million acres of trees, shrubs, and grasses once
flourished, drowned, and flourished again along the valley’s
rivers, creeks, and floodplains; now, perhaps 130,000 acres
remain. In recent years, though, that number has begun to inch
up again. Caswell has about 260 acres. Seven miles south of
there is Dos Rios Ranch—2,100 acres, much of it former dairy
farm and almond orchard, at the extremely floodable confluence
of the Tuolumne and San Joaquin rivers—which is steadily being
restored to riparian forest. Later this year it will open as
California’s first new state park in 15 years.
In what has been a years-long fight to fend off efforts to mine
sites and areas the Quechan Indian Tribe say are culturally
significant, the tribe was victorious in preserving those sites
this week with an unexpected win against Canada’s SMP Gold
Corp. … The federally protected land, under the
U.S. Bureau of Land Management, is culturally significant and
important to the Quechan Indian Tribe and its members have been
vehemently fighting the Oro Cruz mining project for years, with
the support of other tribes, and numerous environmental and
social justice groups and concerned residents behind them.
… After the hearing, White elaborated further and told
the Calexico Chronicle that the tribe is trying to dedicate the
Cargo Muchacho Mountains area as the “Kw’tsán National
Monument”
Outrage over the Trump-packed U.S. Supreme Court rolling back
federal reproductive rights has in some ways overshadowed the
now 6-3 conservative majority’s relentless assault on
environmental regulations that for decades protected Colorado’s
clean air and water. … Now Colorado lawmakers are trying
to step into that regulatory void with Wednesday’s filing of
the Regulate Dredge and Fill Activities in State Waters bill
(HB24-1379). If passed, it would require a rulemaking process
by the Colorado Department of Health and Environment’s Water
Quality and Control Division to permit dredge and fill
activities on both public and private land. -Written by contributor David O. Williams.
Some of California’s most treasured parks are threatened by
blight caused by pollution and climate change, according to a
pair of new reports. The four national parks with the highest
ozone levels are all in California, with Sequoia and Kings
Canyon National Parks topping the list of parks struggling with
air that’s dangerous to breathe, according to a recent report
by the National Parks Conservation Assn., an independent
advocacy group. Meanwhile, severe wildfires, drought and
sea-level rise are ravaging state parks, which encompass nearly
a quarter of California’s coastline, according to a separate
report by the California State Parks Foundation, another
advocacy group. … Behemoth sequoias and jagged Joshua
trees are among millions of trees across the state
succumbing to worsening wildfires, severe drought, extreme
heat, disease and other stressors that have been intensified by
global warming.
California wineries appear to be complying with the Water
Board’s statewide Winery General Order’s winery wastewater
requirements, but the pace is slow, state statistics reveal.
And many are not in the compliance reporting pipeline at all,
data shows. (An overview page is provided here.) The order was
passed, the water boards said, for two major reasons. One was
because, “Winemakers requested the order to address the
statewide inconsistencies in permitting.” This request was from
large wineries that operate numerous facilities throughout the
state. (Smaller wineries opposed this in the public
hearings.) … As of Feb. 20, 2024, 201 wineries had
begun the process of filing, leaving a gap of 1,449 wineries
(the difference between 1,650 and 201, based on the initial
estimates).
A Sacramento judge upheld a decision by California’s water
regulator to cut back agricultural and municipal water use from
the San Joaquin River. The decision could lend support for
future regulations in the rest of the Sacramento-San Joaquin
River Delta system. It comes amid declining fish populations
and increasing pressure on water supply due to climate change.
But rather than move forward with strict regulations, the state
agency is considering a plan pushed by Gov. Gavin Newsom that
would grant water districts more flexibility.
A court has upheld a key decision by California’s water board
calling for reductions in water diversions from the San Joaquin
River and its tributaries to help revive struggling fish
populations. In his ruling, Sacramento County Superior Court
Judge Stephen Acquisto rejected lawsuits by water districts
serving farms and cities that would be required to take less
water under the standards adopted by regulators. The judge also
rejected challenges by environmental groups that had argued for
requiring larger cutbacks to boost river flows. The judge’s
ruling, issued in a 162-page order last week, supports the
State Water Resources Control Board’s 2018 adoption of a water
quality plan for the lower San Joaquin River and its three
major tributaries — the Tuolumne, Merced and Stanislaus rivers.
California’s Yurok Tribe, which had 90% of its territory taken
from it during the Gold Rush of the mid-1800s, will be getting
a slice of its land back to serve as a new gateway to Redwood
National and State Parks visited by 1 million people a year.
The Yurok will be the first Native people to manage tribal land
with the National Park Service under a historic memorandum of
understanding signed Tuesday. … Much of the property was
paved over by a lumber operation that worked there for 50 years
and also buried Prairie Creek, where salmon would swim upstream
from the Pacific to spawn. … The ’O Rew property represents
just a tiny fraction of the more than 500,000 acres of the
ancestral land of the Yurok, whose reservation straddles the
lower 44 miles of the Klamath River. The Yurok tribe is
also helping lead efforts in the largest dam removal
project in U.S. history along the California-Oregon border
to restore the Klamath and boost the salmon population.
Although pesticides can rid your home of cockroaches or farm
fields of unwanted insects, they also can harm fish and
potentially even people, according to a new study from Oregon
State University. At high concentrations, these commonly
used pyrethroid pesticides, bifenthrin, cyfluthrin and
cyhalothrin, act as a neurotoxin for pests. … At low
concentrations, the pyrethroid pesticides disrupt fish’s
endocrine system, which produces hormones. The scientists
wanted to better understand how short of an exposure would harm
fish.
You may have heard that various kinds of invasive plants and
animals create problems for species that are native to an area.
In the case of the quagga mussel, which only grows to the size
of a thumbnail, its effects extend beyond the natural ecology
and into the built environment. … Rick Boatner, the
invasive species coordinator for the Oregon Department of Fish
and Wildlife, says the invasive mussels are what’s known as
filter feeders. “They’re removing the lowest part of the food
web out of the water system, the phytoplankton and stuff like
that,” Boatner said. “So now you will not have the food needed
for our salmon fry and steelhead trout species…”
A network of artificial streams is teaching scientists how
California’s mountain waterways — and the ecosystems that
depend on them — may be impacted by a warmer, drier climate.
Over the next century, climate change is projected to bring
less snowfall to the Sierra Nevada. … In a new study,
University of California, Berkeley, researchers used a series
of nine artificial stream channels off Convict Creek in Mammoth
Lakes, California, to mimic the behavior of headwater streams
under present-day conditions and future climate change
scenarios.
California officials are trying to boost state wetlands
protections in order to guard against a 2023 Supreme Court
decision that slashed federal oversight of wetlands.
Assemblymember Laura Friedman’s A.B. 2875 would declare it the
state’s policy to ensure long-term gain and no net loss of
California’s wetlands. And Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom’s
administration is proposing to add 38 new positions to enforce
the state’s existing wetlands protection laws and scrutinize
development permits.
Can Texas, New Mexico, and Colorado agree to a new
apportionment of the Rio Grande’s waters without the U.S.
government’s approval? The Supreme Court of the United States
is set to hear a case next week that may affect access to water
for millions of Americans — and set a precedent that could
impact millions more, as increased usage and climate change
further strain supply of the precious resource. … If
[the court sides with the states], the government might be
understood to have less weight to throw around in other
negotiations, such as the one that is also happening about the
Colorado River.
A state policy that seeks to protect California’s major rivers
and creeks by cracking down on how much water is pumped out by
cities and farms can move forward despite widespread
opposition, the Superior Court has ruled. The long-awaited
decision on what’s known as the Bay-Delta Plan denies 116
claims in a dozen separate lawsuits that seek to undo a 2018
update to the policy, most of which are from water agencies
saying the limits on their water draws go too far. The 160-page
verdict, released Friday by Sacramento County Judge Stephen
Acquisto, specifically notes that arguments made by San
Francisco against the regulation fell short.
After decades of advocating, tribal members cheered as a blast
at JC Boyle Dam this year kicked off the process of drawing
down the reservoirs behind three Klamath River dams. The
removal is expected to restore the river and reopen spawning
habitat that salmon haven’t been able to reach for more than a
century. OPB science reporter and editor Cassandra Profita
brings us the perspective of the tribes living along the
Klamath River: what the country’s largest dam removal project
means to them and their hopes for the future.
This half-hour special dives into the troubles and triumphs at
the Salton Sea. The sea is the largest body of water in
California. It formed after a levee at the Colorado River burst
in the early 1900s, and after the levee was fixed, it cut off
the flow of fresh water. Since then, the sea has become
polluted with chemical runoff from nearby farms. It’s also
slowly evaporating. The chemical-filled water releases gases
that trigger asthma in nearby communities, and toxic dust from
around the shoreline acts as an irritant as well. Despite
all of the negatives, there are a few positives. New wetlands
are forming as the sea slowly pulls away from the shoreline,
playing host to thousands of migrating birds. Developing
wetlands make the sea an important stop along the Pacific
Flyway.
A restoration project at Talbert Marsh got the go-ahead
Thursday after the state Coastal Commission approved a coastal
permit application submitted by the Huntington Beach Wetlands
Conservancy as part of its consent calendar. The roughly 25
acres of Talbert Marsh stretch between Brookhurst Street to the
Santa Ana River Trail and make up one of four wetlands the
nonprofit owns and maintains. More than 90 bird species have
been observed at the marsh in addition to the adjoining
wetlands, according to the organization. The project along the
southeastern and western shorelines of South Island will
address erosion, which Coastal Commission staff said causes the
disappearance of coastal salt marsh vegetation and depletes
refuge spaces for sensitive bird species that live there.
… A windswept county in the Sacramento Valley — whose
entire population of 22,000 people is just one-third of Palo
Alto’s — may soon be known for something else: the largest new
reservoir anywhere in California in the past 50 years. Last
weekend, President Biden signed a package of bills that
included $205 million in construction funding for Sites
Reservoir, a proposed $4.5 billion project planned for the
rolling ranchlands west of the town of Maxwell, about 70
miles north of Sacramento. … The make-or-break moment
for Sites is a series of hearings scheduled to run from June to
November in which the State Water Resources Control Board will
analyze fisheries studies and other documents and decide
whether to award it the water rights to move forward.
The Sacramento Superior Court has ruled in favor of the State
Water Board’s 2018 Bay Delta Plan update, denying all 116
claims by petitioners. In December 2018, the State Water
Resources Control Plan adopted revised flow
objectives for the San Joaquin River and its three major
tributaries, the Stanislaus, Tuolumne, and Merced rivers. The
new flow objectives provide for increased flows on the three
tributaries to help revive and protect native fall-run
migratory fish populations. The Board also adopted a revised
south Delta salinity objectives, increasing the level of
salinity allowed from April to August. Several petitions
were filed in several counties challenging the Board’s
action.
California environmental groups are urging a federal court to
intervene amid a “dramatic increase” in the deaths of
threatened steelhead trout at pumps operated by state and
federal water managers. Since Dec. 1, more than 4,000 wild and
hatchery-raised steelhead have been killed at pumps in the
Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, according to public data
for the State Water Project and the federal Central Valley
Project. The agencies are now at about 90% of their combined
seasonal take limit, which refers to the amount of wild
steelhead permitted to be killed between January and March
under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. A coalition of
environmental and fishing groups — including the Golden State
Salmon Assn., the Bay Institute and Defenders of Wildlife — are
involved in ongoing litigation that seeks to challenge current
federal operating plans in the delta, an estuary at the heart
of the state’s water supply.
The Biden administration will be allocating more than $120
million to tribal governments to fight the impacts of climate
change, the Department of the Interior announced Thursday. The
funding is designed to help tribal nations adapt to climate
threats, including relocating infrastructure. Indigenous
peoples in the U.S. are among the communities most affected by
severe climate-related environmental threats, which have
already negatively impacted water resources, ecosystems and
traditional food sources in Native communities in every corner
of the U.S. “As these communities face the increasing
threat of rising seas, coastal erosion, storm surges, raging
wildfires and devastation from other extreme weather events,
our focus must be on bolstering climate resilience …”
Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, a member of the Pueblo of
Laguna, said in a Wednesday press briefing.
Environmental groups on Thursday sued officials who signed off
on a lithium project in the Salton Sea that a top Biden
official has helped advance. Comité Civico del Valle and
Earthworks filed the legal complaint in Imperial County
Superior Court against county officials who approved
conditional permits for Controlled Thermal Resources’ Hell’s
Kitchen lithium and geothermal project. The groups argue that
the country’s approval of the direct lithium extraction and
geothermal brine project near the southeastern shore of the
Salton Sea violates county and state laws, such as the
California Environmental Quality Act.
Gavin Newsom’s stealthy divide and conquer tactics are pushing
marginalized communities against each other in a war over
water. Newsom, his administration and State Water Contractors
are appropriating environmental justice language to sway public
opinion in Southern California about the Delta Conveyance
Project – also referred to as the Delta tunnel. They argue that
the Delta tunnel is essential for Southern California’s
disadvantaged communities, yet misrepresent the harm the
project continues to have on the tribal communities along
California’s major rivers and on communities in the Delta
watershed. Pitting disadvantaged communities from different
regions of the state against each other is a cynical strategy,
and is all the more egregious when considering it’s done in the
interest of serving only one sector of California’s economy
that these players have deemed all-important – special
interests in Southern California and portions of Silicon
Valley. -Written by Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, executive director
of Restore the Delta.
A dog-killing parasite that was believed to only exist in Texas
and other Gulf Coast states has been discovered as far west as
California for the first time, scientists have warned. Experts
at the University of California Riverside found the
Heterobilharzia americana parasite, a flatworm commonly known
as a liver fluke, in spots along the Colorado River where it
runs through Southern California. According to the university,
the flatworm has never before been seen outside of Texas and
surrounding areas, and other studies have found most infections
occur in Texas and Louisiana, though some have occurred in
North Carolina, Texas, and Kansas.
… For millennia seasonal wetlands dotted California’s Central
Valley … But as farms and towns have taken over the
landscape, nearly all those shallow, ephemeral water bodies
have disappeared, leaving avian migrants with scant options for
pit stops. With shorebirds rapidly declining along the Pacific
Flyway, conservationists and landowners have joined forces to
help turn the tide. Launched in
2014, BirdReturns runs via reverse auctions … Since
its inception, the program—jointly run by Audubon California,
The Nature Conservancy, and Point Blue Conservation Science—has
paid more than 100 farmers a total of $2 million to flood
60,000 acres throughout the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys.
Buoyed by a recent $15 million grant from the state, the
program is poised to greatly expand its reach.
A new recommendation from the California State Water Quality
Control Board in its Bay-Delta Water Quality Control Plan
(Bay-Delta Plan) for the San Francisco Bay/Sacramento-San
Joaquin Delta Estuary could see Solano County forced to adapt
to a fraction of the water it is currently allocated from Lake
Berryessa. The implications for Solano County cities could be
enormous, leaving Solano County with about 25 percent of its
current allocation. Spanning hundreds of miles from north of
Lake Shasta to Fresno, the tributaries of the Sacramento and
Sac Joaquin rivers that feed into the San Francisco Bay reach
well into the Sierra Nevadas and Central Valley. The State
Water Quality Control Board has noted that diminished river
flows in these areas are harming fish habitats and are
detrimental to the water system as a whole ecologically.
California State Parks’ Division of Boating and Waterways (DBW)
today announced the availability of grant funding to prevent
the further spread of quagga and zebra mussels into
California’s waterways. Funded by the California Mussel Fee
Sticker (also known as the Quagga Sticker), the Quagga and
Zebra Mussel (QZ) Infestation Prevention Grant Program expects
to award a total of up to $2 million across eligible
applicants.
A rusty red color in Lake Merritt that left lake stewards
scrambling to sample the water on Mar. 7 has tested positive
for the same algae that caused the devastating harmful algal
bloom in 2022. On Friday, lake stewards sent water
samples to labs run by the California Department of Public
Health and San Francisco Bay Regional Water Control Board.
Unofficial field testing initially detected no harmful algae.
However, lab testing confirmed over the weekend the presence of
Heterosigma akashiwo, a type of algae often associated with
harmful blooms. Harmful algal blooms, or HABs, occur when
certain types of algae grow rapidly and release toxins, lower
oxygen levels, and cause other changes in water quality that
can kill fish and other marine creatures.
A dozen tire companies are asking a California federal judge to
toss a suit claiming a rubber additive is harming protected
salmon, arguing that the litigation stretches the Endangered
Species Act “beyond its breaking point” and that regulation of
the substance belongs with the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency, not in courts.
Giant sequoia trees, imported to the UK 160 years ago, are
flourishing despite the dramatically different climate to their
native California, a new study has found. The huge trees, which
are declining in numbers in California due to increasing heat,
are now adapting well to the UK’s climate and growing taller, a
study conducted by UCL researchers says. “The growth here
in the UK seems to be suited to our wetter climate, so there’s
far less chance of water stress here than in the Sierras in
California,” lead author of the study and professor of
geogrpahy, Mat Disney, told The Independent.
Just south of Dos Rios Ranch, a much-praised effort at river
restoration, another such project is taking root. It will add
about 380 acres of floodplain and other habitat to the 1,600
acres at Dos Rios. They are near the confluence of the Tuolumne
and San Joaquin rivers, about eight miles southwest of Modesto.
The state-funded project, totaling about $20.8 million, is on
the former Hidden Valley Dairy. Annual feed crops are giving
way to oaks, cottonwoods, willows and other native plants. The
floodplain will take on high river flows that otherwise could
threaten nearby Grayson and downstream towns. The standing
water could recharge the aquifer below for use during droughts.
The place could offer food and shelter to fish, birds, mammals
and other creatures.
California has set ambitious climate goals, including phasing
out the use of fossil fuels and becoming carbon neutral by
2045. Our guest today is here to talk about the role nature can
play in meeting those goals. Laurie Wayburn is the co-founder
and president of the Pacific Forest Trust and the chair of the
California Natural and Working Lands Expert Advisory Committee.
She was also the lead author of a recent report suggesting the
state should invest “as much in nature-based climate solutions
as it has in clean energy and transportation.” With proper
forest management, California could capture 400 million tons of
carbon each year, lower wildfire risk and vastly improve flood
protection in the state.
This month, several wildlife conservation groups petitioned the
California Fish and Game Commission to list these owls as
endangered or threatened under the California Endangered
Species Act. … [Chair of the environmental studies department
at San Jose State University Lynne] Trulio’s speciality is
urban species, and she’s contributed to the research that
underpins Santa Clara County’s habitat conservation plan on
burrowing owls. But before that she was also the lead scientist
for the South Bay Salt Pond Restoration Project, one of
the largest tidal wetland restoration projects on the West
Coast. “One of the things that drove the effort was the
fact that there were endangered species” in wetlands, said
Trulio. She said it took years to change the perception of the
wetlands as a dumping ground and to get a ballot measure to
fund its preservation.
California’s fishing industry is bracing for another bad year
as federal managers today announced plans to heavily restrict
or prohibit salmon fishing again, after cancelling the entire
season last year. The Pacific Fishery Management Council
today released a series of options that are under
consideration, all of which either ban commercial and
recreational salmon fishing in the ocean off California or
shorten the season and set strict catch limits. The council’s
decision is expected next month; the commercial season
typically begins in May and ends in October. … [P]opulations
are now a fraction of what they once were — dams have
blocked vital habitat, while droughts and water diversions have
driven down flows and increased temperatures, killing large
numbers of salmon eggs and young fish.
California officials are preparing new urban water conservation
rules intended to help the state adapt to a drier future caused
by climate change. In reality, the proposed restrictions are so
great they could actually harm those adaptation efforts by
sacrificing the tree canopy we have nurtured in our cities for
generations. The “Making Conservation a California Way of Life”
rule package, proposed by the State Water Resources Control
Board, sets conservation targets unique to each urban water
agency in the state. While conserving each and every year makes
sense, so must the restrictions. A recent report by the
non-partisan Legislative Analyst’s Office found big flaws in
the Water Board’s approach, describing the proposal as overly
complex, expensive and unrealistic, with potential water
savings amounting to a mere drop in the bucket statewide. -Written by Jim Peifer, executive director of the
Sacramento Regional Water Authority; and Victoria
Vasquez, grants and public policy manager
for California ReLeaf, which works to protect, enhance and
grow California’s urban and community forests.
On March 6, a coalition of environmental and fishing groups
reiterated their request that a federal court modify federal
agencies’ proposed interim plan for operating the federal
Central Valley Project (CVP), in coordination with the State
Water Project (SWP), to protect fish species listed under the
Endangered Species Act (ESA) and California Endangered Species
Act (CESA). That coalition includes the Pacific Coast
Federation of Fishermen’s Associations, the Golden State Salmon
Association, The Bay Institute, Defenders of Wildlife, and
Natural Resources Defense Council. Coinciding with that filing
has been a recent dramatic increase of protected steelhead
dying at the projects’ water pumps. The CVP and SWP are
still largely operating under rules written in 2019 under the
leadership of, among others, Interior Secretary David
Bernhardt, a former lobbyist for the powerful Westlands Water
District.
In 2012, one of the driest years in Colorado in recent memory,
the Crystal River practically dried up. Ken Neubecker, a
now-retired Colorado projects director at environmental group
American Rivers and former member of the Pitkin County Healthy
Rivers board, recalls the stream conditions. … These
extremely low-water conditions returned in the drought years of
2018, 2020 and 2021, with river flows near the fish hatchery
just south of Carbondale hovering around 8 to 10 cfs — not
enough to support aquatic life and nowhere near the 100 cfs
that the state of Colorado says is the minimum needed to
maintain a healthy stream.
… Los Angeles desperately needs to become more like a
sponge. That will help to capture more stormwater locally when
rain does come and lessen devastating flooding, said Edith de
Guzman, a UCLA water equity and climate adaptation researcher.
… The Rory M. Shaw Wetlands Park Project will
turn a 46-acre landfill formerly used for materials such as
concrete and gravel into an engineered wetland that can boost
local water supply and alleviate local flooding. It’ll also
become a 15-acre park with a lake and walking paths.
… But now, the biggest barrier to completing the project
is funding, said Mark Pestrella, the director of L.A. County
Department of Public Works, which is spearheading the project
(after it’s constructed, the city of L.A. will take over
maintenance). The new goal is to complete it by 2028 or 2029.
In January, draining the reservoirs behind the Klamath Dams
began. Iron Gate Reservoir, Copco Lake, and the Boyle Reservoir
are now largely empty as blasts opened holes in culverts
beneath Copco #1 and the John C. Boyle dams and the outlet
tunnel below Iron Gate was opened. “The Klamath River flows
free,” ran some headlines. Well not exactly. Keno and Link
River dams in Oregon upstream near Klamath Falls will not be
removed. Iron Gate, Copco #1, and J.C. Boyle still stand,
although the reservoirs behind them are largely empty. Until
the dams are completely removed (slated for this
spring/summer), the flow is still impacted by the dam
structures, causing erosion and ponding. Constriction and
acceleration as the water flows through narrowed passageways
can lead to cavitation. Cavitation occurs when irregularities
in the bed lift the water. The resulting negative pressure
causes bubbles of water vapor to form. -Written by Lori Dengler, an emeritus professor of
geology at Cal Poly Humboldt.
Countries, regions, and river basins globally are struggling to
provide and manage flows in rivers for ecosystems. One
approach, of many, is a Functional Flows approach, because it
seeks to provide a range of streamflows over the year and
between years to support fundamental functions of river
ecosystems and the ecosystem services for society. … The
approach also involves a process for balancing multiple human
and ecological objectives for river systems through broad
engagement of multiple interests. In their challenge to
maintain riverine ecosystem services, Chile and California can
benefit from this dynamic approach to managing instream flows.
The State Water Resources Control Board is exploring regulating
nutrients emitted from Southern California wastewater treatment
plants into the ocean. The controversial move is prompted by
concerns that these discharges may accelerate acidification and
oxygen loss in the region’s coastal waters, harming nearshore
marine life. The wastewater treatment industry says this
nutrient regulation is premature. Environmentalists say it’s
overdue. … Wastewater effluent from 23 million
people is piped offshore in Southern California. The resulting
acidity boost could be enough to start dissolving the shells of
crabs and small snails called pteropods, which swim near the
ocean surface and are a favorite food of many fish and whales.
And the resulting oxygen depletion could deprive anchovies,
which many commercial fish eat, of their habitat.
Sea otters, once hunted to near extinction, are staging a
comeback in California. Their return has revealed the
incredible positive effects these furry apex predators can have
on the state’s coastal ecosystems, including kelp forests and
seagrass meadows. Now, there’s another coastal ecosystem to add
to that list, one that plays an important role in bank
stabilization, water filtration, and carbon storage: the salt
marsh. In a new study in Nature, researchers found that sea
otters have reduced bank erosion rates by 69% in Elkhorn
Slough, a coastal wetland south of San Francisco, in the
decades since their return to the estuary. Their big effect is
due to their big appetites—the Elkhorn Slough salt marsh has
been eroding, in part, because of root-munching shore crabs
that burrow into the soil and destabilize the banks.
The State Water Resources Control Board received a letter from
the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW)
submitting instream flow recommendations to inform a long-term
flow-setting process to support anadromous salmonids and
year-round ecological stream function on Mill, Deer, and
Antelope Creeks. Mill, Deer, and Antelope Creeks are
tributaries to the Sacramento River and provide aquatic habitat
for several native fish species including Chinook salmon
(spring-run, fall-run, and late fall-run), Steelhead, and
Pacific Lamprey. Additional information will be forthcoming on
the next steps in considering the recommendations. Additional
information related to this matter can be found on the Mill,
Deer, and Antelope Creeks – Flow Recommendations webpage.
Wooden fence posts poking just above the surface and tall oaks
with their trunks submerged are sure signs that the land is
flooded. That word, “flooded,” has a negative connotation, an
association with destruction. But here it is positive – even
protective. And if the San Francisco Estuary Institute, Sonoma
County Water Agency, and Laguna de Santa Rosa Foundation get
what they want, more water, not less, is destined for this
place. The Laguna de Santa Rosa drains much of urban Sonoma
County, a watershed of 250 square miles, and is the largest
tributary of the mighty Russian River. The more water that this
creek and its floodplain can slow and absorb, the less water
will rush downstream to threaten truly catastrophic flooding in
Guerneville, Monte Rio, and Rio Nido.
Clean Up The Lake, the environmental non-profit responsible for
the 72-mile cleanup of Lake Tahoe, has recently completed a
two-year monitoring effort on the lake. CUTL conservation dive
teams revisited 20 litter hotspots in the 0 to 25-foot depths
along the Nevada shoreline that were identified during the
72-mile cleanup of Lake Tahoe in 2021. The primary purpose of
this project was to survey these nearshore zones along the
Nevada shoreline to observe changes in litter accumulation and
perform surveillance for aquatic invasive species (AIS) that
may have progressed since 2021. By revisiting places that were
already cleaned, the data collected helped determine the status
of litter accumulation in Lake Tahoe, its rate of change since
the 72-mile cleanup, and the efficacy of CUTL’s SCUBA-enabled
cleanup methodology.
Three weeks after citizens stood up at a public meeting in
Siskiyou County, California, and raised concerns about heavy
metals in the Klamath River, the situation is about as clear as
the river. And the river’s pretty muddy. The breaching of the
Iron Gate, Copco 1 and JC Boyle hydroelectric dams in January
was done to draw down the reservoirs behind the dams as a
prelude to dam removal later this year. But the drawdown
released vast amounts of sediment that had been backed up
behind the dams. And some of those sediments contain metals.
… Only after a year from when drawdown is complete will
the company test for more metals, as directed by the state.
As salmon and Delta fish populations continue to crash due to
massive water diversions to corporate agribusiness, the
State Water Resources Control Board just issued a public
notice regarding the Delta Conveyance Project Change in Point
of Diversion (CPOD) Petition that was submitted by
the Department of Water Resources (DWR) to the State Water
Board on February 22, 2024. This notice acknowledges receipt of
the change petition and details the process to submit a protest
against the petition. You can expect a wave of formal
protests against the change petition by fishing
groups, Tribes, environmental justice organizations,
conservation groups and Delta region cities and counties.
Protests against the change petition must be filed
by April 29th, 2024, with a copy provided to the petition,
according to the Water Board.
Sprawl development built far from city centers carries direct
and indirect costs that pull resources away from existing
neighborhoods, harming communities and natural habitats,
according to a new report published by the Center for
Biological Diversity. The True Cost of Sprawl analyzed the
environmental harms — including pollution, wildfire risks and
public health threats — that come with poor land-use decisions.
It found that suburban and exurban housing developments
increase per capita infrastructure costs by 50%, pulling public
funds from schools, parks, public transportation and other
needs in existing communities for things like new roads and
sewer systems.
After a series of atmospheric river storms dumped record levels
of rain on Southern California, the region’s largest natural
freshwater lake has recovered in a major way. As of last week,
Lake Elsinore was deeper than it had been since June 2011,
according to data from the Elsinore Valley Municipal Water
District. Years of drought and the occasional wet winter have
caused wide variations in the lake’s depth. At 1,248 feet above
sea level, the lake is now more than 10 feet deeper than it was
in July 2022, and almost 15 feet deeper than at its lowest
recent point, in November 2018.
On March 1, 2024, the California Department of Fish and
Wildlife (CDFW) held its CDFW Annual Salmon Information Meeting
via a webinar. The prognosis for a 2024 salmon season does not
look good. The closure of all California salmon fishing in 2023
brought an uptick in salmon escapement to 133,000 in the
Sacramento River, which is somewhat positive. The forecast for
this year’s fishable stock in the ocean (made up of broodyears
2021-2023), however, is not much better than last year’s, with
the lingering effects of the 2020-2022 drought. If a normal
fishery had been held last year or were to be held this year,
the salmon stocks would no doubt fall into an “over-fished”
status.
The Salton Sea is shrinking. The sea formed about 120 years ago
when a Colorado River levee burst, creating an extremely large
body of water and a thriving resort town. But as agriculture
runoff and evaporation impacted water quality, the sea slowly
became toxic, turning the once vibrant area into a ghost town.
However, local groups are working together to change that
narrative. The Sonny Bono Salton Sea Wildlife Refuge is an
example of what life at the sea looks like when its supported
and managed. At sunrise, coyotes run along berms, snowy egrets
forage for food and thousands of snow geese travel as a noisy
flock. Award-winning wildlife photographer Paulette Donnellon
spends her time capturing life at the refuge.
As California enjoys a second robust winter in a row, calls for
additional water storage may soon be getting an answer. A new
reservoir is something voters approved funding for years ago,
and while progress has been slow, there are hopes that it may
finally be moving ahead. “Nothing has been built like this in
California for more than 30 years,’ said Executive Director of
the Sites Reservoir Authority Jerry Brown. It’s been nearly 70
years since California took a look at the Sites Valley, and saw
the potential for a reservoir that could have been as large as
Shasta. The plan now is for something not quite that large, but
still massive. … Brown insists the long, slow push to create
new water storage is moving ahead, and the payoffs, he says,
will be as large as the new lake. It will not dam a river,
which is good for fish. Instead, water will be pumped up out of
the valley.
Kevin Guadalupe walked along the banks of the stream as Montana
Stevens, outfitted in snorkel gear, popped his head out of the
water to report how many fish he’d seen. “Two adults, two
juveniles,” … Both were among the group of surveyors from
several different agencies who recently snorkeled while inching
forward in essentially a flat crawl in the warm, shallow
streams and springs that comprise the headwaters of the Muddy
River, about 60 miles northeast of Las Vegas near
Moapa. The count showed that the population of the fish,
which only exists in these waters — about six miles worth of
streams and springs in the Southern Nevada desert — appears to
be stable and similar to the numbers over the past few years.
… [Denise] Moreno Ramírez wasn’t surprised when she heard an
Australian mining company, South32, planned to open a
manganese, zinc, lead and silver operation in the same area
where her family had worked. … The grasslands, woodlands,
swamps and prairies of south-east Arizona’s Sky Islands are
home to more than 100 species of large mammals: the greatest
number north of Mexico. Residents from the borderlands area
have long dealt with the health impacts of pollution linked
with earlier industrial activity, including mining – from lupus
to cancer. And in spite of it all, they have managed to
preserve a patch of one of the most biodiverse, and imperiled,
ecosystems in the world. … The lithium
boom has received the bulk of attention amid calls to
electrify everything – but another mineral, manganese, has
been earmarked by the US as a critical element to ramp up
the production of electric vehicle batteries.
Hundreds of thousands of young salmon are believed to have died
this week at the site of a historic dam removal project on
the Klamath River, after an effort to restore salmon runs
on the newly unconstrained river went awry, the Chronicle has
learned. The dead chinook salmon were among the first hatchery
fish released on the Klamath since four hydroelectric dams
were breached near the California-Oregon border, to allow
the river to flow freely again and ultimately help fish
flourish. … The salmon die-off, discovered downstream of the
173-foot Iron Gate Dam, is thought to be the result of trauma
the small fish experienced when they went through a tunnel at
the dam’s base, which had been opened to allow the river to
pass and dam demolition to proceed. … “No one,
especially those in my program who work night and day to keep
fish alive, wants to see something like this happen,” said
Jason Roberts, an environmental program manager for the
California Department of Fish and Wildlife. “We’re going to
learn from it. We need to do better.”
… In an effort to demonstrate the power of proper floodplain
management, the Floodplain Forward Coalition came together with
the conservation touring company, EcoFlight, to show media,
legislative staff and California Natural Resources Secretary,
Wade Crowfoot, how the floodplains are working in the
Sacramento Valley and demonstrate how we can provide more
benefits to people and wildlife with an increase in investment
and permitting from state leaders.
In the past 10 days, nearly 2,000 people have signed an online
petition opposing a proposal that asks President Joe Biden to
designate a national monument around western Colorado’s Dolores
River. “I think it absolutely, positively could be a threat,”
petition organizer Sean Pond told The Colorado Sun.
… Pond once had a career in the nuclear industry in the
West End of Montrose County, home of the Uravan Mineral Belt,
which is one of the country’s richest caches of uranium and
vanadium. Now he rents paddleboards and off-road vehicles to
tourists. He says a monument designation would bring crowds
that could lead to future bans on motorized travel, which would
hinder grazing and hunting. He worries a monument would ban
mining in an area where residents have spent almost half a
century waiting for a nuclear revival that would resuscitate
uranium mining and milling.
America’s rivers are changing rapidly due to climate change,
and fish are getting confused as a result, a new study has
found. The study, published in the journal Science by
scientists at the University of Leeds in the U.K., found that
climate change is disrupting the seasonal flows of rivers
around the world, which is posing a serious threat to water
supply and ecosystems. Rivers and their reservoirs provide
water for human use, whether for drinking or agricultural
purposes, meaning that changes to their flows can greatly
affect everyday life. … Climate change is also causing
more extreme weather patterns. An example of this can be seen
in California. The state was in the grips of a severe drought
for years, until last year the prolonged dry period was broken
by a deluge of intense storms. These storms caused severe
flooding and landslides that greatly disrupted local
communities.
When residents of the Yuba River watershed northeast of
Sacramento saw a stretch of the emerald-green river suddenly
turn an alarming reddish-brown on a recent winter day, they
knew immediately who to call. Though water quality concerns are
the purview of federal, state and county environmental
agencies, they alerted the local South Yuba River Citizens
League, confident its volunteers could get to the scene quicker
and investigate the discoloration faster than any regulator.
… The league is among dozens of volunteer organizations
that monitor the health of their local waterways and native
fish populations across California and the West.
Audubon California and partners released their San Francisco
Bay Eelgrass Habitat Suitability Model, a powerful new tool
that highlights future-resilient locations within the bay most
suitable for restoration of eelgrass, a linchpin species for
long-term bay health. The project was developed as a
collaboration between Audubon California, Merkel & Associates,
Inc., and Dr. Katharyn Boyer (Interim Director, Estuary and
Ocean Science Center, San Francisco State University), funded
by a grant from the California Ocean Protection Council.
… San Francisco Bay hosts an estimated 17% of
California’s eelgrass. Eelgrass (Zostera marina)
plays a critical role in the marine food web and bay ecosystem.
Not only does it provide home and food to a vast quantity of
marine life, including waterbirds like Surf
Scoters, Buffleheads, and Western Grebes - its
dense growth along the seafloor traps sediment and substrate, a
crucial factor in preventing coastal erosion.
When Allison Dodds hit the slopes at June Mountain Ski Resort
this past winter the mountain looked a little different than it
had in past years. Not only was there extra snow from 2023’s
historic precipitation, but there was also extra space between
the trees, making it easier for her to maneuver (and shred) her
way down the mountain. Why the extra space? Over the past
two years, CalTrout and Inyo National Forest have been working
together to restore and remove infested and dead whitebark pine
trees on June Mountain. Dodds works as a Project Manager for
CalTrout’s Sierra Headwaters region, and she leads the June
Mountain Forest Health Project. After a century of fire
suppression, forests across the state have become densely
packed and overloaded with dead wood that is primed to burn
intensely and causes fires to spread quickly.
In the heart of California, at the place where two great rivers
converge beneath the Tule fog, lies the linchpin of one of the
largest water supply systems in the world. [T]he Sacramento-San
Joaquin River Delta … is also the site of a bitter,
decades-long battle over a proposed plan known as the Delta
Conveyance Project — a 45-mile tunnel that would run beneath
the delta to move more water from Northern California to
thirsty cities to the south. State officials say the
tunnel is a critical piece of infrastructure that would help
protect millions of Californians from losing water supplies in
the event of a major earthquake or levee break.
… Opponents say the tunnel is a boondoggle that would
further imperil the delta’s fragile ecosystem, which has
already been eroded by heavy water withdrawals for agriculture
and cities.
In Northern California, before European settlement it’s been
said that clouds of birds would block out the sun and one could
cross a river by walking across the backs of fish. According to
historic accounts, the Laguna de Santa Rosa was once such a
place. That’s the 22-mile-long network of wetlands that drains
the Santa Rosa plain. After a century of degradation,
restoration is underway. Once a thriving wetland, history
hasn’t been kind to the Laguna de Santa Rosa. Historic dumping
of untreated sewage, industrial and agricultural waste and
cities growing up around it have all taken a toll. State health
officials still recommend limitations on eating certain fish
caught there, due to mercury and PCB contamination.
… The more information we have about the movements of
shorebirds and their numbers, the better equipped we are to
manage the critical ecosystems they depend on and protect their
populations for generations to come. When it comes to
shorebirds though, acquiring such a level of robust information
is not an easy task. Many shorebirds will utilize the entire
hemisphere every year. In the winter they’re spread across the
tremendously vast landscapes of North, Central and South
America, and throughout the breeding season, they’re dispersed
across the Arctic and other extremely remote locations. It’s
nearly impossible to get a comprehensive picture of shorebird
populations during these times, leaving birders and biologists
one opportunity—migration.
The money, drawn from the Inflation Reduction Act and the
Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, will help pay for wildfire
prevention projects in central Oregon, the Klamath River Basin
and around Mount Hood. The three regions are among 21 “priority
landscapes” across the West made up of a mix of tribal, state,
federal and private land that the U.S. Forest Service considers
faces a high risk for wildfires. … Wildfire prevention
efforts around Mount Hood are focused on its watersheds that
provide drinking water to more than one third of the state’s
residents, including the Bull Run watershed, which supplies
drinking water to nearly a million people in the Portland area.
Senators agree more research is needed to understand how
microplastics affect human health, but they’re split on what
actions should be done in the meantime. During a joint hearing
Tuesday of two Environment and Public Works subcommittees, Sen.
Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) urged lawmakers to move “with
caution.” “We have to be careful that we’re not getting ahead
of, as we would say, the science and burden these
municipalities that are trying to meet today’s regulations,”
said Mullin, ranking member of the Chemical Safety, Waste
Management, Environmental Justice and Regulatory Oversight
Subcommittee.
On the north edge of the Salton Sea, a movement is gaining
steam to create a new national monument that would protect
swaths of recreational land used by the valley’s communities of
color. A coalition of environmental groups and tribes,
including the Fort Yuma Quechan Indian Tribe, Audubon
California, Consejo de Federaciones Mexicanas and the Center
for Biological Diversity are urging the federal government to
designate large sections of land there with similar protections
to national parks. National monuments are typically shielded
from mining and drilling and can also open the door for tribes
and federal agencies to work together to manage the land.
In October, CSU Monterey Bay received a $1.13 million grant
from the U.S. Geological Survey to support their ongoing role
in a project called OpenET. The tool uses satellites to
calculate how much water is lost to the air after being applied
to farmland. “There are still gaps in the information and
understanding between how much water we need and how much we
are actually using,” said Dr. AJ Purdy, a senior research
scientist at CSUMB working on the project. “This project fills
a big gap.” OpenET uses satellites from NASA, USGS, and others
to measure evapotranspiration, or the amount of water that
evaporates from soil combined with the water that transpires
through plants — traveling from the roots and evaporating off
the leaves. The satellites measure reflectance — energy from
the sun that bounces off the Earth, which hits the satellites
in different wavelengths that correspond to color. OpenET
measures plant coverage, so it looks for green.
The legacies of California’s 1849 Gold Rush and the relentless
search for gold that continued decades later are well known:
the rise of San Francisco; statehood; Wells Fargo; Levi’s
jeans; a Bay Area football team named after the fortune-seeking
miners. But along the shores of Clear Lake, just north of Napa
Valley’s famed wineries, is another gold-rush legacy: toxic
pollution. From the 1860s until it closed in 1957, the Sulphur
Bank Mine was one of the largest mercury mines in the United
States. Gold miners in the Sierra Nevada used the mercury dug
from its deep tunnels and craggy cavities to separate gold from
the ore that held it. … Now a major effort has begun to
clean up the historic mess and reduce health threats to people
who have called the area home for thousands of years.
On a late autumn day, a team of forestry workers spreads out
among the burned trunks of giant sequoia trees. The
1,000-year-old trees in the grove are dead but still standing,
killed in an extreme wildfire that raced through Sequoia and
Kings Canyon National Parks. In the shadow of one of the trees,
the crew gets to work, pulling tiny, 4-inch seedlings out of
bags clipped to their belts and tucking them into the dirt.
… Over only two years, about one-fifth of all giant
sequoias have been killed in extreme wildfires in California.
The numbers shocked ecologists, since the enormous trees can
live more than 2,000 years and have evolved to live with
frequent, low-intensity fires in the Sierra Nevada. Recent
fires have burned bigger and more intensely than sequoias are
accustomed to, a result of the way humans have changed the
forest.
Microplastics have been found in every human placenta tested in
a study, leaving the researchers worried about the potential
health impacts on developing foetuses. … [T]he most common
plastic detected was polyethylene, which is used to make
plastic bags and bottles. A second study revealed microplastics
in all 17 human arteries tested and suggested the particles may
be linked to clogging of the blood vessels. Microplastics have
also recently been discovered in human blood and breast milk,
indicating widespread contamination of people’s bodies. The
impact on health is as yet unknown but microplastics have been
shown to cause damage to human cells in the laboratory.
California’s Bay-Delta is in trouble, and its outdated water
regulations need to catch up with the challenge. For a
generation, the State Water Resources Control Board has not
updated legally required and much needed rules for sharing
water between the environment and other water uses throughout
the Bay-Delta watershed. These new rules should result in
additional flows for this water-starved system to protect fish
and wildlife and improve water quality. Instead of finishing
more than a decade of work and establishing long-overdue
protections for the Bay-Delta ecosystem, the state is banking
on voluntary agreements among water users to guide its actions.
Some voluntary agreement proponents suggest there must be a
choice between such agreements to provide flows and habitat and
updated environmental protections. -By Felicia Marcus, visiting fellow at Stanford
University Water in the West Program; Michael Kiparsky,
water program director at UC Berkeley’s Center for Law,
Energy & the Environment (CLEE); Nell Green Nylen, senior
research fellow at CLEE; and Dave Owen, a professor at UC
Law San Francisco.
California and Chile share a history of water allocation with
little regard for instream uses of water, especially
environmental uses. In California, for example, many water
rights were obtained with no consideration of the environmental
impacts of the water use, often because few environmental laws
existed or were enforced when users obtained the rights.
Similarly, in Chile, environmental considerations in the
granting and exercise of water rights weren’t expressly
included in the Water Code until 2005. More broadly, both
places traditionally required diversion and use as key elements
of water rights, making it difficult or impossible to use water
rights to keep water instream. As a result, both Chile and
California struggle to protect the minimum instream flows
needed for ecosystems and other instream uses.
Quechan tribal members Elan and Donald Medart were excited for
the opportunity to see some of their tribe’s most significant
lands along Haquita — known to the greater world as the
Colorado River — from the air. The day was especially
noteworthy for Elan, who’s 14, because it was his first-ever
flight over the rugged peaks and washes of Indian Pass, about
30 miles north of here. The six-passenger Cessna took load
after load of tribal members and other interested people over
the Colorado River Valley in Imperial County, California, to
see Indian Pass, Picacho Peak and the nearby Picacho Peak
Wilderness, the Colorado, and glimpses of trails, sleeping and
prayer circles and an occasional geoglyph that hasn’t yet been
ground to death under the wheels of ATVs and RVs.
A rare frog that is California’s state amphibian and likely the
species featured in a famous Mark Twain short story is thriving
in its new Napa County home. The Land Trust of Napa County’s
Wragg Ridge preserve near Lake Berryessa has ponds well-suited
for the California red-legged frog, but as of two years ago, no
known frog population. Today, there are frogs by the
hundreds. The Land Trust worked with the California
Department of Fish and Wildlife and U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service to bring frogs to the ponds.
The Willow Bend wetlands have become a refuge for tiny salmon
as they mature into fish strong enough to survive the ebbs and
flows of migration to the ocean. The preserve also provides a
home for birds such as wood ducks and vultures, as well as
facilitating groundwater recharge and reducing the flood risk
for nearby communities.
According to a 1908 U.S. Supreme Court decision known as the
Winters Doctrine, Native American reservations are entitled to
enough water to meet their tribe’s needs. That doctrine was
recently invoked during a push by tribes to restore the Klamath
River, which flows through Oregon and California. The goal, in
part, is to restore the spawning grounds for fish for the first
time in more than 100 years. Indigenous Affairs Reporter Debra
Krol from the Arizona Republic, part of the USA TODAY Network,
joins The Excerpt to discuss the ongoing battle over Indigenous
water rights.
Some of the thorniest debates over water in California revolve
around the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, where pumps send
water flowing to farms and cities, and where populations of
native fish have been declining…. State water regulators are
considering … “voluntary agreements” in which water agencies
pledge to forgo certain amounts of water while also funding
projects to improve wetland habitats. … To learn more
about these issues, I spoke with Felicia Marcus and Michael
Kiparsky, two experts who wrote a report outlining what they
say should be “guiding principles for effective voluntary
agreements.” … Marcus said if voluntary agreements go
forward without adequate standards in place, “the ecosystem
will continue to collapse and more species will go extinct.”
A community group is worried a project to strengthen levees in
Sacramento will lead to the removal of several hundred trees
along the American River Parkway, creating long-lasting
environmental effects while damaging a popular regional
recreation area. The community group, American River Trees, is
specifically concerned about a portion of the levee upgrade
project by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers known as the
“Contract 3B site,” where erosion protection measures will be
constructed upstream of Howe Avenue along the river to Watt
Avenue. … Project officials said the upgrades are needed to
“armor the riverbank to reduce and prevent erosion which, if
left unaddressed, could result in levee failure.” William
Avery, a Sacramento State biology professor emeritus and a
member of American River Trees group … said the project plans
call for the removal of about 500 trees south of the river and
about 200 trees on the north side …
CalTrout, McKinleyville Community Services District, the Wiyot
Tribe, Redwood Community Action Agency, and local artists
collaborated to design and install interpretive signage at the
site of a recently completed restoration and public access
project at Baduwa’t estuary. Baduwa’t is now known as the Mad
River but is not a direct translation. The signage was
installed on Monday, February 12, 2024 at the western end of
School Road in McKinleyville. The new installation includes
three interpretive signs with artwork by Alme Allen and Jullia
Finkelstein. Over the past eight years, the sign’s narrative
was cultivated with the Wiyot Tribe, CalTrout’s project manager
Mary Burke, and Denise Newman with RCAA – whose designs
artfully thread interpretive themes together.
Salmon face many perils during their migration to the ocean,
including disease, entrainment, degraded water quality, and
predation. However, predation has been the factor that has
generated the most interest and debate. FISHBIO has been
conducting a research program focused on fish species that prey
on other fish in the Stanislaus River to understand how
predatory fishes may affect juvenile salmon migration.
… The most frequently encountered predators were the
non-native striped bass (Morone saxatilis) and black bass
(multiple species in the genus Micropterus), and the
native Sacramento pikeminnow (Ptychocheilus grandis). Analysis
of their diet contents revealed that the non-native basses
consumed native fish species such as fall-run Chinook salmon
(Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) and Pacific lamprey (Entosphenus
tridentatus) at significantly higher frequencies than native
predators …
Across the diverse landscapes of California, reliable access to
water is often an existential issue of survival. Sustainable
water management is critical to the future of the state, for
numerous vulnerable communities, and in the preservation of
some of our most endangered bird habitat. The Sustainable
Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) was enacted to ensure
sustainable groundwater supplies for communities, the
environment, and other users. However, without proper and
additional implementation safeguards, SGMA is on course to
deprive small communities of essential water supply and destroy
the last remaining wetlands. AB 828 offers a measured and
reasonable approach to protect safe and clean water
accessibility for all California communities and safeguard the
dwindling managed wetland acreage.
The State Water Resources Control Board handed environmental
and fishing groups a surprise loss Friday when it denied their
petition for permanent instream flow restrictions on the
drought-stricken Shasta River in Northern California. The
denial came as a surprise because both the water agency and
Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom have said they want to prioritize
making some emergency drought rules for rivers permanent this
year in order to better insulate the state from recurring
drought. The board already extended the emergency limits it put
on the Scott and Shasta rivers during the drought in a December
decision, but the temporary rules run out in February 2025.
Don’t miss a once-a-year opportunity to attend our
Water
101 Workshop on April 5 to gain a deeper
understanding of California’s most precious natural resource.
One of our most popular events, the daylong workshop at
McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento offers anyone new to
California water issues or newly elected to a water district
board — and really anyone who wants a refresher — a chance to
gain a solid statewide grounding on California’s water
resources. Some of state’s leading policy and legal experts are
on the agenda for the workshop that details
the historical, legal and political facets of water management
in the state.
Over the years, Marin has taken the initiative to restore its
wetlands. The focus and work is a recognition of the importance
this soggy acreage plays in the ecological chain that keeps our
bays and oceans healthy and thriving. In many cases, it means
restoring historic wetlands covered by years of built-up silt
and blanketed by landfill. The announcement that work will soon
start on two such projects is another sign that progress is
being made to restore and revive these shorelines. In
Kentfield, work will soon start to lower sections of the tall
concrete flood-control walls built along Corte Madera Creek in
the 1960s.
The massive deaths of non-native fish and the deluge of
sediments resulting from the drawdown of reservoirs as part of
the Klamath River dam removals was expected and is predicted to
result in long-range benefits. Public concern has been
expressed following because of the recently completed initial
drawdown of reservoirs created by the John C. Boyle, Copco 1
and Irongate hydroelectric dams. Copco 2, a diversion dam, was
removed late last year because it would have interfered with
the Copco 1 drawdown. The dam removal project is the largest in
U.S. history. During a Thursday video news conference, Mark
Bransom, chief executive office for Klamath River Renewal
Corporation, which is overseeing the dam removal project, and
Dave Coffman, the habitat restoration as program manager for
RES (Resource Environmental Solutions), briefly discussed the
ongoing project and impacts of the recently completed initial
drawdown.
If anyone can accurately describe the massive scope of the
plastics problem in the Pacific, it’s [Mary] Crowley, the
founder and director of Ocean Voyages Institute, a nonprofit
based in Sausalito. She didn’t, however, set out to become an
expert on the topic. In fact, the seasoned mariner was happy
operating her yacht chartering company and logging 125,000
miles sailing the world. Yet with each passing year, she
noticed more and more plastic in the ocean. Finally, Crowley
knew she had to act. Since 2009, she’s led eight cleanup
expeditions, hauling more than 700,000 pounds of plastic out of
our planet’s blue heart and transporting it to recyclers.
The evidence is undeniable: Southern California steelhead
teeter on the brink of extinction. Southern steelhead serve as
crucial indicators of watershed health and river ecosystem
integrity. These fish play a role within the ecosystem that
you, your family, neighbors, and friends are also a part of. If
one piece of the ecosystem changes or disappears this ripples
throughout the rest of the ecosystem affecting every other
species – plant, animal, and human. Historically,
Southern steelhead thrived, with tens of thousands of them
swimming through Southern California rivers and streams. Today,
it’s rare to see them in double digits. Their dwindling numbers
stem from habitat loss, fragmentation, and the encroachment of
urbanization. We must act urgently to prevent the
irreversible loss of this species.
California has lost most of its natural wetlands as rivers have
been cut off from their natural floodplains. And it’s pretty
remarkable what can be achieved when rivers are given space to
reconnect with floodplains. I learned more about opening up
spaces for rivers to roam while working on an article about
floodplain restoration efforts in the Central Valley. These
types of projects have received broad-based support in recent
years as an effective nature-based solution that can bring
various interrelated benefits. They include: reducing the risks
of flooding in vulnerable communities downstream; capturing and
storing more water underground in aquifers; improving water
quality; and helping to repair ecosystems.
A new state-level plan to protect salmon is underway, and it
might benefit Marin County’s fish. The “California Salmon
Strategy” was released by Gov. Gavin Newsom on Jan. 30. It
lists six priorities and 71 actions to build healthier,
stronger salmon populations throughout the state in the age of
climate change-induced drought and heat. The six goals are
removing barriers and modernizing infrastructure; restoring and
expanding habitat suited for spawning and rearing; protecting
water flows and quality at times essential to salmon;
modernizing salmon hatcheries; transforming technology and
management systems for climate adaptability; and strengthening
partnerships with local groups.
… [F]or those who live and work along the [Delta's] 57,000
acres of waterways, controversy over how to manage the delta’s
levees, land and ecosystems has long been a part of this area’s
legacy. That’s particularly true now, amid big proposed
changes to the area’s land and water use. State officials
recently approved an environmental study on the Delta
Conveyance Project, a plan to add a 35-foot-wide, 45-mile
tunnel to speed up collection of water and add to the state’s
storage following years of drought. Officials hope the project
will improve supplies that have drastically dwindled due to
climate change, but some fear it could draw water from local
farms and further deplete the area’s wetland habitats.
Not everyone gets to turn their hobby into a career. But thanks
to the Salton Sea, California duck hunting guide Breck
Dickinson gets to do just that. He doesn’t even advertise, and
yet he has work booked out years in advance. Declining water
levels at the Salton Sea, which has lost about a third of its
water supply in the past 25 years, jeopardize the future of his
business. The ducks remain plentiful, he says, but access to
the lake has declined and other species of birds have largely
disappeared. All that could change within the next year or
two as the state of California nears the completion of the
Species Conservation Habitat Restoration Project … to restore
30,000 acres of habitat at the Salton Sea — and one that could
have implications for the future of the Great Salt Lake.
Iron Gate, the lowest of the Klamath dams, was breached first
on Jan. 9, followed by J.C. Boyle in Oregon, and finally, Copco
1. Draining the three reservoirs marks another milestone toward
the removal of dams in the Lower Klamath
Project. … In total, KRRC expects 5 to 7 million
cubic yards of sediment — the same amount that the Klamath
River would normally drain in a single year — to wash
downstream over a short period of time. The material, composed
mostly of very fine silt and dead algae, has imbued the river
with a dark coffee color. For several days last week,
dissolved oxygen levels in the first 20 miles below Iron Gate
dam hovered close to zero. Decomposing algae rob water of
oxygen, as do oxidizing minerals. As the last of the reservoirs
drained, they released oxygen-poor water, as well.
… Natural floodplains — the lush green lands along
rivers that historically flooded, retained water, and nourished
life in the heart of the valley — were mostly drained and
converted to farmland generations ago as the state’s waters
were dammed and diverted. Today, an effort to bring back
some of those floodplains is flourishing at the 2,100-acre Dos
Rios Ranch Preserve near Modesto, where workers years ago
planted native trees on retired farm fields and removed berms
to create space for water to spread out again. … By making
room for the rivers to overflow, the restoration project has
created an outlet for high flows that helps to reduce the risk
of dangerous flooding in low-lying communities nearby.
The plastics industry has worked for decades to convince people
and policymakers that recycling would keep waste out of
landfills and the environment. Consumers sort their trash so
plastic packaging can be repurposed, and local governments use
taxpayer money to gather and process the material. Yet from the
early days of recycling, plastic makers, including oil and gas
companies, knew that it wasn’t a viable solution to deal with
increasing amounts of waste, according to documents uncovered
by the Center for Climate Integrity. … But the industry
appears to have championed recycling mainly for its public
relations value, rather than as a tool for avoiding
environmental damage, the documents suggest.
Now is the time to raise your voice to protect an iconic native
species from extinction! The evidence is undeniable: Southern
California steelhead teeter on the brink of extinction.
Southern steelhead serve as crucial indicators of watershed
health and river ecosystem integrity. These fish play a role
within the ecosystem that you, your family, neighbors, and
friends are also a part of. If one piece of the ecosystem
changes or disappears this ripples throughout the rest of the
ecosystem affecting every other species – plant, animal, and
human. Historically, Southern steelhead thrived, with
tens of thousands of them swimming through Southern California
rivers and streams. Today, it’s rare to see them in double
digits.
[Former golfing grounds in northern California] haven’t been
doused with pesticides or rodenticides since 2018, which was
when this 157-acre stretch of land stopped being the San
Geronimo Golf Course, and began a journey toward becoming wild,
or at least wilder, once again. A small number of shuttered
golf courses around the country have been bought by land
trusts, municipalities and nonprofit groups and transformed
into nature preserves, parks and wetlands. … The
restoration of the San Geronimo land is still underway.
Floodplains will be reconnected, and a fish
barrier has been removed, allowing access to more robust
migratory and breeding grounds for endangered coho salmon and
threatened steelhead trout. Trails are planned that would skirt
sensitive habitat, making the land a publicly accessible
ecological life raft, starkly different from its time as a golf
course.
Much of the recent news in my neighborhood has been dominated
by mainstream media coverage of the removal of hydroelectric
dams on the Klamath River. This is the largest dam removal
undertaken in U.S. history, and NGOs, tribes and the states of
California and Oregon are understandably euphoric right now.
… Dam removal represents the peak of success for certain
environmental interests, and that bandwagon is overflowing now
with gushing supporters. However, the very unique circumstances
that led to the removal of the Klamath dams are often lost in
the media coverage. -Written by Dan Keppen, executive director of the Family
Farm Alliance.
If open space, ocean views and wildlife are your thing,
Chanslor Ranch in Bodega Bay should be your next destination.
Long a privately owned getaway known primarily for horseback
trail rides, the 378-acre ranch across Highway 1 from Bodega
Dunes and Salmon Creek state beaches is now in county hands and
open to the general public. … [V]isitors are welcome to hike
4.5 miles of trail leading up coastal hills, down to Salmon
Creek and around the rugged landscape, which is bounded in part
by the creek. The land is known for a diversity of habitat,
from wetlands to coastal prairie, as well as many plants and
animals. The wetlands are a stopover for migrating birds, as
well.
Conservationists are calling a recent decision by the Nevada
Supreme Court updating the state’s water law a significant
victory because the ruling paves the way for the state to
restrict groundwater pumping if it will affect other users and
wildlife. The court’s decision last month gives the state’s top
water official the authority to regulate how underground
supplies are distributed. The ruling, a blow to stalled plans
for the Coyote Springs master-planned community north of Las
Vegas, enhances the survival for an endangered species of fish
native only to natural springs in the area. The Center for
Biological Diversity was a respondent in the case to protect
the Moapa dace, a rare fish that only resides in the warm
springs of the upper Muddy River and earned endangered status
in 1967.
Rapidly rising seas are wreaking havoc on Louisiana’s
coastal wetlands, and could devastate three-quarters of
the state’s natural buffer against hurricanes in the
coming decades, scientists found in a study published
Thursday. The new research documents how a sudden
burst of sea level rise over the past 13 years — the type
of surge once not expected until later this century — has left
the overwhelming majority of the state’s coastal wetland sites
in a state of current or expected “drowning,” where the seas
are rising faster than wetlands can grow. … The news is
dire for a state that has already lost over 2,000 square
miles of wetland area since 1932, bringing the ocean ever
closer to New Orleans and other population centers and leaving
them more vulnerable to storms.
A project to move water from the Sacramento region down to
Southern California was recently approved by the California
Department of Water Resources (DWR). The $16 billion Delta
Conveyance Project is causing major controversy around
environmental concerns. This is a very complex issue,
Californians are in need of water all over the state. But with
a project like the delta tunnel, environmentalists say the 50
species of fish in the delta are at risk as well as the
wildlife and people who depend on the fish.
Another company has given up on trying to develop oil shale in
the Uinta Basin, faced with legal battles, environmental
concerns and money going down the drain. Estonia’s national
energy company announced that it was wrapping up its fruitless
oil shale venture in Utah at the end of last month. Estonia
Finance Minister Mart Võrklaev said that the company’s project
in Utah was “neither profitable nor promising” in a news
release. … Oil shale is a hard sedimentary rock that can
be heated to release synthetic crude oil. It’s a thirsty and
expensive process that threatens air quality, water quality and
endangered species, and exacerbates global warming, according
to nonprofit Grand Canyon Trust staff attorney
Michael Toll.
With the Russian River’s Coho salmon at risk, Sonoma County and
the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) are
drafting new rules to protect our salmon. Get involved in the
upcoming meetings to support this cause. In Sonoma County, a
concerted effort is underway to secure the future of
California’s salmon, with a broad invitation extended to all
interested parties. The CDFW is set to host an essential
virtual meeting on Mar. 1 at 10 a.m., focusing on the state of
salmon populations and the strategies required for their
survival. … The Russian River and its tributaries in
Sonoma County are pivotal for the survival of the endangered
Coho salmon. Initiatives like the North Coast Salmon Project
are at the forefront of efforts to counteract the species’
decline, addressing major challenges such as habitat
degradation and water diversion.
It’s a type of pollution we see everywhere. We see them by the
side of the road, floating in creeks and on our beaches. They
are plastic water bottles. A state assemblyman from the
Tri-Counties wants California to set an example, and to use
alternatives. “Single use plastics just have a very negative
impact on pollution, on the environment over,” said Democratic
State Assemblyman Steve Bennett of Ventura. He said they do
everything from create pollution which harms ecosystems to
creating greenhouse gas emissions. On Wednesday, Bennett
introduced a bill in Sacramento intended to make the state
government a leader on this issue. It would ban state agencies
from buying single use water bottles.
The Biden administration announced Wednesday it has brokered a
“historic” agreement between tribes and farmers in the Klamath
Basin over chronic water shortages, a problem that
has fueled enduring water wars in the rural area along the
California-Oregon border. … The agreement is
technically a memorandum of understanding between the three
tribes, the Klamath Water Users Association and the Interior
Department. It does not lay out a new plan for how water
supplies will be allocated, which is the underlying source of
tension in the region. Instead, the deal calls for a wide range
of river and creek restoration work as well as the
modernization of agricultural infrastructure. It comes with $72
million of federal funding.
This tour explored the Sacramento River and its tributaries through a scenic landscape while learning about the issues associated with a key source for the state’s water supply.
All together, the river and its tributaries supply 35 percent of California’s water and feed into two major projects: the State Water Project and the federal Central Valley Project.
Water Education Foundation
2151 River Plaza Drive, Suite 205
Sacramento, CA 95833
This tour explored the Sacramento River and its tributaries
through a scenic landscape while learning about the issues
associated with a key source for the state’s water supply.
All together, the river and its tributaries supply 35 percent of
California’s water and feed into two major projects: the State
Water Project and the federal Central Valley Project.
Water Education Foundation
2151 River Plaza Drive, Suite 205
Sacramento, CA 95833
Biologists have designed a variety
of unique experiments in the past decade to demonstrate the
benefits that floodplains provide for small fish. Tracking
studies have used acoustic tags to show that chinook salmon
smolts with access to inundated fields are more likely than their
river-bound cohorts to reach the Pacific Ocean. This is because
the richness of floodplains offers a vital buffet of nourishment
on which young salmon can capitalize, supercharging their growth
and leading to bigger, stronger smolts.
Water is flowing once again
to the Colorado River’s delta in Mexico, a vast region that
was once a natural splendor before the iconic Western river was
dammed and diverted at the turn of the last century, essentially
turning the delta into a desert.
In 2012, the idea emerged that water could be intentionally sent
down the river to inundate the delta floodplain and regenerate
native cottonwood and willow trees, even in an overallocated
river system. Ultimately, dedicated flows of river water were
brokered under cooperative
efforts by the U.S. and Mexican governments.
State work to improve wildlife habitat and tamp down dust at California’s ailing Salton Sea is finally moving forward. Now the sea may be on the verge of getting the vital ingredient needed to supercharge those restoration efforts – money.
The shrinking desert lake has long been a trouble spot beset by rising salinity and unhealthy, lung-irritating dust blowing from its increasingly exposed bed. It shadows discussions of how to address the Colorado River’s two-decade-long drought because of its connection to the system. The lake is a festering health hazard to nearby residents, many of them impoverished, who struggle with elevated asthma risk as dust rises from the sea’s receding shoreline.
This tour guided participants on a virtual exploration of the Sacramento River and its tributaries and learn about the issues associated with a key source for the state’s water supply.
All together, the river and its tributaries supply 35 percent of California’s water and feed into two major projects: the State Water Project and the federal Central Valley Project.
Radically transformed from its ancient origin as a vast tidal-influenced freshwater marsh, the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta ecosystem is in constant flux, influenced by factors within the estuary itself and the massive watersheds that drain though it into the Pacific Ocean.
Lately, however, scientists say the rate of change has kicked into overdrive, fueled in part by climate change, and is limiting the ability of science and Delta water managers to keep up. The rapid pace of upheaval demands a new way of conducting science and managing water in the troubled estuary.
Out of sight and out of mind to most
people, the Salton Sea in California’s far southeast corner has
challenged policymakers and local agencies alike to save the
desert lake from becoming a fetid, hyper-saline water body
inhospitable to wildlife and surrounded by clouds of choking
dust.
The sea’s problems stretch beyond its boundaries in Imperial and
Riverside counties and threaten to undermine multistate
management of the Colorado River. A 2019 Drought Contingency Plan for the
Lower Colorado River Basin was briefly stalled when the Imperial
Irrigation District, holding the river’s largest water
allocation, balked at participating in the plan because, the
district said, it ignored the problems of the Salton Sea.
Deep, throaty cadenced calls —
sounding like an off-key bassoon — echo over the grasslands,
farmers’ fields and wetlands starting in late September of each
year. They mark the annual return of sandhill cranes to the
Cosumnes River Preserve,
46,000 acres located 20 miles south of Sacramento on the edge of
the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
High in the headwaters of the Colorado River, around the hamlet of Kremmling, Colorado, generations of families have made ranching and farming a way of life, their hay fields and cattle sustained by the river’s flow. But as more water was pulled from the river and sent over the Continental Divide to meet the needs of Denver and other cities on the Front Range, less was left behind to meet the needs of ranchers and fish.
“What used to be a very large river that inundated the land has really become a trickle,” said Mely Whiting, Colorado counsel for Trout Unlimited. “We estimate that 70 percent of the flow on an annual average goes across the Continental Divide and never comes back.”
One of California Gov. Gavin
Newsom’s first actions after taking office was to appoint Wade
Crowfoot as Natural Resources Agency secretary. Then, within
weeks, the governor laid out an ambitious water agenda that
Crowfoot, 45, is now charged with executing.
That agenda includes the governor’s desire for a “fresh approach”
on water, scaling back the conveyance plan in the Sacramento-San
Joaquin Delta and calling for more water recycling, expanded
floodplains in the Central Valley and more groundwater recharge.
Bruce Babbitt, the former Arizona
governor and secretary of the Interior, has been a thoughtful,
provocative and sometimes forceful voice in some of the most
high-profile water conflicts over the last 40 years, including
groundwater management in Arizona and the reduction of
California’s take of the Colorado River. In 2016, former
California Gov. Jerry Brown named Babbitt as a special adviser to
work on matters relating to the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and
the Delta tunnels plan.
For the bulk of her career, Jayne
Harkins has devoted her energy to issues associated with the
management of the Colorado River, both with the U.S. Bureau of
Reclamation and with the Colorado River Commission of Nevada.
Now her career is taking a different direction. Harkins, 58, was
appointed by President Trump last August to take the helm of the
United States section of the U.S.-Mexico agency that oversees
myriad water matters between the two countries as they seek to
sustainably manage the supply and water quality of the Colorado
River, including its once-thriving Delta in Mexico, and other
rivers the two countries share. She is the first woman to be
named the U.S. Commissioner of the International Boundary and
Water Commission for either the United States or Mexico in the
commission’s 129-year history.
The growing leadership of women in water. The Colorado River’s persistent drought and efforts to sign off on a plan to avert worse shortfalls of water from the river. And in California’s Central Valley, promising solutions to vexing water resource challenges.
These were among the topics that Western Water news explored in 2018.
We’re already planning a full slate of stories for 2019. You can sign up here to be alerted when new stories are published. In the meantime, take a look at what we dove into in 2018:
In the universe of California water, Tim Quinn is a professor emeritus. Quinn has seen — and been a key player in — a lot of major California water issues since he began his water career 40 years ago as a young economist with the Rand Corporation, then later as deputy general manager with the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, and finally as executive director of the Association of California Water Agencies. In December, the 66-year-old will retire from ACWA.
In 1983, a landmark California Supreme Court ruling extended the public trust doctrine to tributary creeks that feed Mono Lake, which is a navigable water body even though the creeks themselves were not. The ruling marked a dramatic shift in water law and forced Los Angeles to cut back its take of water from those creeks in the Eastern Sierra to preserve the lake.
Now, a state appellate court has for the first time extended that same public trust doctrine to groundwater that feeds a navigable river, in this case the Scott River flowing through a picturesque valley of farms and alfalfa in Siskiyou County in the northern reaches of California.
This tour explored the Sacramento River and its tributaries
through a scenic landscape as participants learned about the
issues associated with a key source for the state’s water supply.
All together, the river and its tributaries supply 35 percent of
California’s water and feed into two major projects: the State
Water Project and the federal Central Valley Project. Tour
participants got an on-site update of Oroville Dam spillway
repairs.
There’s going to be a new governor
in California next year – and a host of challenges both old and
new involving the state’s most vital natural resource, water.
So what should be the next governor’s water priorities?
That was one of the questions put to more than 150 participants
during a wrap-up session at the end of the Water Education
Foundation’s Sept. 20 Water Summit in Sacramento.
Water means life for all the Grand Canyon’s inhabitants, including the many varieties of insects that are a foundation of the ecosystem’s food web. But hydropower operations upstream on the Colorado River at Glen Canyon Dam, in Northern Arizona near the Utah border, disrupt the natural pace of insect reproduction as the river rises and falls, sometimes dramatically. Eggs deposited at the river’s edge are often left high and dry and their loss directly affects available food for endangered fish such as the humpback chub.
An hour’s drive north of Sacramento sits a picture-perfect valley hugging the eastern foothills of Northern California’s Coast Range, with golden hills framing grasslands mostly used for cattle grazing.
Back in the late 1800s, pioneer John Sites built his ranch there and a small township, now gone, bore his name. Today, the community of a handful of families and ranchers still maintains a proud heritage.
Farmers in the Central Valley are broiling about California’s plan to increase flows in the Sacramento and San Joaquin river systems to help struggling salmon runs avoid extinction. But in one corner of the fertile breadbasket, River Garden Farms is taking part in some extraordinary efforts to provide the embattled fish with refuge from predators and enough food to eat.
And while there is no direct benefit to one farm’s voluntary actions, the belief is what’s good for the fish is good for the farmers.
For more than 100 years, invasive
species have made the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta their home,
disrupting the ecosystem and costing millions of dollars annually
in remediation.
The latest invader is the nutria, a large rodent native to South
America that causes concern because of its propensity to devour
every bit of vegetation in sight and destabilize levees by
burrowing into them. Wildlife officials are trapping the animal
and trying to learn the extent of its infestation.
Deep, throaty cadenced calls —
sounding like an off-key bassoon — echo over the grasslands,
farmers’ fields and wetlands starting in late September of each
year. They mark the annual return of sandhill cranes to the
Cosumnes River Preserve,
46,000 acres located 20 miles south of Sacramento on the edge of
the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
As we continue forging ahead in 2018
with our online version of Western Water after 40 years
as a print magazine, we turned our attention to a topic that also
got its start this year: recreational marijuana as a legal use.
State regulators, in the last few years, already had been beefing
up their workforce to tackle the glut in marijuana crops and
combat their impacts to water quality and supply for people, fish
and farming downstream. Thus, even if these impacts were perhaps
unbeknownst to the majority of Californians who approved
Proposition 64 in 2016, we thought it important to see if
anything new had evolved from a water perspective now that
marijuana was legal.
California voters may experience a sense of déjà vu this year when they are asked twice in the same year to consider water bonds — one in June, the other headed to the November ballot.
Both tackle a variety of water issues, from helping disadvantaged communities get clean drinking water to making flood management improvements. But they avoid more controversial proposals, such as new surface storage, and they propose to do some very different things to appeal to different constituencies.
Along the banks of the
Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta in Oakley, about 50 miles southwest
of Sacramento, is a park that harkens back to the days when the
Delta lured Native Americans, Spanish explorers, French fur
trappers, and later farmers to its abundant wildlife and rich
soil.
That historical Delta was an enormous marsh linked to the two
freshwater rivers entering from the north and south, and tidal
flows coming from the San Francisco Bay. After the Gold Rush,
settlers began building levees and farms, changing the landscape
and altering the habitat.
Despite the heat that often
accompanies debates over setting aside water for the environment,
there are instances where California stakeholders have forged
agreements to provide guaranteed water for fish. Here are two
examples cited by the Public Policy Institute of California in
its report arguing for an environmental water right.
Does California need to revamp the way in which water is dedicated to the environment to better protect fish and the ecosystem at large? In the hypersensitive world of California water, where differences over who gets what can result in epic legislative and legal battles, the idea sparks a combination of fear, uncertainty and promise.
Saying that the way California manages water for the environment “isn’t working for anyone,” the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) shook things up late last year by proposing a redesigned regulatory system featuring what they described as water ecosystem plans and water budgets with allocations set aside for the environment.
This tour explored the Sacramento River and its tributaries
through a scenic landscape as participants learned about the
issues associated with a key source for the state’s water supply.
All together, the river and its tributaries supply 35 percent of
California’s water and feed into two major projects: the State
Water Project and the federal Central Valley Project. Tour
participants got an on-site update of repair efforts on the
Oroville Dam spillway.
Estuaries are places where fresh and
salt water mix, usually at the point where a river enters the
ocean. They are the meeting point between riverine environments
and the sea, with a combination of tides, waves, salinity, fresh
water flow and sediment. The constant churning means there are
elevated levels of nutrients, making estuaries highly productive
natural habitats.
Zooplankton, which are floating
aquatic microorganisms too small and weak to swim against
currents, are are important food sources for many fish species in
the Delta such as salmon, sturgeon and Delta smelt.
A tributary is a river or stream
that enters a larger body of water, especially a lake or river.
The receiving water into which a tributary
feeds is called the “mainstem,” and the point where they come
together is referred to as the “confluence.”
With a holding capacity of more than 260 billion gallons, Diamond
Valley Lake is
Southern California’s largest reservoir. It sits about 90
miles southeast of Los Angeles and just west of Hemet in
Riverside County where it was built in 2000. The offstream
reservoir was created by three large dams that connect the surrounding
hills, costing around $1.9 billion and doubling the region’s
water storage capacity.
Headwaters are the source of a
stream or river. They are located at the furthest point from
where the water body empties or merges with
another. Two-thirds of California’s surface water supply
originates in these mountainous and typically forested regions.
In wet years, dry years and every type of water year in between,
the daily intrusion and retreat of salinity in the Sacramento-San
Joaquin Delta is a constant pattern.
The cycle of ebb and flood is the defining nature of an estuary
and prior to its transformation into an agricultural tract in
the mid-19th century, the Delta was a freshwater marsh with
plants, birds, fish and wildlife that thrived on the edge of the
saltwater/freshwater interface.
This 28-page report describes the watersheds of the Sierra Nevada
region and details their importance to California’s overall water
picture. It describes the region’s issues and challenges,
including healthy forests, catastrophic fire, recreational
impacts, climate change, development and land use.
The report also discusses the importance of protecting and
restoring watersheds in order to retain water quality and enhance
quantity. Examples and case studies are included.
20-minute version of the 2012 documentary The Klamath Basin: A
Restoration for the Ages. This DVD is ideal for showing at
community forums and speaking engagements to help the public
understand the complex issues related to complex water management
disputes in the Klamath River Basin. Narrated by actress Frances
Fisher.
For over a century, the Klamath River Basin along the Oregon and
California border has faced complex water management disputes. As
relayed in this 2012, 60-minute public television documentary
narrated by actress Frances Fisher, the water interests range
from the Tribes near the river, to energy producer PacifiCorp,
farmers, municipalities, commercial fishermen, environmentalists
– all bearing legitimate arguments for how to manage the water.
After years of fighting, a groundbreaking compromise may soon
settle the battles with two epic agreements that hold the promise
of peace and fish for the watershed. View an excerpt from the
documentary here.
This 25-minute documentary-style DVD, developed in partnership
with the California Department of Water Resources, provides an
excellent overview of climate change and how it is already
affecting California. The DVD also explains what scientists
anticipate in the future related to sea level rise and
precipitation/runoff changes and explores the efforts that are
underway to plan and adapt to climate.
30-minute DVD that traces the history of the U.S. Bureau of
Reclamation and its role in the development of the West. Includes
extensive historic footage of farming and the construction of
dams and other water projects, and discusses historic and modern
day issues.
California’s little-known New River has been called one of North
America’s most polluted. A closer look reveals the New River is
full of ironic twists: its pollution has long defied cleanup, yet
even in its degraded condition, the river is important to the
border economies of Mexicali and the Imperial Valley and a
lifeline that helps sustain the fragile Salton Sea ecosystem.
Now, after decades of inertia on its pollution problems, the New
River has emerged as an important test of binational cooperation
on border water issues. These issues were profiled in the 2004
PBS documentary Two Sides of a River.
This beautiful 24×36 inch poster, suitable for framing, features
a map of the San Joaquin River. The map text focuses on the San
Joaquin River Restoration Program, which aims to restore flows
and populations of Chinook salmon to the river below Friant Dam
to its confluence with the Merced River. The text discusses the
history of the program, its goals and ongoing challenges with
implementation.
This beautiful 24×36 inch poster, suitable for framing, displays
the rivers, lakes and reservoirs, irrigated farmland, urban areas
and Indian reservations within the Klamath River Watershed. The
map text explains the many issues facing this vast,
15,000-square-mile watershed, including fish restoration;
agricultural water use; and wetlands. Also included are
descriptions of the separate, but linked, Klamath Basin
Restoration Agreement and the Klamath Hydroelectric Agreement,
and the next steps associated with those agreements. Development
of the map was funded by a grant from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service.
A companion to the Truckee River Basin Map poster, this 24×36
inch poster, suitable for framing, explores the Carson River, and
its link to the Truckee River. The map includes Lahontan Dam and
Reservoir, the Carson Sink, and the farming areas in the basin.
Map text discusses the region’s hydrology and geography, the
Newlands Project, land and water use within the basin and
wetlands. Development of the map was funded by a grant from the
U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Mid-Pacific Region, Lahontan Basin
Area Office.
This 24×36 inch poster, suitable for framing, explains how
non-native invasive animals can alter the natural ecosystem,
leading to the demise of native animals. “Unwelcome Visitors”
features photos and information on four such species – including
the zerbra mussel – and explains the environmental and economic
threats posed by these species.
The 28-page Layperson’s Guide to Water Rights Law, recognized as
the most thorough explanation of California water rights law
available to non-lawyers, traces the authority for water flowing
in a stream or reservoir, from a faucet or into an irrigation
ditch through the complex web of California water rights.
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 covers the
history of the region’s tribal, agricultural and environmental
relationships with one of the West’s largest rivers — and a
vast watershed that hosts one of the nation’s oldest and
largest reclamation projects.
The 24-page Layperson’s Guide to the Delta explores the competing
uses and demands on California’s Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
Included in the guide are sections on the history of the Delta,
its role in the state’s water system, and its many complex issues
with sections on water quality, levees, salinity and agricultural
drainage, fish and wildlife, and water distribution.
As part of the historic Colorado
River Delta, the Salton Sea regularly filled and dried for
thousands of years due to its elevation of 237 feet below
sea level.
The Pacific Flyway is one of four
major North American migration routes for birds, especially
waterfowl, and extends from Alaska and Canada, through
California, to Mexico and South America. Each year, birds follow
ancestral patterns as they travel the flyway on their annual
north-south migration. Along the way, they need stopover sites
such as wetlands with suitable habitat and food supplies. In
California, 90 percent of historic wetlands have been lost.
The construction of Glen Canyon Dam
in 1964 created Lake Powell. Both are located in north-central
Arizona near the Utah border. Lake Powell acts as a holding tank
for outflow from the Colorado River Upper Basin States: Colorado,
New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming.
The water stored in Lake Powell is used for recreation, power
generation and delivering water to the Lower Basin states of
California, Arizona, and Nevada.
This issue of Western Water looks at the BDCP and the
Coalition to Support Delta Projects, issues that are aimed at
improving the health and safety of the Delta while solidifying
California’s long-term water supply reliability.
This printed issue of Western Water examines the issues
associated with the State Water Board’s proposed revision of the
water quality Bay-Delta Plan, most notably the question of
whether additional flows are needed for the system, and how they
might be provided.
This printed issue of Western Water examines science –
the answers it can provide to help guide management decisions in
the Delta and the inherent uncertainty it holds that can make
moving forward such a tenuous task.
This printed issue of Western Water provides an overview of the
idea of a dual conveyance facility, including questions
surrounding its cost, operation and governance
This printed copy of Western Water examines the native salmon and
trout dilemma – the extent of the crisis, its potential impact on
water deliveries and the lengths to which combined efforts can
help restore threatened and endangered species.
This printed copy of Western Water examines the Colorado River
Delta, its ecological significance and the lengths to which
international, state and local efforts are targeted and achieving
environmental restoration while recognizing the needs of the
entire river’s many users.
In the world of water, biology and engineering often clash -
especially when it comes to resolving the Delta dilemma. How do
we manage such an altered system to ensure water supply
reliability while restoring the ecosystem? How do we measure the
results of efforts to restore endangered species and habitat? Why
is biodiversity important?
Balance between ecosystem restoration and water supply
reliability is key to a Bay-Delta solution. Everyone agrees on
this concept. But the demands of the competing interests can tilt
the scales. So, too, can the member agencies’ conflicting
missions. For more than three years, the joint state-federal
CALFED Bay-Delta Program has been searching for equilibrium among
the Delta’s complex problems and its contentious stakeholders. In
December, it released its latest blueprint for resolving the
Delta dilemma — the Revised Phase II Report.