The California Legislature was the first in the country to
protect rare plants and animals through passage of the California
Endangered Species Act (CESA) in 1970, Congress followed suit in
1973 by passing the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA).
The federal ESA aims to, “protect and recover imperiled species
and the ecosystems upon which they depend.”
The state ESA states that, “all native species of fishes,
amphibians, reptiles, birds, mammals, invertebrates, and plants,
and their habitats, threatened with extinction and those
experiencing a significant decline which, if not halted, would
lead to a threatened or endangered designation, will be protected
or preserved.”
Imperiled species are defined as follows: “Endangered” if it is
in danger of extinction throughout all or a significant portion
of its range and “threatened” if it is likely to become an
endangered species within the foreseeable future.”
A lawsuit seeking to stop the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation from
releasing water from Oregon’s Lake Klamath for the benefit of
Native American tribes in California and protected coho salmon
can remain in federal court, a split Ninth Circuit panel said
Monday. In a 2-1 opinion, the three-judge panel rejected the
Klamath Irrigation District’s argument that an Oregon state
court has the exclusive right to decide the issue as part of
the Klamath Basin Adjudication that is pending before it. The
two-judge said the Bureau of Reclamation’s obligations under
the Endangered Species Act and the tribes’ senior rights had
not been part of the state court’s adjudication of water
rights.
If we farmed the Central Valley or managed water supplies for
San Francisco, San Jose, or Los Angeles, we might think that
freshwater flowing from the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers
through the Delta to San Francisco Bay is “wasted” because it
ends up in the Pacific Ocean as an unused resource. However,
different perspectives emerge as we follow the downstream
movement of river water through the Delta and into San
Francisco Bay. If we were Delta farmers or administered Contra
Costa County’s water supply, we would value how high flows
reduce salt intrusion (Jassby et al. 1995) and protect water
quality for drinking, growing crops, and meeting other customer
needs. If we were responsible for protecting at-risk species,
we would value river water that flows through the Delta to the
Bay and ocean because it stimulates migration and spawning of
native Chinook salmon, Delta Smelt, Longfin Smelt, and
Sacramento Splittail …
Protecting and responding to threats of the Colorado River
endangered fishes (Colorado pikeminnow, razorback sucker,
bonytail, and humpback chub) are an important part of the
Bureau of Reclamation’s mission. Threats such as fish
entrainment in water diversions, have long been recognized by
resource managers as a threat to native, especially endangered
and threatened fish in the Colorado River Basin. Fish
entrainment is the unwanted passage and loss of fish through a
water intake, for example, when fish are transported with the
flow of streams, creeks or rivers that are being diverted for
irrigation and other uses.
Sturgeon have been around far longer than humans—a jaw-dropping
200 million years to our comparatively short 6 million—and
survived the cataclysm that terminated the age of dinosaurs.
But can these ancient fish survive the age of people? New
insights into the secret lives of these little-known fish, as
well as into their increasing vulnerability, suggest ways of
strengthening protections for sturgeon in California. All 27
remaining species of sturgeon live in the northern hemisphere
and all are at risk. Threats include overfishing, poaching for
their caviar, and dams that block access to their spawning
grounds. Fish in the San Francisco Bay are also threatened by
harmful algal blooms called red tides, which release toxins
that can kill aquatic life.
Plans to build a new dam for Pacheco Reservoir in southeast
Santa Clara County are on hold after a superior court judge in
May ruled that the project developer had incorrectly claimed it
is exempt from state environmental laws. Santa Clara
County Superior Court Judge Theodore Zayner on May 18 ruled
that the project applicant, the Santa Clara Valley Water
District, had filed a “notice of exemption” that was not in
compliance with the California Environmental Quality Act. The
ruling was issued in response to a lawsuit filed in June 2022
by Stop the Pacheco Dam Project Coalition, and later amended to
include the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band and the Sierra Club.
Valley Water has proposed building a larger dam that would
expand Pacheco Reservoir’s water storage capacity from 5,500 to
140,000 acre feet.
It’s a fickle fish — one that evades even the most experienced
anglers and darts for cover when curious passersby try to spot
its freckled body against the backdrop of a gravel-lined
stream. Despite capturing the attention of many local
scientists and conservationists, California’s Central Coast
steelhead trout remain listed as threatened under the federal
Endangered Species Act, according to the latest review of the
species released in May by the National Marine Fisheries
Service, an arm of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration. The population segment on the south-central
California coast reviewed by the federal agency, which has a
range stretching from the Pajaro River in Monterey Bay to
Arroyo Grande Creek, was first listed as threatened in 1997. It
hasn’t appeared to improve since then.
Ranchers and Republican lawmakers are welcoming a Supreme Court
ruling that narrows the range of waters subject to federal
regulation, calling it a win for private property rights that
reins in overeager regulators. … But environmental groups
said the ruling in Sackett v. EPA will be “disastrous for
Arizona, where water is rare and protecting it is critically
important to both people and endangered species.” “It leaves
almost all of Arizona’s creeks, springs and washes without any
federal protections against water pollution.” said Taylor
McKinnon, Southwest director for the Center for Biological
Diversity. … The ruling earlier this month ends a
long-running dispute between Michael and Clara Sackett, who
wanted to build a house on land they bought near Priest Lake,
Idaho, and the Environmental Protection Agency, which said the
property contained wetlands.
Shortly after sunrise on April 19, employees of PacifiCorp and
the Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) opened all six outlet
gates along with nine of the spillway bays on Link River Dam,
initiating this year’s “surface flushing flow” for the Klamath
River. … The surface flushing flow is based on 2017
“guidance document” prepared by scientists and policy advisors
from the Yurok, Karuk, and Hoopa Valley tribes. Reclamation
formally adopted the surface flushing flow as part of Klamath
Project operations in 2019, after being required by a federal
court to implement these flows in 2017 and 2018. The purpose of
the flushing flow is to disturb river sediment and thereby
dislodge the colonies of microscopic worms that act as an
intermediate host for Ceratanova shasta, a parasite that
infects salmonids.
At the April meeting of the Delta Stewardship Council, Delta
Lead Scientist Dr. Laurel Larsen spotlighted a study funded by
the Delta Stewardship Council, State Water Contractors, and the
Department of Water Resources that leveraged decades of
monitoring data to test competing hypotheses about how
combinations of stressors impact the presence or absence of
Delta smelt in locations throughout the Delta. Native fish in
the Delta have been dealing with many challenges, including
loss of habitat, loss of flows, competition and predation by
invasive species, diminished food supply, loss of turbidity
that helps them evade predators, and entrainment in Delta
pumps.
A new salmon habitat has been created on the Sacramento River
in Redding thanks to an improvement act providing millions and
partnerships between state, local, and tribal partners. The
Kapusta Open Space Side Channel Project was built on the
Sacramento River near the Kapusta Open Space to protect the
endangered chinook salmon. Wednesday representatives from all
over came to celebrate. The channel will provide a
year-round spawning habitat for the fish where they are
protected from prey. The channel is about a half-mile long and
was excavated this winter and completed this spring. This
is just the first of five projects Chico State
Enterprise has received $27 million through
the Central Valley Project Improvement Act to create.
Emily Higuera is an Environmental Programs Specialist for the
Colorado River Management Section. She participates on behalf
of the department in a number of programs, including the Glen
Canyon Dam Adaptive Management Program, which focuses on
environmental compliance upstream of Lake Mead to Lake Powell,
as well as the Lower Colorado River Multi-Species Conservation
Program, which provides compliance at Lake Mead to the Southern
International Boundary. Emily has always had a bird’s eye view
of the Grand Canyon, until her trip with the Glen Canyon Dam
Adaptive Management Group in June of 2022. That river
experience, she said, “truly encapsulated the depth and wonder
that is the Grand Canyon.”
Climate change is transforming California’s ecosystems,
threatening vital habitat for many native species. There is an
increasing likelihood that many species will be lost. That’s
why Ted Sommer, former lead scientist for the California
Department of Water Resources, and Jennifer Harder, a professor
at the McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento, are joining forces
this year as our 2023–24 PPIC CalTrout ecosystem fellows. We
recently asked them to tell us more about what they’ll be
working on, which they’ve dubbed the “Ecofutures” project, and
what might appear in a series of policy briefs they will
write. Tell us about the Ecofutures project—what is it,
and why is it important? Ted Sommer: Even with rapid
action on carbon emissions, climate change is going to severely
affect our waterways. Ecosystems are not going to heal on their
own, so we need to come up with some management strategies to
help them—and the native species that reside within
them—survive.
The Palisade High School endangered fish hatchery just released
around 250 endangered razorback suckers into the Colorado River
just as they have in years past. Michael Gross, of the U.S fish
and wildlife service, tells me razorback suckers have been
swimming around Earth’s waters for approximately 5 million
years, meaning they’ve been an integral part of ecosystems for
longer than humankind has even existed. The suckers act as food
for animals like bears and eagles while also eating insects and
other microscopic animals, controlling those populations.
… The bad news is these resilient living pieces of
prehistory who have survived millennia are suddenly dying out.
Michael tells me the primary causes are drought and a loss of
the fast-flowing water habitats they adapted to over tens of
thousands of years.
Citing the need to boost survival rates for imperiled salmon
and sturgeon along the heavily dammed Yuba River, state, local
and federal officials have announced a $60-million plan to
build a channel that will allow fish to swim easily around a
dam that has impeded their passage for more than a century. …
Already, some environmentalists and fishing advocates have
blasted the Yuba River plan, saying it was the result of
closed-door haggling between government agencies and doesn’t do
enough to protect threatened species. Some say that a better
solution would be removal of the dam.
California’s Yuba River, a vital breeding ground for salmon and
other fish, could enjoy a new chapter as an expanded habitat
under a new $60 million federal and state replenishment
project. Governor Gavin Newsom joined several state and
federal leaders at Daguerre Point Dam in Marysville, to
announce the new plan to remove obstacles and expand vital fish
habitats in the river. Chuck Bonham, director of
the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, said
at a briefing in front of the dam that the structure has not
evolved since 1910, and is currently a complete barrier to
sturgeon and lamprey that need more miles of habitat.
Despite being heralded as one of the most adaptive and hardiest
of fish, plus conservation efforts dating back to the 1990s,
the health of Southern California steelhead has gone from bad
to worse. Human activity in conjunction with climate-related
threats such as drought and wildfire have left the species with
staggeringly low adult numbers, especially among populations
that migrate between salt and fresh water — which are at high
risk of disappearing altogether. … The Southern
California watershed runs from Santa Maria all the way down to
the border. Dams, diversions, and road encroachment serve as
roadblocks to stream access and have left steelhead unable to
fully navigate the watershed.
With record-breaking storms wreaking havoc throughout the
state, even rabbits need rescuing. For months, a team from the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has navigated the Central Valley
looking to rescue from rising floodwaters stranded riparian
brush rabbits, a small, brown and white creature listed as an
endangered species. Using canoes and motorboats, the five team
members have trekked out in rivers from sunrise to past sundown
in the San Joaquin River National Wildlife Refuge to rescue
rabbits. Some are stranded on high ground, on bush branches or
trees. They are then taken to higher ground as the river water
level floods the region.
If you ever watched National Geographic television and are
interested fishes and rivers, you likely have some familiarity
with Dr. Zeb Hogan. He hosted a series of shows on giant
freshwater fishes, called Monster Fish. He and a colleague also
recently published a fascinating book (Hogan and Lovgren 2023)
on global adventures searching for giant freshwater fishes.
This book is likely to interest California Water Blog readers
for several reasons. Zeb obtained a PhD in Ecology from
UC Davis working with Bernie May, Peter Moyle, and other
faculty. His dissertation included a study of the biology and
conservation of giant catfish in the Mekong River, documenting
it was close to extinction. His new book discusses
sturgeon conservation at length and provides additional
background useful for saving the white and green sturgeon in
California.
Bay Area biologists remain uncertain about the status of the
region’s endangered and threatened salmon species after
challenges posed by the recent onslaught of winter rainstorms
inhibited their research and may have prevented some of the
fish from successfully breeding and laying eggs. Marin
Municipal Water District ecologist Eric
Ettlinger told the Marin Independent Journal the
historic storms have not only prevented surveyors from
monitoring the numbers of coho and Chinook salmon for several
weeks but also apparently damaged a number of their spawning
beds, which are referred to as redds, in Marin County, home to
the largest population of coho salmon from Monterey Bay to the
Noyo River in Mendocino County.
Just a few weeks ago, we found ourselves in the heart of
Fortuna, California, soaking up the knowledge and camaraderie
at the 40th Annual Salmonid Restoration Federation (SRF)
Conference. CalTrout staff members were thrilled to be part of
the bustling crowd of fellow scientists, conservationists, and
policy-makers, all equally passionate about the world of
aquatic conservation. The conference kick-started with 2 days
full of immersive workshops and exciting field tours. This was
followed by a half-day plenary session that delved into the
many intricacies of the Klamath River. (We highly recommend
watching the talks from that session here.) The subsequent day
and a half were packed with technical, biological, and
policy-related concurrent sessions.
A federal judge considered Wednesday a preliminary injunction
request from Native American tribes and anglers who seek to
protect endangered whales and threatened salmon by blocking the
federal government from delivering water for irrigation. The
petition is the latest in the fight over the Klamath River and
sustaining flows for the threatened Southern Oregon and
Northern California coast coho salmon and endangered southern
resident killer whales that depend on Klamath River Chinook
salmon as prey. Judge William H. Orrick, US District Court for
the Northern District of California, said he’ll take under
advisement arguments from tribes, fishermen, water users, …
Gov. Gavin Newsom and his administration have touted plans to
build a tunnel to transport water beneath the Sacramento-San
Joaquin River Delta, saying the project would modernize
California’s water infrastructure and help the state adapt to
climate change. But an advocacy group is urging the
Metropolitan Water District of Southern California to abandon
the $16-billion project, saying it doesn’t make financial sense
for the state’s largest urban water agency. In a report
released this week, the California Water Impact Network said
the delta tunnel may seem like a viable alternative but has
three major flaws: “an exorbitant price tag, environmental
restrictions on operations and the impacts of climate change on
deliveries.” … Over the past two decades, the MWD has
spent about $240 million on planning for iterations of the
proposed tunnel. The agency’s 38-member board has yet to take a
vote on whether to support the so-called Delta Conveyance
Project.
Linda MacElwee, watershed coordinator for the Mendocino County
Resource Conservation District (MCRCD), still receives numerous
calls every fall as a bar of sediment builds up at the mouth of
the Navarro River. She explained that the state used to open up
this bar, which is created by low flows and big waves and
blocks fish passage into the river. … The Navarro
estuary has been a “black box” of research on salmon habitat,
MacElwee explained. But this year, it was included in an $8.3
million grant proposal by The Nature Conservancy (TNC) pursuing
floodplain reconnection and habitat restoration for Central
California Coast (CCC) coho salmon and threatened California
Coastal Chinook at three different rivers and seven different
sites in Mendocino County.
In March, the state’s Department of Fish and Wildlife delivered
grim news to Californians: only 62,000 adult Chinook salmon had
returned from the Pacific Ocean to Sacramento River basin
tributaries in 2022. The number is substantially fewer than the
targeted minimum of 125,000 fish set by the Pacific Fishery
Management Council (PFMC), the entity that manages groundfish,
coastal pelagic species, highly migratory species, and salmon
fisheries on the West Coast of the United States. …
Reports and posts accompanying the salmon season closure have
been rife with misinformation, repeating three persistent and
self-serving myths regarding the factors that have contributed
to the imperiled state of Central Valley salmon runs. What are
those myths?
California has begun the public process for a potential
regulatory proposal expanding the list of chemicals that may be
regulated under its Safer Consumer Products Program
(SCP). The California Department of Toxic Substances
Control (DTSC), part of the California Environmental Protection
Agency, has proposed adding microplastics and
para-Phenylenediamine (PPD) derivatives to its Candidate
Chemicals List (CCL) in an attempt to control their impact on
human health and the environment. PPD derivatives are a family
of chemicals used in a variety of industrial
applications. The only PPD derivative currently on the CCL
is 6PPD, a substance used to prevent deterioration of
motor-vehicle tires but that has also been found to hurt
certain species of salmon when it transforms into a toxicant
known as 6PPD-quinone.
California State Parks announced April 24 the start of
pre-construction design and engineering for the Malibu Creek
Ecosystem Restoration Project at Malibu Creek State Park in the
Santa Monica Mountains. At the heart of the project is the
dismantling of Rindge Dam along Malibu Creek and the removal of
approximately 780,000 cubic yards of sediment behind the
massive concrete structure. Eight upstream barriers along Las
Virgenes and Cold creeks within the Malibu Creek Watershed will
be modified or removed, officials said. Cal Parks and
partners from McMillen LLC and Stillwater Sciences, two
aquatics engineering companies, will team up with the
California Trout nonprofit group to conduct baseline biological
surveys, hydrology modeling and flood risk assessment as
experts narrow down the scope of the project.
From pinyon pines to ocotillos, plants in the Sonoran Desert
are shifting where they grow in response to climate change, and
many of the plants aren’t thriving in their new ranges,
according to a new study from researchers at the University of
California, Riverside. The study, published in the journal
Functional Ecology in March, focused on observations by the
research team at the Boyd Deep Canyon Desert Research Center,
located south of Palm Desert and east of Highway 74 in the
Sonoran Desert, in 2019. The Sonoran Desert covers the
southeastern corner of California, including the Coachella
Valley, and stretches into southwest Arizona and the Mexican
states of Sonora, Baja California, and Baja California
Sur.
A California tribe has signed agreements with state and federal
agencies to work together on efforts to return endangered
Chinook salmon to their traditional spawning areas upstream of
Shasta Dam, a deal that could advance the long-standing goal of
tribal leaders to reintroduce fish that were transplanted from
California to New Zealand more than a century ago and still
thrive there. Members of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe have long
sought to restore a wild salmon population in the McCloud River
north of Redding, where their ancestors once lived. The
agreements that were signed this week for the first time
formally recognize the tribe as a partner participating in
efforts to save the endangered winter-run Chinook salmon.
In the wake of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service saying it
will not grant an emergency Endangered Species Act listing for
the Clear Lake hitch, the Big Valley Band of Pomo Indians
voiced its disappointment with the decision. On Tuesday, Fish
and Wildlife announced that it wouldn’t give the listing, which
the California Fish and Game Commission, Lake County’s tribes
and the Center for Biological Diversity asked for the agency to
do last year. The hitch, a fish native to Clear Lake, is known
as the “chi” to Lake County’s tribes, for whom it has had an
important cultural role due to being a primary food source
historically.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Tuesday that it will
not grant an emergency endangered species listing to the Clear
Lake hitch, however, a listing under the agency’s regular
process could still happen after a species evaluation is
complete in two years’ time. The Fish and Wildlife Service said
it will continue to invest in projects that support the hitch’s
recovery while moving forward with its full evaluation of the
species scheduled to be completed by January 2025. Lake County
News reached out to Sarah Ryan, environmental director for the
Big Valley Pomo on Tuesday, to ask for the tribe’s comment.
However, as of press time, the tribe did not offer a formal
response to the federal emergency listing decision.
Over the past year we’ve been showing you California’s effort
to save the winter run chinook salmon – a fish that has almost
been lost to dammed rivers and warming waters. It’s part of a
growing partnership between state and federal wildlife agencies
– and a small California tribe that’s been fighting to save
those fish for years, and bring them back home. On Monday, a
historic pact was signed to expand on those
efforts … For Sisk and the Winnemem Tribe this day
would have seemed improbable, or impossible, just a few years
ago. A tiny California tribe without federal recognition,
signing a formal agreement with state and federal partners.
When the moment arrived to actually sign the documents, the
tribe’s spiritual leader couldn’t help but acknowledge
generations of mistrust.
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife, NOAA Fisheries
and the Winnemem Wintu Tribe signed agreements to restore
Chinook salmon to the mountains north of Redding, California,
on May 1, 2023. The agreements support a joint effort to return
Chinook salmon to their original spawning areas in cold
mountain rivers now blocked by Shasta Reservoir in northern
California. The goal is ecological and cultural restoration
which will one day renew fishing opportunities for the tribe
that depended on the once-plentiful salmon for food and much
more. The tribe signed a co-management agreement with CDFW and
a co-stewardship agreement with NOAA Fisheries, reflecting the
way the two agencies describe accords with tribes. This
three-way collaboration is a historic achievement that advances
our common goals.
A sweeping overhaul of California’s water policy, specifically
the rules that govern water throughout the Central Valley, took
one step closer to becoming reality. Last week, the House
Committee on Natural Resources passed the Working to Advance
Tangible and Effective Reforms (WATER) for California Act,
which was introduced by Rep. David Valadao (R–Hanford).
The backstory: Valadao initially introduced the WATER for
California Act last December and brought it back for the new
Republican-controlled House in January. … Part of the
legislation centers on the 2019 biological opinions that govern
the state’s water usage. President Joe Biden’s administration
has been working to throw out the Trump-era rules and revert
back to the previous biological opinions administered in 2008
and 2009.
The photo is a common one (Fig 1). Large numbers of fish are
being released into a river, stream or estuary – products of a
fish hatchery. A politician or government leader looks on, or
even participates in the release, says a few words, and then
grabs a photo opportunity for the press or social media. It
*looks* good, like we are doing our best to save and improve
fisheries. But, does it actually work? On the surface,
fish hatcheries strike many as an example of a management
approach that is effective. If we don’t have enough fish, why
not just grow more fish in a hatchery and release them into the
wild to boost populations? Yet on closer inspection, a variety
of problems arise from reliance on hatcheries to support
fisheries or to ‘save’ endangered species.
Glen Canyon Dam operators began slowing high flows from Lake
Powell into the Colorado River Thursday, ending a 72-hour
exercise aimed at improving environmental conditions through
the Grand Canyon. Bureau of Reclamation crews reduced flows
through the bypass tubes on the side of the dam Thursday
morning, then slowed releases through the power turbines.
Regular operations were scheduled to resume late in the day.
Water levels on the river as it flows through the Canyon will
drop over the next few days, according to the National Park
Service…
In April 2023, the permitting and design phase began at Big
Chico Creek, or Ótakim Séwi, for the Iron Canyon Fish Passage
Project which will create a path for anadromous and other
migratory native fish to travel beyond Iron Canyon to Big Chico
Creek Ecological Reserve and into critical cold-water habitats.
The project team will approach project permitting and design
simultaneously as we work towards construction in 2025. What
happens during this phase? Before project construction
can begin, the project team must obtain necessary permits to
meet relevant state and federal regulations.
Researchers from NOAA Fisheries and University of California
Santa Cruz will tag several groups of juvenile salmon in the
Sacramento River system. The tags will help us measure the
benefits from the river’s first “pulse flow.” A pulse flow is a
rapid increase and decrease in dam released water designed to
resemble natural spring runoff. The researchers want to know if
the pulse flow increases the survival of juvenile salmon and
improves their chances of returning to the river as an adult to
spawn. They plan on measuring this by implanting tags into
juvenile salmon migrating downriver before, during, and after
the pulse. They will compare their speed and survival on the
way to the ocean.
In the vast labyrinth of the West
Coast’s largest freshwater tidal estuary, one native fish species
has never been so rare. Once uncountably numerous, the Delta
smelt was placed on state and federal endangered species lists in
1993, stopped appearing in most annual sampling surveys in 2016,
and is now, for all practical purposes, extinct in the wild. At
least, it was.
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.
This tour guided participants on a virtual journey deep into California’s most crucial water and ecological resource – the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. The 720,000-acre network of islands and canals support the state’s two major water systems – the State Water Project and the Central Valley Project. The Delta and the connecting San Francisco Bay form the largest freshwater tidal estuary of its kind on the West coast.
Voluntary agreements in California
have been touted as an innovative and flexible way to improve
environmental conditions in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta
and the rivers that feed it. The goal is to provide river flows
and habitat for fish while still allowing enough water to be
diverted for farms and cities in a way that satisfies state
regulators.
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.
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:
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.
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.
As vital as the Colorado River is to the United States and
Mexico, so is the ongoing process by which the two countries
develop unique agreements to better manage the river and balance
future competing needs.
The prospect is challenging. The river is over allocated as urban
areas and farmers seek to stretch every drop of their respective
supplies. Since a historic treaty between the two countries was
signed in 1944, the United States and Mexico have periodically
added a series of arrangements to the treaty called minutes that
aim to strengthen the binational ties while addressing important
water supply, water quality and environmental concerns.
Less than 50 miles northeast of Chico, California, begins the
93-mile Butte Creek – a tributary of the Sacramento River. It is named
after Butte County, which was in turn named for the nearby
volcanic plateaus, or “buttes,” and travels through a massive
canyon on its way southwest to the Sacramento Valley.
As a watershed, it drains about 800 square miles, both for
agricultural and residential use. The upper watershed is
dominated by forests, while the lower watershed is primarily
agricultural.
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.
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.
This beautiful 24×36 inch poster, suitable for framing, displays
the rivers, lakes and reservoirs, irrigated farmland, urban areas
and Indian reservations within the Truckee River Basin, including
the Newlands Project, Pyramid Lake and Lake Tahoe. Map text
explains the issues surrounding the use of the Truckee-Carson
rivers, Lake Tahoe water quality improvement efforts, fishery
restoration and the effort to reach compromise solutions to many
of these issues.
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 Colorado River provides water to 40 million people and 4
million acres of farmland in a region encompassing some 246,000
square miles in the southwestern United States. The 32-page
Layperson’s Guide to the Colorado River covers the history of the
river’s development; negotiations over division of its water; the
items that comprise the Law of the River; and a chronology of
significant Colorado River events.
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.
The federal government passed the Endangered Species Act in 1973,
following earlier legislation. The first, the Endangered
Species Preservation Act of 1966, authorized land acquisition to
conserve select species. The Endangered Species Conservation Act
of 1969 then expanded on the 1966 act, and authorized “the
compilation of a list of animals “threatened with worldwide
extinction” and prohibits their importation without a permit.”
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 features a
roundtable discussion with Anthony Saracino, a water resources
consultant; Martha Davis, executive manager of policy development
with the Inland Empire Utilities Agency and senior policy advisor
to the Delta Stewardship Council; Stuart Leavenworth, editorial
page editor of The Sacramento Bee and Ellen Hanak, co-director of
research and senior fellow at the Public Policy Institute of
California.
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 Delta through the
many ongoing activities focusing on it, most notably the Delta
Vision process. Many hours of testimony, research, legal
proceedings, public hearings and discussion have occurred and
will continue as the state seeks the ultimate solution to the
problems tied to the Delta.
In California and the West, the Endangered Species Act (ESA) is a
critical issue. Development and agricultural interests say the
law should not be used to unjustly block new projects, while
conservationists view the law as a major bulwark against the
destruction of vital habitat. In the water world, municipal and
agricultural interests say there is room to streamline the ESA’s
application to prevent undue interruption of water delivery.
Two events that transformed the West, population growth and the
dominance of agriculture, are inextricable parts of the battles
fought over its most vital resource, water. Throughout the 19th
century, as settlers sought to tame the rugged landscape,
momentum built behind the notion of a comprehensive, federally
financed waterworks plan that would provide the agrarian society
envisioned by Thomas Jefferson. The Reclamation Act of 1902,
which could arguably be described as a progression of the credo,
Manifest Destiny, transformed the West into an economic
powerhouse while putting an exclamation mark to the tide of
American migration.
