Stretching along the eastern edge of the state, the Sierra Nevada
region incorporates more than 25 percent of California’s land
area and forms one of the world’s most diverse watersheds.
It features granite cliffs, lush forests and alpine meadows on
the westside, and stark desert landscapes at the base of the
eastside. Wildlife includes bighorn sheep, mule deer, black bear
and mountain lions, hawks, eagles, and trout.
The majority of total annual precipitation – in the form of rain
and snow – falls in the Sierra Nevada. Snowmelt from the Sierra
provides water for irrigation for farms that produce half of the
nation’s fruit, nuts and vegetables, and also is a vital source
for dairies, which have made California the largest milk producer
in the country.
In addition, Sierra snowmelt provides drinking water to Sierra
Nevada residents and a portion of drinking water to 23 million
people living in cities stretching from the Bay Area to Southern
California.
The upcoming winter season is set to be marked by strong
El Niño conditions, which typically bring
wetter-than-average weather to the West Coast and could deliver
significant snowfall to parts of California’s Sierra Nevada. El
Niño conditions are expected to steer the jet stream farther
south than usual by the New Year, resulting in waves of
moisture arriving on the West Coast for long stretches of time.
These so-called Pineapple Expresses can bring storm systems and
heavy precipitation to California’s mountains, particularly in
the southern tier of the state, but there have been years when
winter storms just don’t take off, despite a strong El Niño
pattern.
As we enter the critical rainy months of December through
March, we find ourselves in two unusual and conflicting
situations: lack of water and an abundance of it. So far
this rainy season, the Department of Water Resources says
California’s water year is off to a relatively dry start with
October and November. … Last week, the department
announced that its customers who serve 27 million Californians,
will get only ten percent of their water rights. The department
further says it is hopeful that this El Niño pattern will
generate wet weather, but it may not. … ”Now we’ve seen,
so far through the fall, a pretty dry year; only half of the
precip we would expect by now,” said state climatologist
Michael Anderson. UC Merced’s Center of Watershed Sciences
expert agrees. “Average snow water content is much lower.
Precipitation is much lower than average for this time of the
year, so that’s where we are,” Josue Medellin-Azuara said.
Improving the water clarity in Lake Tahoe has been a huge
priority among agencies in Lake Tahoe, and the official ribbon
cutting at Lower Secline in Kings Beach on Thursday, Nov. 30,
was another step forward in doing just that. The Lower
Secline Water Quality Improvement Project, which brought
drainage infrastructure along Secline Street and Brockway Vista
Drive south of North Lake Blvd, is a part of a larger series of
projects in Kings Beach to not only restore the natural beauty
of the town, but the historic clarity of the lake that once
used to be just under 100 feet.
A new law expanding California’s atmospheric river research
program goes into effect next year. It connects flood and
reservoir control operations with new technologies and
strategies that can help operators accurately predict the
arrival of these storms. California first established the
program in 2015. It’s allowed officials to better understand —
and respond to — the intense storms that are a regular part of
wet years in the state. In January [2015], a series of
atmospheric rivers hit California hard, causing intense
flooding, power outages and evacuations throughout the state.
But although these storms can have devastating effects, they
also crucially feed into California’s water supply.
A county judge is siding with environmentalists in an ongoing
lawsuit over dedicating freshwater flows from the Kern River to
protecting fish populations.
According to the American Meteorological Society (AMS), drought
is defined as “a period of abnormally dry weather sufficiently
long enough to cause a serious hydrological imbalance. To
assess “abnormally dry weather,” there needs to be a standard
of “normal” to act as a comparison. However, establishing what
time period should be used to constitute “normal” is not
straightforward. In a changing climate, past human experience
is not always an indication of what to expect in the future.
The changing climate is causing the probability of extreme
events, like drought, to change, a phenomenon known
statistically as “non-stationarity.”
In 2023, Fodor’s was very worried about Lake Tahoe’s tourism
problems. During the pandemic, droves of tourists sought
outdoor recreation and left behind a trail of trash–all of
which threatened the iconic transparent waters that make the
area famous. Locals were fed up. Environmentalists were fed up.
And even leaders in the area’s tourism industry admitted crowds
were too much. So, how is Lake Tahoe doing today after landing
on last year’s No List? The latest news isn’t great. On July 5,
2023, the region made headlines when the League to Save Lake
Tahoe found more than 8,000 pounds of trash during a
post-holiday beach cleanup–more than twice as much as in 2022.
A week later, the scientific journal Nature published a study
that found Lake Tahoe has more microplastics than the infamous
Pacific Ocean trash heaps, “which are at present considered
some of the greatest plastic-accumulation zones in the
world.”
Snowfall is declining globally as temperatures warm because of
human-caused climate change, a new analysis and maps from a
NOAA climate scientist show. But less snow falling from
the sky isn’t as innocuous as just having to shovel less; it
threatens to reinforce warming, and disrupt food and water for
billions of people. … Less snow falling from the sky
also means less snow piling up into snowpack — a deep,
persistent cover of snow that accumulates during the
winter. … The threat to water supplies from declining
snow is most pronounced in climates subject to more extreme
boom-and-bust cycles of precipitation, like the Mediterranean
climate found in California and other parts of the American
West.
California’s 280,000 acres of mountain meadows dotting the
Sierra Nevada are more than pretty rest stops along arduous
alpine trails. They also act like giant water sponges,
filtering water and slowing it down as runoff barrels down
mountainsides. Yet more than 50,000 acres of meadows are
in need of restoration. US Forest Service ecologist Karen
Pope said California has some of the best meadows in the world,
and likens them to “nature’s speed bumps” for their ability to
moderate water flows for downstream users. Their
restoration is part of a bigger picture, encapsulated in the
Department of Water Resources’ strategic Water Plan, which
acknowledges climate change as an “urgent threat” and calls for
focusing on the state’s watersheds, water systems and
communities.
Years of drought and rising temperatures have turned California
into a tinderbox. Since 2020 millions of acres have burned
across the state. The fires have killed forests and people. But
fire also brings life: California’s blazes have renourished
soil, supercharged grass growth and set the stage for a top
predator to reclaim part of its historical stomping grounds.
After the smoke cleared on 2021’s Windy Fire, a pack of wild
wolves settled in the burned-out area just three hours north of
Los Angeles. It’s the first time in about 150 years that gray
wolves have roamed this part of the Golden State.
… Pumped storage requires two water reservoirs, one above the
other. At night, water is pumped uphill to the higher
reservoir, then sent back down through electricity-generating
turbines when energy demand peaks or renewable resources can’t
generate electricity, helping to ensure grid stability during
system-stressing events like record-hot
summers. … Closed loop pumped storage projects need
water to work, usually by pumping aquifers or by bringing in
surface water from a nearby river or lake (pumped storage can
be built along a river, called open-loop, but such projects
have received less support because they require dams, which
have drawn fierce pushback in recent years). Here in the
drought-stricken Southwest, groundwater is in short
supply.
San Bernardino Mountain residents are used to snow, but the
magnitude of those late-season storms was unlike anything the
region has seen in recent history. Eight months later, recovery
is ongoing. And worry is spreading that a predicted strong El
Niño winter may bring more punishment, along with anxiety about
how the local infrastructure can hold up against climate
whiplash and whether officials can fix the errors that left so
many vulnerable. For weeks last winter, many San
Bernardino Mountains residents remained trapped in
their homes, buried under as much as 12 feet of snow, some
without power for as long as six days.
California may see the first widespread rain event of the water
year, although how much rain and snow will actually fall — and
where — is a question that has so far eluded forecasters. A low
pressure system moving south from the Gulf of Alaska will bring
cooler temperatures and moderate rain Tuesday through Friday
throughout the Golden State, forecasters say. But the
atmospheric river they once thought would set up shop off the
coast of California appears to have fizzled. For the
central and northern coast, the National Weather Service Bay
Area predicts periods of moderate rainfall starting Tuesday
morning. However, the area will likely see 1.5 inches of rain
or less during the week as the system has slowed down and
weakened.
The Mono Basin has had a very wet runoff year (more than 200%
of average), but from a stream restoration perspective, what
matters is how quickly the runoff melts, because the resulting
flows dictate what kind of ecosystem processes occur. Mild
temperatures throughout the spring and the early summer months
produced a somewhat diminished peak flow compared to what could
have occurred. Even though 2023 had more snow than 2017,
streamflow gauges and preliminary field data suggest that the
2023 peak flow events were similar to 2017 for most of the
creeks in terms of flow magnitudes and channel activation, with
one notable exception (see Mill Creek box below). But let’s be
clear, 2023 was an exceptional year for stream restoration.
While the historically wet year in California came as relief
for the state’s drought-battered forests, large numbers of
trees continue to die — especially in Lake Tahoe. …
Forest Service officials say the wet year, while better than a
dry one, did only so much to ease the long-term decline of
California’s timberlands. Forests have been stressed by decades
of fire suppression, which has left too many trees competing
for too few resources, as well as by the warming climate.
In 2015 a lightning strike started what became known as the
Rough Fire, which eventually burned more than 150,000 acres of
forest east of Fresno and just west of Kings Canyon National
Park. … As the flames died down and the smoke cleared,
experts realized that an unusually large number of big sequoias
had been killed by the blaze — 27 on park land and 74 on
national forest. The deaths of so many sequoias in one year was
unheard of, and it deeply alarmed people who research and care
for redwoods, some of whom wept at the sight of dead giants
that had stood for more than a thousand years. After the Rough
Fire, said Ben Blom, director of stewardship and restoration
for the Save the Redwoods League, the idea of immortal sequoias
no longer seemed to be true.
The federal government is planning to round up and remove
potentially hundreds of wild horses around California’s Mono
Lake, the ancient saltwater body where mustangs have
unexpectedly arrived from along the Nevada border in numbers
that haven’t been welcomed. … One concern is Mono Lake’s
famous tufa towers, which the mustangs have been seen using as
scratching posts. … Freshwater springs around Mono Lake
have recently become popular gathering spots for the horses, an
influx that many say has caused the lake’s shores to be
trampled, meadows for shorebirds, duck and songbirds to be
mowed down and geologic oddities like the tufa formations to be
put at risk.
A Northern California man said he was attacked by otters at
Serene Lakes in Placer County, and now he is pushing for state
wildlife officials to improve safety. Matt Leffers has visited
his family’s cabin on the shores of Serene Lakes for 30 years
and he often goes swimming, but he said nothing could have
prepared him for what happened in the water on Sept. 3, 2023:
otters attacking him. … Peter Tira, a spokesperson for
the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, told KCRA 3
that he was aware of another otter attack over the summer at
Feather River. He also said there were some otters that
attacked dogs in the Redding area. Tira said river otter
attacks on people are very rare, but he added that they are a
predator species.
Twain Harte Lake, the private, gated, members-only recreation
reservoir on Twain Harte Creek below Twain Harte Golf Club has
been drained for dam maintenance and silt removal set to begin
next year. The reservoir is impounded by Twain Harte Dam,
completed in 1928. The reservoir and the dam are owned by the
Twain Harte Lake Association, which says it represents more
than 800 members. The reservoir’s open, operational season each
summer is Memorial Day to Labor Day weekend. In a statement to
The Union Democrat dated Oct. 20, the association said Twain
Harte Lake was recently drained for off-season projects to be
conducted.
You’ve heard it before: aquatic invasive species are the
greatest ecological threat to Lake Tahoe’s water quality and
clarity. They outcompete native species, affect nutrient
cycling, and impact algal growth, which can turn Lake Tahoe’s
beautiful blue water green. Nowhere is that threat more
visible than in the warm, shallow lagoons of the Tahoe Keys,
where invasive plants clog the water. Fragments of those plants
regularly break off and float away – carried by currents,
watercraft, and people – to other parts of the Lake, where they
can resprout and start new infestations. -Written by Jesse Patterson, Chief Strategy Officer,
League to Save Lake Tahoe, Dennis Zabaglo, Aquatic Invasive
Species Program Manager, Tahoe Regional Planning Agency
Growing up in the shadow of the
Rocky Mountains, Andrew Schwartz never missed an opportunity to
play in – or study – a Colorado snowstorm. During major
blizzards, he would traipse out into the icy wind and heavy
drifts of snow pretending to be a scientist researching in
Antarctica.
Decades later, still armed with an obsession for extreme weather,
Schwartz has landed in one of the snowiest places in the West,
leading a research lab whose mission is to give California water
managers instant information on the depth and quality of snow
draping the slopes of the Sierra Nevada.
Rare photos show the transformation of Hetch Hetchy Valley from
untouched paradise to home of the O’Shaughnessy Dam, which
supplies some of the country’s cleanest water to 2 million
people in San Francisco and beyond.
On average, more than 60 percent of
California’s developed water supply originates in the Sierra
Nevada and the southern spur of the Cascade Range. Our water
supply is largely dependent on the health of our Sierra forests,
which are suffering from ecosystem degradation, drought,
wildfires and widespread tree mortality.
This tour ventured into the Sierra to examine water issues
that happen upstream but have dramatic impacts downstream and
throughout the state.
Innovative efforts to accelerate
restoration of headwater forests and to improve a river for the
benefit of both farmers and fish. Hard-earned lessons for water
agencies from a string of devastating California wildfires.
Efforts to drought-proof a chronically water-short region of
California. And a broad debate surrounding how best to address
persistent challenges facing the Colorado River.
These were among the issues Western Water explored in
2019, and are still worth taking a look at in case you missed
them.
Many of California’s watersheds are
notoriously flashy – swerving from below-average flows to jarring
flood conditions in quick order. The state needs all the water it
can get from storms, but current flood management guidelines are
strict and unyielding, requiring reservoirs to dump water each
winter to make space for flood flows that may not come.
However, new tools and operating methods are emerging that could
lead the way to a redefined system that improves both water
supply and flood protection capabilities.
It’s been a year since two devastating wildfires on opposite ends
of California underscored the harsh new realities facing water
districts and cities serving communities in or adjacent to the
state’s fire-prone wildlands. Fire doesn’t just level homes, it
can contaminate water, scorch watersheds, damage delivery systems
and upend an agency’s finances.
The majestic beauty of the Sierra
Nevada forest is awe-inspiring, but beneath the dazzling blue
sky, there is a problem: A century of fire suppression and
logging practices have left trees too close together. Millions of
trees have died, stricken by drought and beetle infestation.
Combined with a forest floor cluttered with dry brush and debris,
it’s a wildfire waiting to happen.
Fires devastate the Sierra watersheds upon which millions of
Californians depend — scorching the ground, unleashing a
battering ram of debris and turning hillsides into gelatinous,
stream-choking mudflows.
Registration opens today for the
Water Education Foundation’s 36th annual Water
Summit, set for Oct. 30 in Sacramento. This year’s
theme, Water Year 2020: A Year of Reckoning,
reflects fast-approaching deadlines for the State Groundwater
Management Act as well as the pressing need for new approaches to
water management as California and the West weather intensified
flooding, fire and drought. To register for this can’t-miss
event, visit our Water Summit
event page.
Registration includes a full day of discussions by leading
stakeholders and policymakers on key issues, as well as coffee,
materials, gourmet lunch and an outdoor reception by the
Sacramento River that will offer the opportunity to network with
speakers and other attendees. The summit also features a silent
auction to benefit our Water Leaders program featuring
items up for bid such as kayaking trips, hotel stays and lunches
with key people in the water world.
Our 36th annual
Water Summit,
happening Oct. 30 in Sacramento, will feature the theme “Water
Year 2020: A Year of Reckoning,” reflecting upcoming regulatory
deadlines and efforts to improve water management and policy in
the face of natural disasters.
The Summit will feature top policymakers and leading stakeholders
providing the latest information and a variety of viewpoints on
issues affecting water across California and the West.
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.
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.
Sixty percent of California’s developed water supply
originates high in the Sierra Nevada mountains. Our water
supply is largely dependent on the health of our Sierra forests,
which are suffering from ecosystem degradation, drought,
wildfires and widespread tree mortality.
We headed into the foothills and the mountains to examine
water issues that happen upstream but have dramatic impacts
downstream and throughout the state.
GEI (Tour Starting Point)
2868 Prospect Park Dr.
Rancho Cordova, CA 95670.
Water supply for
California’s cities and farms is largely dependent on
snowmelt from the upper watershed in the Sierra Nevada. But that
paradigm is being challenged by wildfires, climate change and
widespread tree mortality.
Join us for a two-day tour as we head into the Sierra foothills
and up into the mountains to examine water issues that happen
upstream, but have dramatic impacts on water supply and quality
downstream and throughout the state.
Lake
Tahoe, the iconic high Sierra water body that straddles
California and Nevada, has sat for more than 10,000 years at the
heart of the Washoe tribe’s territory. In fact, the name Tahoe
came from the tribal word dá’aw, meaning lake.
The lake’s English name was the source of debate for about 100
years after it was first “discovered” in 1844 by people of
European descent when Gen. John C. Fremont’s expedition made its
way into the region. Not long after, a man who carried mail on
snowshoes from Placerville to Nevada City named it Lake Bigler in
honor of John Bigler, who served as California’s third governor.
But because Bigler was an ardent secessionist, the federal
Interior Department during the Civil War introduced the name
Tahoe in 1862. Meanwhile, California kept it as Lake Bigler and
didn’t officially recognize the name as Lake Tahoe until 1945.
Sixty percent of California’s developed water supply originates
high in the Sierra Nevada.Thus, the state’s water supply is
largely dependent on the health of Sierra forests, which are
suffering from ecosystem degradation, drought, wildfires and
widespread tree mortality.
Join us as we head into the Sierra foothills and up to the
mountains to examine water issues that happen upstream but have
dramatic impacts downstream and throughout California.
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.
Every day, people flock to Daniel
Swain’s social media platforms to find out the latest news and
insight about California’s notoriously unpredictable weather.
Swain, a climate scientist at the Institute of the
Environment and Sustainability at UCLA, famously coined the
term “Ridiculously Resilient Ridge” in December 2013 to describe
the large, formidable high-pressure mass that was parked over the
West Coast during winter and diverted storms away from
California, intensifying the drought.
Swain’s research focuses on atmospheric processes that cause
droughts and floods, along with the changing character of extreme
weather events in a warming world. A lifelong Californian and
alumnus of University of California, Davis, and Stanford
University, Swain is best known for the widely read Weather West blog, which provides
unique perspectives on weather and climate in California and the
western United States. In a recent interview with Western
Water, he talked about the Ridiculously Resilient Ridge, its
potential long-term impact on California weather, and what may
lie ahead for the state’s water supply.
Sixty percent of California’s developed water supply
originates high in the Sierra Nevada mountains. Our water
supply is largely dependent on the health of our Sierra forests,
which are suffering from ecosystem degradation, drought,
wildfires and widespread tree mortality.
Sixty percent of California’s developed water supply originates
high in the Sierra Nevada. Thus, the state’s water supply is
largely dependent on the health of Sierra forests, which are
suffering from ecosystem degradation, drought, wildfires and
widespread tree mortality.
Join us as we head into the Sierra foothills and the mountains to
examine water issues that happen upstream but have dramatic
impacts downstream and throughout California.
ARkStorm stands for an atmospheric
river (“AR”) that carries precipitation levels expected to occur
once every 1,000 years (“k”). The concept was presented in a 2011
report by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) intended to elevate
the visibility of the very real threats to human life, property
and ecosystems posed by extreme storms on the West Coast.
Owens Lake is a dry lake at the terminus of the Owens River
just west of Death Valley and on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada. For at least
800,000 years, the lake had a continuous flow of water, until
1913 when the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power
(LADWP) completed the 233-mile Los Angeles
Aqueduct to supplement the budding metropolis’
increasing water demands.
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.
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, 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, illustrates the
water resources available for Nevada cities, agriculture and the
environment. It features natural and manmade water resources
throughout the state, including the Truckee and Carson rivers,
Lake Tahoe, Pyramid Lake and the course of the Colorado River
that forms the state’s eastern boundary.
Fashioned after the popular California Water Map, this 24×36 inch
poster was extensively re-designed in 2017 to better illustrate
the value and use of groundwater in California, the main types of
aquifers, and the connection between groundwater and surface
water.
A new look for our most popular product! And it’s the perfect
gift for the water wonk in your life.
Our 24×36 inch California Water Map is widely known for being the
definitive poster that shows the integral role water plays in the
state. On this updated version, it is easier to see California’s
natural waterways and man-made reservoirs and aqueducts
– including federally, state and locally funded
projects – the wild and scenic rivers system, and
natural lakes. The map features beautiful photos of
California’s natural environment, rivers, water projects,
wildlife, and urban and agricultural uses and the
text focuses on key issues: water supply, water use, water
projects, the Delta, wild and scenic rivers and the Colorado
River.
Travel across the state on Amtrak’s famed California
Zephyr, from the edge of sparkling San Francisco Bay,
through the meandering channels of the Delta, past rich Central
Valley farmland, growing cities, historic mining areas and into
the Sierra Nevada mountain range.
Stretching 450 miles long and up to
50 miles wide, the Sierra Nevada makes up more than a quarter of
California’s land area and forms its largest watersheds,
providing more than half of the state’s developed water supply to
residents, agriculture and other businesses.*
The East Fork begins in the mountains of California’s Sonora Pass
and after flowing through California and Nevada, it meets the
West Fork just south of Carson City. The West Fork forms at
California’s Carson Pass, running through California and into
Nevada to its junction with the East Fork.
