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.
California’s vast network of surface water reservoirs is
designed to hold carryover storage from year to year to ensure
water is available for urban, agricultural and environmental
purposes during dry months and years. But climate change has
begun to affect our reliance on historical weather patterns to
predict California’s water supply, making it even more
difficult for water managers to manage drought conditions and
placing a greater emphasis on better precipitation forecasting
at longer lead times. Learn about efforts being made to
‘get ahead of the storms’ through new science, models and
technology at our special one-day workshop June 9 in
Irvine, Making
Progress on Drought Management: Improvements in Seasonal
Precipitation Forecasting.
When you picture water storage, a water tower on slanted stilts
imposed upon a blue sky or a concrete reservoir piping water to
the city might come to mind. The issue of water storage has
become a high priority as regions such as California experience
severe multi-year drought and are impacted by overextraction
from aquifers. … The most climate resilient and long-term
strategies to address water shortage lie at our feet, in the
meadows that anchor our rivers headwaters and floodplains that
extend across the broad lower river valleys.
Californians can expect to see more yellow grass around
hospitals, hotels, office parks and industrial centers after
water regulators voted Tuesday to ban watering of
“nonfunctional” turf in commercial areas. The State Water
Resources Control Board also moved to order all the state’s
major urban water providers to step up their conservation
efforts. The moves are the strongest regulatory actions state
officials have taken in the third year of the latest drought.
Wildfires signal perhaps the most immediate threat California’s
$43 billion viticulture industry faces from a warming
California. Yet they’re far from the only challenge. Wineries
from the San Joaquin Valley to the Sierra Nevada foothills are
all suffering from intensifying droughts and hot, almost
endlessly dry seasons. Both problems are predicted to get worse
in the coming decades. For grape farmers, that could be
devastating: The rainless skies of the last two years resulted
in highly stressed crops and seriously diminished yields.
New Mexico State University’s Forestry Research Center in the
mountain community of Mora is one of only a few such nurseries
in the country and stands at the forefront of a major
undertaking to rebuild more resilient forests as wildfires burn
hotter, faster and more often. … With no shortage of
burn scars around the West, researchers and private groups such
as The Nature Conservancy have been tapping New Mexico State
University’s center for seedlings to learn how best to restore
forests after the flames are extinguished. The center has
provided sprouts for projects in New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado,
Utah, Texas and California …
More than half a dozen wildfires broke out across California in
a 48-hour span late last week, an unsettling picture of what’s
to come as temperatures warm and drought conditions worsen this
summer….Today and tomorrow, gusty winds, low humidity and
unseasonably hot temperatures are creating high fire risk
across an inland swath of California between Redding and
Sacramento.
Much of the western U.S. has been in the grip of an unrelenting
drought since early 2020. The dryness has coincided with
record-breaking wildfires, intense and long-lasting heat waves,
low stream flows and dwindling water supplies in reservoirs
that millions of people across the region rely on. … One
driver of the Western drought has been persistent La Niña
conditions in the tropical Pacific since the summer of 2020.
… The other and perhaps more important part of
the story is the hotter and thirstier atmosphere, caused
by a rapidly warming climate.
New numbers continue to show California Sierra snowpack is
dropping along with the state’s groundwater but why is that
important? Check out this image below and you’ll see all of the
ways we use snowpack. That Spring snowmelt not only fills
our streams, reservoirs and lakes, we also use it for
agriculture, household, ecology and hydropower. In total
providing one-third of the state’s water supply. The
problem lately, we just can’t get enough storms to keep the
snowpack at normal levels. This year only finished at 42%
of normal.
Plane-mounted laser imaging has allowed scientists to map the
size, shape, and density of trees in the Sierra Nevada
mountains in California, revealing how low- and
moderate-intensity burns make forests more resilient to larger
blazes. Historically, scientists could only map small plots of
forest in great detail, which limited the scope of studies. But
with high-resolution laser imaging, or “lidar,” scientists can
gather more refined data on a broader swath of woodlands,
offering greater insight into their response to fire, as
scientists detailed in a recent article in Eos.
The Tuolumne County Board of Supervisors and Sonora City
Council generally liked what they heard Tuesday from Tuolumne
Utilities District staff in a special, non-action joint meeting
Tuesday about TUD’s plan to acquire Pacific Gas and Electric
Co.-owned water rights and infrastructure. A county supervisor
emphasized there may be urgent incentive for TUD to close the
deal because other water agencies from the Central Valley
expressed keen interest in PG&E’s assets in Tuolumne County
back in June 2019.
Forested lands across the U.S. provide 83 million people with
at least half of their water, according to a broad new study of
surface water sources for more than 5,000 public water systems.
125 million people, or about 38% of the country’s population,
receive at least 10% of their water from forests. In the arid
western U.S., 39.5 million people get more than half of their
surface drinking water from forests that are increasingly under
threat of wildfires.
After California saw extended periods of
dry weather in the middle of winter, a series of
late-season storms swept the Golden State in April and May,
dusting the Sierra Nevada with fresh snow. Did those
spring snow showers help bolster the dwindling snowpack that
historically provides about a third of the state’s water
supply? The short answer is that every little bit helps,
but the snow did not come close to making up for almost no
precipitation in January through March …
The worst fire impacts this year are predicted to hit Northern
California’s higher elevation forests and Southern California’s
chaparral-clad mountainous National Forest lands. To aid
recovery, UC Riverside ecologists are collaborating with the US
Forest Service to target these spots with new post-fire
ecological restoration strategies. Wildfires are becoming
more ferocious, damaging, and expansive in the West. California
just weathered its worst two years ever in terms of total acres
burned. And conditions are no better this year, with the Golden
State having its driest winter on record.
The pendulum of Northern California weather is getting ready to
swing once again, from rain, hail, thunderstorms and snow
showers at the start of this week to sunny and much warmer than
average temperatures by the weekend. … The latest
turnaround brings the same pair of questions Californians have
grown used to asking: What do the latest weather trends mean
for the drought, and for wildfire risk? … The anomalies
are impacting reservoir levels as well. Eleven of the state’s
17 reservoirs are below 80% of average, according Department of
Water Resources data updated Tuesday.
It’s not just farmers who get a sinking feeling during the
drought. The local white water rafting industry has bottomed
out as well. Only one local company is left in Three
Rivers offering rafting trips down the Kaweah River in the
scenic southern Sierra Nevadas. Once a beehive of rafting
activity along the middle reach of the river, several years of
drought have dried up interest in what was a spring ritual in
these parts.
In a state where every drop of water matters, Sears and another
grad student, Mikaela Richardson, are out collecting data that
will help answer an important question that’s gaining more
attention from the scientific community: If massive wildfires
continue to spread across the West, particularly at higher
altitudes where snowpack is more plentiful and critical, what
effect will that have on the region’s water supply?
From its headwaters in the Sierra Nevada, the Feather River
flows some 3,600 feet downhill, where, in Oroville, it meets
the tallest dam in the nation. Its path shows exactly why
California geology is ideal for the production of hydropower.
It’s physics. The higher the mountains, the faster the water
falls. Hydropower dams capture this power and divert it through
spinning turbines in nearby powerhouses that activate
generators to produce electricity. But all this hydropower
comes at a cost.
It’s time to go chasing waterfalls in the Lake Tahoe Basin.
With the snowpack quickly melting the waterfalls in the area
are flowing. USDA Forest Service Lake Tahoe Basin Management
Unit Public Affairs Specialist Lisa Herron thinks the time to
go out is now, given what a dry winter the basin had.
The 2020 wildfires that incinerated a record 4.3 million acres
in California harken to centuries past when huge swaths of the
state burned annually, researchers have found, but today’s
climate-driven conflagrations are far more destructive to the
environment and human health. “California is in for a very
smoky future, and the continued resilience and even persistence
of numerous terrestrial ecosystems is not assured,” concluded a
new study published in the journal Global Ecology and
Biogeography …
Heat waves. Severe drought. Extreme wildfires. As Southern
California braces for unprecedented drought restrictions,
long-range forecasts are predicting a summer that will be
fraught with record-breaking temperatures, sere landscapes and
above-average potential for significant wildfires, particularly
in the northern part of the state. … Unlike its wetter
and better known sibling, El Niño, La Niña typically brings dry
winters to Southern California and the Southwest.
In the Sierra Nevada, midwinter “rain-on-snow” events occur
when rain falls onto existing snowpack and have resulted in
some of the region’s biggest and most damaging floods.
Rain-on-snow events are projected to increase in size and
frequency in the coming years, but little guidance exists for
water resource managers on how to mitigate flood risk during
times of rapidly changing snowpack. Their minute-by-minute
decisions during winter storms can have long-lasting impacts to
people, property, and water supplies.
Despite the late-season snow that blanketed Northern
California last month, almost all of the state remains under
significant drought conditions. California’s snowpack, which
helps fill up much of the state’s reservoirs, is below average
and far from where it needs to be. The dwindling snowpack was
captured in a video taken Friday from the International Space
Station.
Drought can increase the concentration of pathogens and other
contaminants in well water. And fires can damage the well
equipment and piping, leaching toxic chemicals into drinking
water and forcing property owners to consider costly repairs,
upgrades and filtering systems even as they rebuild their homes
and businesses. Beyond the West, heavier rains and floods
threaten well water quality, too.
[T]emperatures have warmed anywhere from 1.5 degrees to over 4
degrees nationally. What about the Bay Area? … San
Francisco has warmed 2.9 degrees since 1970 and 1.7 degrees in
San Jose. California as a whole has warmed 2.9 degrees, which
is more than the national average of 2.6 degrees. … What
impacts has the warmer temperatures brought? It’s meant
increasing drought years, more wildfires and less Sierra
snowpack. In fact, there’s only been 2 years since 2012 where
Sierra snowpack has finished above 100% of normal.
Three back-to-back dry years have crunched water supplies for
many cities and farms across Nevada and throughout the West.
The past two decades, according to a report released earlier
this year, represent the most extreme drought in the last 1,200
years. … But officials at the Truckee Meadows Water
Authority, the regional water purveyor for the Reno-Sparks
area, struck a different message during a water update last
week: We have analyzed the numbers, and we are prepared for
prolonged drought.
The late-season burst of snow and moisture that blanketed
Northern California in April helped make a small dent in
drought conditions, experts said, but the majority of the state
is still far below where it needs to be as it heads toward the
hot, dry months of summer. Several storms arrived weeks after
the final snow survey of the season on April 1, in which state
officials reported that statewide snowpack had dwindled to just
38% of average for the date after a bone-dry start to the year.
One of the most ambitious conservation efforts ever,
California’s 30×30 initiative aims to protect plant and animal
life across 30 percent of the state’s most critical land and
water by 2030. Gov. Gavin Newsom has described the plan as an
important step toward ensuring community well-being, equity,
and economic sustainability while staving off mega wildfires,
droughts, and other climate change-driven threats. Stanford
University experts have informed 30×30 through their
participation in public outreach sessions, meetings with the
plan’s leadership and a letter of support signed by faculty
members from all seven of the university’s schools.
The Bureau of Reclamation today announced virtual public
negotiation sessions for a repayment contract with the
Truckee-Carson Irrigation District for extraordinary
maintenance on the Truckee Canal. The extraordinary maintenance
will restore safe long-term operation of the Truckee Canal and
includes lining 3.5 miles of the canal and improvements to two
check structures. The canal is owned by Reclamation as part of
the Newlands Project and operated and maintained by the
Truckee-Carson Irrigation District since 1926.
Spirits live here. That’s what Paiute and Shoshone tribal
members say about the Owens Lake playa, an arid, eerily flat
expanse along the eastern Sierra Nevada range that is prone to
choking dust storms. It is best known as the focal point
of a historic feud that began in the early 1900s,
when Los Angeles city agents quietly bought up ranch lands and
water rights for an aqueduct to quench the thirst of the
growing metropolis 200 miles to the south.
The recent storm that brought wet weather to the Bay Area last
week dumped an “impressive” amount of snow on the Sierra Nevada
for the month of April, said the National Weather Service. The
storm dumped 31.1 inches of snow, increasing April’s snowfall
total to 76 inches — “almost double what we received January
through March,” the UC Berkeley Central Sierra Snow Lab tweeted
Friday. Snowfall totals also slightly increased California’s
snowpack in the last week to 35% of average as of Friday — up
from 28% of average on April 15, according to the California
Department of Water Resources.
Record heat hit early in April, which started warming the
ground and rapidly melting the meager snowpack. Thomas
Painter, CEO of Airborne Snow Observatories and
research scientist at the University of California Los Angeles,
… says there are three things that work against spring storms
helping for drought: periods of warm spring temperatures,
historically warmer storms and evaporation rates. He says
putting snow on warm ground is like throwing water into a hot
pan, it will melt quickly once it hits the surface this time of
year.
Brewers from Colorado to Wyoming to California are watching
nervously as [drought] grows more acute. …
[Mitch] Steele, who spent a decade as brewmaster at Stone
Brewing outside San Diego, says most of Southern California’s
water blends Colorado River water with Sierra Nevada mountain
snowpack transferred via the California Aqueduct. Extreme
drought conditions in California results in suppliers upping
the blend percentage from the Colorado River, which picks up a
large quantity of minerals as it travels the long distance.
A strong storm inbound for Northern California will peak
Thursday, blanketing the mountains with feet of snow that will
make travel extremely hazardous if not impossible, according to
the latest weather forecasts…. Rain and snow may put a
small dent in California’s drought conditions, but storms this
week and last week won’t be enough to bust it. Statewide
snowpack as of Wednesday morning stood at just 30% of normal
for the date, according to the Department of Water Resources.
Snow fell in parts of the Sierra Nevada and rain fell elsewhere
in Northern California on Tuesday as spring continued to
deliver a taste of the kind of weather that was mostly absent
during winter. Various chain requirements had to be put into
effect for vehicles on mountain routes, including Interstate
80, and strong winds created additional concerns for Sierra
travelers. The UC Berkeley Central Sierra Snow Lab in Donner
Pass reported more than 5 inches of new snow by
midmorning. A second, more impactful weather system is
expected to move into California later this week.
A pair of storms will reach Northern California this week, with
lighter showers Tuesday intensifying to heavy April snow in the
Sierra Nevada mountains later in the week….Spring snowfall
has helped boost California a bit after an exceptionally dry
January through March. But it’s still very unlikely to bust the
drought, as the recent storms represent just a fraction of the
snowpack lost to record-low precipitation earlier in the year,
and the window for more heavy snow is quickly closing before
summer heat arrives.
As our planet wobbles toward its 52nd Earth Day on Friday,
April 22, the global medical report is … not great. This month,
the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned that
if we don’t stop pouring carbon dioxide into the atmosphere
ASAP, we’ll soon be living in hell. California had its driest
first three months of the year in recorded history. Antarctic
ice shelves are melting before our eyes. Three new books
explore the perilous realities of life on Earth in 2022.
More wet weather is on tap for the week as the Pacific storm
track continues to favor a wetter weather pattern for Northern
California. This is much-needed rain after Jan. and March 2022
ended as the driest on record for much of California. The
pattern shift in mid-April brought much-needed rain and snow
but not enough to catch up to big deficits that grew through
the end of the wet season.
Wildfire season in California officially starts in June. About
two weeks out, and continuing into the third year of the worst
drought in 1,200 years, California residents should be aware.
Last year was the second biggest year on record for wildfires
burning about 2.6 million acres of land in California. But
officials with the Kern County Fire Department said it’s
important to prepare for 2022’s wildfire season under the
impression that it will be worse.
With a third year of drought shrinking the creeks that cascade
down the eastern Sierra Nevada, the level of Mono Lake has
fallen so low it has triggered a 72% reduction in the amount of
water Los Angeles can divert from area streams this
year. On April 1, Mono Lake‘s level measured just under
6,380 feet above sea level — about 1 inch below a threshold set
in the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power’s licenses for
diverting alpine runoff from streams that feed the lake east of
Yosemite National Park.
As Clean Up The Lake nears completion of their 72-mile project,
Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak joined the crew on Monday to thank
them for their progress thus far. On Monday, April 11, Sisolak
joined officials from the Nevada Department of Conservation and
Natural Resources, along with staff and volunteers from CUTL
and project sponsors Tahoe Fund and Tahoe Blue Vodka, at
Nevada’s Sand Harbor State Park to celebrate the historic
initiative to remove underwater trash and debris from nearshore
areas across the entire Nevada side of Lake Tahoe.
[W]ith California making plans to protect 30% of its lands and
coastal waters by 2030 — a final strategy report from the
state’s Natural Resources Agency is due out next week — I was
intrigued to learn of a new mapping tool to support that “30 by
30″ goal. The CA Nature website allows Californians to pore
over the landscape and consider which areas they might want to
see protected in the future. The site’s “conserved areas
explorer” shows the 24.1 million acres — just under 24% of the
state’s land area — that are already conserved, many of them as
parks, forests and preserves.
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 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.
On average, 60 percent of California’s total annual
precipitation – in the form of rain and snow – falls in the
Sierra Nevada and a portion of the southern Cascades.
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.
