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.
Firefighters have made substantial progress this week in
containing the Mosquito Fire, as a storm system brought several
inches of rain to the Northern California foothills and allowed
the last remaining mandatory evacuation orders in Placer and El
Dorado counties to be lifted. … The National Weather
Service earlier this week, on Monday and Tuesday, issued a
flash flood watch for the Mosquito Fire zone, advising that
thunderstorms could cause dangerous debris flows. Fortunately,
the advisory expired with no significant flooding reported. The
Mosquito Fire, California’s largest wildfire of 2022, destroyed
78 structures and damaged 13 others, mostly homes in the
Michigan Bluff and Volcanoville communities. Cal Fire says its
damage assessment is complete.
This week’s rain has been a welcome sight for those dealing
with the impacts of the Mosquito Fire. The early season
moisture has helped to significantly dampen fire activity over
the last several days. Estimates and measurements show
that anywhere from 1 to 2.5 inches of rain has fallen over the
burn region since Sunday morning. But as that rain runs
down the steep canyons and into Placer County’s many waterways,
ash and debris from the fire’s burn area can easily end up in
the water supply system. Andy Fecko, general manager of
the Placer County Water Agency, said plans to keep that water
supply safe began the night the fire was first reported near
Oxbow Reservoir.
Much-needed rainfall and thunderstorms are hitting central and
northern parts of California, bringing relief to places that
typically see little precipitation in September. An upper-level
low-pressure system, an occurrence more likely in winter, is
churning off the coast of Northern California. It follows
unprecedented heat across much of California at the start of
September, when a prolonged heat wave shattered thousands of
records across the West.
Marine scientist Dr. William Cochlan is old friends with the
tiny algae blamed for the recent devastating bloom in San
Francisco Bay. He and his colleagues at the Estuary and Ocean
Science Center in Tiburon first identified it during an event
here nearly two decades ago. … For more than a century
since the Gold Rush, the Bay has been historically murkier, in
part because of the heavy runoff from hydraulic mining. But for
several reasons, many of them good, the Bay water is now
generally clearer, allowing sunlight to reach the algae. Add to
that, the increased volume of wastewater released from our
treatment plants introduce more nutrients like nitrogen into
the mix.
Beavers are famous for gnawing on wood and building giant dams
in rivers and streams. Those dams help fight climate change —
as they store water, increase biodiversity, and curb fires. Now
California scientists are urging the state to reestablish the
rodents’ dwindling population, and a new statewide “beaver
restoration unit” just might do the trick. “When the
beaver builds its dam, it starts to create a pond and slow the
water down. And that gives it time to really seep out into the
soil around it,” says Emily Fairfax, assistant professor
of environmental science and resource management at Cal State
Channel Islands. “And that is water storage.”
A summer of drought, extreme heat and deadly wildfires will end
with much-needed rain this week in parts of California, but it
is unlikely to douse the threat of wind-driven fires this fall
in a state scarred by record-setting heat waves and bone-dry
landscapes. Although recent rains helped tame some of the
state’s most active blazes — including the Mosquito fire in El
Dorado and Placer counties and the Fairview fire in Riverside —
it’s too soon to declare fire season over, experts say. In
California, occasional bouts of heavy precipitation are proving
outmatched by rising temperatures and worsening drought, which
can leave vegetation nearly as brittle and fire-prone as it was
before the rain.
In an effort to protect the drinking water source for one
million Bay Area residents from destructive wildfires, crews
will soon work to masticate vegetation on Maple Way around
watershed lands. In collaboration with Cal Fire, the San
Francisco Public Utilities Commission, who oversees the SFPUC
Peninsula Watershed, will hire contractors to mulch vegetation
into small pieces. Reducing the size of vegetation growth will
limit the risk of extreme fire around the watershed, the
Edgewood County Park and surrounding private property, said Cal
Fire.
The Mosquito Fire became the largest wildfire to burn in
California this year after growing over 63,000 acres Wednesday
night, fueled by dried vegetation in an area that was
cooling off after record-breaking heat last week. The massive
fire has been burning for more than a week since it ignited on
Sept. 6. It has spread over 14,000 acres since
Tuesday. As of Wednesday night, the fire now covers
over 63,000 acres in El Dorado and Placer counties, according
to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection
(Cal Fire).
Day after day, week after week, the United States faces a
barrage of climate extremes: wildfires in California. Drought
on the Great Plains. Flooding in Florida. Yet assembling those
puzzle pieces into a clear picture often can be difficult. It’s
a problem the Interior Department and NOAA aim to address with
a new website that provides data on real-time extreme event
conditions as well as risk profiles at the national, state and
local levels. A key feature is a running tally of
climate-juiced hazards — such as droughts, wildfires and floods
— and the number of U.S. residents facing these threats. The
website is constantly updating these figures, but it also
provides historical data for context.
The Mosquito Fire burning in Northern California flared up
Tuesday afternoon, charging toward a mountain community and
torching more homes as it burned dangerously close to a high
school. …The Mosquito Fire continues to push steadily to the
east in heavily forested areas with extremely dry vegetation,
officials said…. drought-ravaged Western states are home to
growing areas of easy-to-burn dry brush that can become fuel
for more volatile wildfires. The fires are also burning amid a
water shortage emergency that is forcing residents to limit
outdoor watering as California’s reservoirs shrink.
Making good on a promise to replace the word “squaw” from
America’s landmarks and places, the U.S. Board on Geographic
Names has announced the renaming of at least 650 geographic
features. “Squaw,” which originated from the
Algonquian language, was once used to refer to a native woman,
but now is considered derogatory and racist by Native Americans
and others. … Of the 650 new name changes, 80
are in California, at least four are in Fresno County, and one
is in Tulare County. … Five Fresno county lakes and
streams have been changed including “Squaw Valley Basin” which
will now be known as “Yokuts Basin.”
Scuba divers who pulled 25,000 pounds of litter and junk out of
Lake Tahoe last year have just begun a similar cleanup in
Fallen Leaf, a small alpine lake adjacent to Tahoe, and they’re
already surprised by the amount of garbage they’re finding.
… After scouring one mile of the lake’s 7-mile shoreline
down to 25 feet of depth, the crew has pulled out 3,000 pounds
of refuse, including about 100 car tires. … Over three
days this fall, in addition to pulling up countless beer cans
and glass bottles, West’s crew of 16 volunteers also discovered
what they believe to be the remains of a 100-year-old Ford
Model T automobile: four narrow tires, a chassis and an engine
block resting on the silty lake bed.
Fire clouds that reached altitudes of up to 40,000 feet over
the Mosquito Fire in Northern California over the past week
have left scientists in awe. … The California Department
of Forestry and Fire Protection and U.S. Forest Service
officials say the fire, which started near Oxbow Reservoir in
the Tahoe National Forest on Tuesday, Sept. 6, is now 10%
contained, The Sacramento Bee reported. The fire has torn
through 41,443 acres, or 64.8 square miles, in El Dorado and
Placer counties, and threatens more than 5,000 homes and other
buildings.
There’s an uneasy quiet that fills the air as heat rises from
the winding asphalt running through the leveled neighborhoods
of Grizzly Flats…. [Rick] Hall’s home was among more than 600
destroyed by the Caldor Fire summer of 2021. … With his home
wiped out, you can imagine his surprise when he received this
bill in the mail for $68.97. That’s the existing monthly base
rate charge for water services through the Grizzly Flats
Community Services District or GFSCDD. To be specific, this
charge is not for water volume, but for a water service
connection. That’s where this dispute lies.
Fueled by critically dry brush and timber and boosted by
record-setting heat, a fire in the foothills east of Sacramento
doubled in size Thursday, sending smoke billowing east toward
Lake Tahoe and western Nevada. By the afternoon, the fire had
wafted a giant pyrocumulus cloud over the Sierra, jumped the
Middle Fork of the American River and was burning its way
toward the hamlet of Volcanoville in El Dorado County. Also
Thursday, PG&E filed a report with the state disclosing
“electrical activity” on one of its transmission lines near
where the Mosquito fire ignited Tuesday evening, near
Foresthill in Placer County. By 8:13 p.m., the blaze had
mushroomed to 13,705 acres, with no containment, after starting
the day at more than 6,800 acres.
A wildfire that sparked Tuesday in the Tahoe National Forest
just north of the border between Placer and El Dorado counties
is displaying “extreme” fire behavior Wednesday, prompting
mandatory evacuations including Foresthill, a town of about
1,500 people, and sending up a large smoke plume visible across
the greater Sacramento area. The Mosquito Fire, at first called
the Volcano Fire when it started just after 6 p.m. Tuesday, was
burning just north of Oxbow Reservoir along the Middle Fork of
the American River, which divides El Dorado and Placer
counties. The fire started east of Foresthill, according to the
U.S. Forest Service, and was 0% contained. Fire officials in an
update shortly after 6 p.m. Wednesday reported the fire had
burned 4,223 acres; up from 2,000 acres reported at 2:45 p.m.
and 1,200 acres at 11 a.m.
As California grapples with drought, a record heat wave and
persistent wildfires, one state agency is turning to the beaver
in its battle against climate change. The large rodents,
according to researchers, are resourceful engineers capable of
increasing water storage and creating natural firebreaks with
their dams. On Tuesday, the California Department of Fish and
Wildlife posted its first job listing for its new beaver
restoration unit. The senior environmental scientist will help
develop methods for “nature-based restoration solutions
involving beavers” and artificial beaver dams.
They’re stocky, furry and usually a bit damp, and they’ve been
underappreciated for decades. But not anymore. Meet one of
California’s best climate-change fighting tools: the
beaver. Lauded as some of nature’s most effective
engineers, a motivated group of beavers can divert rivers and
streams with their dams of sticks and mud and, in doing so,
keep the land they occupy moist, helping fight the ongoing
drought. … This year, the state has begun
harnessing the beaver’s potential, pumping over a million
dollars into restoring these industrious rodents in each of the
next two years.
Restoration efforts in montane meadows designed to increase
late-season water flows, improve water quality, diminish flood
events and provide valuable habitat have been ongoing for
decades in the Sierra Nevada. It has been known that,
generally, healthy meadows also soak up and hold carbon in the
soil, becoming natural “sinks” for carbon, and decreasing
harmful atmospheric carbon dioxide. However, how much carbon
restored meadows can sequester and for how long they can
consistently do so has been unclear, until now.
In the desert near Agua Dulce, north of Los Angeles, hikers
along the Pacific Crest Trail who reached mile marker 502
encountered a cistern of water that smelled bad and tasted
worse, with a dead rat floating inside. They got out their
filters and refilled their bottles anyway. “Will update if I
get sick,” one wrote on a message board to those coming up
behind. The message was just one sign of how global warming is
affecting life along the trail, where, during a hot season
nearly devoid of rain, water tanks and caches were more
important than ever, the last line of defense against
dehydration. At least some hikers willing to take their
chances.
For more than 20 years, the U.S. Drought Monitor has released a
map once a week, releasing new information on the
drought-stricken parts of the U.S. Not once have the authors of
the Drought Monitor missed their two-decade-old weekly
deadline, keeping everyone informed on the ever-changing
drought classifications throughout the country. This
information is especially pertinent for the Western half of the
U.S., with large portions of California and Nevada both in
Extreme Drought (D3).
As California confronts peak wildfire season with fewer
firefighters than usual, the state’s timber industry is pushing
federal and state officials to take the unprecedented step of
calling in the National Guard and the U.S. military before
fires get out of control. California has sought military
assistance in past years when its firefighting crews were
overwhelmed. But logging companies say this year the state
shouldn’t wait until it needs help. Worsening heat and drought
across California have led to dire predictions for this season,
which traditionally is at its worst between July and October.
At the same time, the U.S. Forest Service, which has long
struggled with staffing shortages, has been scrambling to fill
positions.
Even as drought makes the headlines in the western United
States, new research warns that public officials should also be
planning for a an opposite risk: catastrophic floods. A massive
winter rain and snow storm could hit California this century,
with widespread damage to the country’s most populated state.
That’s according to a new study from researchers at the
University of California, Los Angeles. The Pacific coast is no
stranger to heavy rainfall, but climate change is strengthening
the plumes of tropical moisture that can hit California like a
firehose. At the same time, the nature of precipitation is
changing – it’s falling more as rain than snow, which means
rivers rise faster than usual in the winter. Together, the two
trends are a major threat.
All over California, wildfires have ravaged homes, communities
and iconic landscapes in the state. Places that once seemed so
permanent are disappearing from sight — and researchers are
having to rethink how best to protect them…. Fire or not,
[Breezy Jackson, a fire ecologist and director of UC Merced’s
Yosemite and Sequoia field stations] … and the other
researchers had set out that July day as part of an ongoing
project to learn more about where giant sequoias are sourcing
the water they need to survive, and how prescribed burning
might impact that. These trees drink up about 1,000 gallons
every day — the same amount as 20 filled bathtubs.
It starts to rain, and it doesn’t stop. Day after day after
day. The rivers keep rising. Mud, ash and burned logs from
recent wildfires clog the rapidly-rising channels. Levees
overtop or burst. Dams strain or buckle. Neighborhoods are
submerged. Flood waters wash over freeways. Entire California
cities are cut off from each other. By the time the waters
recede, dozens are dead and the damage is in the
billions. It might be hard to wrap your head around a
doomsday flooding scenario as California struggles through one
of the worst droughts ever recorded. But a growing number of
scientists say climate change — the same catastrophe that’s
drying up the West — is also increasing the risk of nightmarish
flooding across much of the state.
Mechanical thinning of overstocked forests, prescribed burning
and managed wildfire now being carried out to enhance fire
protection of California’s forests provide many benefits, or
ecosystem services, that people depend on. In
a paper published in Restoration Ecology, researchers
at UC Merced, UC ANR and UC Irvine reported that stakeholders
perceived fire protection as central to forest restoration,
with multiple other ecosystem services also depending on
wildfire severity.
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.
