Wetlands are among the most important ecosystems in the world.
They produce high levels of oxygen, filter toxic chemicals out of
water, reduce flooding and erosion and recharge groundwater. They
also serve as critical habitat for wildlife, including a large
percentage of plants and animals on California’s endangered
species list.
As the state has grown into one of the world’s leading economies,
Californians have developed and transformed the state’s marshes,
swamps and tidal flats, losing as much as 90 percent of the
original wetlands acreage—a greater percentage of loss than any
other state in the nation.
While the conversion of wetlands has slowed, the loss in
California is significant and it affects a range of factors from
water quality to quality of life.
Wetlands still remain in every part of the state, with the
greatest concentration in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and
its watershed, which includes the Central Valley. The Delta
wetlands are especially important because they are part of the
vast complex of waterways that provide two-thirds of California’s
drinking water.
Every winter, millions of migrating birds come to the
Sacramento Valley, but now these birds may find the marshes and
flooded rice fields dry. The marshes and flooded rice fields
here are a stopping point for the birds along the Pacific
flyway, and scientists are now putting GPS trackers on birds to
learn how they’re reacting to the dry environment. “A
migratory pathway for waterfowl and shorebirds that are coming
from northern areas, moving into the Central Valley and looking
for spots to feed, to rest and continue on their journey
farther south to warmer areas in the winter, and then heading
back north again in the spring,” Samantha Arthur, Audubon
California Working Lands Program Director, said.
As the twin threats of climate change and biodiversity loss
come to a head this decade, the fate of our fresh water lies in
the balance. Extreme weather is becoming increasingly common,
bringing massive rainfall and flooding in some regions and
widespread heat and drought in others, with disastrous impacts
on both humans and nature. At the same time, we have lost
nearly a third of the world’s freshwater ecosystems and 83% of
monitored freshwater species since 1970, a rate that is
significantly higher than that of terrestrial and marine
species in the same timeframe. Freshwater ecosystems deliver
the water on which all life depends. The urgency to better
protect them is now.
Saving the endangered Riparian brush rabbits could also protect
large swaths of rural south Manteca as well as part of Lathrop
from flooding. It is because efforts of the non-profit River
Partners at the 2,100-acre Dos Rios Preserve located at the
confluence of the Tuolumne and San Joaquin rivers to assist the
rabbit subspecies, five endangered birds, and three endangered
fish could also provide 10,000 acre feet of critical transient
floodwater storage to reduce flood stages as far north as
Stockton.
The California State Coastal Conservancy has allotted $2.2
million to a North Bay research group to take over caretaking
responsibilities and volunteer work for one of Marin County’s
largest wetland restoration sites. The Point Blue Conservation
Science nonprofit research group received the funds to continue
the upkeep of nearly 200 acres of the Hamilton wetlands and
forthcoming Bel Marin Keys wetlands near Novato for the next
two years. Its responsibilities include maintenance, replacing
aged or damaged interpretive signs and kiosks, running the
native plant nursery, planting, watering, coordinating
volunteer groups and leading school field trips.
Last week, the federal government announced it will spend a
quarter of a billion dollars over four years to clean up what
remains of the Salton Sea, a lake in southern California that
has been shrinking due to climate change-driven drought.
For decades, communities living near the sea have been
afflicted by health problems caused by algae blooms and dust
storms spurred by wind kicking up drying sediment from the
sea’s ever-widening shores. The government’s new plan aims to
help remediate some of those health impacts while
simultaneously encouraging farms in the region to reduce their
reliance on water from the Colorado River.
I know a lot of people think of deserts as big, empty, lifeless
wastelands — that’s one of the reasons it can be tough to get
folks to care about protecting them. But when I moved to
Southern California from New England, my desert enchantment was
immediate and deep. One of the things that struck me most about
exploring the deserts here was that the slower I went, the more
I saw. … Take the Amargosa River, which flows for 185
miles and drains a 5,500-square-mile basin in Nevada and
California before feeding the aquifer remnants of ancient Lake
Manly in Death Valley. It’s the seventh-longest river in
California, but you could be forgiven for not noticing it,
since it spends almost all its time underground. Its water
provides habitat for the improbable Devil’s Hole pupfish
… -Written by Casey Schreiner, a writer, producer,
presenter and author who has taken over The Wild newsletter for
the next few months.
A bipartisan bill meant to address declining saline lakes in
the West, including the Great Salt Lake, passed the U.S. Senate
with unanimous approval Wednesday. Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah,
introduced and co-sponsored the Saline Lake Ecosystems in the
Great Basin States Program Act with Democratic Sens. Jeff
Merkley of Oregon, Jacky Rosen of Nevada, Catherine Cortez
Masto of Nevada, Roy Wyden of Oregon and Diane Feinstein of
California. The bill earmarks $5 million each year over five
years for the U.S. Geological Survey to study saline lakes
throughout the Great
Basin…. Owens and Mono lakes in
California are also named, which water diversions have turned
into sources of toxic and dangerous blowing dust.
At a special meeting of California’s Imperial Irrigation
District this week, the influential water agency voted 3-2 to
sign an agreement with the U.S. Department of the Interior, the
California Natural Resources Agency and the Coachella Valley
Water District regarding the management of the Salton Sea. The
deal, which would provide $250 million for restoration, is by
far the largest injection of federal funds to date for the
ailing sea. The federal funds will go toward environmentally
beneficial projects, including air quality improvements, public
health programs and ecosystem restoration projects.
It’s a golden summer day, and I’m standing on a low coastal
levee, overlooking a pond at Eden Landing Ecological Reserve
that looks positively apocalyptic. … This pond is a legacy of
a salt industry that has moved elsewhere. A few decades ago,
when flying into San Francisco or San Jose, the ground beneath
looked like a giant’s Easter egg dip. Ponds of blue, yellow,
green, red, purple, orange, and pink ringed the South Bay.
People had built low levees in semicircles from the shore,
sectioning off portions of the bay to let the water evaporate,
leaving behind the salt…. Humans are often inclined to
build seawalls to protect coastal communities from encroaching
oceans, but those require constant, expensive maintenance.
Southern California’s powerful Imperial Irrigation District
voted late Tuesday 3-2 to ink an agreement with federal and
state officials that could yield as much as $250 million for
Salton Sea restoration projects in exchange for not using
another 250,000 acre-feet of Colorado River water… The vote
came despite livid objections from Imperial County farmers and
environmental groups, who questioned why such a major agreement
was being voted on just 24 hours after it was made public,
and four days before two newly elected board members are slated
to be sworn in to the five-member panel….But director JB
Hamby, agreeing with a majority of the board and the district’s
general manager and water director said, “there is no down
side” to the agreement … because while it does not bind
the district to cuts, it guarantees critical federal support if
cuts are implemented.
The San Francisco Bay is the largest estuary in Western North
America and a key link in the 4,000-mile Pacific Flyway, one of
the primary migratory routes used by birds to move north and
south across the continent. It’s a place where birds come to
rest and refuel for their long trip, or breed and nest the next
generation. But in the span of a few human generations, 90% of
California’s wetlands have disappeared to development and
agriculture, endangering migrating and local birds. Now drought
and sea level rise are further diminishing important bird
habitats. As climate change becomes a bigger threat to the Bay
Area’s local and migratory birds, scientists and
conservationists work to help habitats adapt to climate change
to ensure bird’s futures.
The federal government said Monday it will spend $250 million
over four years on environmental cleanup and restoration work
around a drying Southern California lake that’s fed by the
depleted Colorado River. The future of the Salton Sea — and who
is financially responsible for it — has been a key issue in
discussions over how to stave off a crisis in the Colorado
River. The lake was formed in 1905 when the river overflowed,
creating a resort destination that slowly morphed into an
environmental disaster as water levels receded, exposing
residents to harmful dust and reducing wildlife habitat. The
lake is largely fed by runoff from farms in California’s
Imperial Valley, who use Colorado River water to grow many of
the nation’s winter vegetables as well as feed crops such as
alfalfa.
Five small islands roughly the size of backyard swimming pools
float next to the concrete riverbank of Bubbly Creek, a stretch
of the Chicago River named for the gas that once rose to the
surface after stockyards dumped animal waste and byproducts
into the waterway. Clumps of short, native grasses and plants,
including sedges, swamp milkweed, and queen of the prairie,
rise from a gravel-like material spread across each artificial
island’s surface. A few rectangles cut from their middles hold
bottomless baskets, structures that will, project designers
hope, provide an attachment surface for freshwater mussels that
once flourished in the river.
When an irrigation canal was breached in the early 1900s, the
resulting flood created Southern California’s Salton Sea. It
was a rare event that quickly created a beneficial presence in
the Imperial Valley, as the lake provided recreation
opportunities, tamped down dust, and became a stopover for
birds on the Pacific Flyway. But now, with inflows declining,
this hundred-year-old sea is drying up, and that’s having a
host of negative consequences for wildlife and air quality in
the region. We spoke with Kurt Schwabe—professor of public
policy at the University of California, Riverside and adjunct
fellow at the PPIC Water Policy Center—about some of the
biggest issues facing the sea, as well as potential solutions.
Discussion of restoring Big Canyon, which has long been
impacted by human activity and development as Orange County
grew, started in 2002, according to project manager and Newport
Beach assistant city engineer Bob Stein, but nothing came of it
until about 2015. … That led to Phase I, which cost
roughly $1.6 million and recently concluded its monitoring
period. That phase addressed roughly 6 acres of the park and
focused on the rehabilitation of the creek that runs through it
and riparian restoration. Urban runoff was diverted to a water
treatment center.
Seeking to modernize aged equipment and cut down on the
nitrogen that flows into the San Francisco Bay, Palo Alto and
its partners are embarking on an ambitious makeover of the
Regional Water Quality Control Plant, a project that will cost
$193 million and take about five years to complete. The City
Council is preparing to approve next month a $161 million
contract with Anderson Pacific Engineering Construction to
upgrade the wastewater treatment system at the regional plant
on Embarcadero Road, near the Baylands. … A key goal of
the upgrade is to reduce this outflow of nitrogen, which causes
algae to bloom in the bay, [plant manager] Jamie Allen
said. Over the summer, the a red algae bloom across
the region killed fish throughout the area.
It’s an October morning at Point Reyes National Seashore and
I’m scooting under barbed wire fences, wary of sliding into cow
pies. My guide on this safari is Jocelyn Knight, wildlife
photographer. We’re stalking a toxic waste dump hidden from
public view behind a hill at “Historic E Ranch, established
circa 1859” land lorded by the National Park Service. Park
regulations require Seashore pastures to remain open to the
public, but the dump is inside the E Ranch “core” of barns and
dwellings, and the public is disallowed. … According to
EHS investigators, a septic tank was installed without the
required permit; its sewage level exceeded the operational
limit; they could not locate a leach field. The ranch land
drains into the Pacific.
Oscar-nominated actor and star of “Succession” spoke in support
of lawsuits aiming to stop a project that plans to bulldoze the
Ballona Wetlands on Sunday. More than 200 residents of Venice,
Culver City, Santa Monica, Marina del Rey and Playa del Rey
attended an event held by Defend Ballona Wetlands where
Cromwell spoke about his support and involvement with the
organization. Cromwell said Marcia Hanscom, Executive Director
of the Ballona Institute, approached him 25 years ago asking
him to visit the wetlands. When he did, Cromwell said it was
moving and he knew he wanted to do whatever it took to support
efforts to protect it.
A Ninth Circuit panel on Tuesday heard arguments on whether
federal judges can vacate a rule by the Trump-era U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency without finding the rule
unlawful. In July 2020, the Trump administration revised the
“Clean Water Act 401 Certification Rule,” which narrowed what
issues state and tribal governments can consider when
determining whether a project, particularly one discharging
pollution into a waterway, complies with state water quality
standards. The rule affected the permitting and relicensing
process for thousands of industrial projects, including natural
gas pipelines, hydroelectric plants, wastewater treatment
facilities and construction sites near sensitive
wetlands.
Major construction is complete for the multi-year Upper Truckee
Marsh Restoration project, Lake Tahoe’s largest ever wetland
restoration, the California Tahoe Conservancy announced
Monday. The Conservancy has completed steps to repair
damage caused by 20th century development, restoring and
enhancing hundreds of acres of wetland habitat. A new trail
offers improved access for all to experience and enjoy the
lake’s shoreline.
By foot, horse, and canoe, European explorers centuries ago
undertook years-long expeditions to document the length and
breadth of major rivers. Today, satellites make the first pass
of discovery. Though rivers meander and melting glaciers birth
new lakes annually, the world’s major drainages have largely
been mapped. Yet one fundamental dimension remains largely a
mystery: the rise and fall of water bodies globally. Accurately
measuring, at low-cost, the weekly changes in rivers, lakes,
and wetlands would allow scientists to observe how much water
moves through them. Land-based gauges do some of this work. But
where gauges are scarce — Alaska, Africa, Asian headwaters —
these numbers are inaccurate or unknown.
You’ve probably heard by now, but the Great Salt Lake is drying
up. The lake reached record lows this summer, dropping to
4,190.1 feet in July. To put this in perspective, the lake was
flexing about 3,000 square miles in the 90s. Now, it’s withered
to less than 1,000. There are some obvious things we can
do about this, mostly on the agricultural side of things. But
now we’re hearing of all kinds of less obvious ways we could
save it, like amplifying snow storms or piping in water from
California, among other ideas. … One of those ideas is
called cloud seeding. The Utah Division of Water
Resources explains it this way: “Ground-based seeders
shoot silver iodide into winter clouds where it helps form ice
crystals.
The Solano County Board of Supervisors agreed Tuesday to send a
letter to Caltrans supporting the Highway 37 Interim Project
for interim and long-term solutions to congestion and sea rise
issues. One of those solutions, Supervisor Erin Hannigan said,
will eventually be making the highway a toll road, which she
said many of the motorists using Highway 37 have indicated they
support if it means less congestion. “Due to current and
projected traffic congestion and flooding of the (Highway 37)
corridor, the region requires both an interim and long-term
solution to address these pressing concerns, including
balancing a variety of transportation needs with enhancing
recreational opportunities and protecting and enhancing
sensitive marshland habitats,” …
Millions of tons of riverine plastic waste enter the ocean via
estuaries annually. The plastics accumulate, fragment, mix and
interact with organisms in these dynamic systems, but such
processes have received limited attention relative to
open-ocean sites. In this Perspective, we discuss the
occurrence and convergence of microplastics at estuarine
fronts, focusing on their interactions with physical,
geochemical and biological processes. Microplastic
transformation can be enhanced within frontal systems owing to
strong turbulence and interactions with sediment and biological
particles, exacerbating the potential ecosystem impacts. The
formation of microplastic hotspots at estuarine fronts could be
a target for future plastic pollution mitigation efforts.
As the Great Salt Lake continues to shrink to unprecedented
levels, a key component of its landscape and food web is
missing. The lake is known for thick, black clusters of brine
flies by the billions, which pupate in its salty water then
gather in dense mats to reproduce on shore. The insectile
masses occasionally gross out beachgoers, but the bugs are
harmless to humans. Crucially, they provide a nutrient-rich
feast for millions of migrating birds. This year, however, the
fly swarms are gone. And something’s off about the few bugs
that remain. Scientists say it’s a sign the lake’s ecological
demise is here.
In February 2020, Andrea Jones scrambled up Obsidian Butte, a
lava dome on the southeastern corner of Salton Sea. Amid the
expanse of dry, exposed lakebed, the result of decades of water
diversions and ongoing drought, she also saw a glimmer of
green—unexpected reeds and cattails taking hold around the edge
of the sea, signs of budding wetlands. … Agricultural
drains—dozens of ditches and pipes directing water off nearby
farmland—once flowed directly into the sea. But as the sea
shrinks, their outflow now trickles and meanders across exposed
playa, allowing wetlands to form. They are a happy
surprise amid an otherwise desperate scene at the Salton
Sea, a 343-square-mile inland saltwater lake and the largest
remaining body of water in California.
The Marin Headlands’ unique offering of breathtaking landscapes
mixed with former military bases dating back to World War II
has been a draw for millions of visitors through the decades.
But the combination has not been without downsides. In the
hills overlooking Rodeo Beach, the remnants of former U.S. Army
buildings of Fort Cronkhite have slowly been eroding parts of
the landscape, gouging deep trench-like gullies into the
hillside that have drained natural wetlands. The National Park
Service is now working to reverse the damage and restore more
than an acre of wetlands that can be used as home to species
such as the endangered red-legged frog, said park service
ecologist Darren Fong.
Jay Wilde has worked on his Preston, Idaho, ranch just north of
the Utah border for most of his life. Growing up, one of its
biggest pests were beavers. … But after moving back in 1995,
he experienced a major “paradigm shift.” With the help of Utah
State University’s Beaver Ecology and Relocation Center, he
opened his property as a haven for the species in 2015. Now,
the area is home to over 200 beaver dams — which have increased
the ranch’s creek flows and helped a vulnerable fish species
thrive. … Utah State’s beaver relocation program
re-homes an average of 75 beavers each year, restoring
ecosystems where beavers have played a crucial role for
thousands of years — all with support from the Utah Division of
Wildlife Resources and the U.S. Forest Service.
Congressman Raul Ruiz is calling on the U.S. Department of the
Interior to uphold its commitments to the Salton Sea, including
millions in federal funds from the Inflation Reduction Act.
According to Ruiz’s office, the Inflation Reduction Act
includes $4 billion in funding specifically for water
management and conservation efforts in the Colorado River Basin
and other areas experiencing similar levels of drought. The
funding includes $12.5 million to mitigate the effect of
drought on Tribes. Last week, U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly,
an Arizona Democrat, wrote a letter calling for the federal
government to withhold money for environmental cleanup at the
Salton Sea until California agrees to use less of its
share of the Colorado River.
If it wasn’t for the sun low on the horizon or the sparrows
singing quickly from nearby shrubs, one would barely realize it
was morning. The heat along the Salton Sea, with some
added humidity, already felt slightly oppressive. Our
shorebird survey route included the shoreline along the State
of California’s Species Conservation Habitat (SCH) 4,100 acre
wetland remediation project on the southwest corner of the Sea,
near the New River mouth. We found ourselves in a
construction site, and after asking for access permission, were
given hard hats and sent along our way to navigate a series of
levees and dirt roads and look for birds.
For centuries people from across the region have observed
Camarguaise bull festivities in the Rhone delta, where the
Rhone river and the Mediterranean Sea meet. But now the
tradition is under threat by rising sea levels, heat waves and
droughts which are making water sources salty and lands
infertile. At the same time, there are efforts by authorities
to preserve more land, leaving less for bulls to graze.
… During summers plagued by high temperatures and
diminished rainfall, the sea water can reach up to 20
kilometers (12 miles) into the Rhone river. During a heat wave
in August this year, the Raynaud family’s water pump in the
Petite Rhone, an offshoot of the main river, began pumping salt
water.
The most disputed parkland in Palo Alto isn’t known for its
sports courts, playgrounds or sweeping vistas. Located next to
the Regional Water Quality Control Plant, the 10-acre parcel
commonly known as the “Measure E” site is best known as a place
of opportunity. In 2011, Palo Alto residents voted to
“undedicate” the parkland and make it available for a
waste-to-energy plant that would treat local organic waste, but
that the project never materialized. Now, the city is looking
to rededicate the 10 acres as parkland, a move that is once
again fomenting division within the city’s environmental
community.
Audubon California is advising bird lovers to remove feeders
and to empty bird baths as a precaution to spreading avian flu.
“We know this comes at a time when drought-stressed birds need
birdbaths and fountains more than ever. It is disappointing to
many of us, but as this virus spreads, it’s important to keep
birds healthy,” Gaylon Parsons, interim executive director of
Audubon California, said in a statement released Thursday.
… There have been cases of avian flu reported in 19
counties in the state, and cases in backyard flocks in Butte,
Calaveras, Contra Costa, El Dorado, Fresno, Sacramento and
Tuolumne counties. The most recent discovery was Sept. 29 in
Calaveras County.
Land and waterway managers labored
hard over the course of a century to control California’s unruly
rivers by building dams and levees to slow and contain their
water. Now, farmers, environmentalists and agencies are undoing
some of that work as part of an accelerating campaign to restore
the state’s major floodplains.
Biologists have designed a variety
of unique experiments in the past decade to demonstrate the
benefits that floodplains provide for small fish. Tracking
studies have used acoustic tags to show that chinook salmon
smolts with access to inundated fields are more likely than their
river-bound cohorts to reach the Pacific Ocean. This is because
the richness of floodplains offers a vital buffet of nourishment
on which young salmon can capitalize, supercharging their growth
and leading to bigger, stronger smolts.
Water is flowing once again
to the Colorado River’s delta in Mexico, a vast region that
was once a natural splendor before the iconic Western river was
dammed and diverted at the turn of the last century, essentially
turning the delta into a desert.
In 2012, the idea emerged that water could be intentionally sent
down the river to inundate the delta floodplain and regenerate
native cottonwood and willow trees, even in an overallocated
river system. Ultimately, dedicated flows of river water were
brokered under cooperative
efforts by the U.S. and Mexican governments.
State work to improve wildlife habitat and tamp down dust at California’s ailing Salton Sea is finally moving forward. Now the sea may be on the verge of getting the vital ingredient needed to supercharge those restoration efforts – money.
The shrinking desert lake has long been a trouble spot beset by rising salinity and unhealthy, lung-irritating dust blowing from its increasingly exposed bed. It shadows discussions of how to address the Colorado River’s two-decade-long drought because of its connection to the system. The lake is a festering health hazard to nearby residents, many of them impoverished, who struggle with elevated asthma risk as dust rises from the sea’s receding shoreline.
This tour guided participants on a virtual journey deep into California’s most crucial water and ecological resource – the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. The 720,000-acre network of islands and canals support the state’s two major water systems – the State Water Project and the Central Valley Project. The Delta and the connecting San Francisco Bay form the largest freshwater tidal estuary of its kind on the West coast.
Out of sight and out of mind to most
people, the Salton Sea in California’s far southeast corner has
challenged policymakers and local agencies alike to save the
desert lake from becoming a fetid, hyper-saline water body
inhospitable to wildlife and surrounded by clouds of choking
dust.
The sea’s problems stretch beyond its boundaries in Imperial and
Riverside counties and threaten to undermine multistate
management of the Colorado River. A 2019 Drought Contingency Plan for the
Lower Colorado River Basin was briefly stalled when the Imperial
Irrigation District, holding the river’s largest water
allocation, balked at participating in the plan because, the
district said, it ignored the problems of the Salton Sea.
Deep, throaty cadenced calls —
sounding like an off-key bassoon — echo over the grasslands,
farmers’ fields and wetlands starting in late September of each
year. They mark the annual return of sandhill cranes to the
Cosumnes River Preserve,
46,000 acres located 20 miles south of Sacramento on the edge of
the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
For the bulk of her career, Jayne
Harkins has devoted her energy to issues associated with the
management of the Colorado River, both with the U.S. Bureau of
Reclamation and with the Colorado River Commission of Nevada.
Now her career is taking a different direction. Harkins, 58, was
appointed by President Trump last August to take the helm of the
United States section of the U.S.-Mexico agency that oversees
myriad water matters between the two countries as they seek to
sustainably manage the supply and water quality of the Colorado
River, including its once-thriving Delta in Mexico, and other
rivers the two countries share. She is the first woman to be
named the U.S. Commissioner of the International Boundary and
Water Commission for either the United States or Mexico in the
commission’s 129-year history.
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.
Farmers in the Central Valley are broiling about California’s plan to increase flows in the Sacramento and San Joaquin river systems to help struggling salmon runs avoid extinction. But in one corner of the fertile breadbasket, River Garden Farms is taking part in some extraordinary efforts to provide the embattled fish with refuge from predators and enough food to eat.
And while there is no direct benefit to one farm’s voluntary actions, the belief is what’s good for the fish is good for the farmers.
Deep, throaty cadenced calls —
sounding like an off-key bassoon — echo over the grasslands,
farmers’ fields and wetlands starting in late September of each
year. They mark the annual return of sandhill cranes to the
Cosumnes River Preserve,
46,000 acres located 20 miles south of Sacramento on the edge of
the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
California voters may experience a sense of déjà vu this year when they are asked twice in the same year to consider water bonds — one in June, the other headed to the November ballot.
Both tackle a variety of water issues, from helping disadvantaged communities get clean drinking water to making flood management improvements. But they avoid more controversial proposals, such as new surface storage, and they propose to do some very different things to appeal to different constituencies.
Along the banks of the
Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta in Oakley, about 50 miles southwest
of Sacramento, is a park that harkens back to the days when the
Delta lured Native Americans, Spanish explorers, French fur
trappers, and later farmers to its abundant wildlife and rich
soil.
That historical Delta was an enormous marsh linked to the two
freshwater rivers entering from the north and south, and tidal
flows coming from the San Francisco Bay. After the Gold Rush,
settlers began building levees and farms, changing the landscape
and altering the habitat.
As vital as the Colorado River is to the United States and
Mexico, so is the ongoing process by which the two countries
develop unique agreements to better manage the river and balance
future competing needs.
The prospect is challenging. The river is over allocated as urban
areas and farmers seek to stretch every drop of their respective
supplies. Since a historic treaty between the two countries was
signed in 1944, the United States and Mexico have periodically
added a series of arrangements to the treaty called minutes that
aim to strengthen the binational ties while addressing important
water supply, water quality and environmental concerns.
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 30-minute documentary, produced in 2011, explores the past,
present and future of flood management in California’s Central
Valley. It features stories from residents who have experienced
the devastating effects of a California flood firsthand.
Interviews with long-time Central Valley water experts from
California Department of Water Resources (FloodSAFE), U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers, Bureau of Reclamation, Central Valley Flood
Management Program and environmental groups are featured as they
discuss current efforts to improve the state’s 150-year old flood
protection system and develop a sustainable, integrated, holistic
flood management plan for the Central Valley.
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.
15-minute DVD that graphically portrays the potential disaster
should a major earthquake hit the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
“Delta Warning” depicts what would happen in the event of an
earthquake registering 6.5 on the Richter scale: 30 levee breaks,
16 flooded islands and a 300 billion gallon intrusion of salt
water from the Bay – the “big gulp” – which would shut down the
State Water Project and Central Valley Project pumping plants.
Water truly has shaped California into the great state it is
today. And if it is water that made California great, it’s the
fight over – and with – water that also makes it so critically
important. In efforts to remap California’s circulatory system,
there have been some critical events that had a profound impact
on California’s water history. These turning points not only
forced a re-evaluation of water, but continue to impact the lives
of every Californian. This 2005 PBS documentary offers a
historical and current look at the major water issues that shaped
the state we know today. Includes a 12-page viewer’s guide with
background information, historic timeline and a teacher’s lesson.
This beautiful 24×36 inch poster, suitable for framing, features
a map of the San Joaquin River. The map text focuses on the San
Joaquin River Restoration Program, which aims to restore flows
and populations of Chinook salmon to the river below Friant Dam
to its confluence with the Merced River. The text discusses the
history of the program, its goals and ongoing challenges with
implementation.
This beautiful 24×36 inch poster, suitable for framing, displays
the rivers, lakes and reservoirs, irrigated farmland, urban areas
and Indian reservations within the Klamath River Watershed. The
map text explains the many issues facing this vast,
15,000-square-mile watershed, including fish restoration;
agricultural water use; and wetlands. Also included are
descriptions of the separate, but linked, Klamath Basin
Restoration Agreement and the Klamath Hydroelectric Agreement,
and the next steps associated with those agreements. Development
of the map was funded by a grant from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service.
A companion to the Truckee River Basin Map poster, this 24×36
inch poster, suitable for framing, explores the Carson River, and
its link to the Truckee River. The map includes Lahontan Dam and
Reservoir, the Carson Sink, and the farming areas in the basin.
Map text discusses the region’s hydrology and geography, the
Newlands Project, land and water use within the basin and
wetlands. Development of the map was funded by a grant from the
U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Mid-Pacific Region, Lahontan Basin
Area Office.
This 24×36 inch poster, suitable for framing, explains how
non-native invasive animals can alter the natural ecosystem,
leading to the demise of native animals. “Unwelcome Visitors”
features photos and information on four such species – including
the zerbra mussel – and explains the environmental and economic
threats posed by these species.
The 24-page Layperson’s Guide to the Delta explores the competing
uses and demands on California’s Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
Included in the guide are sections on the history of the Delta,
its role in the state’s water system, and its many complex issues
with sections on water quality, levees, salinity and agricultural
drainage, fish and wildlife, and water distribution.
The Pacific Flyway is one of four
major North American migration routes for birds, especially
waterfowl, and extends from Alaska and Canada, through
California, to Mexico and South America. Each year, birds follow
ancestral patterns as they travel the flyway on their annual
north-south migration. Along the way, they need stopover sites
such as wetlands with suitable habitat and food supplies. In
California, 90 percent of historic wetlands have been lost.
In the Central Valley, wetlands—partly or seasonally saturated
land that supports aquatic life and distinct ecosystems— provide
critical habitat for a variety of wildlife.
This printed issue of Western Water examines how the various
stakeholders have begun working together to meet the planning
challenges for the Colorado River Basin, including agreements
with Mexico, increased use of conservation and water marketing,
and the goal of accomplishing binational environmental
restoration and water-sharing programs.
This printed issue of Western Water examines the issues
associated with the State Water Board’s proposed revision of the
water quality Bay-Delta Plan, most notably the question of
whether additional flows are needed for the system, and how they
might be provided.
This printed copy of Western Water examines the Colorado River
Delta, its ecological significance and the lengths to which
international, state and local efforts are targeted and achieving
environmental restoration while recognizing the needs of the
entire river’s many users.
