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.
For the first time in four years, water is being pumped from
Tulelake to the Lower Klamath National Wildlife Refuge. The
historic Pumping Plant D in Tulelake Irrigation District (TID)
was constructed at the base of Sheepy Ridge in 1942. TID
Manager Brad Kirby said the five massive pumps ran year-round
for nearly 70 years. … In 2020, drought conditions and
federal regulations rendered the plant inoperative. As of
Monday morning, the D-Plant is up and running again, pumping
water from the Tulelake National Wildlife Refuge through Sheepy
Ridge to the Lower Klamath refuge thanks to the efforts of TID,
Ducks Unlimited and U.S. Fish and Wildlife.
A vast burn scar unfolds in drone footage of a landscape seared
by massive wildfires north of Lake Tahoe. But amid the expanses
of torched trees and gray soil, an unburnt island of lush green
emerges. The patch of greenery was painstakingly engineered. A
creek had been dammed, creating ponds that slowed the flow of
water so the surrounding earth had more time to sop it up. A
weblike system of canals helped spread that moisture through
the floodplain. Trees that had been encroaching on the wetlands
were felled. But it wasn’t a team of firefighters or
conservationists who performed this work. It was a crew of
semiaquatic rodents whose wetland-building skills have seen
them gain popularity as a natural way to mitigate
wildfires. A movement is afoot to restore beavers to the
state’s waterways, many of which have suffered from their
absence.
Birds and people need clean and abundant water in rivers,
lakes, streams, wetlands, and marshes in landscapes throughout
the country. Today, the White House is announcing several
new initiatives to celebrate World Water Day and protect
waterways, and access to clean water, across the country.
… The announcements are paired with updates from
previous water-related commitments from the Administration,
including historic levels of Bipartisan Infrastructure Law
funding for conservation in places like the Everglades, the
Great Lakes, and the Delaware River basin, safeguarding
wilderness and cultural areas to protect them from pollution
and development, and building resilience to climate change in
places threatened by flooding, drought, and wildfires like the
Colorado River Basin.
… Riparian forest is a rare sight in the Central Valley.
About one million acres of trees, shrubs, and grasses once
flourished, drowned, and flourished again along the valley’s
rivers, creeks, and floodplains; now, perhaps 130,000 acres
remain. In recent years, though, that number has begun to inch
up again. Caswell has about 260 acres. Seven miles south of
there is Dos Rios Ranch—2,100 acres, much of it former dairy
farm and almond orchard, at the extremely floodable confluence
of the Tuolumne and San Joaquin rivers—which is steadily being
restored to riparian forest. Later this year it will open as
California’s first new state park in 15 years.
Outrage over the Trump-packed U.S. Supreme Court rolling back
federal reproductive rights has in some ways overshadowed the
now 6-3 conservative majority’s relentless assault on
environmental regulations that for decades protected Colorado’s
clean air and water. … Now Colorado lawmakers are trying
to step into that regulatory void with Wednesday’s filing of
the Regulate Dredge and Fill Activities in State Waters bill
(HB24-1379). If passed, it would require a rulemaking process
by the Colorado Department of Health and Environment’s Water
Quality and Control Division to permit dredge and fill
activities on both public and private land. -Written by contributor David O. Williams.
The Cocopah Tribe and two other Arizona tribal communities are
working with new money and tools to address climate change
after receiving grants from the U.S. Department of the Interior
and several private funders. In 2023, the 1,000-member Cocopah
Tribe, whose lands lie along the Colorado River southwest of
Yuma, received $5 million from the National Fish and Wildlife
Foundation’s America the Beautiful Challenge to support two
riparian restoration initiatives. During the four-year project,
the tribe will remove invasive species and replant 45,000
native trees, like cottonwood, willow and mesquite to restore
390 acres of the river’s historic floodplain close to the
U.S.-Mexico border. The Cocopah Tribe also received $515,000
from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Bonneville
Environmental Foundation for the restoration effort.
Nature is not what comes to mind when an outsider drives
into Bel Marin Keys, a tiny community that begins 1½ miles
east of Highway 101 in Marin County, reached by a single road
that passes a shopping center and small industrial buildings
along the way. The wide streets are monotonous, often lined
with homes that resemble those of countless 1960s subdivisions.
On some blocks, the only hint that creeks and wetlands might be
nearby are the red-winged blackbirds that touch down on utility
poles. … It’s a bucolic scene — and an engineering
landscape that wouldn’t exist if not for the intrusions into
former bay wetlands that now are at risk due to sea level
rise. That’s why residents of Bel Marin Keys voted to
approve a $30 million parcel tax this month aimed at building
stronger and taller levees, plus an improved set of locks to
keep adjacent waters from spilling into one of the lagoons that
give this precarious collection of 700 homes its character.
California officials are trying to boost state wetlands
protections in order to guard against a 2023 Supreme Court
decision that slashed federal oversight of wetlands.
Assemblymember Laura Friedman’s A.B. 2875 would declare it the
state’s policy to ensure long-term gain and no net loss of
California’s wetlands. And Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom’s
administration is proposing to add 38 new positions to enforce
the state’s existing wetlands protection laws and scrutinize
development permits.
This half-hour special dives into the troubles and triumphs at
the Salton Sea. The sea is the largest body of water in
California. It formed after a levee at the Colorado River burst
in the early 1900s, and after the levee was fixed, it cut off
the flow of fresh water. Since then, the sea has become
polluted with chemical runoff from nearby farms. It’s also
slowly evaporating. The chemical-filled water releases gases
that trigger asthma in nearby communities, and toxic dust from
around the shoreline acts as an irritant as well. Despite
all of the negatives, there are a few positives. New wetlands
are forming as the sea slowly pulls away from the shoreline,
playing host to thousands of migrating birds. Developing
wetlands make the sea an important stop along the Pacific
Flyway.
A restoration project at Talbert Marsh got the go-ahead
Thursday after the state Coastal Commission approved a coastal
permit application submitted by the Huntington Beach Wetlands
Conservancy as part of its consent calendar. The roughly 25
acres of Talbert Marsh stretch between Brookhurst Street to the
Santa Ana River Trail and make up one of four wetlands the
nonprofit owns and maintains. More than 90 bird species have
been observed at the marsh in addition to the adjoining
wetlands, according to the organization. The project along the
southeastern and western shorelines of South Island will
address erosion, which Coastal Commission staff said causes the
disappearance of coastal salt marsh vegetation and depletes
refuge spaces for sensitive bird species that live there.
Environmental groups on Thursday sued officials who signed off
on a lithium project in the Salton Sea that a top Biden
official has helped advance. Comité Civico del Valle and
Earthworks filed the legal complaint in Imperial County
Superior Court against county officials who approved
conditional permits for Controlled Thermal Resources’ Hell’s
Kitchen lithium and geothermal project. The groups argue that
the country’s approval of the direct lithium extraction and
geothermal brine project near the southeastern shore of the
Salton Sea violates county and state laws, such as the
California Environmental Quality Act.
… For millennia seasonal wetlands dotted California’s Central
Valley … But as farms and towns have taken over the
landscape, nearly all those shallow, ephemeral water bodies
have disappeared, leaving avian migrants with scant options for
pit stops. With shorebirds rapidly declining along the Pacific
Flyway, conservationists and landowners have joined forces to
help turn the tide. Launched in
2014, BirdReturns runs via reverse auctions … Since
its inception, the program—jointly run by Audubon California,
The Nature Conservancy, and Point Blue Conservation Science—has
paid more than 100 farmers a total of $2 million to flood
60,000 acres throughout the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys.
Buoyed by a recent $15 million grant from the state, the
program is poised to greatly expand its reach.
Just south of Dos Rios Ranch, a much-praised effort at river
restoration, another such project is taking root. It will add
about 380 acres of floodplain and other habitat to the 1,600
acres at Dos Rios. They are near the confluence of the Tuolumne
and San Joaquin rivers, about eight miles southwest of Modesto.
The state-funded project, totaling about $20.8 million, is on
the former Hidden Valley Dairy. Annual feed crops are giving
way to oaks, cottonwoods, willows and other native plants. The
floodplain will take on high river flows that otherwise could
threaten nearby Grayson and downstream towns. The standing
water could recharge the aquifer below for use during droughts.
The place could offer food and shelter to fish, birds, mammals
and other creatures.
This month, several wildlife conservation groups petitioned the
California Fish and Game Commission to list these owls as
endangered or threatened under the California Endangered
Species Act. … [Chair of the environmental studies department
at San Jose State University Lynne] Trulio’s speciality is
urban species, and she’s contributed to the research that
underpins Santa Clara County’s habitat conservation plan on
burrowing owls. But before that she was also the lead scientist
for the South Bay Salt Pond Restoration Project, one of
the largest tidal wetland restoration projects on the West
Coast. “One of the things that drove the effort was the
fact that there were endangered species” in wetlands, said
Trulio. She said it took years to change the perception of the
wetlands as a dumping ground and to get a ballot measure to
fund its preservation.
… Los Angeles desperately needs to become more like a
sponge. That will help to capture more stormwater locally when
rain does come and lessen devastating flooding, said Edith de
Guzman, a UCLA water equity and climate adaptation researcher.
… The Rory M. Shaw Wetlands Park Project will
turn a 46-acre landfill formerly used for materials such as
concrete and gravel into an engineered wetland that can boost
local water supply and alleviate local flooding. It’ll also
become a 15-acre park with a lake and walking paths.
… But now, the biggest barrier to completing the project
is funding, said Mark Pestrella, the director of L.A. County
Department of Public Works, which is spearheading the project
(after it’s constructed, the city of L.A. will take over
maintenance). The new goal is to complete it by 2028 or 2029.
Sea otters, once hunted to near extinction, are staging a
comeback in California. Their return has revealed the
incredible positive effects these furry apex predators can have
on the state’s coastal ecosystems, including kelp forests and
seagrass meadows. Now, there’s another coastal ecosystem to add
to that list, one that plays an important role in bank
stabilization, water filtration, and carbon storage: the salt
marsh. In a new study in Nature, researchers found that sea
otters have reduced bank erosion rates by 69% in Elkhorn
Slough, a coastal wetland south of San Francisco, in the
decades since their return to the estuary. Their big effect is
due to their big appetites—the Elkhorn Slough salt marsh has
been eroding, in part, because of root-munching shore crabs
that burrow into the soil and destabilize the banks.
Wooden fence posts poking just above the surface and tall oaks
with their trunks submerged are sure signs that the land is
flooded. That word, “flooded,” has a negative connotation, an
association with destruction. But here it is positive – even
protective. And if the San Francisco Estuary Institute, Sonoma
County Water Agency, and Laguna de Santa Rosa Foundation get
what they want, more water, not less, is destined for this
place. The Laguna de Santa Rosa drains much of urban Sonoma
County, a watershed of 250 square miles, and is the largest
tributary of the mighty Russian River. The more water that this
creek and its floodplain can slow and absorb, the less water
will rush downstream to threaten truly catastrophic flooding in
Guerneville, Monte Rio, and Rio Nido.
The Salton Sea is shrinking. The sea formed about 120 years ago
when a Colorado River levee burst, creating an extremely large
body of water and a thriving resort town. But as agriculture
runoff and evaporation impacted water quality, the sea slowly
became toxic, turning the once vibrant area into a ghost town.
However, local groups are working together to change that
narrative. The Sonny Bono Salton Sea Wildlife Refuge is an
example of what life at the sea looks like when its supported
and managed. At sunrise, coyotes run along berms, snowy egrets
forage for food and thousands of snow geese travel as a noisy
flock. Award-winning wildlife photographer Paulette Donnellon
spends her time capturing life at the refuge.
… In an effort to demonstrate the power of proper floodplain
management, the Floodplain Forward Coalition came together with
the conservation touring company, EcoFlight, to show media,
legislative staff and California Natural Resources Secretary,
Wade Crowfoot, how the floodplains are working in the
Sacramento Valley and demonstrate how we can provide more
benefits to people and wildlife with an increase in investment
and permitting from state leaders.
When rain falls anywhere in Santa Rosa, Windsor, Rohnert Park,
Cotati, or Sebastopol, the water will make its way to the
Laguna de Santa Rosa. Sitting at the bottom of the greater
Santa Rosa plain, the Laguna is the largest freshwater wetlands
complex on the northern California coast. In 2011, it was
designated a Wetland of International Importance. Yet how many
locals could find it on a map? To be fair, parts of the Laguna
have been altered and obscured by decades of development.
Sebastopol dumped its sewage there until 1978. Restoration work
has been underway since the 1990s, and December 2023 saw the
release of the first-ever comprehensive restoration plan for
the entire Laguna, designed to guide its continued recovery.
Audubon California and partners released their San Francisco
Bay Eelgrass Habitat Suitability Model, a powerful new tool
that highlights future-resilient locations within the bay most
suitable for restoration of eelgrass, a linchpin species for
long-term bay health. The project was developed as a
collaboration between Audubon California, Merkel & Associates,
Inc., and Dr. Katharyn Boyer (Interim Director, Estuary and
Ocean Science Center, San Francisco State University), funded
by a grant from the California Ocean Protection Council.
… San Francisco Bay hosts an estimated 17% of
California’s eelgrass. Eelgrass (Zostera marina)
plays a critical role in the marine food web and bay ecosystem.
Not only does it provide home and food to a vast quantity of
marine life, including waterbirds like Surf
Scoters, Buffleheads, and Western Grebes - its
dense growth along the seafloor traps sediment and substrate, a
crucial factor in preventing coastal erosion.
In the heart of California, at the place where two great rivers
converge beneath the Tule fog, lies the linchpin of one of the
largest water supply systems in the world. [T]he Sacramento-San
Joaquin River Delta … is also the site of a bitter,
decades-long battle over a proposed plan known as the Delta
Conveyance Project — a 45-mile tunnel that would run beneath
the delta to move more water from Northern California to
thirsty cities to the south. State officials say the
tunnel is a critical piece of infrastructure that would help
protect millions of Californians from losing water supplies in
the event of a major earthquake or levee break.
… Opponents say the tunnel is a boondoggle that would
further imperil the delta’s fragile ecosystem, which has
already been eroded by heavy water withdrawals for agriculture
and cities.
… The more information we have about the movements of
shorebirds and their numbers, the better equipped we are to
manage the critical ecosystems they depend on and protect their
populations for generations to come. When it comes to
shorebirds though, acquiring such a level of robust information
is not an easy task. Many shorebirds will utilize the entire
hemisphere every year. In the winter they’re spread across the
tremendously vast landscapes of North, Central and South
America, and throughout the breeding season, they’re dispersed
across the Arctic and other extremely remote locations. It’s
nearly impossible to get a comprehensive picture of shorebird
populations during these times, leaving birders and biologists
one opportunity—migration.
On the north edge of the Salton Sea, a movement is gaining
steam to create a new national monument that would protect
swaths of recreational land used by the valley’s communities of
color. A coalition of environmental groups and tribes,
including the Fort Yuma Quechan Indian Tribe, Audubon
California, Consejo de Federaciones Mexicanas and the Center
for Biological Diversity are urging the federal government to
designate large sections of land there with similar protections
to national parks. National monuments are typically shielded
from mining and drilling and can also open the door for tribes
and federal agencies to work together to manage the land.
The Willow Bend wetlands have become a refuge for tiny salmon
as they mature into fish strong enough to survive the ebbs and
flows of migration to the ocean. The preserve also provides a
home for birds such as wood ducks and vultures, as well as
facilitating groundwater recharge and reducing the flood risk
for nearby communities.
Across the diverse landscapes of California, reliable access to
water is often an existential issue of survival. Sustainable
water management is critical to the future of the state, for
numerous vulnerable communities, and in the preservation of
some of our most endangered bird habitat. The Sustainable
Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) was enacted to ensure
sustainable groundwater supplies for communities, the
environment, and other users. However, without proper and
additional implementation safeguards, SGMA is on course to
deprive small communities of essential water supply and destroy
the last remaining wetlands. AB 828 offers a measured and
reasonable approach to protect safe and clean water
accessibility for all California communities and safeguard the
dwindling managed wetland acreage.
Over the years, Marin has taken the initiative to restore its
wetlands. The focus and work is a recognition of the importance
this soggy acreage plays in the ecological chain that keeps our
bays and oceans healthy and thriving. In many cases, it means
restoring historic wetlands covered by years of built-up silt
and blanketed by landfill. The announcement that work will soon
start on two such projects is another sign that progress is
being made to restore and revive these shorelines. In
Kentfield, work will soon start to lower sections of the tall
concrete flood-control walls built along Corte Madera Creek in
the 1960s.
California has lost most of its natural wetlands as rivers have
been cut off from their natural floodplains. And it’s pretty
remarkable what can be achieved when rivers are given space to
reconnect with floodplains. I learned more about opening up
spaces for rivers to roam while working on an article about
floodplain restoration efforts in the Central Valley. These
types of projects have received broad-based support in recent
years as an effective nature-based solution that can bring
various interrelated benefits. They include: reducing the risks
of flooding in vulnerable communities downstream; capturing and
storing more water underground in aquifers; improving water
quality; and helping to repair ecosystems.
Not everyone gets to turn their hobby into a career. But thanks
to the Salton Sea, California duck hunting guide Breck
Dickinson gets to do just that. He doesn’t even advertise, and
yet he has work booked out years in advance. Declining water
levels at the Salton Sea, which has lost about a third of its
water supply in the past 25 years, jeopardize the future of his
business. The ducks remain plentiful, he says, but access to
the lake has declined and other species of birds have largely
disappeared. All that could change within the next year or
two as the state of California nears the completion of the
Species Conservation Habitat Restoration Project … to restore
30,000 acres of habitat at the Salton Sea — and one that could
have implications for the future of the Great Salt Lake.
… Natural floodplains — the lush green lands along
rivers that historically flooded, retained water, and nourished
life in the heart of the valley — were mostly drained and
converted to farmland generations ago as the state’s waters
were dammed and diverted. Today, an effort to bring back
some of those floodplains is flourishing at the 2,100-acre Dos
Rios Ranch Preserve near Modesto, where workers years ago
planted native trees on retired farm fields and removed berms
to create space for water to spread out again. … By making
room for the rivers to overflow, the restoration project has
created an outlet for high flows that helps to reduce the risk
of dangerous flooding in low-lying communities nearby.
If open space, ocean views and wildlife are your thing,
Chanslor Ranch in Bodega Bay should be your next destination.
Long a privately owned getaway known primarily for horseback
trail rides, the 378-acre ranch across Highway 1 from Bodega
Dunes and Salmon Creek state beaches is now in county hands and
open to the general public. … [V]isitors are welcome to hike
4.5 miles of trail leading up coastal hills, down to Salmon
Creek and around the rugged landscape, which is bounded in part
by the creek. The land is known for a diversity of habitat,
from wetlands to coastal prairie, as well as many plants and
animals. The wetlands are a stopover for migrating birds, as
well.
Rapidly rising seas are wreaking havoc on Louisiana’s
coastal wetlands, and could devastate three-quarters of
the state’s natural buffer against hurricanes in the
coming decades, scientists found in a study published
Thursday. The new research documents how a sudden
burst of sea level rise over the past 13 years — the type
of surge once not expected until later this century — has left
the overwhelming majority of the state’s coastal wetland sites
in a state of current or expected “drowning,” where the seas
are rising faster than wetlands can grow. … The news is
dire for a state that has already lost over 2,000 square
miles of wetland area since 1932, bringing the ocean ever
closer to New Orleans and other population centers and leaving
them more vulnerable to storms.
The return of fully planted rice crops to the Sacramento Valley
following years of drought has restored another essential
feature of the region. After harvest, reservoirs replenished by
last year’s historic storms enabled farmers to flood more of
their fields this winter, creating wetland habitat for
migrating waterfowl. … Today, around 300,000 acres of the
valley’s rice paddies are flooded each winter to provide food
and shelter for 7 million ducks and geese, according to the
California Rice Commission. More than 200 species of wildlife,
including threatened species such as Sandhill Cranes, rely on
the fields. Especially over the past decade, state and federal
programs have been developed to incentivize winter flooding,
defraying some of the cost, and rice farmers have embraced
their role in wildlife conservation.
A new but little-known change in
California law designating aquifers as “natural infrastructure”
promises to unleash a flood of public funding for projects that
increase the state’s supply of groundwater.
The change is buried in a sweeping state budget-related law,
enacted in July, that also makes it easier for property owners
and water managers to divert floodwater for storage underground.
It was exactly the sort of deluge
California groundwater agencies have been counting on to
replenish their overworked aquifers.
The start of 2023 brought a parade of torrential Pacific storms
to bone dry California. Snow piled up across the Sierra Nevada at
a near-record pace while runoff from the foothills gushed into
the Central Valley, swelling rivers over their banks and filling
seasonal creeks for the first time in half a decade.
Suddenly, water managers and farmers toiling in one of the
state’s most groundwater-depleted regions had an opportunity to
capture stormwater and bank it underground. Enterprising agencies
diverted water from rushing rivers and creeks into manmade
recharge basins or intentionally flooded orchards and farmland.
Others snagged temporary permits from the state to pull from
streams they ordinarily couldn’t touch.
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 Water Education Foundation’s second edition of
the Layperson’s Guide to The Klamath River Basin is
hot off the press and available for purchase.
Updated and redesigned, the easy-to-read overview covers the
history of the region’s tribal, agricultural and environmental
relationships with one of the West’s largest rivers — and a
vast watershed that hosts one of the nation’s oldest and
largest reclamation projects.
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.