Tickets to the Water Education Foundation 2018 water tours are on sale now!

Our tours are legendary for being packed with educational experiences you will not find anywhere else, networking opportunities with water professionals and fun adventures through the American Southwest.

Depending on the tour you choose, you will have the opportunity to go deep into some of the most iconic infrastructure projects, including Hoover and Shasta dams, as well as visit canals and reservoirs, pumping stations that deliver water to millions and hydroelectric facilities that power our daily lives. On some tours, you will see fish spawn in hatcheries and be released into rivers. And on other tours, you will walk through restored meadow and forest ecosystems, along re-engineered rivers and into agricultural sites and food production facilities.

Some tours includes cruises across the San Francisco Bay, Lake Shasta and a key reservoir off the Colorado River.

Throughout all of these tours, water experts help you connect the dots and better see a complete picture of modern water use.

Our tour agendas provide you with a fair, balanced and unbiased view of the most pressing issues in water, land use and policy. We give participants a firsthand look at the water facilities, rivers and regions critical in the debate about the future of water resources. Issues of water supply, water quality, environmental restoration, flood management, groundwater and water conservation are addressed by a wide range of speakers representing different viewpoints.

In 2018, we are offering six multi-day tours that you can now register for at the early-bird discount price.

• Central Valley Tour (March 14-16) – This 3-day, 2-night tour travels the length of the San Joaquin Valley, giving participants a clear understanding of the State Water Project and Central Valley Project. Issues of water supply for farms, water project operations, groundwater, wetlands, flood control and agricultural drainage are discussed.
• Lower Colorado River Tour (April 11-13) – This 3-day, 2-night tour follows the lower Colorado River through Nevada, Arizona and California, and includes a private tour of Hoover Dam. Issues discussed include water needs in the Lower Basin, drought management, Lake Mead shortage criteria and endangered species.
• Bay-Delta Tour (May 16-18 ) – This 3-day, 2-night tour takes participants to the heart of California water policy – the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and San Francisco Bay. Participants learn about the critical role the Delta plays in California’s water supply, Delta planning initiatives, water project operations, fish passage, ecosystem restoration, levees and flood management, Delta agriculture and water supply reliability.
• Headwaters Tour (June 28-29) – This 2-day, 1-night tour travels through the Sierra Nevada foothills, into the mountains and around the Lake Tahoe Basin. Topics include meadow restoration, forest management and tree mortality, climate change, wildfire impacts and water quality. Tour stops include a meadow restoration site, Lake Tahoe, El Dorado National Forest, and the Truckee and American rivers.
• Northern California Tour (October 10-12) – This 3-day, 2-night tour travels the length of the Sacramento Valley, a primary source of water for much of California. Stops include Oroville and Shasta dams, Red Bluff Fish Passage Improvement Project, Feather River Fish Hatchery, Clear Creek restoration site and Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge. Other highlights include a houseboat cruise on Shasta Lake.
• San Joaquin River Restoration Tour (November 7-8 ) – This 2-day, 1-night tour offers participants the opportunity to learn about challenges associated with one of the nation’s largest restoration efforts aimed at restoring flows and a Chinook salmon fishery along the San Joaquin River. Restoration efforts are focused on a 60-mile, mostly dry stretch of the river from below Friant Dam near Fresno to the confluence of the Merced River while reducing or avoiding adverse water supply impacts to farmers.

Like what you see? Become a tour sponsor for one, several or all of our 2018 tours! A limited number of scholarships are also available on a case-by-case basis. 

Email Tour Director Dan Scott for more information or to become a sponsor. Or call him at 916-444-6240.