Find out what the Water Education Foundation is up to with
announcements about upcoming events, tours, new Western
Water articles on key water topics and more!
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Our popular Layperson’s
Guide to Water Rights Law has just been updated with
an extensive section on groundwater rights and the 2014
Sustainable Groundwater Management Act as well as the latest
significant court cases governing how water is used in
California.
This 28-page Layperson’s Guide, recognized as the most thorough
explanation of California water rights law available to
non-lawyers, traces the authority for water flowing in a stream
or reservoir, from a faucet or into an irrigation ditch through
the complex web of California water rights.
One of our most popular programs,
the Water Leaders
class is aimed at providing a deeper understanding
of California water issues and building leadership skills
with class members by studying a water-related topic in-depth and
working with a mentor.
Are you considering apply for the 2021 class or supporting a
candidate? Join us at 3 p.m. on Nov. 17 for a
30-minute Q&A session with Foundation Executive
Director Jenn Bowles, who will offer details on the program and
tips on completing an application.
Sign up for next week’s Nov. 12
virtual Northern California
Tour, which will take you through a region key to
water supply for much of the state.
During the three-hour online event, you’ll get up close to
Oroville Dam and learn how its two spillways were repaired
following a catastrophic 2017 storm. You’ll also visit rice
farms and wetlands in the Sacramento Valley, and hear from
farmers and environmentalists about efforts to restore runs
of endangered chinook salmon and help birds along the Pacific
Flyway. You’ll also visit Shasta Dam and the area being eyed
for the proposed Sites Reservoir. Get your ticket for the
“bus” here.
If you missed our October Bay-Delta
Tour, you can join us Nov. 10 for an encore. This tour traverses
the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, a 720,000-acre network of
islands and canals that serves as California’s most crucial water
and ecological resource. Hear from farmers, fish biologists,
people working on restoration efforts and more!
Explore the Sacramento
River and its tributaries and gain a deeper understanding of the
issues associated with a key source of the state’s water
supply. Visit Oroville and Shasta dams, rice fields and wildlife
refuges, and hear from farmers, biologists and water managers.
Each virtual tour event will include:
An overview presentation of the region’s
critical topics
A guided video tour of key locations
— farms, wetlands, dams and reservoirs, wildlife
habitats — to gain a stronger understanding on a
variety of water supply issues and the latest policy
developments
Live Q&A with experts featured in the
video so attendees can dive deeper into the topics
As part of each event, participants will receive one of
our popular Layperson’s Guides and be entered into a drawing
to win one of our beautiful water maps.
Attendees should make sure they download the latest version
of Zoom before the event.
Join us for an engaging virtual
exploration of the Sacramento River and its tributaries to learn
about issues associated with a key source for the state’s water
supply on our Nov. 12 Northern
California Tour.
In addition to the Northern California Tour, you can join us for
an encore Bay-Delta Tour Nov.
10 and other virtual journeys into key water
regions across California.
The Water Education Foundation is
fortunate to have generous supporters who have answered the call
to make contributions through a workplace giving campaign. The
contributions support our nonprofit’s mission to inspire
understanding of water and catalyze critical conversations to
build bridges and inform collaborative decision-making.
This year, we hope you’ll consider making a tax-deductible
gift to the Foundation via a one-time payroll deduction or
as a set amount per pay period through your employer.
Applications are now available for
our yearlong Water
Leaders class.
One of our most popular programs, the Water Leaders class is
aimed at providing a deeper understanding of California
water issues and building leadership skills with class members by
studying a water-related topic in-depth and working with a
mentor.
It’s workplace giving season, the
time of year when anyone in the workplace can show their support
for the organizations and causes they love.
If you have come on one of our water tours,
participated in our Water Leaders program or are
a loyal reader of our Western Water
articles or weekday Aquafornia water news feed,
you can now support us though a payroll deduction at your
workplace, whether it’s a federal or state agency or in the
private-sector.
Our virtual Bay-Delta Tour set
for tomorrow (Oct. 8) has sold out, but you can still
join the
waitlistand receive priority access to an
encore Bay-Delta Tour event later this fall if there’s enough
interest!
Fun, friendship, invaluable
contacts, exposure to different viewpoints, core knowledge
and a big-picture view of California water are all elements of
our popular and respected Water Leaders program aimed
at early to mid-career professionals.
Alums include Sean
Maguire, State Water Resources Control Board
member; Newsha Ajami,
director of Urban Water Policy at Stanford University’s Water in
the West; Dave Mooney, Bay-Delta office manager, Bureau of
Reclamation; and Martha Guzman
Aceves, a commissioner with the California Public
Utilities Commission.
The Water Education Foundation’s
just-released 2019 Annual
Report takes readers along to see the array of educational
events, trainings and articles we produced last year to create a
better understanding of water resources in California and the
Southwest.
The Annual Report, whose release was delayed due to impacts from
the COVID-19 pandemic, recaps the Foundation’s efforts for
the year in words and photos.
Join us this fall for engaging virtual journeys into key
water regions across California, including our Oct. 8 Bay-Delta
Tour.
Each tour event will include:
An overview presentation of the region’s critical topics
A guided video tour of key locations — farms,
wetlands, dams and reservoirs, wildlife habitats — to
gain a stronger understanding on a variety of water
supply issues and the latest policy developments
Live Q&A with experts featured in the video so
attendees can dive deeper into the topics
As part of each event, participants will receive one of
our popular Layperson’s Guides and be entered into a drawing
to win one of our beautiful water maps.
Join us for an Oct. 8 virtual
journey into California’s most critical and
controversial water region in the state: The Sacramento-San
Joaquin Delta.
The Delta, a 720,000-acre network of islands and canals, supports
the state’s two large water systems – the State Water Project and
the federal Central Valley Project – and together with the San
Francisco Bay is an important ecological resource.
There’s still time for K-12
educators in the Sacramento region to sign up for an Oct. 3
workshop exploring activities to engage students in the study
of local watersheds and their connections to the Pacific
Ocean.
The workshop is part of Project WET (now called Water Education
Today), an international, award-winning nonprofit water
education program and publisher of materials geared toward K-12
educators. The Water Education Foundation is the coordinator for
Project WET in California.
Register here by
Sept. 25 for the Oct. 3 workshop that includes an online
study at your own pace and a socially distanced field trip
at the Effie Yeaw
Nature Center along the American River. Cost is $18.00 (plus
a nominal Eventbrite fee) and includes a copy of the
Project WET 2.0 and Aquatic WILD guides.
Practically every drop of water that
flows through the meadows, canyons and plains of the Colorado
River Basin has reams of science attached to it.
Snowpack, streamflow and tree ring data all influence the crucial
decisions that guide water management of the iconic Western river
every day.
Our
latest article in Western Water news
examines a new report that synthesizes and provides context for
that science and could aid water managers as they prepare to
rewrite the operating rules for a river system so vital to the
Southwestern United States and Mexico.
In California and across the West,
some people face persistent challenges in trying to gain
access to safe, reliable and affordable water to meet their
everyday needs. In some cases, people are left without water
as wells run dry during drought or they have no access at all to
running water – a troubling deficit when hand washing is touted
as necessary to protect against the coronavirus pandemic.
Communities of color are most often burdened by these challenges.
Our water tours are lauded because
they are both fun and educational. You can still experience both
Aug. 6 when your favorite tour guide
Nick Gray takes you on a virtual
journey across a Sierra watershed during our Headwaters Tour.
Registration is now open for our
virtual Headwaters
Tour with an exclusive screening of a video that takes
viewers on a journey across the upper watershed of a major
Sierra-fed river to learn the important role forests play in
California’s water supply.
You’ll go to the crest of the Sierras to learn how the state
measures snowpack, to a meadow restoration deep in the
forest and along the American River in the foothills where
water is diverted for homes.
Follow us on social media channels,
including a just-launched Instagram page to
learn about issues key to understanding water and what the Water
Education Foundation is up to.
We regularly post on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook. Now we are
hosting an Instagram page to cast a wider net in our efforts to
educate the public about critical water resource
information.
