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Twenty-three early
to mid-career water professionals from across California
have been chosen for the 2019 William R. Gianelli Water
Leaders Class, the Water Education Foundation’s highly
competitive and respected career development program.
The State Water Resources Control Board’s recently approved plan
to increase flows through the San Joaquin River and its
tributaries to help improve conditions for fish in the Bay-Delta
estuary sparked passionate arguments over who holds the rights to
California’s waters — and whose rights are senior to
others.
So what’s the difference between a senior water right and a
junior water right? Or a riparian right and an appropriative
right? How are they determined? And how does the concept of
public trust come into play?
The Salton Sea, California’s largest
inland body of water and an important stop on the Pacific Flyway,
is struggling ecologically and shrinking as water is transferred
from surrounding desert farms to urban San Diego County.
On our Lower
Colorado River Tour, Feb. 27-March 1, we will visit this
fragile ecosystem that harbors 400 bird species and hear from
several stakeholders working to address challenges facing the
sea, including managers of the Imperial Irrigation District, the
Salton Sea Authority and California’s appointed “Sea Czar,”
assistant secretary on Salton Sea policy Bruce Wilcox.
Join the team at the Water Education
Foundation, a nonprofit in Sacramento that has been a
trusted source of water news and educational programs in
California and across the West for more than 40 years.
We have a full-time opening for an enthusiastic, team-oriented,
multitasking Programs & Communications Specialist at our office
in midtown Sacramento.
Learn from top experts at our
annual Water
101 Workshop about the history, hydrology and law
behind California water as well as hot topics such as water
flows, the Delta, disadvantaged communities and the Sustainable
Groundwater Management Act. For the first time, the workshop
offers an optional groundwater tour the next day.
One of our most popular events,
Water
101 offers a once-a-year opportunity for anyone new to
California water issues or newly elected to a water district
board – and anyone who wants a refresher — to gain a
deeper understanding of the state’s most precious natural
resource.
Water 101, to be held Feb. 7 at McGeorge School of Law in
Sacramento, details the history, geography, legal and political
facets of water in California, as well as hot topics currently
facing the state. The workshop is taught by some of California’s
leading policy and legal experts, and for the first time will
include an optional daylong tour examining one of the
state’s most critical resources, groundwater.
Registration is now open for the
Santa
Ana River Watershed Conference set for March 29 in
Orange County. The daylong event with the theme,
Moving Forward Together: From Planning to Action
Across the Watershed, will be held at Cal State
Fullerton.
Join us to discuss the importance of the Santa Ana River
Watershed and how, through powerful partnerships, resilient
solutions can be found to improve the quality and
reliability of the region’s water supply.
You can now register for our full
slate of water tours for 2019, including a new tour along
California’s Central
Coast to view a river’s restoration following a major dam
removal, check out efforts to desalt ocean water, recycle
wastewater and manage groundwater and seawater intrusion. We’ll
also take a new route for our Headwaters Tour to check out a
pilot project for thinning the forest in the Yuba River
watershed.
Register now for one of our most
popular events – Water
101, which for the first time will include an optional
daylong tour examining one of California’s most critical
resources, groundwater.
Water 101, to be held Feb. 7 at McGeorge School of Law in
Sacramento, details the history, geography, legal and
political facets of water in California as well as hot topics
currently facing the state. Taught by some of California’s
leading policy and legal experts, the workshop
gives attendees a deeper understanding of the state’s most
precious natural resource.
Hear firsthand about recent efforts
to reach agreement on a drought contingency plan and see the
bathtub ring around Lake Mead, now only 38 percent full after 19
years of drought, during our Lower Colorado River
Tour Feb. 27 – March 1.
As the tour weaves along the Colorado River, participants will
see and learn about the important role water from the river plays
in the three Lower Basin states of Nevada, Arizona and
California, and how it helps to sustain their cities, farms and
wildlife areas.
The 2018
Water Leaders class organized by the Water Education
Foundation completed its year with a report outlining policy
recommendations for improving water management through data.
The class of 22 from
various stakeholder groups and backgrounds that hailed from
cities and towns across California - including one from
Nevada – had full editorial control to choose
recommendations.
Don’t miss this last chance to score
a sweet holiday deal for anyone interested in water in
California and the Southwest: The paperback “Water & the
Shaping of California,” a treasure trove of gorgeous
color photos, historic maps, water literature and famous sayings
about water for just $17.50 — a 50%
discount.
That is just one of the special holiday deals from the
Foundation. We’re also offering a 20% discount
on our popular water maps, guides, teacher resources and more,
and $15 off copies of “Water More or
Less.”
Our popular Water
101 Workshop is a once-a-year opportunity to get a solid
grounding on the history, legal and regulatory facets
of California’s most precious natural resource.
Our Feb. 7 workshop in Sacramento will feature a special
focus on groundwater, which
provides roughly 40 percent of the state’s water supply in an
average year and much more during drought years when creeks,
rivers and reservoirs are strapped.
Don’t miss this opportunity to visit key sites along one of the
nation’s most famous rivers, including a private tour of Hoover
Dam, Central Arizona Project’s Mark Wilmer pumping plant and the
Sonny Bono National Wildlife Refuge.
The tour also visits the beginning of the Colorado River
Aqueduct, the Salton Sea, the All-American Canal and agricultural
regions in the Imperial, Palo Verde and Coachella valleys.
In the world of water, 2018 could
easily be called the
“Year of the Woman,” with noteworthy appointments of women to
top leadership posts in California and at the national level.
Women have had their hands in water issues for a long time, but
their growing presence has been spotlighted by those key
appointments and the understanding that, in what’s traditionally
been a male-dominated field, women are seizing the opportunity to
contribute to the discussion and have their voices heard.
Here’s a sweet deal for the
holidays: Get 50 percent off the paperback Water & the
Shaping of California, a treasure trove of gorgeous
color photos, water literature and famous sayings about water.
This beautifully designed oversize book discusses the engineering
feats, political decisions and popular opinion that reshaped the
nature – flood and drought – and society – gold, grain and
growth – that led to the water projects that created the
California we know today. The book Includes a foreword by the
late Kevin Starr, the Golden State’s premier historian.
This book normally retails for $35, but you can get it for a
limited time for just $17.50. Use the discount code
HOLIDAYBOOK at checkout to get your 50 percent
discount. It’s the perfect gift for anyone interested in water in
California.
Will El Niño rescue California’s
winter after a very dry fall? Can the state bank on atmospheric
rivers of storms to refill its reservoirs? How far can
forecasters peer into the future to gauge what’s ahead for the
2019 winter?
A one-day workshop Dec. 5 in Irvine cosponsored
by the Foundation and the California Department of Water
Resources will feature experts from NASA Jet Propulsion
Laboratory, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, DWR and the
Western Regional Climate Center discussing the state of the
science in long-range forecasting – critical for managing water
supplies — and what may be ahead for this winter. Here’s where
to sign up for Water Year
2019: Feast or Famine.
The Irvine workshop is one of several Foundation events and tours
planned over the next few months.
A multipronged effort to engage with
economically disadvantaged and underrepresented communities in
the Santa Ana River watershed to learn what their water needs are
and how those needs could be met will be highlighted March 29 at
the Santa
Ana River Watershed Conference in Orange County.
An array of speakers will discuss the innovative work they’ve
been doing, some of the things they’ve learned and tools they’ve
developed during a panel discussion at the daylong event,
Moving Forward Together: From Planning to Action
Across the Watershed, being held at Cal State
Fullerton.
Educating the next generation about
one of the most precious resources in California – and on the
planet – is a key part of the Water Education Foundation’s
mission through Project WET (Water Education for Teachers).Please
help us continue that work by giving
back on Giving Tuesday.
