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Our Oct. 10-12 Northern California
Tour will explore the myriad agricultural uses of water
throughout the Sacramento Valley, including the latest ways in
which farms are adapting to changes in California’s groundwater
and surface water resources.
The valley, the northern portion of California’s Central Valley,
is known for some 2 million acres of farmland irrigated by the
Sacramento River and its tributaries, along with groundwater.
Primary crops grown in the region include rice, peaches, plums,
tomatoes, walnuts and other nuts.
Attending our annual
Water Summit on Sept. 20 is more than just hearing
in-depth discussions on the hottest water topics.
Mingle and network with attendees at the hosted reception after
the conference beside the Sacramento River, and bid throughout
the day on some fun outings and baskets of California products
during an auction that benefits our yearlong Water Leaders program.
Auction items also feature lunch with water policy experts,
including:
Water means life for all the Grand
Canyon’s inhabitants, including the insects that are a foundation
of the ecosystem’s food web. But hydropower operations upstream
on the Colorado River at Glen Canyon Dam disrupt the natural pace
of insect reproduction as the river rises and falls, sometimes
dramatically. Eggs deposited at the river’s edge are often left
high and dry. Their loss affects available food for endangered
fish such as the humpback chub.
A diverse roster of top policymakers
and water experts are on the agenda for the Foundation’s 35th annual Water Summit. The day-long
conference, Facing Reality from the Headwaters to the
Delta, will feature critical conversations about
water in California and the West.
Climate scientist Daniel Swain will be the opening keynote
speaker addressing drought, flood and wildfires
amid increasing climate whiplash and what it means for water
management. Reclamation Commissioner Brenda Burman will give the
keynote lunch address. See
the full roster of speakers
here.
Participants of our Northern California
Tour, Oct. 10-12, will venture deep inside Shasta Dam,
keystone of the federal Central Valley Project,
and take a houseboat tour of Shasta Lake, California’s largest
reservoir.
The Water Education Foundation’s
website, www.watereducation.org, is a
trusted go-to source for impartial news, information and
background on water resources in California and the Southwest.
More than 260 California water
suppliers — many of them small systems in disadvantaged
communities — don’t meet safe drinking water standards. One
solution to getting those communities clean water is as simple —
and as complicated — as connecting them to a larger supplier
nearby.
At the Foundation’s 35th
annual Water Summit Sept. 20 in Sacramento, Camille Pannu,
director of the Water Justice Clinic at UC Davis’ Aoki Center for
Critical Race and Nation Studies, will discuss the complexities
of water system mergers and a program underway in the Central
Valley that has facilitated more than a dozen such mergers.
More than
two dozen refuge structures made of large walnut tree trunks
bolted to boulders were dropped deep into the Sacramento River
last year to shelter juvenile salmon from predators.
Participants on our Northern California
Tour Oct. 10-12 will visit the location of these
rearing structures in Redding and learn why they’re important
from Roger Cornwell, general manager of River Garden Farms, which
spearheaded the project. Other restoration-focused stops on the
tour include the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge and the Red
Bluff Fish Passage Improvement Project.
Land subsidence caused by
groundwater pumping has been a problem for decades in the San
Joaquin Valley, but an increased reliance on aquifers during the
last decade has resulted in subsidence rates of more than one
foot per year in some parts of the region.
While subsidence was minimal in 2017 due to one of the wettest
years on record, any return to dry conditions would likely set
the stage for subsidence to resume as the region relies more
heavily on groundwater than surface water. Land subsidence not
only has the potential to shrink aquifers, but it puts state and
federal aqueducts and flood control structures at risk of damage.
Amy Haas recently became the first
non-engineer and the first woman to serve as executive director
of the Upper Colorado River Commission in its 70-year history,
putting her smack in the center of a host of daunting challenges
facing the Upper Colorado River Basin.
Yet those challenges will be
quite familiar to Haas, an attorney who has a long history of
working within interstate Colorado River governance. As the
commission’s executive director, Haas is likely to play a major
role in helping to address changing hydrologic conditions that
result in a drier climate and less water for the Colorado,
drought planning and ongoing water conservation efforts, as well
as tribal water rights among Native Americans and their impact
throughout the Colorado River Basin. These issues have
implications throughout the Colorado River drainage.
Scientist Daniel Swain will address
climate whiplash and the challenging road ahead for Western water
managers during a morning keynote address Sept. 20 at the
Foundation’s 35th annual Water Summit in Sacramento.
The Sacramento and San Joaquin
rivers are the two major Central Valley waterways that feed the
Delta, the hub of California’s water supply
network. Our last water tours of
2018 will look in-depth at how these rivers are managed and
used for agriculture, cities and the environment. You’ll see
infrastructure, learn about efforts to restore salmon runs and
talk to people with expertise on these rivers.
There’s still time for K-12
educators to get high-quality professional development training
on watersheds, water resources and climate change through
California Project WET.
The Water Education Foundation is the California coordinator of
Project WET (Water Education for Teachers), an international,
award-winning nonprofit water education program and publisher.
California’s mountain forests are
the source of 60% of the state’s developed water, but they’re
under siege from climate change, drought, bark beetles and
catastrophic wildfire, including the latest fire sweeping toward
Yosemite National Park.
At the Foundation’s 35th
annual Water Summit Sept. 20 in Sacramento, a panel of
experts will address the breadth of challenges facing the state’s
headwaters, some key scientific research on the forests and
potential solutions.
Today is Colorado River Day, the
anniversary of when the Grand River was renamed the Colorado
River, extending the name to the Colorado’s headwaters in 1921.
To mark the anniversary, we’re offering a 20% discount on
our Colorado River map, Layperson’s Guides and other Colorado
River educational materials.
This special sale is only today, Wednesday, July 25. Use the
promo code COLORADORIVERDAY at checkout to get your 20% discount.
Get an up-close look at some of
California’s key water reservoirs and learn about farming
operations, habitat restoration, flood management and wetlands in
the Sacramento Valley on our Northern California Water Tour
Oct. 10-12.
Each year, participants on the Northern California Water Tour
enjoy three days exploring the Sacramento Valley during the
temperate fall. Join us as we travel through a scenic landscape
along the Sacramento and Feather rivers to learn about
issues associated with storing and delivering the state’s water
supply.
Wednesday is Colorado River Day, the
anniversary of when, in 1921, the Grand River was renamed the
Colorado River, extending the name to the Colorado’s headwaters.
To mark the occasion, we’re offering a 20% discount on our
Colorado River map, Layperson’s Guides and other Colorado River
educational materials.
Don’t miss out! This special sale is one day only, on Wednesday,
July 25. Use the promo code COLORADORIVERDAY at checkout to get
your 20% discount.
Controversial flow requirements for
the lower San Joaquin River designed to meet ecological needs of
the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta will be among the topics
addressed during the Water Education Foundation’s Sept. 20 Water
Summit in Sacramento.
The Foundation’s 35th annual Water
Summit, Facing Reality from the Headwaters to the
Delta, will feature panels on the Delta, the Sierra
Nevada headwaters and the state’s human right to water law.
Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Brenda Burman will be the
keynote speaker at lunch.
The Water Education Foundation’s
just-released 2017
Annual Report takes readers along to see the array of
educational events, trainings and publications we produced last
year to create a better understanding of water resources in
California and the Southwest.
Marking its 40th anniversary in 2017, the Foundation’s
annual report recaps its efforts for the year in words and
photos.
Those efforts include workshops and conferences, its
invitation-only Colorado River Symposium, its tours of critical
watersheds in California and along the lower Colorado River,
Project WET’s teacher training programs, the Foundation’s popular
poster-size water maps and Layperson’s Guides on climate change,
groundwater and the Colorado River Delta, and its flagship
publication, Western Water.
Jennifer Bowles, executive director
of the Water Education Foundation, will speak on a panel about
the media during the 25th Annual Urban Water Institute’s
conference in San Diego Aug 22-24.
Bowles, a veteran journalist and
executive editor of the Foundation’s Western Water
news, will join other media representatives, including Ry
Rivard of the Voice of San Diego, to discuss
Working with the Media in Changing Times. Former
Foundation Executive Director Rita Schmidt Sudman, author of
Water More or
Less, will moderate. See the draft agenda here.
