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Water articles on key water topics and more!
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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.
To celebrate today’s Summer
Solstice, we’re offering a special 20% discount on our beautiful
poster-size water maps, Layperson’s Guides and other water
education materials.
Don’t miss out! This summer sale runs
through Friday, June 22. Use the promo code SOLSTICE at checkout
to get your discount.
Summer Solstice happens tomorrow,
and to celebrate, we’re offering a special
20% discount on our beautiful poster-size water maps,
Layperson’s Guides and other water education materials.
Don’t miss out! This summer sale starts now and runs through
Friday. Use the promo code SOLSTICE at checkout to get your
discount.
Our annual Water Summit, being held Sept. 20, will
feature critical conversations about water in California and
the West revolving around the theme: Facing
Reality from the Headwaters to the
Delta.
As debate continues to swirl around longer-term remedies for
California’s water challenges, the theme reflects the need for
straightforward dialogue about more immediate, on-the-ground
solutions.
It’s
high-stakes time in Arizona. The state that is first in line
to absorb a shortage on the Colorado River is seeking a unified
approach for water supply management to join its Lower Basin
neighbors, California and Nevada, in a coordinated plan to
preserve water levels in Lake Mead before they run too low.
If the lake’s elevation falls below 1,075 feet above sea level,
the secretary of the Interior would declare a shortage and
Arizona’s deliveries of Colorado River water — water that helps
feed its farms and cities — would be reduced by 320,000
acre-feet — enough, Arizona says, to supply about 1 million
households a year.
Brenda Burman, commissioner of the
U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, will give the keynote lunch address
at our 35th annual conference, the Water
Summit, to be held Sept. 20 in Sacramento.
The daylong event will feature critical conversations about water
in California and the West revolving around the
theme: Facing Reality from the Headwaters to the
Delta.
Our Headwaters Tour later this month
now includes a stop at the University of California, Berkeley’s
Sagehen Creek Field
Station, a Sierra Nevada research and training facility where
we’ll learn about forest ecology research and a forest
restoration project.
Spots are still available for the June 28-29 tour, but sign up quickly here to ensure
your spot!
For more than 100 years, invasive
species have made the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta their home,
disrupting the ecosystem and costing millions of dollars annually
in remediation.
The
latest invader is the nutria, a large rodent native to South
America that causes concern because of its propensity to devour
every bit of vegetation in sight and destabilize levees by
burrowing into them. Wildlife officials are trapping the animal
and trying to learn the extent of its infestation.
The Sierra Nevada mountains, which
are key to California’s water supply through snowmelt, are dotted
with nearly 130 million dead trees weakened by drought and insect
infestations.
The severe tree mortality has increased the risk of
devastating wildfires, reduced the ability of forests to absorb
greenhouse gases and limited the effectiveness of forests and
meadows to regulate water quality and moderate downhill flow.
While the 2012-2016 drought was one leading cause of tree
mortality in California, the dry conditions also exacerbated
tree infestations from more than a half-dozen different bark
beetles.
On our Headwaters Tour,
June 28-29, guests
will hear from leading forest managers and entomologists
about the extent of this epidemic, how it is
altering forests and impacting upper watersheds, and what
can be done to mitigate the damages.
“Facing Reality from the Headwaters
to the Delta” will be the theme of this year’s Water Summit, featuring top
policymakers and others sharing the latest information on key
issues affecting water in California and the Southwest.
The day-long event on Sept. 20 is the Water Education
Foundation’s premiere event of the year. It will be held at the
Westin Sacramento. Look for more details and speaker
announcements coming soon!
In the meantime, join Nutrien
Ag Solutions in securing a sponsorship opportunity and
gaining publicity for your organization by sponsoring lunch
or the evening reception along the beautiful Sacramento River.
Learn about all the sponsorship opportunities
here. Contact Kasey Chong
via email or at 916-812-2643 with any questions.
