Announcements

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.

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.

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! 

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.

As California embarks on its unprecedented mission to harness groundwater pumping, the Arizona desert may provide one guide that local managers can look to as they seek to arrest years of overdraft. 

Groundwater is stressed by a demand that often outpaces natural and artificial recharge. In California, awareness of groundwater’s importance resulted in the landmark Sustainable Groundwater Management Act in 2014 that aims to have the most severely depleted basins in a state of balance in about 20 years.

The Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta is the West Coast’s largest estuary and a vital hub in California’s complex water delivery system. It’s also a rich farming area, an important wetlands – and an ecologically troubled region. 

On our Bay-Delta Tour, May 16-18, participants will hear from a diverse group of experts, including water managers, environmentalists, farmers, engineers and scientists who will offer different perspectives on the proposed tunnels project, efforts to revitalize the Delta, and risks that threaten its delicate ecological balance. The controversial tunnels project, which would carry water beneath the Delta, got a boost recently when Metropolitan Water District of Southern California voted to cover nearly $11 billion of the construction cost.

Spurred by drought and a major policy shift, groundwater management has assumed an unprecedented mantle of importance in California. Local agencies in the hardest-hit areas of groundwater depletion are drawing plans to halt overdraft and bring stressed aquifers toward recovery. Along the way, an army of experts has been enlisted to help characterize the extent of the problem and how the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act of 2014 is implemented. 

One of those policy experts is Michael Kiparsky, director of the Wheeler Water Institute within the Center for Law, Energy & the Environment at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law. Kiparsky recently co-authored a report that focuses on a pilot project in Santa Cruz County’s Pajaro Valley that he says has intriguing potential for broader applicability.

The Water Education Foundation has been around in California for more than 40 years! Have you ever been curious about our Water Leaders program, our tours or workshops, and Western Water news?

Join us for a reception at our midtown Sacramento office from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. May 3 to meet the staff, enjoy refreshments and check out what we do. Sign up here for the open house so we have a head count.