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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 last week when Metropolitan Water District
of Southern California
voted to cover nearly $11 billion of the construction
cost.
Sixty percent of California’s developed water supply originates
high in the Sierra Nevada.Thus, the state’s water supply is
largely dependent on the health of Sierra forests, which are
suffering from ecosystem degradation, drought, wildfires and
widespread tree mortality.
Join us as we head into the Sierra foothills and up to the
mountains to examine water issues that happen upstream but have
dramatic impacts downstream and throughout California.
This winter’s wild swings in weather
– an early lack of rain, then late-season Sierra snowstorms,
followed by a torrent of subtropical moisture – shows the need in
California for long-range tools to better manage water supply.
At a Paleo
Drought Workshop in San Pedro on April 19, six experts will
discuss research on centuries-long precipitation and streamflow
records, new forecasting tools and planning strategies to help
reduce Southern California’s vulnerability to drought.
For decades, cannabis has been grown
in California – hidden away in forested groves or surreptitiously
harvested under the glare of high-intensity indoor lamps in
suburban tract homes.
In the past 20 years, however, cannabis – known more widely as
marijuana – has been moving from being a criminal activity to
gaining legitimacy as one of the hundreds of cash crops in the
state’s $46 billion-dollar agriculture industry, first legalized
for medicinal purposes and this year for recreational use.
The Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta,
the largest estuary on the West Coast, is a vital hub in
California’s complex water delivery system as well as a rich
farming region, an important wetlands area – and often, a source
of conflict.
Our Bay-Delta Tour, May
16-18, will allow participants to 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 got a boost this week when
Metropolitan Water District of Southern California
voted Tuesday to cover nearly $11 billion of the construction
cost).
Formerly known as the Executive Briefing, this year’s
Water Summit will feature 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 Foundation’s premiere event
of the year, and will be held at the Westin Riverside in
Sacramento. Look for more details and speaker announcements
coming soon!
In the meantime, secure a sponsorship opportunity and gain
publicity for your organization by sponsoring lunch or the
evening reception along the beautiful Sacramento River.
California voters may do a
double-take this year when they step in the voting booth. Two
separate water-related bonds are headed to the polls – one in
June, another in November.
Western Water writer Gary Pitzer
sifts through the two bond measures, totaling $13 billion, to
explain what they would fund, who’s behind them and how they came
together.
Learn what new tree-ring studies in
Southern California watersheds reveal about drought, hear about
efforts to improve subseasonal to seasonal weather forecasting
and get the latest on climate change impacts that will alter
drought vulnerability in the future.
At our Paleo
Drought Workshop on April 19th in San Pedro, you will hear
from experts at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, University of
Arizona and California Department of Water Resources.
Dramatic swings in weather patterns
over the past few years in California are stark reminders of
climate variability and regional vulnerability. Alternating years
of drought and intense rain events make long-term planning for
storing and distributing water a challenging task.
Current weather forecasting capabilities provide details for
short time horizons. Attend the Paleo Drought
Workshop in San Pedro on April 19 to learn more about
research efforts to improve sub-seasonal to seasonal
precipitation forecasting, known as S2S, and how those models
could provide more useful weather scenarios for resource
managers.
On our upcoming Lower Colorado River
Tour, you will not only meet water experts across the
Southwest and tour key infrastructure such as Hoover Dam, but
also enjoy recreational and cultural attractions.
Have you ever tasted a date shake? This treat is exclusive to
California’s southeast corner, where the Coachella Valley is
known as the nation’s largest date-growing region. You’ll have
the chance to enjoy one as we make a pit stop at a farm store.
One year into the job, State Water
Resources Control Board member Joaquin Esquivel has been struck
by the complexity of the board’s work and how difficult it is to
set statewide policy that accounts for the geographic and
stakeholder diversity of California.
World Water Day is today, March 22,
and to mark the occasion the Foundation is offering a special 20
percent discount on our beautiful poster-size maps, layperson’s
guides and other water publications.
Use the promo code WORLDWATERDAY when checking out of our online
shopping store.
Our California Water
Map highlights the dams, reservoirs, canals, rivers, lakes
and other water bodies throughout the state and shows how water
moves through California. Another recently updated map is the
California
Groundwater Map, which illustrates how groundwater works, the
locations of groundwater basins around the state and the
challenges from overuse.
The San Joaquin Valley, known as the nation’s breadbasket, is one
of the nation’s most productive agricultural regions.
During our three-day Central Valley Tour, March
14-16, you will meet farmers who will explain how they
prepare the fields, irrigate their crops and harvest the produce
that helps feed the world. We also will drive through hundreds of
miles of farmland and visit the rivers, dams, reservoirs and
groundwater wells that provide the water.
A drought has lingered in the
Colorado River Basin since 2000, causing reservoir storage to
decline from nearly full to about half of capacity. So far this
year, a meager snowpack in the Rocky Mountains hasn’t helped
much.
In fact, forecasters say this winter will likely go down as the
sixth-driest on record for the river system that supplies water
to seven states, including California, and Mexico.
On our Lower
Colorado River Tour, April 11-13, you will meet with water
managers from the three Lower Basin states: Nevada, Arizona and
California. The three states are working to finalize a Drought
Contingency Plan to take voluntary cuts to keep Lake Mead, the
nation’s largest reservoir, from hitting critical levels and
causing a shortage declaration.
Water rights and water for the
environment — there may be no California water topics more
contentious than those two. In the latest Western Water
in-depth article, writer Gary Pitzer takes a look at proposals to
give something akin to a
water right to the environment to protect fish and
ecosystems.
California mandates, such as
Executive Order B-37-16, require urban water agencies to
develop contingency plans for more frequent and severe drought
conditions. How can Southern California agencies most effectively
do this in the face of uncertainty?
Researchers and climatologists are constantly improving their
ability to predict weather patterns such as atmospheric rivers.
Participants at the April 19th Paleo Drought
Workshop in San Pedro will learn the latest in seasonal and
sub-seasonal precipitation forecasting from NASA Jet Propulsion
Laboratory Researcher Mike Deflorio.
On our three-day journey along the Colorado River, April
11-13, you will learn about one of the largest and most
managed rivers in the nation and go deep inside Hoover Dam, one
of the nation’s most iconic structures.
World Water Day is March 22, and to
mark the occasion the Foundation is offering a special 20 percent
discount on our beautiful poster-size maps, layperson’s guides
and other water publications.
Use the promo code WORLDWATERDAY when checking out of our online
shopping store.
Our California Water
Map highlights the dams, reservoirs, canals, rivers, lakes
and other water bodies throughout the state and shows how water
moves through California. Another recently updated map is the
California
Groundwater Map, which illustrates how groundwater works, the
locations of groundwater basins around the state and the
challenges from overuse.
Weave through the nation’s
breadbasket and get a better understanding of water issues and
challenges in the San Joaquin Valley on the Foundation’s Central Valley Tour March
14-16.
Sign-ups are now underway for the tour, the first of the
Foundation’s six general tours for
2018.
California’s 2012-2016 drought
revealed vulnerabilities for water users throughout the state,
and the long-term record suggests more challenges may lie ahead.
An April 19
workshop in San Pedro will highlight new information about
drought durations in Southern California watersheds dating
back centuries.
