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We are gearing up to mark the 25th anniversary of our
Water Leaders class by holding a reunion this
fall for the many scientists, farmers,
environmentalists, water managers, lawyers, engineers and others
who have gone through our program over the years.
The Oct. 26 reunion by the American River
will be held the day before our annual Water
Summit, which will be open to all interested.
Registration is coming soon for the reunion and the Water Summit,
but you can sign up now for our fall tours,
which will take journeys along California’s two longest rivers.
Seats are already filling up! Check out the details below to
learn more about these upcoming programs.
Register today for the return of our
in-person fall tours offering
participants a firsthand look at issues such as drought
along California’s two longest rivers, which have
implications for the entire state.
Our Northern
California Tourexplores the Sacramento
River and its tributaries to learn about key reservoirs and
infrastructure that conveys vital water resources across
California. Our San Joaquin River
Restoration Tourreturns this year to dive
into the story of bringing back the river’s chinook salmon
population while balancing water supply needs.
Mark your calendars now for our full schedule of fall programs,
including a reunion of our Water Leaders graduates to celebrate
the 25th anniversary of the program as well as the in-person
return of our 38th annual Water Summit.
Our fall programming also includes tours exploring California’s
two largest rivers, the Sacramento and the San Joaquin, to learn
more about infrastructure, the impacts on farms and habitat from
a third year of drought and salmon restoration efforts.
Check out the details below to learn more about these fall
programs.
The Water Education Foundation’s
just-released 2021 Annual Report recaps how,
even amid the ongoing global pandemic, we continued
educating about the most crucial natural resource in California
and the West — water.
The annual report takes readers along to see the array of
educational events, trainings and articles we produced last year,
including engaging virtual water
tours that educated participants on pressing water
issues and allowed them to interact with each other and a wide
range of experts offering different viewpoints.
Managers of California’s most
overdrawn aquifers were given a monumental task under the state’s
landmark Sustainable Groundwater Management Act: Craft viable,
detailed plans on a 20-year timeline to bring their beleaguered
basins into balance. Altogether, they submitted plans for 20
basins for review by the California Department of Water Resources
in January 2020. Earlier this year, DWR rendered its verdict:
Most of the basin plans were incomplete.
Now groundwater agencies responsible for 12 of those basins are
racing to meet a late July deadline to submit revised plans that
measure up to SGMA’s requirements or risk the state stepping in
to manage their groundwater basins. Despite the state’s verdict,
some groundwater managers say they believe they’re well on their
way to making the changes needed to ultimately win the state’s
approval.
In our latest article, Western Water
explored the array of challenges these groundwater managers
face in getting their sustainability plans to fulfill the state’s
requirements, how some agencies were able to largely meet the
state’s expectations, and what lies ahead for those plans that
fell short.
You can now remotely attend a special one-day workshop
this Thursday in Southern California to
learn about the latest advancements in sub-seasonal to seasonal
forecasting — weather predictions from two weeks to a season
ahead — and how these predictions can improve management of
water infrastructure including dams, flood storage and reservoirs
to ensure water is available for urban, agricultural and
environmental purposes.
As climate change continues to make our reliance on historical
patterns to forecast California’s water supply increasingly
unreliable, what new science, models and technology are being
brought to bear on efforts to ‘get ahead of the storms’ and
improve drought management?
The one-day workshop, Making Progress on Drought
Management: Improvements in Seasonal Precipitation
Forecasting, is sponsored by the California Department of
Water Resources in partnership with the Water Education
Foundation. In-person registration is still available until the
day of the workshop.
California’s 2021-2022 water year
went from a relatively wet October-December beginning to the
driest January-March period in the state’s history. That has
left most of the state’s vast network of surface water
reservoirs including Lake Oroville, a key Northern
California reservoir that sends water to Southern California,
now below historic
average going into the dry, summer months.
With our reliance on historical patterns to forecast California’s
water supply becoming increasingly unreliable, what new
science, models and technology are being brought to bear on
efforts to ‘get ahead of the storms’ and improve drought
management?
Join the team at the Water Education
Foundation, a highly respected and impartial nonprofit
that has been a trusted source of water news and educational
programming in California and across the West for more than 40
years.
We have a full-time opening for a dynamic, strategic and
energetic development director to
generate grant support and other funding for programs carried out
by our events and journalism teams.
Heading into a third consecutive
summer of drought, California and the West are facing stark water
challenges.
Water levels in many of California’s largest reservoirs are
significantly below average, and the state’s Sierra snowpack that
helps replenish many of them into the early summer is largely
gone. Plummeting reservoir levels have triggered sharp cuts to
water deliveries for thirsty farms and cities, prompting state
and local officials to plead for the public to conserve remaining
supplies. Declining reservoir levels are also expected to curb
generation of hydroelectricity, a crucial source of power during
hot summer months.
For anyone trying to stay current with the unfolding drought
in California and the West, the Water Education Foundation’s
journalism team has created All
Things Drought, a special resource page that offers
links to real-time reservoir data and water supply forecasts, an
ongoing newsfeed to help you stay up to date on the latest news
and tips so you can help conserve the region’s most precious
natural resource.
California’s vast network of surface
water reservoirs is designed to hold carryover storage from year
to year to ensure water is available for urban, agricultural and
environmental purposes during dry months and years.
But climate change has begun to affect our reliance on historical
weather patterns to predict California’s water supply, making it
even more difficult for water managers to manage drought
conditions and placing a greater emphasis on better precipitation
forecasting at longer lead times.
Learn about efforts being made to ‘get ahead of the storms’
through new science, models and technology at our special one-day
workshop June 9 in Irvine, Making Progress on Drought Management: Improvements in
Seasonal Precipitation Forecasting. The event is
sponsored by the California Department of Water Resources in
partnership with the Water Education Foundation.
How can California water managers
get ahead of the storms to improve drought management? A special
one-day workshop June 9 in Irvine will highlight some of the
latest research on seasonal precipitation forecasting that could
help water managers across the state plan better for what winter
might bring.
With the recent news that California
has officially begun 2022 with its lowest January
through April precipitation level since 1895, how reliable
are the historical patterns traditionally used to forecast
California’s water supply? Tomorrow’s weather forecast may
be spot on, but can we ever get accurate precipitation forecasts
weeks to months in advance?
An online
short course starting Thursday will provide
registrants the opportunity to learn more about how groundwater
is monitored, assessed and sustainably managed.
The class, offered by University of California, Davis and
several other organizations in cooperation with the Water
Education Foundation, will be held May 12, 19,
26 and June 2, 16 from 9 a.m. to noon.
Mark your calendars now for our upcoming fall 2022
tours exploring California’s two largest rivers – the
Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers!
On our Northern
California Tour, Oct. 12-14, participants
can learn about key reservoirs and infrastructure that transports
vital water resources statewide. Our San Joaquin
River Restoration Tour Nov. 2-3 returns this
year to tell the story of bringing back a river’s chinook
salmon while balancing water supply
needs. Registration is coming soon!
Consider giving a tax-deductible donation on this Big Day of
Giving to help the Water Education Foundation continue being your
resource for in-depth, impartial information on drought, water
rights, groundwater, water quality and other water resource
issues.
We have a goal of $10,000 and we just hit
$6,000. Thank you to those who
contributed, including those who attended our open house!
On this Big Day of Giving help the
Water Education Foundation continue being your resource for
in-depth, impartial information on drought, water rights,
groundwater, water quality and other water resource issues.
Big Day of Giving is today, and
your donation can help the Water Education
Foundation continue its work to enhance public understanding
about California’s most important natural resource –
water.
Big Day of Giving is an annual 24-hour online event
aimed at raising funds for nonprofits and highlighting the good
work they do. You can make
your Big Day of Giving tax-deductible donation until
midnight tonight.
We’re holding an open house and reception Thursday in conjunction with Big Day of Giving, a 24-hour online event aimed at raising funds for nonprofits and highlighting the good work they do in their communities.
As a nonprofit, we are “mission-driven, but revenue-dependent.” Please show your support and make a tax-deductible donation today by clicking here. You can donate through midnight on Thursday, May 5. And if you donate using a Golden 1 debit or credit card, Golden 1 will proportionally match its members’ donations to all nonprofits up to $100,000.
Big Day of Giving is in just two
weeks, but you can make a
donation today to help the Foundation
continue its work to enhance public understanding about the most
important natural resource in California and the West — water.
Big Day of Giving is an annual 24-hour online event
aimed at raising funds for nonprofits and highlighting the good
work they do. You can make your Big Day
of Giving donation from now until midnight May 5.
If you donate $50 or more, you will receive your choice
of one of our beautiful water maps. And if you
donate $100 or more, you will get a map plus a $100
voucher for one of our upcoming 2022 water tours! And if you
donate using a Golden 1 debit or credit card, Golden 1 will
proportionally match its members’ donations up to $100,000.
Don’t miss your once-a-year chance to go on our
Central Valley
Tour and visit the epicenter of California’s drought
and groundwater sustainability efforts across one of the nation’s
most critical agricultural landscapes. Registration ends
this Friday, April 15, at noon.
If you’re a graduate of our Water Leaders
program, save the date for a reunion event in October to
mark the 25th anniversary of our program!
Swing by our new Sacramento office during our May 5
open house.
