Authors advocate generational thinking to manage water in the southern San Joaquin Valley
Two college buddies who spent a day fly fishing on the Sacramento River came home with more than fish tales. For retired city planners Greg Collins and James Holloway, it prompted a new book, “Seven Generations: The Past, Present and Future of the Tulare Lake Basin,” published in May. This might beg the question, what does the Tulare Lake Basin have to do with the Sacramento River? On that fishing trip, Collins and Holloway wondered if the four rivers that feed Tulare Lake — the Kings, Kaweah, Tule and Kern — ever resembled the Sacramento with its lush green banks, abundant birdlife, and currents full of fish such as salmon and sturgeon. … The Tulare Lake Basin encompasses parts of Fresno, Tulare, Kings and Kern counties. Collins and Holloway explore the region’s history, beginning with how Native American tribes lived off the land. They also discuss its future through environmental and economic lenses, offering point and counterpoint strategies indicative of their college degrees (biology and economics, respectively), lengthy careers in city planning, and volunteer roles.