… The latest Trends Report from the California ASFMRA (American
Society of Farm Managers and Rural Appraisers) reveals a
significant correction in land values due largely to SGMA,
though land values in some cases did not seem to be following
as quickly with what some said was coming. … For the San
Joaquin Valley, where the northern region enjoys more ample
water supplies than other parts of the valley, even there,
farmland values have declined
significantly. … Conservative estimates suggest that
$17 billion of value in irrigated lands alone has been erased
from financial ledgers, according to Scott Bozzo, an accredited
farm manager with Macotera Ag Group from Lodi,
California. … California’s most valuable agricultural
county by gross output continues to be Kern. … The
highest agricultural land values in Kern County remain in the
river districts or where districts have done a good job
managing groundwater.
Nearly all of California’s major reservoirs are fuller than
they were in previous years after a wet and stormy
winter. … The state’s largest reservoir, Lake Shasta, is
at 92% capacity as of Sunday, which amounts to 115% of its
historical capacity for this time of year, according to data
from the California Department of Water Resources. The lake is
at a surface elevation of 1,055 feet, according to data
from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, a continuation of rising
water levels since the holiday season’s heavy downpours.
(Shasta Lake is considered full at 1,067 feet, according to
Lakes Online, a website that records lake data.) The season’s
rains also have filled California’s other large reservoirs,
including Lake Oroville and Trinity Lake, which are now at at
90% and 87% capacity, respectively. If Oroville surpasses 100%,
it would be the third straight year the reservoir has hit
capacity.
Other water supply and snowpack news around the West:
On “The Evergreen,” we’ve talked about the history behind the
largest dam removal project in the United States: the long
fight over water in the Klamath basin between Tribes and
farmers, the process of getting the dams out, and what dam
removal means to the Tribes along the river. Today, we’re
bringing you up to date. What’s on folks’ minds now that all
the dams are out a year later — and what still needs to be done
to piece this basin together again? Cassandra Profita is an
editor and reporter at OPB. She’s been covering the Klamath Dam
removal for years and joins us to talk about the challenges
that remain to repair salmon habitat.
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) has
released a status report highlighting the progress of its
Beaver Restoration Program. The initiative aimed to return
beavers to their native watersheds in California to restore
wetlands and combat climate change effects. Between October
2023 and September 2024, the CDFW placed 28 beavers across five
sites in the Sierra Nevada. The project, in partnership with
the Tule River Tribe and the Maidu Summit Consortium, has
already seen beavers producing litters and building dams.
The Trump administration’s slash-and-burn approach to federal
programs has delivered a considerable hit to the nation’s
environment, but experts say its plans to repeal hard-won
protections for clean air and water will also directly
jeopardize Americans’ health — and their wallets. Two new
reports from environmental watchdog groups outline how the
administration’s recent regulatory rollbacks, cuts to climate
programs and promotion of fossil fuel production will
significantly increase the cost of living for millions of
people and bring about hundreds of thousands of premature
deaths.
The long-anticipated expansion of Monte Rio Redwoods Regional
Park took a major step forward this week. The Sonoma County
Board of Supervisors approved Regional Parks’ application for
an $8 million state grant—key funding toward the $24 million
needed to acquire 1,517 acres of forestland near Monte
Rio. Save the Redwoods League plans to purchase the
property, currently owned by Mendocino Redwood Co., and
transfer it to Sonoma County Regional Parks by summer 2025. The
acquisition will expand the current 515-acre park to more than
2,000 acres, connecting protected land from the Russian River
to the Pacific Ocean. … The land includes young-growth
redwoods, Douglas fir, oak woodlands, and essential watershed
areas feeding the Russian River—habitat crucial for endangered
coho salmon and steelhead trout.
Clean water and scenic beauty for Santa Barbara’s creeks may
come at a cost to the city’s homeowners. At least, that’s how
creekside residents see it. Many are not happy about the city’s
proposed creek buffer ordinance, which would require any and
all new developments to stay away from a creek’s edge.
The city has 16 creeks. They zigzag through neighborhoods,
showing off bare bottoms that host only a trickle of water for
most of the year. Right now, the city is working on a
draft ordinance that prohibits new development within 50 feet
of any of these creeks. That includes buildings, patios, and
non-native gardens (yes, even tomato plants). The only
development that would be allowed in buffer zones without city
approval would be the planting of native vegetation and debris
removal for flood control purposes. Existing development would
be allowed to stay where it is, as well as be repaired and
remodeled without city approval.
The Bureau of Reclamation today (April 4) announced a $134
million award for the proposed Sites Reservoir Project. This
new water storage project would be the second largest
off-stream reservoir in the nation and would increase Northern
California’s water storage capacity by up to 15 percent. The
award, funded by the Water Infrastructure Improvements for the
Nation Act, previously received $389.65 million and was also
authorized $256.5 million from the Infrastructure Investment
and Jobs Act, for a total of $780.15 million in federal
contributions to date. Located 81 miles northwest of
Sacramento, Sites Reservoir would store water diverted
from the Sacramento River via the existing Red Bluff Pumping
Plant and Hamilton City Pump Station after all other water
rights and regulatory requirements are met. Water would be
released to beneficiaries throughout the state primarily during
drier periods when it is needed.
… A decade ago, California led the nation by creating a
suite of state programs that help farmers transition to
climate-friendly methods, many of which also improve farm
resilience to extreme weather. These methods include strategies
like planting perennials at the field edge or using cover crops
in the off-season, both of which boost soil carbon and improve
farmers’ ability to capture and store winter moisture for our
increasingly long dry seasons. The problem, however, is
that the California legislature hasn’t funded these programs
adequately or consistently. In recent grant cycles, farmer
demand for these incentives has outstripped available funding
by two or three times. –Written by Liz Carlisle, a public voices fellow of the
OpEd Project and an associate professor of environmental
studies at UC Santa Barbara.
Southern California’s wildfire-ravaged national forests soon
could fall under the ax, literally. An emergency order issued
by U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins on
Friday, April 4, directs federal personnel to increase timber
quotas by 25% on nearly 113 million acres of national forests
across the nation. A map accompanying the order with areas
targeted by the declaration shows large swaths of California,
including northern woodlands and what appear to be the Angeles,
San Bernardino, Los Padres and Cleveland national
forests. … National forests were originally created
beginning in 1891 as reserves to protect watersheds and
forests for drinking water and timber supply, after heavy
overlogging threatened both. Under the updated 1976
National Forest Management Act, the forest service’s
multi-pronged mission is to protect watersheds, timber stands
and healthy wildlife populations.
California’s Los Angeles River was once a free-flowing river
that frequently flooded. It was the primary source of
freshwater for the City before the opening of the Los Angeles
Aqueduct in 1913. Starting in the late 1930s, this urban
corridor was channelized and lined with concrete to efficiently
convey floods and minimize erosion. Today, high-velocity and
uniform flow depths degrade habitat conditions for native
aquatic species, and do not provide refugia during floods. This
study examined how to redesign the channel bed to provide
increased flow complexity and habitat heterogeneity within this
confined urban stream and restore fish passage by providing
lower velocities suitable for migration. This study evaluated
methods that could be implemented within confined urban
channels to improve ecosystem function without significantly
raising the flood stage at high flows. Additional goals include
improving recreation and aesthetics, for example adding bike
paths and improved access to the river.
Water and environmental groups in southwestern Colorado have
not heard a peep from the federal government since their $25.6
million grant got caught up in a widespread funding freeze,
officials say. Southwestern Water Conservation District pulled
together a unique collection of partners in 2024 to tap into an
immense stack of federal cash for environmental projects in the
Colorado River Basin. The partners were “ecstatic” Jan. 17 when
they found out their application to fund 17 projects was
accepted, Steve Wolff, district manager, said. Three days
later, President Donald Trump paused spending, and the
district’s partnership has been in limbo ever since. Other
Colorado groups are in the same boat with millions of dollars
of awarded grant funding on the line. … The uncertainty
has impacted a slew of environmental projects across the Upper
Colorado River Basin — Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming.
A massive lithium discovery beneath California’s Salton Sea has
set off a high-stakes push for what some have implied could be
America’s best shot at lithium self-sufficiency. The U.S.
Department of Energy confirmed in late 2023 that an estimated
18 million metric tons of lithium—often called “white gold” on
account of its silvery-white appearance and economic
importance—valued at roughly $540 billion is trapped in the
geothermal brine beneath the Salton Sea, a shrinking lake in
Southern California’s Imperial Valley. … Despite optimism
surrounding the potential economic upsides, some of the
projects are not without criticisms. One lawsuit filed by CCV
(Comite Civico del Valle) and Earthworks, an environmental
nonprofit, argued that the Hell’s Kitchen project’s
environmental review failed to account for potential air and
water hazards.
Nearly 60 years ago, a self-described “awkward” teenager from
Sacramento, California, named Mark Dubois, met the most
powerful teacher of his life–the Stanislaus River. Mark’s
relationship with the river and the influence of river
defenders worldwide would ultimately help inspire the founding
of International Rivers and galvanize a global movement to
protect and celebrate our planet’s vital arteries and veins and
challenge what Dubios refers to as “outdated neocolonial
development models.” … Mark slowly got involved in efforts
to save the Stanislaus. By 1973, he joined Jerry Meral, David
Kay, and the public relations team Roanoke to form Friends of
the River (FOR) to speak for the river and oppose the project.
For Mark, his deep love affair with the life of the river was
teaching him about the antiquated paradigm behind large-scale
development that only values nature when it’s extracted and
converted into a commodity.
… leadership of the Hoopa Valley and Yurok tribes signed an
agreement to share 50,000 acre feet of water from the Trinity
Reservoir. It’s the latest push for water rights specified in
1950’s-era federal policy but have yet to materialize on the
ground, despite a supportive 2014 U.S. Department of the
Interior legal opinion. “This agreement is a victory, but there
is much more work to be done. We will continue to advocate for
the protection and restoration of our natural resources,
ensuring future generations of our people have what they need
to prosper,” said Joe James, chairman of the Yurok Tribe in a
statement in the release.
Nature cameras are becoming a popular way to check out
wildlife. A bald eagle camera in Southern California has more
than 600,000 YouTube subscribers. Now, Sacramento County could
soon have its own permanent wildlife feed. Alan Friedman is the
man behind Sacramento’s salmon cam. “Technology has been
amazing to assist us in observing wildlife,” he said. It’s a
first-of-its-kind project along the American River Parkway. The
live camera is designed to catch a glimpse of Chinook salmon as
they swim up the American River at the end of their long
journey from the Pacific Ocean. County park commissioners
recently approved the concept, and now Friedman is launching a
pilot project at Sailor Bar in Fair Oaks.
There’s no doubt that customers of Padre Dam Water District,
already paying among the highest rates in the nation, will pay
even more for the coming year. It’s just a matter of how much.
At its April 2 meeting, PDWD’s board of directors heard from
the San Diego County Water Authority General Manager Dan Denham
about all the various reasons his agency will probably increase
what it charges for the water it imports from the Metropolitan
Water District of Southern California (Metro), the Los
Angeles-based agency that transfers water south from both the
Colorado River and the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. … For
the coming fiscal year, Denham said the CWA board hasn’t set
the figure yet (some reports put it at 14 percent), but he
expects the increase to be in “the double-digit range” and the
following year to be in the single digits.
… Current snowpack levels in the Upper Colorado River
Basin hit 90% of normal on Friday. The region includes
parts of Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming, providing the
runoff that collects in reservoirs along the river and
eventually reaches Lake Powell and Lake Mead. And 90% is better
than where snowpack stood on Monday, when it had declined to
86%. It’s been a volatile end to winter, with big swings rather
than a steady increase to peak levels. Snowpack measurements —
SWE, or snow water equivalent — generally peak the first week
of April, when temperatures warm and more snow melts than new
accumulation from snowfall.
Recently, two critical policy committees passed Senate Bills 10
and 594, authored by Senator Steve Padilla (D-San Diego). SB 10
would expressly authorize funds from the new toll road to be
used for water treatment, environmental mitigation, and
restoration of the Tijuana River Valley, and SB 594 would give
communities across the state with existing environmental
pollution burdens the opportunity to voice their concerns in a
publicly noticed hearing when a new landfill development is
proposed, as is the case in the River Valley. … SB 10
passed the Senate Transportation Committee last week by a vote
of 11 to 3, and SB 594 passed the Senate Environmental Quality
Committee today by a vote of 5 to 0. Both bills now head to the
Senate Appropriations Committee.
Pumping from the Paso Robles groundwater sub-basin continued at
unsustainable levels last year — with agriculture extracting
more water than domestic well owners and municipal water
systems combined, according to a new report. The
sub-basin, which pools underground from the area east of
Highway 101 to north of Highway 58, was designated as
“critically overdrafted” by the California Department of Water
Resources. Basin users pumped 75,100 acre-feet of water in
2024, up from 63,600 acre-feet in 2023 — an 18% increase,
according to the latest annual report for the
basin. … That’s far from the estimated sustainable
yield of 61,100 acre-feet per year. … This is the eighth
year in a row that pumping exceeded the sustainable yield.
