Facing the challenges of sustainably managing and sharing water,
our most precious natural resource, requires collaboration,
education and outreach. Since 1977, the Water Education
Foundation has put water resource issues in California and the
West in context to inspire a deep understanding of and
appreciation for water.
Taking a steady pulse of the water world, the Foundation offers
educational materials, tours of key watersheds, water news, water
leadership training and conferences that bring together diverse
voices. By providing tools and platforms for engagement with wide
audiences, we aim to help build sound and collective solutions to
water issues.
What We Do
We support and execute a wide variety of programming to build a
better understanding of water resources across the West,
including:
Mission: The mission of the Water Education
Foundation, an impartial nonprofit, is to inspire understanding
of water and catalyze critical conversations to build bridges and
inform collaborative decision-making
Vision: A society that has the ability to
resolve its water challenges to benefit all
Where We Work
Our office is located in Sacramento, CA.
Connect with Us!
Sign up here to get email announcements
about upcoming workshops, tours and new publications.
You can learn more about the daily comings and goings of the
Foundation by following @WaterEdFdn on Twitter,
liking us on Facebook or
following us on
LinkedIn.
The foundation of California’s water
supply and the catalyst for the state’s 20th century
population and economic growth is cracking. More exactly, it’s
disappearing.
Climate change is eroding the mountain snowpack that has
traditionally melted in the spring and summer to fill rivers and
reservoirs across the West. Now, less precipitation is falling as
snow in parts of major mountain ranges like California’s Sierra
Nevada and the Rockies in the West, and the snow that does land
is melting faster and earlier due to warming temperatures.
Join a virtual Q&A session on Nov. 9 to get an
overview of our popular but competitive Water
Leaders program and tips on applying for the 2023 cohort.
The Water
Leaders program is aimed at providing a deeper
understanding of California water issues and building
leadership skills with class members by studying a water-related
topic in-depth and working with a mentor.
The deadline to apply for the 2023 class is Dec. 7, 2022, at 5
p.m. The 10-month program starts with a mandatory orientation on
Jan. 26, 2023.
Applications for our 2023 Water Leaders class are now open, and
don’t forget to sign up for our virtual Q&A session
on Nov. 9 if you are interested in applying or
supporting a candidate.
Our Oct. 27 Water Summit is sold out but find
out how you can get on the waitlist; and save the date for
Winter Weather Outlook workshop Dec. 8 in Southern
California.
The Water Education Foundation is
mourning the loss of its Board
President Mike Chrisman, the former California Natural
Resources Secretary whose family ties to the Foundation go back
to its founding in 1977.
Mr. Chrisman, of Visalia, died from complications of cancer
Tuesday, Oct. 11. He was 78.
“We are devastated to learn about Mike’s passing,” said Jenn
Bowles, the Foundation’s executive director. “He was a
wonderfully supportive board president who cared deeply about our
mission and was constantly offering to help. Among other things,
he served as a mentor to up-and-coming professionals in our
Water Leaders
program.”
Seats are filling up fast for our remaining fall events, so grab
a ticket while you can. Also, check out our virtual
Q&A session on Nov. 9 for those interested in
applying for next year’s Water Leaders class. More details below.
Our inaugural 2022 Colorado River Water
Leaders class completed its six-month program with a
report outlining key policy recommendations for managing the
Colorado River after existing operating guidelines expire in
2026.
The class of 13
up-and-coming leaders included engineers, lawyers,
resource specialists, scientists and others working for public,
private and nongovernmental organizations from across the river’s
basin. The class had full editorial control to choose its
recommendations.
The team at the Water Education Foundation is gearing up for a
busy fall programming season. Check out the details below. We
hope to see you at some point!
With 25 years of experience working
on the Colorado River, Chuck Cullom is used to responding to
myriad challenges that arise on the vital lifeline that seven
states, more than two dozen tribes and the country of Mexico
depend on for water. But this summer problems on the
drought-stressed river are piling up at a dizzying pace:
Reservoirs plummeting to record low levels, whether Hoover Dam
and Glen Canyon Dam can continue to release water and produce
hydropower, unprecedented water cuts and predatory smallmouth
bass threatening native fish species in the Grand Canyon.
“Holy buckets, Batman!,” said Cullom, executive director of the
Upper Colorado River Commission. “I mean, it’s just on and on and
on.”
Our premier event of the year,
the Foundation’s 38th annual Water Summiton Oct. 27 in Sacramento will highlight
conversations that examine our relationship with water resources
and how best to address the challenges presented by ongoing
drought and a changing climate.
With this year’s theme, Rethinking
Water in the West, a variety of policymakers,
experts and officials will be discussing important topics in
water across California and the West. Conversations will
take place around rethinking:
Water management in a drought-driven West
Water rights in light of drought-spawned shortages and
climate change
The Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, which acts as the state’s
crucial water hub and serves as a vital ecological resource
In addition, there will be an update on the status of
California’s Sustainable Groundwater Management Act.
A tour
along the San Joaquin River to learn more about
infrastructure and the impacts on farms and habitat from salmon
restoration efforts.
Plus, with all the activity involving water in California
and the drought gripping the West, be sure to subscribe to
our Aquafornia service
so you don’t miss out on top water news compiled each
weekday and delivered to your inbox.
Check out the details below to learn more about these fall
programs and our Aquafornia newsfeed.
A science journalist and author
whose new book highlights efforts to reshape how we think about
and work with water will provide the keynote address at the
Foundation’s 2022 Water
Summit on Oct. 27 in Sacramento.
Author Erica Gies, whose new book is titled Water Always Wins: Thriving in an
Age of Drought and Deluge, explores what she calls “Slow
Water” innovations that can potentially offer resilience to the
increasing severity of droughts and floods brought on by climate
change.
As our programs team at the Water
Education Foundation is busy this summer putting together
fall events such as tours, our annual Water Summit and our Water
Leader alum reunion, our journalism team is helping to raise
water awareness every day.
You can access our newsfeed each
morning of the top articles on water issues in
California and the West and even get it sent to your inbox. You
can also find interactive maps showing reservoir levels,
water-savings tips and more on our special online drought resource
page.
And we just published our latest Western Water
article focused on a pilot program in the Salinas
Valley that is run remotely out of Los Angeles. It’s offering a
test case for how California could provide clean drinking water
for isolated rural communities plagued by contaminated
groundwater that lack the financial means or expertise to connect
to a larger water system.
A pilot program in the Salinas Valley run remotely out of Los Angeles is offering a test case for how California could provide clean drinking water for isolated rural communities plagued by contaminated groundwater that lack the financial means or expertise to connect to a larger water system.
You can now register for the in-person return of the
Foundation’s 38th annual Water Summit, a one-day
conference highlighting the latest information and
perspectives on water resources in California and the West.
The event includes an evening reception along California’s
largest and longest river, the Sacramento River, for an
opportunity to network with speakers and other attendees from a
variety of backgrounds.
Our fall schedule also includes:
A reunion for our Water Leaders graduates to
celebrate the 25th anniversary of the program
Tours exploring California’s two largest
rivers, the Sacramento and the San Joaquin, to learn
more about infrastructure, the impacts on farms,
cities and habitat from a third year of drought and salmon
restoration efforts.
Check out the details below to learn more about these fall
programs.
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.
As water interests in the Colorado
River Basin prepare to negotiate a new set of operating
guidelines for the drought-stressed river, Amelia Flores wants
her Colorado River Indian Tribes (CRIT) to be involved in the
discussion. And she wants CRIT seated at the negotiating table
with something invaluable to offer on a river facing steep cuts
in use: its surplus water.
CRIT, whose reservation lands in California and Arizona are
bisected by the Colorado River, has some of the most senior water
rights on the river. But a federal law enacted in the late 1700s,
decades before any southwestern state was established, prevents
most tribes from sending any of its water off its reservation.
The restrictions mean CRIT, which holds the rights to nearly a
quarter of the entire state of Arizona’s yearly allotment of
river water, is missing out on financial gain and the chance to
help its river partners.
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.
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.
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.
The Water Education Foundation’s tours offer participants a
first-hand look at the water facilities, rivers and regions
critical in the debate about the future of water resources.
From recent news articles to publications, maps and tours, Water
Education Foundation has everything you need, including the
award-winning Layperson’s Guide to the Delta.
