Stretching along the eastern edge of the state, the Sierra Nevada
region incorporates more than 25 percent of California’s land
area and forms one of the world’s most diverse watersheds.
It features granite cliffs, lush forests and alpine meadows on
the westside, and stark desert landscapes at the base of the
eastside. Wildlife includes bighorn sheep, mule deer, black bear
and mountain lions, hawks, eagles, and trout.
The majority of total annual precipitation – in the form of rain
and snow – falls in the Sierra Nevada. Snowmelt from the Sierra
provides water for irrigation for farms that produce half of the
nation’s fruit, nuts and vegetables, and also is a vital source
for dairies, which have made California the largest milk producer
in the country.
In addition, Sierra snowmelt provides drinking water to Sierra
Nevada residents and a portion of drinking water to 23 million
people living in cities stretching from the Bay Area to Southern
California.
On Sunday, California’s rainy season officially comes to an
end. … So, how did this wet season stack up? As of Tuesday,
California had received slightly more rain than usual this
winter — 104 percent of the average, according to state data.
The state’s snowpack, which accumulates in the Sierra Nevada
and typically provides 30 percent of the state’s water supply
for the year, is at 101 percent of normal for this time of
year. The state’s reservoirs are at an even higher 116 percent
of their normal levels, in part because they are still
benefiting from the back-to-back “atmospheric rivers” that
slammed California last winter.
The frustration for farmers continues to grow after recent news
of recent water allocation numbers. The Bureau of Reclamation
has announced a 35 percent federal allocation for Central
Valley Project recipients, as the California Department of
Water Resources has allocated 30 percent of State Water Project
requests. The news comes as the snowpack in the Sierra
Nevada sits at or near normal. … Joe Del Bosque of Del
Bosque Farms … says he and other farmers were extremely
disappointed with the recent numbers. He tells me with the
current snowpack, and recent, and potentially incoming storms,
the allocation should have been higher.
A vast burn scar unfolds in drone footage of a landscape seared
by massive wildfires north of Lake Tahoe. But amid the expanses
of torched trees and gray soil, an unburnt island of lush green
emerges. The patch of greenery was painstakingly engineered. A
creek had been dammed, creating ponds that slowed the flow of
water so the surrounding earth had more time to sop it up. A
weblike system of canals helped spread that moisture through
the floodplain. Trees that had been encroaching on the wetlands
were felled. But it wasn’t a team of firefighters or
conservationists who performed this work. It was a crew of
semiaquatic rodents whose wetland-building skills have seen
them gain popularity as a natural way to mitigate
wildfires. A movement is afoot to restore beavers to the
state’s waterways, many of which have suffered from their
absence.
It’s the second straight year of above-average rain and snow in
California, amid the state’s driest period in 1,200 years. The
respite from drought is certainly welcome, despite flooding,
mudslides and associated miseries. Now meteorologists and
oceanographers are watching possible La Niña conditions develop
in the Pacific, perhaps signaling a return to drier times. It’s
an appropriate time to take stock — of how we weathered the
last two winters, what we’ve learned and what’s ahead.
… It’s also important to note that California got a
scary dose of climate change reality early in the winter when
all that precipitation failed to turn into Sierra snowpack. It
does us little good to get lots of rain or even snow if the
weather is too warm to permit snow accumulation on the slopes.
The annual snowpack‘s slow spring-and-summer melt has
historically been the primary source of water for California
cities and farm fields.
Some of California’s most treasured parks are threatened by
blight caused by pollution and climate change, according to a
pair of new reports. The four national parks with the highest
ozone levels are all in California, with Sequoia and Kings
Canyon National Parks topping the list of parks struggling with
air that’s dangerous to breathe, according to a recent report
by the National Parks Conservation Assn., an independent
advocacy group. Meanwhile, severe wildfires, drought and
sea-level rise are ravaging state parks, which encompass nearly
a quarter of California’s coastline, according to a separate
report by the California State Parks Foundation, another
advocacy group. … Behemoth sequoias and jagged Joshua
trees are among millions of trees across the state
succumbing to worsening wildfires, severe drought, extreme
heat, disease and other stressors that have been intensified by
global warming.
All weather patterns must come to an end, and the setup that
allowed warm and dry conditions over much of the Northwest and
limited rainfall in California in recent days will wind down
later this week as a new train of storms lines up over the
northern Pacific, AccuWeather meteorologists
say. The storm train is not as intense as some episodes
over the winter, but with a breakdown of high
pressure over the Northwest and a southward shift in
the jet stream from the Pacific into North America,
there will be more opportunities for rain and mountain snow as
well as locally heavy precipitation that can slow travel on
highways and airports. … While a blockbuster snowfall is
not anticipated in the Sierra Nevada, the change to snow will
be more deliberate and add to the snowpack.
A network of artificial streams is teaching scientists how
California’s mountain waterways — and the ecosystems that
depend on them — may be impacted by a warmer, drier climate.
Over the next century, climate change is projected to bring
less snowfall to the Sierra Nevada. … In a new study,
University of California, Berkeley, researchers used a series
of nine artificial stream channels off Convict Creek in Mammoth
Lakes, California, to mimic the behavior of headwater streams
under present-day conditions and future climate change
scenarios.
In January, the Sierra Nevada snowfall outlook was bleak.
California’s snowpack sat at levels less than half of normal,
and more sand than snow lined the shores of Lake Tahoe. Across
the West, experts voiced concern about snow drought. But, in
California, prospects turned around the following month as a
steady stream of storms added to the snowpack, culminating in
an epic blizzard. Things played out quite differently in other
parts of the country — large swaths of the U.S., including the
Midwest, lack healthy snow levels. … In the future,
snowy winters producing well above-normal snowpack like last
year may still occur, but “those kinds of winters are going to
become less common in a warming world,” said Brian
Brettschneider, a climate scientist at the National Weather
Service Alaska Region.
Giant sequoia trees, imported to the UK 160 years ago, are
flourishing despite the dramatically different climate to their
native California, a new study has found. The huge trees, which
are declining in numbers in California due to increasing heat,
are now adapting well to the UK’s climate and growing taller, a
study conducted by UCL researchers says. “The growth here
in the UK seems to be suited to our wetter climate, so there’s
far less chance of water stress here than in the Sierras in
California,” lead author of the study and professor of
geogrpahy, Mat Disney, told The Independent.
California has set ambitious climate goals, including phasing
out the use of fossil fuels and becoming carbon neutral by
2045. Our guest today is here to talk about the role nature can
play in meeting those goals. Laurie Wayburn is the co-founder
and president of the Pacific Forest Trust and the chair of the
California Natural and Working Lands Expert Advisory Committee.
She was also the lead author of a recent report suggesting the
state should invest “as much in nature-based climate solutions
as it has in clean energy and transportation.” With proper
forest management, California could capture 400 million tons of
carbon each year, lower wildfire risk and vastly improve flood
protection in the state.
A series of late-season winter storms has filled reservoirs,
boosted snowpack and left forecasters anticipating a late start
to California’s wildfire season. And while the odds are
also tilting toward a milder than normal fire season overall,
that outlook could change by July, said National Interagency
Fire Center meteorologist Jonathan O’Brien. … For now,
Predictive Services is forecasting below-normal large fire
activity in Southern California in May and June, and normal
activity in Northern California.
As an endorheic—or terminal—lake with no outlet, Mono Lake
loses water naturally only through evaporation. Evaporation is
a complex process, influenced by radiation, wind, temperature,
and humidity. The rate of evaporation varies across seasons and
over the lake’s surface. With no long-term observational data
of evaporation at Mono Lake, the effect of evaporation on the
water balance is not well understood. Longtime Mono Lake
Committee hydrogeographer Peter Vorster studied evaporation
here for a short period in the early 1980s. He determined Mono
Lake loses nearly four vertical feet of water to evaporation
each year. With a more current understanding of evaporation
specifically at Mono Lake, the Committee can better estimate
lake level fluctuation.
A monster blizzard that blasted California’s Sierra Nevada with
gusts of up to 190 mph and dumped more than 10 feet of snow
over the weekend shattered the state’s “snow
drought” and significantly boosted vital snowpack
levels. The statewide snowpack by Monday had swelled to
104% of normal for the date, with a snow water equivalent of
24.4 inches. On Thursday — hours before the chilly winter
storm was set to hit — the snowpack had measured only
80% of normal. It was an impressive turnaround compared with
the beginning of the year when the snowpack was 32% of
normal. Officials were optimistic the blizzard would offer
a significant snow boost. It ended up being a game-changer.
The most powerful California blizzard of the season pounded the
Sierra Nevada with gusts of up to 190 mph, while heavy snow
Sunday forced the closure of key roads to the Lake Tahoe and
Mammoth Mountain areas. A rare blizzard warning was extended
through Monday morning for the Lake Tahoe area, and until
Sunday night for the Mammoth Mountain area. … The crest
of the Sierra overall is expected to get 6 to 10 feet
of snow; Mammoth Lakes, 2 to 4 feet; and the Tahoe Basin, 3 to
6 feet. Snow has been falling steady at about 2 inches per
hour, with intermittent rates of 3 to 4 inches per
hour, the weather service said, which should peak late
Saturday. The UC Berkeley Central Sierra Snow
Lab had received 3 feet of snow by Saturday morning, and
expected several more feet by Monday morning.
Water diversions to Los Angeles—and away from Mono Lake—began
just after noon on January 31. With the turn of a control
wheel, the Los Angeles Department of Water & Power (DWP) opened
the aqueduct, sending Mono Basin water into the Mono Craters
tunnel and on a 300-mile journey down the aqueduct system.
… On April 1, the maximum limit on water exports will
increase nearly fourfold. Will DWP choose to maintain the same
export level as recent years? Or will it choose to quadruple
its water diversions—and push Mono Lake’s level
downward? This year is also shaping up to be the year for
action on the California State Water Resources Control Board’s
rules that govern the DWP diversions, and the flaws that have
become visible over the 30 years since those rules were set
forth.
When Allison Dodds hit the slopes at June Mountain Ski Resort
this past winter the mountain looked a little different than it
had in past years. Not only was there extra snow from 2023’s
historic precipitation, but there was also extra space between
the trees, making it easier for her to maneuver (and shred) her
way down the mountain. Why the extra space? Over the past
two years, CalTrout and Inyo National Forest have been working
together to restore and remove infested and dead whitebark pine
trees on June Mountain. Dodds works as a Project Manager for
CalTrout’s Sierra Headwaters region, and she leads the June
Mountain Forest Health Project. After a century of fire
suppression, forests across the state have become densely
packed and overloaded with dead wood that is primed to burn
intensely and causes fires to spread quickly.
Even before the major storm forecast for this weekend, a wet
February has eased fears that California would end the rainy
season with too little water. In fact, many parts of the state
are now likely to wrap up with average or above-average rain
and snow totals. The state’s March snow survey, taking place
Thursday, will show that snowpack in California’s mountains is
around 80% of average for the date, a substantial leap from the
end of January when it hovered around 50%. Rainfall, meanwhile,
stood at 103% of average statewide Wednesday, up from about 80%
last month. While the numbers are not exceptional, they mark
enough of an improvement since the start of the year —
when some water managers began to talk about drought —
that reservoirs are sufficiently primed with precipitation to
avoid major water shortages in 2024, even if the rest of the
rainy season disappoints.
A powerful winter storm system is expected to hammer California
later this week, bringing 5 to 10 feet of new snow between
Thursday and Sunday to the Sierra Nevada, white-out conditions
and the potential for extended highway closures. … Snow will
begin falling Thursday, and become most extreme on Friday at
amounts of 2 to 4 inches an hour, posing “near to impossible”
conditions for drivers … The powerful blizzard is the latest
and most dramatic example of a winter that started slow but has
steadily increased, improving California’s water picture with
every passing week, and all but guaranteeing that there will be
few, if any water restrictions this summer for most communities
in the state.
On a late autumn day, a team of forestry workers spreads out
among the burned trunks of giant sequoia trees. The
1,000-year-old trees in the grove are dead but still standing,
killed in an extreme wildfire that raced through Sequoia and
Kings Canyon National Parks. In the shadow of one of the trees,
the crew gets to work, pulling tiny, 4-inch seedlings out of
bags clipped to their belts and tucking them into the dirt.
… Over only two years, about one-fifth of all giant
sequoias have been killed in extreme wildfires in California.
The numbers shocked ecologists, since the enormous trees can
live more than 2,000 years and have evolved to live with
frequent, low-intensity fires in the Sierra Nevada. Recent
fires have burned bigger and more intensely than sequoias are
accustomed to, a result of the way humans have changed the
forest.
After years of controversy, the Nevada County Board of
Supervisors unanimously struck down a Grass Valley gold mining
project. … Rise Gold first submitted an application to resume
gold mining operations at the Idaho Maryland Mine, which is in
Grass Valley, in 2019. The site had been inactive since its
closure in the 1950s, but Rise Gold said it had untapped
potential. But the company was quickly met with mass
opposition. Christy Hubbard, a Grass Valley resident and
volunteer for a couple local groups opposing the project …
said she was particularly concerned with the potential for
mining operations to contaminate or otherwise negatively impact
local groundwater supply. As a member of the Wells Coalition, a
local group of well owners, and an owner of a well herself, she
worried mining could reduce water flows or contaminate
them.
At the dawn of the new year in 1997, the Truckee River
transformed. The winter season had thus far been great for
snow, but when a subtropical storm from near the Hawaiian
Islands rolled in, it carried with it unseasonably warm rain.
The warm rainfall combined with snowmelt to swell the rivers,
with the Truckee burying much of downtown Reno under water. Two
people were killed amidst the nearly $1 billion disaster, and
it wasn’t the first nor the last time that warm rains triggered
severe flooding in the area. These types of storms, called
“rain-on-snow” storms, can produce river flows 50-80% higher
than typical spring snowmelt. Nevada cities nestled against the
dramatic peaks of the Sierra Nevada mountains are at
particularly high risk from these storms: Reno and Carson City
have records of flooding linked to these storms as early as
1862 and as recent as 2017.
After a slow start to the year, the Sierra Nevada snowpack has
grown by leaps and bounds in recent weeks, thanks to a series
of heavy storms with especially big impacts in the northern
Sierra. The latest measurements from the California
Department of Water Resources places the statewide snowpack at
85% of normal for this time of year, according to data as of
Tuesday. In comparison, the snowpack was just 52% of average on
Jan. 30 and a paltry 25% of average on Jan. 2. But the gains
haven’t been evenly distributed. “Recent storms have
provided a boost (to) the snowpack, but the Central and
Southern Sierra still have not caught up from the deficit
accumulated earlier this season,” said Michael Anderson, DWR’s
state climatologist.
Winter storms have hammered the Bay Area in the past month, and
the active weather isn’t letting up anytime soon. Back-to-back
storms on tap for the holiday weekend will bring heavy rain,
gusty wind and a large swell to Northern and Central California
from Saturday through Monday. Before the rainmakers hit over
the weekend, Friday is shaping up to be a pleasant day, with a
mix of sun and clouds. … A quick-moving storm is expected to
hit the Bay Area on Saturday, but a long-duration rain event
will begin Sunday afternoon and last through at least Tuesday.
The culprit is a slow-moving weather system known as a cutoff
low.
Growing up in the shadow of the
Rocky Mountains, Andrew Schwartz never missed an opportunity to
play in – or study – a Colorado snowstorm. During major
blizzards, he would traipse out into the icy wind and heavy
drifts of snow pretending to be a scientist researching in
Antarctica.
Decades later, still armed with an obsession for extreme weather,
Schwartz has landed in one of the snowiest places in the West,
leading a research lab whose mission is to give California water
managers instant information on the depth and quality of snow
draping the slopes of the Sierra Nevada.
On average, more than 60 percent of
California’s developed water supply originates in the Sierra
Nevada and the southern spur of the Cascade Range. Our water
supply is largely dependent on the health of our Sierra forests,
which are suffering from ecosystem degradation, drought,
wildfires and widespread tree mortality.
This tour ventured into the Sierra to examine water issues
that happen upstream but have dramatic impacts downstream and
throughout the state.
Innovative efforts to accelerate
restoration of headwater forests and to improve a river for the
benefit of both farmers and fish. Hard-earned lessons for water
agencies from a string of devastating California wildfires.
Efforts to drought-proof a chronically water-short region of
California. And a broad debate surrounding how best to address
persistent challenges facing the Colorado River.
These were among the issues Western Water explored in
2019, and are still worth taking a look at in case you missed
them.
Many of California’s watersheds are
notoriously flashy – swerving from below-average flows to jarring
flood conditions in quick order. The state needs all the water it
can get from storms, but current flood management guidelines are
strict and unyielding, requiring reservoirs to dump water each
winter to make space for flood flows that may not come.
However, new tools and operating methods are emerging that could
lead the way to a redefined system that improves both water
supply and flood protection capabilities.
It’s been a year since two devastating wildfires on opposite ends
of California underscored the harsh new realities facing water
districts and cities serving communities in or adjacent to the
state’s fire-prone wildlands. Fire doesn’t just level homes, it
can contaminate water, scorch watersheds, damage delivery systems
and upend an agency’s finances.
The majestic beauty of the Sierra
Nevada forest is awe-inspiring, but beneath the dazzling blue
sky, there is a problem: A century of fire suppression and
logging practices have left trees too close together. Millions of
trees have died, stricken by drought and beetle infestation.
Combined with a forest floor cluttered with dry brush and debris,
it’s a wildfire waiting to happen.
Fires devastate the Sierra watersheds upon which millions of
Californians depend — scorching the ground, unleashing a
battering ram of debris and turning hillsides into gelatinous,
stream-choking mudflows.
Registration opens today for the
Water Education Foundation’s 36th annual Water
Summit, set for Oct. 30 in Sacramento. This year’s
theme, Water Year 2020: A Year of Reckoning,
reflects fast-approaching deadlines for the State Groundwater
Management Act as well as the pressing need for new approaches to
water management as California and the West weather intensified
flooding, fire and drought. To register for this can’t-miss
event, visit our Water Summit
event page.
Registration includes a full day of discussions by leading
stakeholders and policymakers on key issues, as well as coffee,
materials, gourmet lunch and an outdoor reception by the
Sacramento River that will offer the opportunity to network with
speakers and other attendees. The summit also features a silent
auction to benefit our Water Leaders program featuring
items up for bid such as kayaking trips, hotel stays and lunches
with key people in the water world.
Our 36th annual
Water Summit,
happening Oct. 30 in Sacramento, will feature the theme “Water
Year 2020: A Year of Reckoning,” reflecting upcoming regulatory
deadlines and efforts to improve water management and policy in
the face of natural disasters.
The Summit will feature top policymakers and leading stakeholders
providing the latest information and a variety of viewpoints on
issues affecting water across California and the West.
One of California Gov. Gavin
Newsom’s first actions after taking office was to appoint Wade
Crowfoot as Natural Resources Agency secretary. Then, within
weeks, the governor laid out an ambitious water agenda that
Crowfoot, 45, is now charged with executing.
That agenda includes the governor’s desire for a “fresh approach”
on water, scaling back the conveyance plan in the Sacramento-San
Joaquin Delta and calling for more water recycling, expanded
floodplains in the Central Valley and more groundwater recharge.
There’s going to be a new governor
in California next year – and a host of challenges both old and
new involving the state’s most vital natural resource, water.
So what should be the next governor’s water priorities?
That was one of the questions put to more than 150 participants
during a wrap-up session at the end of the Water Education
Foundation’s Sept. 20 Water Summit in Sacramento.
Sixty percent of California’s developed water supply
originates high in the Sierra Nevada mountains. Our water
supply is largely dependent on the health of our Sierra forests,
which are suffering from ecosystem degradation, drought,
wildfires and widespread tree mortality.
We headed into the foothills and the mountains to examine
water issues that happen upstream but have dramatic impacts
downstream and throughout the state.
GEI (Tour Starting Point)
2868 Prospect Park Dr.
Rancho Cordova, CA 95670.
Water supply for
California’s cities and farms is largely dependent on
snowmelt from the upper watershed in the Sierra Nevada. But that
paradigm is being challenged by wildfires, climate change and
widespread tree mortality.
Join us for a two-day tour as we head into the Sierra foothills
and up into the mountains to examine water issues that happen
upstream, but have dramatic impacts on water supply and quality
downstream and throughout the state.
Lake
Tahoe, the iconic high Sierra water body that straddles
California and Nevada, has sat for more than 10,000 years at the
heart of the Washoe tribe’s territory. In fact, the name Tahoe
came from the tribal word dá’aw, meaning lake.
The lake’s English name was the source of debate for about 100
years after it was first “discovered” in 1844 by people of
European descent when Gen. John C. Fremont’s expedition made its
way into the region. Not long after, a man who carried mail on
snowshoes from Placerville to Nevada City named it Lake Bigler in
honor of John Bigler, who served as California’s third governor.
But because Bigler was an ardent secessionist, the federal
Interior Department during the Civil War introduced the name
Tahoe in 1862. Meanwhile, California kept it as Lake Bigler and
didn’t officially recognize the name as Lake Tahoe until 1945.
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.
California voters may experience a sense of déjà vu this year when they are asked twice in the same year to consider water bonds — one in June, the other headed to the November ballot.
Both tackle a variety of water issues, from helping disadvantaged communities get clean drinking water to making flood management improvements. But they avoid more controversial proposals, such as new surface storage, and they propose to do some very different things to appeal to different constituencies.
Every day, people flock to Daniel
Swain’s social media platforms to find out the latest news and
insight about California’s notoriously unpredictable weather.
Swain, a climate scientist at the Institute of the
Environment and Sustainability at UCLA, famously coined the
term “Ridiculously Resilient Ridge” in December 2013 to describe
the large, formidable high-pressure mass that was parked over the
West Coast during winter and diverted storms away from
California, intensifying the drought.
Swain’s research focuses on atmospheric processes that cause
droughts and floods, along with the changing character of extreme
weather events in a warming world. A lifelong Californian and
alumnus of University of California, Davis, and Stanford
University, Swain is best known for the widely read Weather West blog, which provides
unique perspectives on weather and climate in California and the
western United States. In a recent interview with Western
Water, he talked about the Ridiculously Resilient Ridge, its
potential long-term impact on California weather, and what may
lie ahead for the state’s water supply.
Sixty percent of California’s developed water supply
originates high in the Sierra Nevada mountains. Our water
supply is largely dependent on the health of our Sierra forests,
which are suffering from ecosystem degradation, drought,
wildfires and widespread tree mortality.
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 the mountains to
examine water issues that happen upstream but have dramatic
impacts downstream and throughout California.
ARkStorm stands for an atmospheric
river (“AR”) that carries precipitation levels expected to occur
once every 1,000 years (“k”). The concept was presented in a 2011
report by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) intended to elevate
the visibility of the very real threats to human life, property
and ecosystems posed by extreme storms on the West Coast.
Owens Lake is a dry lake at the terminus of the Owens River
just west of Death Valley and on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada. For at least
800,000 years, the lake had a continuous flow of water, until
1913 when the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power
(LADWP) completed the 233-mile Los Angeles
Aqueduct to supplement the budding metropolis’
increasing water demands.
This 28-page report describes the watersheds of the Sierra Nevada
region and details their importance to California’s overall water
picture. It describes the region’s issues and challenges,
including healthy forests, catastrophic fire, recreational
impacts, climate change, development and land use.
The report also discusses the importance of protecting and
restoring watersheds in order to retain water quality and enhance
quantity. Examples and case studies are included.
This 25-minute documentary-style DVD, developed in partnership
with the California Department of Water Resources, provides an
excellent overview of climate change and how it is already
affecting California. The DVD also explains what scientists
anticipate in the future related to sea level rise and
precipitation/runoff changes and explores the efforts that are
underway to plan and adapt to climate.
This beautiful 24×36 inch poster, suitable for framing, displays
the rivers, lakes and reservoirs, irrigated farmland, urban areas
and Indian reservations within the Truckee River Basin, including
the Newlands Project, Pyramid Lake and Lake Tahoe. Map text
explains the issues surrounding the use of the Truckee-Carson
rivers, Lake Tahoe water quality improvement efforts, fishery
restoration and the effort to reach compromise solutions to many
of these issues.
This 24×36 inch poster, suitable for framing, illustrates the
water resources available for Nevada cities, agriculture and the
environment. It features natural and manmade water resources
throughout the state, including the Truckee and Carson rivers,
Lake Tahoe, Pyramid Lake and the course of the Colorado River
that forms the state’s eastern boundary.
Fashioned after the popular California Water Map, this 24×36 inch
poster was extensively re-designed in 2017 to better illustrate
the value and use of groundwater in California, the main types of
aquifers, and the connection between groundwater and surface
water.
A new look for our most popular product! And it’s the perfect
gift for the water wonk in your life.
Our 24×36 inch California Water Map is widely known for being the
definitive poster that shows the integral role water plays in the
state. On this updated version, it is easier to see California’s
natural waterways and man-made reservoirs and aqueducts
– including federally, state and locally funded
projects – the wild and scenic rivers system, and
natural lakes. The map features beautiful photos of
California’s natural environment, rivers, water projects,
wildlife, and urban and agricultural uses and the
text focuses on key issues: water supply, water use, water
projects, the Delta, wild and scenic rivers and the Colorado
River.
Travel across the state on Amtrak’s famed California
Zephyr, from the edge of sparkling San Francisco Bay,
through the meandering channels of the Delta, past rich Central
Valley farmland, growing cities, historic mining areas and into
the Sierra Nevada mountain range.
Stretching 450 miles long and up to
50 miles wide, the Sierra Nevada makes up more than a quarter of
California’s land area and forms its largest watersheds,
providing more than half of the state’s developed water supply to
residents, agriculture and other businesses.*
The East Fork begins in the mountains of California’s Sonora Pass
and after flowing through California and Nevada, it meets the
West Fork just south of Carson City. The West Fork forms at
California’s Carson Pass, running through California and into
Nevada to its junction with the East Fork.