Wetlands are among the most important ecosystems in the world.
They produce high levels of oxygen, filter toxic chemicals out of
water, reduce flooding and erosion and recharge groundwater. They
also serve as critical habitat for wildlife, including a large
percentage of plants and animals on California’s endangered
species list.
As the state has grown into one of the world’s leading economies,
Californians have developed and transformed the state’s marshes,
swamps and tidal flats, losing as much as 90 percent of the
original wetlands acreage—a greater percentage of loss than any
other state in the nation.
While the conversion of wetlands has slowed, the loss in
California is significant and it affects a range of factors from
water quality to quality of life.
Wetlands still remain in every part of the state, with the
greatest concentration in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and
its watershed, which includes the Central Valley. The Delta
wetlands are especially important because they are part of the
vast complex of waterways that provide two-thirds of California’s
drinking water.
… [S]everal wildlife agencies have emphasized late-summer
programs that pay farmers to convert fallow and
recently-harvested farmland into shallow-water habitat for the
dwindling shorebird species that migrate along the Pacific
Flyway through the Central Valley in July, August and
September. Through a farmland program run through BirdReturns —
a partnership among the Nature Conservancy, Audubon California
and Point Blue Conservation Science — stakeholders have
emphasized the late-summer time frame and shorebirds, which
migrate as early as July, months before other species and the
majority of birds trek to their winter homes.
A California Democrat’s proposal to enshrine Biden-era water
quality rules in state law to backstop potential rollbacks
under the Trump administration will not move forward this year
amid continued opposition from farmers and water agencies.
Assembly Appropriations Chair Buffy Wicks announced on Friday
that Sen. Ben Allen’s SB 601 will be a two-year bill, meaning
it won’t be voted on this year and has until next fall to win
passage. Sean Bothwell, executive director of the California
Coastkeeper Alliance, which is sponsoring the bill, said its
backers decided they needed extra time to finalize the language
amid continued opposition. “It’s a big bill and we didn’t want
to rush it,” he said.
The Wildlife Conservation Board (WCB) has approved $21.7
million in grants to support 16 habitat protection and
restoration projects in 11 counties across California. …
Among the awards is a $559,000 acquisition by California
Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) to protect 120 acres
near Bridgeville in Humboldt County. The property includes a
rare peat fen wetland — a sensitive, permanently saturated
natural wetland community ranked as “critically imperiled” —
along with mixed evergreen hardwood and riparian forest. The
fen provides a cold-water source for endangered summer
steelhead trout in the Van Duzen River.
As part of restoring the Bolinas Lagoon watershed, the
Watershed Stewards Program, San Francisco Bay Area Inventory &
Monitoring Network, Point Reyes National Seashore, and Audubon
Canyon Ranch partnered for a volunteer event at Volunteer
Canyon Creek. With over a dozen volunteers we removed hundreds
of pounds of invasive Cape ivy from the banks of the creek, a
sensitive tributary of Bolinas Lagoon. Bolinas Lagoon, a
Wetland of International Importance, supports large numbers of
harbor seals and migratory birds, and has served as the heart
of surrounding communities for thousands of years.
… [Beavers] are praised for bringing lands alive with lush
threaded wetlands that offer resiliency in droughts and
wildfires. On the other hand, a rancher or streamside
homeowner might counter that they are just smelly rats — rats
with a single-minded penchant for property damage. They gnaw
down landscaping and cause floods. … This month, CPW is
having to wade into the middle of the contentious beaver debate
and come up with a management strategy for an animal considered
a keystone species. That means an entire ecosystem would change
drastically without the presence of beavers.
… [F]or wetland biologists and others with a stake in the
health of the surrounding Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, the
largest estuary on the West Coast, the birds represent the
latest – and an exponentially growing – threat to the few
remaining wetlands left in California. … Mute swans
also feed gluttonously on submerged vegetation, destroying the
plant life on which other native wetland species depend. … A
measure before the state Legislature aims to allow hunters and
landowners to shoot the swans for the next five years to try to
bring their numbers down to more manageable levels in the
Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and beyond.
The Ballona Wetlands — an ecological reserve on L.A.’s
Westside, bordered by Marina del Rey, Playa Vista and Playa del
Rey — are the second-largest chunk of open space in L.A.,
second only to Griffith Park. … Healthy wetlands
can absorb carbon in the atmosphere and buffer coastal
communities from flooding. … Across the world, calls to
protect them are growing as human-caused climate change
accelerates. Despite the potential, the Ballona Wetlands have
been the subject of one of Southern California’s longest
running environmental battles. Nearly 20 years after the
wetlands were designated by the state as an ecological reserve,
there’s still no timeline for completing the plans to restore
them, and public access to the green space remains
significantly limited.
… [Sen. Adam] Schiff was here this week to host the
Tahoe Summit, an annual event where lawmakers and community
leaders gather at a lakefront venue to champion environmental
protections, bipartisan collaboration and federal investment in
Lake Tahoe. This year, calls to protect Lake Tahoe come as the
Trump administration cuts funding for climate change research
and reduces staffing at public land management agencies.
… Schiff, who sits on the Senate’s agriculture
committee, told SFGATE on Tuesday aboard the John LeConte that
he is “deeply concerned” about cuts to the Forest
Service. … [H]e told SFGATE he wants to carry on [former
Sen. Dianne] Feinstein’s legacy and continue to advocate for
Lake Tahoe.
This year’s Tahoe Summit theme is “Protecting Lake Tahoe:
Balancing Sustainable Recreation and Conservation.” Leaders
from California and Nevada, on both sides of the
aisle, joined together to reach that goal. … Even though
the Tahoe summit celebrates bipartisanship, California leaders
say they are concerned about the decisions made on the federal
level when it comes to cuts to the Lake Tahoe area.
Scientists and civil society are urging delegates from more
than 170 countries represented at a summit here [Zimbabwe] to
step up ambitions to combat the continued destruction of
Earth’s fastest-disappearing ecosystem. Wetlands underpin
all life on Earth, supplying fresh water, oxygen, habitat and
food. Yet since 1970 more than 35 percent of wetlands have been
lost or degraded at a pace three times faster than losses
experienced within forests. The U.N. gathering known as
the 15th meeting of the conference of the Contracting Parties
of the Convention on Wetlands (COP15), one of the oldest global
environmental protection treaties, comes just weeks after
scientists released a dire warning about the destruction and
declining health of global wetlands, describing the decline as
an overlooked crisis that threatens food and water security,
and worsens climate change.
The community coalition Defend Ballona Wetlands filed a lawsuit
on July 25 against the California Coastal Commission, alleging
the agency unlawfully approved a fossil gas project that
threatens the ecologically sensitive Ballona Wetlands
Ecological Reserve in Playa del Rey. The suit, joined by
Protect Ballona Wetlands and environmental scientist Robert van
de Hoek, accuses the commission of violating state
environmental laws by allowing Southern California Gas Co. to
plug and abandon two natural gas monitoring wells, Del Rey 14
and 19, without proper review. The lawsuit, filed in Los
Angeles County Superior Court, claims the commission engaged in
“piecemealing” by treating the well abandonment as a standalone
project, despite its connection to a larger, now-decertified
Ballona Wetlands Restoration Project.
The highway stretches across Marin and Solano Counties through
the colorful mosaic of marshland in the San Pablo Bay north of
San Francisco. But state Route 37’s scenic roadway is
vulnerable to sea level rise, which could submerge the highway
as soon as 2040, and is subject to brutal bottlenecks during
peak hours as commuters circulate between counties. The
doomed Bay Area highway that sees over 40,000 drivers a day has
a fix in the works — but not everyone agrees it’s the right
one. As shovels and bulldozers from Caltrans prepare to widen
Highway 37 in a $500 million project, tides continuously chip
away at the road’s edge. Its western half near Novato is
subject to repeated flooding, especially during king tides,
while the eastern span is protected by a series of levees and
dikes.
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife has completed
its 2025 waterfowl breeding population survey. The survey shows
an increase in both mallard and total duck species this year.
The breeding population of mallards rose from 177,828 to
265,640, marking a 49% increase. Total ducks, encompassing all
species, increased from 373,864 to 474,495, a 27% rise. Despite
this growth, mallards remain 16% below the long-term
average. “The survey indicated an increase in mallard
abundance, and habitat conditions were good in northern
California, so we expect average to above-average production
for all waterfowl species,” said CDFW Waterfowl Program
Biologist Melanie Weaver.
Building new housing is a priority across the state, especially
in fire ravaged areas of Southern California. But now a growing
number of environmental groups say they want to make sure that
future construction isn’t putting communities at risk from
climate change. They’re pointing to a provision in a recently
passed budget bill, AB 306, which could essentially freeze new
residential building regulations for the next six years and
bars cities and counties from adopting stricter
codes. David Lewis is executive director of the nonprofit
Save the Bay. His group is concerned that the bill will slow
climate resiliency efforts, including upgrades meant to protect
communities from flooding and other effects of sea level rise.
The return of fully planted rice crops to the Sacramento Valley
following years of drought has restored another essential
feature of the region. After harvest, reservoirs replenished by
last year’s historic storms enabled farmers to flood more of
their fields this winter, creating wetland habitat for
migrating waterfowl. … Today, around 300,000 acres of the
valley’s rice paddies are flooded each winter to provide food
and shelter for 7 million ducks and geese, according to the
California Rice Commission. More than 200 species of wildlife,
including threatened species such as Sandhill Cranes, rely on
the fields. Especially over the past decade, state and federal
programs have been developed to incentivize winter flooding,
defraying some of the cost, and rice farmers have embraced
their role in wildlife conservation.
A new but little-known change in
California law designating aquifers as “natural infrastructure”
promises to unleash a flood of public funding for projects that
increase the state’s supply of groundwater.
The change is buried in a sweeping state budget-related law,
enacted in July, that also makes it easier for property owners
and water managers to divert floodwater for storage underground.
It was exactly the sort of deluge
California groundwater agencies have been counting on to
replenish their overworked aquifers.
The start of 2023 brought a parade of torrential Pacific storms
to bone dry California. Snow piled up across the Sierra Nevada at
a near-record pace while runoff from the foothills gushed into
the Central Valley, swelling rivers over their banks and filling
seasonal creeks for the first time in half a decade.
Suddenly, water managers and farmers toiling in one of the
state’s most groundwater-depleted regions had an opportunity to
capture stormwater and bank it underground. Enterprising agencies
diverted water from rushing rivers and creeks into manmade
recharge basins or intentionally flooded orchards and farmland.
Others snagged temporary permits from the state to pull from
streams they ordinarily couldn’t touch.
Land and waterway managers labored
hard over the course of a century to control California’s unruly
rivers by building dams and levees to slow and contain their
water. Now, farmers, environmentalists and agencies are undoing
some of that work as part of an accelerating campaign to restore
the state’s major floodplains.
Biologists have designed a variety
of unique experiments in the past decade to demonstrate the
benefits that floodplains provide for small fish. Tracking
studies have used acoustic tags to show that chinook salmon
smolts with access to inundated fields are more likely than their
river-bound cohorts to reach the Pacific Ocean. This is because
the richness of floodplains offers a vital buffet of nourishment
on which young salmon can capitalize, supercharging their growth
and leading to bigger, stronger smolts.
Water is flowing once again
to the Colorado River’s delta in Mexico, a vast region that
was once a natural splendor before the iconic Western river was
dammed and diverted at the turn of the last century, essentially
turning the delta into a desert.
In 2012, the idea emerged that water could be intentionally sent
down the river to inundate the delta floodplain and regenerate
native cottonwood and willow trees, even in an overallocated
river system. Ultimately, dedicated flows of river water were
brokered under cooperative
efforts by the U.S. and Mexican governments.
State work to improve wildlife habitat and tamp down dust at California’s ailing Salton Sea is finally moving forward. Now the sea may be on the verge of getting the vital ingredient needed to supercharge those restoration efforts – money.
The shrinking desert lake has long been a trouble spot beset by rising salinity and unhealthy, lung-irritating dust blowing from its increasingly exposed bed. It shadows discussions of how to address the Colorado River’s two-decade-long drought because of its connection to the system. The lake is a festering health hazard to nearby residents, many of them impoverished, who struggle with elevated asthma risk as dust rises from the sea’s receding shoreline.
This tour guided participants on a virtual journey deep into California’s most crucial water and ecological resource – the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. The 720,000-acre network of islands and canals support the state’s two major water systems – the State Water Project and the Central Valley Project. The Delta and the connecting San Francisco Bay form the largest freshwater tidal estuary of its kind on the West coast.
Out of sight and out of mind to most
people, the Salton Sea in California’s far southeast corner has
challenged policymakers and local agencies alike to save the
desert lake from becoming a fetid, hyper-saline water body
inhospitable to wildlife and surrounded by clouds of choking
dust.
The sea’s problems stretch beyond its boundaries in Imperial and
Riverside counties and threaten to undermine multistate
management of the Colorado River. A 2019 Drought Contingency Plan for the
Lower Colorado River Basin was briefly stalled when the Imperial
Irrigation District, holding the river’s largest water
allocation, balked at participating in the plan because, the
district said, it ignored the problems of the Salton Sea.
Deep, throaty cadenced calls —
sounding like an off-key bassoon — echo over the grasslands,
farmers’ fields and wetlands starting in late September of each
year. They mark the annual return of sandhill cranes to the
Cosumnes River Preserve,
46,000 acres located 20 miles south of Sacramento on the edge of
the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
For the bulk of her career, Jayne
Harkins has devoted her energy to issues associated with the
management of the Colorado River, both with the U.S. Bureau of
Reclamation and with the Colorado River Commission of Nevada.
Now her career is taking a different direction. Harkins, 58, was
appointed by President Trump last August to take the helm of the
United States section of the U.S.-Mexico agency that oversees
myriad water matters between the two countries as they seek to
sustainably manage the supply and water quality of the Colorado
River, including its once-thriving Delta in Mexico, and other
rivers the two countries share. She is the first woman to be
named the U.S. Commissioner of the International Boundary and
Water Commission for either the United States or Mexico in the
commission’s 129-year history.
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.
Farmers in the Central Valley are broiling about California’s plan to increase flows in the Sacramento and San Joaquin river systems to help struggling salmon runs avoid extinction. But in one corner of the fertile breadbasket, River Garden Farms is taking part in some extraordinary efforts to provide the embattled fish with refuge from predators and enough food to eat.
And while there is no direct benefit to one farm’s voluntary actions, the belief is what’s good for the fish is good for the farmers.
Deep, throaty cadenced calls —
sounding like an off-key bassoon — echo over the grasslands,
farmers’ fields and wetlands starting in late September of each
year. They mark the annual return of sandhill cranes to the
Cosumnes River Preserve,
46,000 acres located 20 miles south of Sacramento on the edge of
the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
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.
Along the banks of the
Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta in Oakley, about 50 miles southwest
of Sacramento, is a park that harkens back to the days when the
Delta lured Native Americans, Spanish explorers, French fur
trappers, and later farmers to its abundant wildlife and rich
soil.
That historical Delta was an enormous marsh linked to the two
freshwater rivers entering from the north and south, and tidal
flows coming from the San Francisco Bay. After the Gold Rush,
settlers began building levees and farms, changing the landscape
and altering the habitat.
As vital as the Colorado River is to the United States and
Mexico, so is the ongoing process by which the two countries
develop unique agreements to better manage the river and balance
future competing needs.
The prospect is challenging. The river is over allocated as urban
areas and farmers seek to stretch every drop of their respective
supplies. Since a historic treaty between the two countries was
signed in 1944, the United States and Mexico have periodically
added a series of arrangements to the treaty called minutes that
aim to strengthen the binational ties while addressing important
water supply, water quality and environmental concerns.
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 30-minute documentary, produced in 2011, explores the past,
present and future of flood management in California’s Central
Valley. It features stories from residents who have experienced
the devastating effects of a California flood firsthand.
Interviews with long-time Central Valley water experts from
California Department of Water Resources (FloodSAFE), U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers, Bureau of Reclamation, Central Valley Flood
Management Program and environmental groups are featured as they
discuss current efforts to improve the state’s 150-year old flood
protection system and develop a sustainable, integrated, holistic
flood management plan for the Central Valley.
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.
15-minute DVD that graphically portrays the potential disaster
should a major earthquake hit the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
“Delta Warning” depicts what would happen in the event of an
earthquake registering 6.5 on the Richter scale: 30 levee breaks,
16 flooded islands and a 300 billion gallon intrusion of salt
water from the Bay – the “big gulp” – which would shut down the
State Water Project and Central Valley Project pumping plants.
Water truly has shaped California into the great state it is
today. And if it is water that made California great, it’s the
fight over – and with – water that also makes it so critically
important. In efforts to remap California’s circulatory system,
there have been some critical events that had a profound impact
on California’s water history. These turning points not only
forced a re-evaluation of water, but continue to impact the lives
of every Californian. This 2005 PBS documentary offers a
historical and current look at the major water issues that shaped
the state we know today. Includes a 12-page viewer’s guide with
background information, historic timeline and a teacher’s lesson.
This beautiful 24×36 inch poster, suitable for framing, features
a map of the San Joaquin River. The map text focuses on the San
Joaquin River Restoration Program, which aims to restore flows
and populations of Chinook salmon to the river below Friant Dam
to its confluence with the Merced River. The text discusses the
history of the program, its goals and ongoing challenges with
implementation.
This beautiful 24×36-inch poster, suitable for framing, displays
the rivers, lakes and reservoirs, irrigated farmland, urban areas
and Indian reservations within the Klamath River Watershed. The
map text explains the many issues facing this vast,
15,000-square-mile watershed, including fish restoration;
agricultural water use; and wetlands. Also included are
descriptions of the separate, but linked, Klamath Basin
Restoration Agreement and the Klamath Hydroelectric Agreement,
and the next steps associated with those agreements. Development
of the map was funded by a grant from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service.
A companion to the Truckee River Basin Map poster, this
24×36-inch poster, suitable for framing, explores the Carson
River, and its link to the Truckee River. The map includes the
Lahontan Dam and reservoir, the Carson Sink, and the farming
areas in the basin. Map text discusses the region’s hydrology and
geography, the Newlands Project, land and water use within the
basin and wetlands. Development of the map was funded by a grant
from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Mid-Pacific Region, Lahontan
Basin Area Office.
This 24×36 inch poster, suitable for framing, explains how
non-native invasive animals can alter the natural ecosystem,
leading to the demise of native animals. “Unwelcome Visitors”
features photos and information on four such species – including
the zerbra mussel – and explains the environmental and economic
threats posed by these species.
The Water Education Foundation’s second edition of
the Layperson’s Guide to The Klamath River Basin is
hot off the press and available for purchase.
Updated and redesigned, the easy-to-read overview covers the
history of the region’s tribal, agricultural and environmental
relationships with one of the West’s largest rivers — and a
vast watershed that hosts one of the nation’s oldest and
largest reclamation projects.
The 24-page Layperson’s Guide to the Delta explores the competing
uses and demands on California’s Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
Included in the guide are sections on the history of the Delta,
its role in the state’s water system, and its many complex issues
with sections on water quality, levees, salinity and agricultural
drainage, fish and wildlife, and water distribution.
The Pacific Flyway is one of four
major North American migration routes for birds, especially
waterbirds, and stretches from Alaska in the north
to Patagonia in South America.
Each year, birds follow ancestral patterns as they travel the
flyway on their annual north-south migration. Along the way, they
need stopover sites such as wetlands with suitable habitat and
food supplies. In California, 95 percent of historic
wetlands have been lost, yet the Central Valley hosts some of the
world’s largest populations of wintering birds.
In the Central Valley, wetlands—partly or seasonally saturated
land that supports aquatic life and distinct ecosystems— provide
critical habitat for a variety of wildlife.
This printed issue of Western Water examines how the various
stakeholders have begun working together to meet the planning
challenges for the Colorado River Basin, including agreements
with Mexico, increased use of conservation and water marketing,
and the goal of accomplishing binational environmental
restoration and water-sharing programs.
This printed issue of Western Water examines the issues
associated with the State Water Board’s proposed revision of the
water quality Bay-Delta Plan, most notably the question of
whether additional flows are needed for the system, and how they
might be provided.
This printed copy of Western Water examines the Colorado River
Delta, its ecological significance and the lengths to which
international, state and local efforts are targeted and achieving
environmental restoration while recognizing the needs of the
entire river’s many users.
