by Christine A. Parisek
The wait is over. Your 2023 WaterBlog Wrapped is here.
As we wrap up our 12th year, and 2023, we thank all our readers, partners, authors, and friends who have supported the Center for Watershed Sciences and CaliforniaWaterBlog. CaliforniaWaterBlog’s mission is to provide thought-provoking and useful (at least interesting) commentary and ideas on California’s freshwater and estuarine resources. We tailor the blog to a broad audience – scientists, non-scientists, policymakers, journalists, and members of the public – with diverse interest in water, and we wholeheartedly thank you for being part of our Center for Watershed Sciences and CaliforniaWaterBlog community!
Today’s blog post, with figures inspired by the annual “Spotify Wrapped” music app campaign, explores the blog’s past year, with some numbers, and shares some blog posts that made waves in 2023 (measured by total unique views).
The CaliforniaWaterBlog had a noteworthy readership spike in 2023. The blog accumulated over 300,000 total unique views and hosted ~220,000 visitors. This surge was a 1.5 fold increase from 2021 and 1.9 fold increase from 2022. Over 14,000 individuals now subscribe. The blog continued to engage interest from readers in every USA state in most weeks, and extended as far as 183 countries globally; this underscores the value and global relevance of seeking out solutions to California-esque water problems. The blog overall has had over 2 million views and 1 million visitors since 2011.
Individual blog posts typically reached ~1,500-4,000 total unique views, although sometimes posts soar to higher views (e.g., 10-100K; Table 1); this is particularly true of special-topic posts that were timely and relevant, or posts that had higher than usual social media traction.
In 2023, 64 authors contributed to the CaliforniaWaterBlog to create a total of 51 blog posts (cumulatively, 93,800 words!). Topics in 2023 were diverse, from the return of Lake Tulare and California’s alpine lakes to freshwater mussels and how they are impacted by wildfire; from ecological debts and imperiled wetlands to lessons in sturgeon management; from the 2023 drought and floods and dam and reservoir management to California’s little-known deep sea fishes and water ideas that deserve more attention. Some themes consistently resonated with readers, such as blogs on drought, floods, fish management, and reservoirs.
Here are CaliforniaWaterBlog’s 2023 reader favorites! Which blog posts were your personal favorites? Drop us a note in the comments!
Table 1. Top 20 CaliforniaWaterBlog posts of 2023, determined by total unique views.
| Date | Title | Total Unique Views |
| 4/16 | Lake Tulare (and its fishes) shall rise again, by Peter B. Moyle | 108,347 |
| 5/07 | Tulare Basin and Lake – 2023 and their future, by Jay Lund | 12,006 |
| 3/19 | The rapid invasion of Mississippi silverside in California, by Peter B. Moyle | 10,822 |
| 11/26 | California’s Amazing Terminal Lakes, by Peter B. Moyle | 10,157 |
| 2/05 | Resistance is Futile – Agriculture is Key to Fixing Lower Colorado River Water Shortages, by Jay Lund, Josué Medellin-Azuara | 8,770 |
| 11/12 | Crawdads: Naturalized Californians, by Peter B. Moyle | 6,257 |
| 6/04 | Water Wasted to the Sea?, by James E. Cloern, Jane Kay, Wim Kimmerer, Jeffrey Mount, Peter B. Moyle, Anke Müeller-Solger | 4,346 |
| 7/08 | Putah Creek’s rebirth: a model for reconciling other degraded streams?, by Emily Jacinto, Nann A. Fangue, Dennis E. Cocherell, Joseph D. Kiernan, Peter B. Moyle, Andrew L. Rypel | 3,115 |
| 5/14 | Monster Fish: Lessons for Sturgeon Management in California, by Peter B. Moyle, Andrew L. Rypel | 2,921 |
| 1/22 | Is the Drought Over? Reflections on California’s Recent Flood-Drought Combo, by Andrew L. Rypel, Jay Lund, Carson Jeffres | 2,919 |
| 4/09 | Perspectives on DairyMAR, by Thomas Harter, Helen Dahlke | 2,723 |
| 3/05 | Hiding in plain sight: newly described freshwater fishes from the Los Angeles area and elsewhere in California, by Peter B. Moyle, Nicholas Buckmaster, Yingxin Su | 2,448 |
| 8/06 | A “Peak” into California’s Alpine Lakes and their Food Webs, by Christine A. Parisek | 2,391 |
| 4/30 | Hatcheries alone cannot save species and fisheries, by Andrew L. Rypel, Peter B. Moyle | 2,260 |
| 3/26 | This Drought is Dead: Long Live the Drought, by Jay Lund, Andrew L. Rypel | 2,088 |
| 12/10 | California water ideas that deserve more attention, by Peter B. Moyle, Karrigan Börk, Christine A. Parisek, Fabian A. Bombardelli, Jay Lund, Andrew L. Rypel | 1,945 |
| 5/28 | What’s the dam problem with deadbeat dams?, by Andrew L. Rypel, Christine A. Parisek, Jay Lund, Ann Willis, Peter B. Moyle, Sarah Yarnell, Karrigan Börk | 1,816 |
| 4/22 | The Banality of Floods (and Droughts). by Jay Lund | 1,768 |
| 6/11 | Facing the Dragon: California’s Nasty Ecological Debts, by Andrew L. Rypel | 1,758 |
| 2/12 | Green Sturgeon in California: Hidden Lives Revealed From Long-Term Tracking, by Scott F. Colborne, Lawrence W. Sheppard, Daniel R. O’Donnell, Daniel C. Reuman, Jonathan A. Walter, Gabriel P. Singer, John T. Kelly, Michael J. Thomas, Andrew L. Rypel | 1,720 |
Table 2. All CaliforniaWaterBlog posts of 2023.
Christine A. Parisek is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Graduate Group in Ecology at the University of California Davis and a Science Communications Fellow at the Center for Watershed Sciences.
