A chance to multiply your support for the Center for Watershed Sciences

California WaterBlog is a long-running outreach project from the UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences, a research center dedicated to interdisciplinary study of water challenges, particularly in California. We focus on environmentally and economically sustainable solutions for managing rivers, lakes, groundwater, and estuaries. This weekend, for UC Davis Give Day (April 17 – 18, 2026), we have a matching gift challenge from emeritus Director (and current Vice Director) Jay Lund.

Law students in Professor Börk’s California Environmental Cases and Places class discuss Winnemem Wintu efforts to protect cultural and ecological sites near Shasta Reservoir. (PC Karrigan Börk)

The Center provides workable solutions and long-term datasets to address our toughest water challenges. We are a soft-money research center, which means that our researchers are paid on the funding they secure for themselves, not through funds from UC Davis. We support our work through grants from the federal and state governments, and from foundations and nonprofit partners. In addition to providing policy-relevant science for decision-makers, we are training up the next generation of watershed scientists through internships, early-career opportunities, and support for undergraduate and graduate students. Gifts support our mission by providing funds that can be used for purposes not covered by the grants, often including student travel to conferences, summer internships, research on emerging issues, and additional graduate student support. Gifts have been instrumental to efforts like the Spinning Salmon Program for high school students and our life-changing Ecogeomorphology Class. Please consider supporting the Center’s efforts as part of UC Davis Give Day 2026.

Building on a successful Give Day 2025, we at the Center for Watershed Sciences are delighted to announce that there is an unlockable challenge gift that supports the work we do at CWS and UC Davis.

Our Give Day Challenges

The Lund Water Management Dissertation Fellowship Challenge supports the next generation of water management leaders. This fund supports graduate students engaging in interdisciplinary water research and encourages them to pursue their interests while thinking creatively about how to tackle major water problems. Specifically, the fund supports Ph.D. students at the Center for Watershed Sciences who are working on their dissertation for a period of up to one year after completing their Advancement to Candidacy. This Endowment was initialized by Jay Lund, Vice Director of the Center for Watershed Sciences and Distinguished Professor of Civil Engineering, and his wife Jean Lund, who made a historic donation of $800,000 to the Center for Watershed Sciences. If we can receive 15 gifts of any size ≥$5 by this April 18 at 5pm, a $96,042.44 challenge gift will be unlocked! Learn more here.

The Watershed Science Center General Support fund provides general support, such as for ecogeomorphology classes, research to solve water problems in California and the Western US, public engagement in California and Western US water problems, and strategic initiatives and support. Learn more here.

A field laptop balancing on the edge of a remote Sierra Nevada lake as new data streams in. Getting to this spot takes hours of hiking with boats, sensors, and sampling gear – but these measurements help reveal how wildfire, warming temperatures, and shifting snowpack are reshaping mountain lake ecosystems. (PC Christine Parisek)

Ashley Stokes, dean of the UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, visits the Center for Watershed Sciences (CWS) to learn about science happening in the labs. Dr. Carson Jeffress, CWS PI, and Larisa Thacher, CWS Junior Specialist, show Dean Stokes and her live webcast “Aggie Hour” what a fish otolith looks like. (PC JJ Research Group)

How to Donate

Navigate to https://giveto.ucdavis.edu/campaigns/73141/donations/new?a=10086614&designation=watershedsciencecentergeneralsupport&tc=78020&amt=100.00.
Under “Areas to Support,” you can either donate to the default Watershed Science Center General Support or click “+ Add Another” and enter “Lund” in the search bar to locate the Lund Water Management Dissertation Fellowship Challenge.
Continue to fill out the rest of the form as it applies to you.
Optionally, you can also view the Center for Watershed Sciences’ current progress toward unlocking the challenge gift here.

The gift fund opportunities are open now. You can also help the Center for Watershed Sciences by sharing information about these challenge opportunities with your networks before Give Day ends on April 18th. For information on all opportunities to donate to the Center for Watershed Sciences, now and into the future, please visit the Giving page on our website. We appreciate your support for the Center and our mission!