by Peter B. Moyle The Mississippi silverside (Menidia audens[1]) is one of the most abundant fishes in the San Francisco Estuary and in the fresh waters of California in general. As the name indicates, it is not native to the state but was introduced into Clear Lake, Lake County, in 1967, from which it quickly…

by Jay Lund It’s March madness once again as we try to explain water conditions in California to real people in the midst of additional basketball madness. We all enjoy and suffer with basketball.  This commonality can make it a useful unit of volume among the many units of volume used for water. A basketball…

By Peter B. Moyle, Nicholas Buckmaster, and Yingxin Su Lulu Miller in her wonderful 2020 book, Why Fish Don’t Exist, describes how fish exist to us humans only if they have been assigned proper names. The Santa Ana Speckled Dace is a local case in point. This small fish has been living in southern California…

by Jay Lund Water is a universal foundation for every problem and opportunity in California.  Most people use it every day, yet even experts with decades of experience don’t know it all.   (Alas, too many advocates and pundits almost don’t know it at all.)  Welcome! Immense numbers of books and articles have been written on…

by Jay Lund and Josué Medellin-Azuara The lower Colorado River has been out of balance for about 40 years, using more water than has been available.  As their reservoirs empty, the three lower basin states, federal government, and water users are getting around to addressing this problem.   The Colorado River reservoir system has immense storage…

By Peter B. Moyle & Matthew A. Campbell No doubt you have watched a crime show where DNA analysis reveals the identity of a victim or criminal. Or, you have read accounts of how Neanderthal genes are part of our DNA. It is still astonishing to think that such uses of DNA did not exist…

By Erik Porse and Stephanie Pincetl In October 2022, water agencies in Southern California with Colorado River water rights announced plans to reduce water diversions. The agencies offered voluntary conservation of 400,000 acre-feet per year through 2026. This annual total is nearly 10% of the state’s total annual usage rights for the Colorado River. The…

By Christine Parisek The California WaterBlog is completing its 11th year. As we enter 2023, we take a moment to to thank our many readers, partners, authors, and friends. The California WaterBlog’s central mission is to provide stimulating ideas and commentary on critical challenges of water issues, resource management, and ecosystem restoration, in a digestible…

This is a re-post from 2019 with updated links for pictures and further readings. by Jay Lund Collapse of Los Angeles aqueduct pipeline through Antelope Valley from a major flood in February, 1914 (3-months after the aqueduct’s official opening) “In February, 1914, the rainfall in the Mojave Desert region exceeded by nearly fifty per cent…

By Jeffrey Mount and Wim Kimmerer For decades the San Francisco Estuary, which includes San Francisco Bay and the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, has been routinely described as “the largest estuary on the west coast of North America.” This appeared in publications of all types, presumably to emphasize the importance and unique nature of the estuary.…

by Jay Lund After three years of drought and two dry months, plus two wet weeks, into California’s “wet” season for 2023, California has become unsettlingly settled into this long drought.  Most cities have decreased their water use, some more than others.  Agricultural fallowing has been modest statewide, but large in the Sacramento Valley, with…

By Amber Lukk and Ann Willis In drought-prone northern California, limited water resources, private water rights allocations, and inefficient transport and use of water resources causes tension between freshwater conservation and private landownership (Garibaldi et al. 2020, Vissers 2017). In the face of a changing climate, drought curtailments will likely become more frequent, ratchetting stress…

by Jay Lund California water policy is often discussed and depicted as being impossibly complex.  In its essentials, it can be seen much more simply, as in the flow chart below.  Without extreme events (such as floods and droughts), the policy process would be simpler, but ironically less effective, and less well funded. California’s remarkable…

By Peter B. Moyle and Anna M. Sturrock The question addressed in this blog comes from a new PPIC report that calls for reforms in management of environmental water stored behind dams in California. The report shows it is possible to manage water in ways that are compatible with maintaining a natural ecosystem in streams…

By Abigail E. Ward and Miranda Bell-Tilcock This is no ordinary witch’s brew. It’s one part of the recipe to study thiamine deficiency in our California Central Valley Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) populations. In 2019, hatcheries noticed an eerie and shivering change in juvenile Chinook salmon. Offspring were laying on their side at the bottom…