by John Abatzoglou, Anna Rallings, Leigh Bernacchi, Joshua Viers, Josué Medellín-Azuara California’s 2021 water outlook became grimmer this spring as the state did not get fabulous February or miracle March precipitation. Unsurprisingly, spring streamflow forecasts from snowfed basins in the Sierra were far below average. For example, early April forecasts from California DWR called for…

by Wyatt Arnold A California water myth which becomes especially pernicious in droughts is that California is “running out of water” (Hanak et al. 2009). Viewing California’s supply and demand pressures in terms of fixed water requirements perpetuates this myth and invariably places undue attention on building additional supply infrastructure. Instead, managing water as a…

by Wyatt Arnold A California water myth which becomes especially pernicious in droughts is that California is “running out of water” (Hanak et al. 2009). Viewing California’s supply and demand pressures in terms of fixed water requirements perpetuates this myth and invariably places undue attention on building additional supply infrastructure. Instead, managing water as a…

 by Dylan Stompe, Teejay O’Rear, John Durand, and Peter Moyle             The San Francisco Estuary (estuary) is sometimes called the most invaded estuary in the world, and for good reason. Through many avenues, hundreds, if not thousands, of species have been introduced to San Francisco Bay, the Delta, and their rivers. Some introductions were byproducts…

by Peter Moyle and Andrew Rypel California is home to 131 kinds of native fishes that require freshwater for some or all of their life-cycle. Most of these fishes are found only in California and most (81%) are in decline (Moyle et al. 2015, 2020). Thirty-two (24%) are already listed as threatened or endangered by…

by Rob Gailey and Jay Lund Domestic wells serve sizable potable water demands in California and much of the world. These wells tend to degrade and fail with declining regional groundwater levels. In areas of irrigated agriculture, impacts to shallower domestic wells may occur from ongoing groundwater use and worsen during drought when agricultural pumping…

– Curated by Jennifer Cribbs (jecribbs@ucdavis.edu) Note from the Curator: Restoration implies returning to a prior state. A broken cup carefully glued, might appear nearly as whole as the original, but will always differ from the original.  Ecosystem restoration attempts to return an evolving web of interconnected species and physical processes to a prior state.…

Jobs and Irrigation during Drought in California Farmworkers harvesting cauliflower in Monterey County. Photo by John Chacon/California Department of Water Resources by Josué Medellín-Azuara and Jay Lund During droughts organizations and stakeholders look for ways of getting the most from every water drop. This is not an exception in California where roughly 40 percent of all water…

by Francisco Bellido Leiva, Robert Lusardi and Jay Lund  We may be entering a time when more mechanistic understanding can be used to estimate effects of habitats and flows on fish populations and health, and help design ecosystem restoration efforts. An integrated portfolio approach to protecting and restoring winter-run salmon would begin with a model…

by Jay Lund California’s Governor Newsom recently declared a drought emergency throughout much of California and announced over $5 billion in new water program investments.  These twin emergency and funding announcements are a classic “bad-news creates good news story” (and potentially vice versa) for California’s water problems. They are opportunities for innovation and making long-term…

We asked some colleagues for lessons that might be useful in managing the California’s new drought. Here is a first sampling of thoughts. 1: Market-based approaches to water management will lessen the costs of drought. Katrina Jessoe. Agricultural and Resource Economics, UC Davis Climate models indicate that California’s droughts will become more frequent and severe.…

curated by Abbey Hill Much of water management draws on patterns involving randomness. This is typically done in building models based on organizing equations, but has some relevance to art. The following is a collection of art that relates randomness and patterns with reflections on  water management.  Helter Skelter I – by Mark Bradford (2007) …

curated by Abbey Hill Much of water management draws on patterns involving randomness. This is typically done in building models based on organizing equations, but has some relevance to art. The following is a collection of art that relates randomness and patterns with reflections on  water management.  Helter Skelter I – by Mark Bradford (2007) …

by Jay Lund California is in the second year of a drought. Governor Newsom this week made his first drought declaration.   Just how dry is this drought, so far?  What are some likely implications?  And what might State and local governments do about it? How dry is it?  California Data Exchange Center has some…

by Teejay O’Rear, John Durand, Peter Moyle Suisun Marsh is central to the health of the San Francisco Estuary. Not only is it a huge (470 km2) tidal marsh in the center the northern estuary (Figure 1), but it is an extremely important nursery area for species such as splittail, striped bass, longfin smelt, and, formerly,…

by Yiqing “Gracie” Yao and Jay Lund Salinity has often become a major limit for irrigated agriculture in semi-arid regions, from ancient Mesopotamia to parts of California today. A previous blog post showed that conjunctive use with more saline groundwater can differ fundamentally from freshwater aquifers. Higher salinity limits groundwater use for irrigation during dry…

Help restore one of California’s most endangered species while supporting California’s water supplies in a time of drought. The Federal government is beginning a program for the unemployed to retrain as much-needed Delta Smelt.  Following a two-day course, candidates will learn to: Seek out turbid waters Spawn in sand at secret locations Surf the tides…

by Andrew L. Rypel As if 2020, wasn’t completely strange enough, it wound up also being a time when Warren Buffett was plunged headlong into California water. Buffett of course is an American business tycoon – primarily an investor, and currently the 4th richest person on the planet. Although 90 years old, Buffett continues as…