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California WaterBlog

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  • Day 4 – The Ghost of Carp-mas Past!

    By Kim Luke . . . Back in 2019, I began a project called the Carp Dependent Ecosystem Urgent Management (Carp-DEUM) Project. I started this project as an undergraduate and continued it as a junior specialist and graduate student until 2022. The project was focused on the common carp (Cyprinus carpio) population in the UC…

  • Day 3 – An Ode to Gulls

    By Lynette Williams Duman . . . There is no better cure for the winter blues than looking at birds, and there is no better group of birds to look at in the winter than gulls. In California, winter is the time of massive gull flocks that will commute between landfills, beaches, rice fields, reservoirs,…

  • Day 2 – Fish Eye View

    By Miranda Bell-Tilcock . . . That’s no moon.  That is the lens of a fish eye. While it looms large in the photo, this lens is tiny, approximately 3-5mm in diameter, similar to a small bead on a friendship bracelet. How did we even capture such a zoomed in photo of a small lens?…

  • Day 1 – Introducing “12 Days of CWS”

    By Christine A. Parisek and Miranda Bell-Tilcock . . . The California WaterBlog celebrates its 15th anniversary this January 2026, and so we thought we’d try out something a little special and festive this month. This December, we’re piloting a new short-post format series that will open up a small window into a day in…

  • What’s next in river science? Takeaways from the International Symposium of River Science (ISRS) conference

    By Miranda Bell-Tilcock and Sarah Yarnell . . . A big thank you to everyone who attended the International Symposium of River Science (ISRS) conference, hosted by the Center for Watershed Sciences (CWS)!  The International Symposium of River Science (ISRS) conference took place October 6th–9th and featured 4 days of speakers hailing from across the…

  • Nine California Water Rites

    By Jay Lund . . . “Rite” noun:1. a religious or other solemn ceremony or act.2. a social custom, practice, or conventional act. California has complex and hallowed water rites.  Here are some: Perhaps Western water rhetoric might become more concise by referring to these now-numbered rites. About the Author Jay Lund is an Emeritus Distinguished Professor…

  • Announcing the International Fish Passage Conference 2026

    By Nann A. Fangue . . . UC Davis will host the International Fish Passage Conference on May 4-8, 2026. Please join us for this opportunity to engage with fish passage practitioners working across academia, government, utilities, consultancy, and other professional organizations while enjoying the beautiful springtime of Davis and the greater Sacramento region. The…

  • Physics and Chemistry of San Francisco Bay Sediments – Lectures by Professor Ray B. Krone, 1991

    By Jay Lund, Jamie Anderson, William Fleenor, and Fabián A. Bombardelli San Francisco Bay is a tidally-energetic estuary where clay muds are the dominant sediment building wetlands, depositing in channels and harbors, and responding to sea level rise since San Francisco Bay was most recently inundated about 8,000 years ago.  These sediments mainly come from…

  • Think Now about the Unthinkable in US Disaster Management

    By Nicholas Pinter and David Conrad In a turbulent year for US disaster management, changes that seemed unthinkable a few months ago are now coming to pass.  California leaders should be planning proactive responses now. The California Flood Future Panel is now assessing potential impacts of federal changes to US disaster management, particularly considering proposed…

  • The search for flow metrics that support fish success – case study in Scott River, Siskiyou County, California

    By Claire Kouba, Sarah Yarnell, Leland Scantlebury, and Thomas Harter How much water do fish really need, and is it possible to ask the fish? One approach to answering this question is to monitor the abundance of a local fish population over many years, and determine the degree to which observed streamflow correlates with fishery…

  • It’s Elementary My Dear Walleye

    By George Whitman, who is dressed as Dr. John Watson this Halloween While this Sherlockian mystery is fictional, it is inspired by a real event in which a Walleye was illegally introduced into Lake Cascade, Idaho. The events described below parallel the actual research conducted to uncover its origins.  Looking back over the notes of…

  • Where are they now: Kelly Neal

    “Where are they now:”  is a blog series on the California WaterBlog, written in the voices of our alumni. The series celebrates the many alumni who got their start at the Center for Watershed Sciences (CWS) and have now gone on to bigger and better things. Blog posts from “Where are they now:” will be…

  • Resilient California Fishes: Sacramento Sucker

    By Peter Moyle and Tom Taylor ____________________ The fresh waters of California support a diverse native fish fauna, 130 taxa by our count (Leidy and Moyle 2021). At least 56 of these taxa are on trajectories towards extinction 7 are already extinct; 32 are listed as threatened or endangered by state and federal agencies. Not…

  • Representing interannual variability for environmental flow operations: the functional flow regime

    By Lindsay Murdoch, Sarah Yarnell, and Jay Lund California’s local communities and native ecosystems alike have adapted to cycles of flood, drought, and a healthy portion of everything in between. Our river management, on the other hand, has fallen out of natural balance and tends to oscillate between insufficient minimum flows and emergency flood responses,…

  • California: A Salmon Society?

    By Carson Jeffres Consider for a moment the identity of the Pacific Northwest as a Salmon Society.  When you fly into an airport in the Pacific Northwest, salmon are on the floors and walls as art.  This art is an expression of societal values in which salmon are important.  In contrast, when you fly into Sacramento you see…

  • Don’t Let a Shutdown Wash Away U.S. Flood Protection

    By Nicholas Pinter A US federal government shutdown is looming, potentially starting Oct. 1, with broad impacts across the government and across the country.  The scope of these unfolding events is beyond the wheelhouse of the California Water Blog.  But pulled into the slipstream of this potential budget impasse is an important water issue.  If Congress does not…

  • Happy New Water Year 2026! – following 2025’s Normal and Extreme Hydrology

    By Jay Lund October 1 marks the beginning of California’s new Water Year (WY). Water years here run from October 1 until September 30 of the next calendar year and are named for the calendar year of the bulk of the water year (January-October). October 1 is also the nominal beginning of California’s wet season.  California’s…

  • International Approaches to Freshwater Management

    By Nicholas Pinter and Sarah Yarnell In late June and July of this year, UC Davis convened an Advanced Studies Institute (ASI) on “International Approaches to Freshwater Management,” bringing 11 top graduate students from across the US to study rivers and management systems in California, Italy, and the Netherlands.   ASIs are funded by the National…

  • The Texas Flood Tragedy was Predictable, but was it Preventable?

    By Kathleen Schaefer In the wake of recent tragic events, such as the devastating floods in Texas, it’s become clear that our current approach to flood management and disaster preparedness is falling short. The Associated Press reported that a flood warning system, which could have potentially saved lives, was left unfunded due to budget constraints…

  • California’s Amazing Terminal Lakes

    By Peter B. Moyle * This is a re-post of a blog originally published 11/26/2023. When Californians talk of lakes, they usually mean reservoirs, the 1500 or so artificial bodies of water behind dams. Alternately, they may be referring to the 4,000 or so natural lakes in the Sierra Nevada or to one of the…

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