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California WaterBlog

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  • Major gift endorses UC Davis’ multidisciplinary engagement with California’s water problems

      By Jay Lund Today marks a milestone for successful engagement of university research with California’s water problems. UC Davis Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi announced a major donation to the Center for Watershed Sciences. The $10 million gift from the S.D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation will enable the Center to expand its scientific research and public…

  • Paradox on the Plains: As water efficiency increases, so can water use

    By C.-Y. Cynthia Lin Groundwater and water conservation are critical issues in California and globally. Many of the world’s most productive agricultural regions depend on groundwater and have experienced unsustainable declines in water levels. In many places, policymakers have attempted to decrease groundwater extraction through voluntary, incentive-based conservation programs for irrigated agriculture. These policies are…

  • Project HOBBES: Assembling water models from the data up

    By Samuel Sandoval Solis, Josué Medellín-Azuara and Jay Lund Computer modelers tasked with untangling California’s knotty water problems often find themselves entangled by incompatible or poorly organized datasets. They’re stuck for months trying to transform these datasets into model inputs before the important business of modeling can get underway. Some highly useful datasets on parts…

  • How to save salmon: location, location, location

    By Robert Lusardi Spring-fed waters are luxurious places for salmon and trout. They provide ideal flows and temperatures year-round and jungles of aquatic plants teeming with insects for easy snacking. In real estate, the saying goes, three things matter: “location, location, location.” Can the same be said for native fish? Are fish that reside near…

  • New environmentalism needed for California water

    By Jay R. Lund California needs a new environmentalism to set a more effective and sustainable green bar for the nation and even the world. For decades, we have taken a “just say no” approach to stop, prevent or blunt human encroachments onto the natural world – often rightly so. Early environmentalism needed lines in…

  • Time to rethink fish plantings in the Klamath

    By Rebecca M. Quiñones The Klamath River basin presents one of the best opportunities for the reform of hatchery practices and the recovery of wild salmon and trout populations in California. Much of the habitat for the Klamath’s Chinook, coho and steelhead fisheries is in relatively good shape compared with conditions in the Sacramento and…

  • The Delta won’t rise again

    By Jay R. Lund Much of the western and central Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta has sunk deeply below sea level, and it continues to subside as its marsh soils erode from being drained and farmed. At the same time, sea level is rising. The two trends increase these islands’ likelihood of flooding from major storms, earthquakes,…

  • The new ‘normal’ water year in a changing California climate

    By Sarah Null and Joshua Viers For at least 20 years now, water scientists have impressed upon us the unavoidable effects of climate change already underway in California. The forecasts repeatedly call for reduced Sierra snowpack, earlier spring snowmelt, prolonged hot spells and droughts, warmer rivers stressing cold-water fish, wilder storms and sea level rise…

  • Warmer water will kill off most of California’s native fishes

    By Peter Moyle The peculiar pattern of rain California had this winter – virtually none in January and February – should remind us all that climate change is really happening now. “Abnormal” events will become increasingly frequent as our era of benign climate recedes. Dry winters are especially hard on native fishes that rely on…

  • What lies in store for the state water bond?

    By Ellen Hanak California has been struggling to manage its scarce water resources effectively for the benefit of competing needs: a growing population and urban economy, a highly productive agricultural sector and many valuable but threatened watersheds. In the final months of 2009, the state Legislature passed a comprehensive package of water bills – the…

  • A sweet spot for farms and fish on a floodplain

    By Richard Howitt and Josué Medellín-Azuara For decades, Sacramento area freeway commuters have been treated to a carousel of contrasting landscapes as they cross a vast floodplain known as the Yolo Bypass. The carousel rotates by the season. In wet winters, the rain-swollen Sacramento River spills into the bypass, which is designed as a relief…

  • Life springs in Sierra rivers as springtime flows recede

    By Sarah Yarnell and Ryan Peek In case you hadn’t heard, the annual Sierra “spring snowmelt recession” has begun. The foothill yellow-legged frog certainly knew. Adapted to the seasonal patterns of California’s climate, this rare frog and other native amphibians, fishes and bottom-dwelling invertebrates are genetically wired to reproduce during the spring snowmelt when river…

  • A confluence of whitewater and watershed scientists

    UC Davis watershed scientists immerse themselves in rafting guide training on the South Fork American River, April 2013. Video by Eric Holmes By Chris Bowman Researchers here at the multidisciplinary UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences convey the power and behavior of rivers in many ways. Geologists measure the movement of sediment and the scouring…

  • Jerry Orlob: legendary mentor for California water engineers

    By Jay Lund Jerry was a giant. He pioneered the field of water quality modeling and system analysis in water and environmental engineering. He founded a series of influential consulting firms, many of which exist today. And he helped establish the excellence of environmental and water engineering programs at UC Davis. What made Jerry a…

  • UC Davis speakers series: Critical problems for California water policy

    By Chris Austin California’s water future is at a critical juncture. The Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta is declining, both as a reliable hub for exporting water for millions of Californians and millions of farmed acres, and as an ecosystem supporting a vast array of wildlife. The Delta Reform Act of 2009 set a fundamentally new state…

  • Large delta smelt population found south of Delta

    UC Davis scientists have found large populations of the federally protected delta smelt growing extraordinarily large in three Southern California reservoirs, hundreds of miles from its native waters. The smelt presumably colonized the lakes after being pumped from the Delta though the California Aqueduct. The find, reported today (April 1) in the journal Pelagic Papers,…

  • Unmasking California’s water ‘Maven’

    By Chris Bowman Still in their early teens, Joshua and Noah Austin have yet to reject their mother’s idea of family fun. Chris Austin hauls the family around California to visit canals, dams and reservoirs. They recently made a week’s vacation following irrigation water from the Colorado River near Yuma, Ariz., to farms in the…

  • Priming the pump for a water bond

    Ellen Hanak, Co-Director of Research and Senior Fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC), testified at a Feb. 26 legislative hearing concerning California’s capacity to incur additional water bond debt. (The Legislature has placed an $11 billion water bond on the November 2014 general election ballot to fund a wide variety of water…

  • Ten realities for managing the Delta

    By Peter Moyle I have been working on Delta fishes for about 40 years. Increasingly, I have curmudgeonly thoughts about what is needed to make the ecosystem work better. Here I present these thoughts as “Ten Realities” – statements of the obvious that are often overlooked in public debates about the system. Reality No. 1:…

  • California’s groundwater problems and prospects

    Under the rocks and stones, there is water underground — Talking Heads By Jay R. Lund and Thomas Harter Groundwater is one of California’s most ubiquitous, widely used resources that is unseen and misunderstood. Aquifers gather and store water and contaminants from large areas over decades to eons to support many human and ecosystem functions. …

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