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California WaterBlog

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  • Living with Extreme Floods in California

    by Peter Moyle, Jay Lund, Andrew L. Rypel, Carson Jeffres and Nicholas Pinter Floods and their consequences are a reality for many worldwide, including those living in California. This reality is evidenced by pictures of people stranded on roofs surrounded by water, people paddling down water-filled streets in makeshift boats, and farm fields and orchards…

  • Marsh on the move: bringing environmental education into the classroom

    By Josie Storm, Christine Parisek, Brian Williamshen, Caroline Newell, Sarah Yarnell, Kim Luke, Jake Shab, and Erin Tracy This spring, a group of researchers and students at the Center for Watershed Sciences (“Watershed”) organized a community engagement event at a local high school, with the help of our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusivity Committee. At Watershed,…

  • Hidden links between aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems: part 1 – Sierra Nevada lakes

    By Nicholas Wright This blog is the first in a three part series on ecological subsidies that will appear throughout summer and fall ’23. It’s easy to think of aquatic and terrestrial organisms inhabiting entirely separate worlds–they experience distinct biophysical conditions, interact with different ecological communities, and are imperiled by divergent environmental threats. But there…

  • Putah Creek’s rebirth: a model for reconciling other degraded streams?

    By Emily Jacinto, Nann A. Fangue, Dennis E. Cocherell, Joseph D. Kiernan, Peter B. Moyle, and Andrew L. Rypel It’s hard to look at native fishes in Putah Creek and not grin a little. Be it a Sacamento Pikeminnow (below), a Sacramento Sucker, a Tule Perch, or even a Chinook Salmon – Putah Creek has…

  • Can Sacramento Valley reservoirs adapt to flooding with a warmer climate?

      by Jay Lund and Ann Willis Editor’s note: This is a blog that was originally posted on 6/25/17. Since publication of the blog, there has been interesting newer research about running the San Joaquin rim dams for “functional flows” (Willis et al. 2022). This work also shows there is also an important component about…

  • Endangered Freshwater Fishes: Does California Lead the World?

    By Peter B. Moyle & Robert A. Leidy See Moyle and Leidy (2023) for much more detailed version of this essay. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108758826 Few things give the authors of this essay more pleasure than swimming in a California stream on a hot summer day, wearing a mask and snorkel, and observing diverse native fishes behaving naturally.…

  • Facing the Dragon: California’s Nasty Ecological Debts

    By Andrew L. Rypel “Every time you borrow money, you’re robbing your future self.” ~N. Morris When I was younger, a close friend of mine struggled with a crippling debt. It was during that unique period shortly before and after college graduation. He had, in relatively short order, maxed out three credit cards, plus taken…

  • Water Wasted to the Sea?

    By James E. Cloern, Jane Kay, Wim Kimmerer, Jeffrey Mount, Peter B. Moyle and Anke Müeller-Solger This essay is a condensed version of one that appeared in the journal San Francisco Estuary and Watershed Science (Vol. 15, Issue 2, Article 1), in July 2017.  The complete article with references and author’s contact information can be found…

  • What’s the dam problem with deadbeat dams?

    by Andrew L. Rypel, Christine A. Parisek, Jay Lund, Ann Willis, Peter B. Moyle, Sarah Yarnell, Karrigan Börk *this is a repost of a blog originally published in June 2020. Damming rivers was once a staple of public works and a signal of technological and scientific progress. Even today, dams underpin much of California’s public…

  • Whiplash Again! – Learning from Wet (and Dry) Years

    by Jay Lund, Deirdre Des Jardins, Kathy Schaefer “Old superlatives have been dusted off and new ones count to better describe the tragedy, damage, and trauma associated with the State’s latest ‘unusual’ weather experience.” DWR Bulletin 69-83, California High Water 1982-83, p.1 “California’s climate has often been described as variable, inconsistent, and unpredictable. The meteorological…

  • Monster Fish: Lessons for Sturgeon Management in California

    By Peter B. Moyle & Andrew L. Rypel If you ever watched National Geographic television and are interested fishes and rivers, you likely have some familiarity with Dr. Zeb Hogan. He hosted a series of shows on giant freshwater fishes, called Monster Fish. He and a colleague also recently published a fascinating book (Hogan and…

  • Tulare Basin and Lake – 2023 and their future

    by Jay Lund “The fact that our rivers have been relatively quiet during the last 40 years probably doesn’t mean anything; it’s just a statistical coincidence …. The problem is more psychological. We have become complacent. When we don’t experience a big flood for a while, we tend to forget just how big our floods…

  • Hatcheries alone cannot save species and fisheries

    By Andrew L. Rypel and Peter B. Moyle The photo is a common one (Fig 1). Large numbers of fish are being released into a river, stream or estuary – products of a fish hatchery. A politician or government leader looks on, or even participates in the release, says a few words, and then grabs…

  • The Banality of Floods (and Droughts)

    By Jay Lund California’s ongoing floods and very wet year overall will continue to grab headlines, provide great pictures, and break some local records, but overall this year is unlikely to be truly extreme from historical or broader water policy and management perspectives. It can still be a very useful wet year, beyond just having…

  • Lake Tulare (and its fishes) shall rise again

    By Peter B. Moyle “Agriculture has claimed and taken away our former fishing conditions and we have but little water left for fish life within reach of the common people.” ~S.L.N. Ellis, 1922. “When nature provides more water than storage facilities can handle, the lake will rise like a soggy Phoenix from the supine countryside…

  • Perspectives on DairyMAR

    By Thomas Harter and Helen Dahlke Managed Aquifer Recharge (MAR) to not only store water but also to prevent unwanted flooding. In the recent executive order (N-4-23), governor Newsom provided a near-blanket permit for water managers to divert surface water from flooded streams toward groundwater recharge, an operation referred to as “managed aquifer recharge” (MAR…

  • New methods emerging for water management in California

    by Elsa Cailleach Some of you might have noticed it’s been rainy outside lately – alot! Amazingly, the long-desired string of atmospheric rivers is now plaguing the previously drought-ridden state with more water than anyone knows what to do with! This blog reports on some interesting new methods of water capture and management emerging in…

  • This Drought is Dead – Long Live the Drought

    by Jay Lund and Andrew L. Rypel Floods and droughts are not opposites and can occur simultaneously. This occurs often in California and is especially well-illustrated this year. Floods, droughts, and water scarcity are different. Floods are too much water at a place and time, and we would often pay to reduce the water present…

  • The rapid invasion of Mississippi silverside in California

    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…

  • Explaining water units to real people (who like basketball)

    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…

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