Author Archives: cathrynlawrence

Water Storage in California

Jay R. Lund, The Ray B. Krone Chair of Environmental Engineering, University of California – Davis “With a larger reservoir, there is some increasing gain with further size, but in a diminishing ratio.” – Alan Hazen (1914) Water storage capacity … Continue reading

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The benefits of floodplain reconnection

By Jeffrey Mount For more than a century, California has sought to separate floodplains from rivers.  An elaborate array of levees and dams usually confine, divert or capture winter floods, supporting agriculture on rich floodplain soils and unreliably protecting urban … Continue reading

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Benefits of growing up in a spring stream

  Juvenile coho salmon feeding on invertebrates drifting in the water column.  The material floating down also consists of plant material that invertebrates use as a food resource. Video by Carson Jeffres   By Carson Jeffres and Jeffrey Mount When … Continue reading

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The future of Suisun Marsh

By Peter Moyle If you have taken Amtrak from Sacramento to the Bay Area, you have seen Suisun Marsh.  Going west, as the train pulls out of Suisun City, you are suddenly riding through a huge wetland, with ponds full … Continue reading

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Adaptive management means never having to say you’re sorry

Jay R. Lund, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California – Davis Ellen Hanak, Public Policy Institute of California Brian Gray, University of California – Hastings, College of the Law   The words “adaptive management” appear in almost … Continue reading

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An uncertain future for whitewater boating under climate change

Scott Ligare, Graduate Student Researcher, Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, UC Davis Joshua Viers, Associate Research Scientist, Department of Environmental Science & Policy, UC Davis Summer arrived belatedly in northern California and high snowmelt runoff is attracting adrenaline junkies seeking … Continue reading

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Managing for multiple stressors in the Delta

Ellen Hanak1, Jay Lund2, Peter Moyle3, Jeffrey Mount4, Brian Gray5 and Barton “Buzz” Thompson6   Across California, native fish populations are in sharp decline, despite decades of well-intentioned efforts to reverse the effects of harmful water and land management policies … Continue reading

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Woodman, spare that levee?

Jay Lund, the Ray B. Krone Professor of Environmental Engineering, University of California – Davis   Policy debates sometimes seem to tragically miss the big picture.  The current debate on levee vegetation in California is an example.  Both sides assert … Continue reading

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No going back for the Delta, but which way forward?

Jay Lund, Professor of Environmental Engineering, University of California – Davis Peter Moyle, Professor of Fish Biology, University of California – Davis Ellen Hanak, Senior Fellow, Public Policy Institute of California, San Francisco Jeffrey Mount, Professor of Geology, University of … Continue reading

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Suction dredging is bad for fish

Peter B. Moyle, Professor of Fish Biology, UC Davis Suction dredging seems like a fairly innocent pastime.  A few folks go to a stream on a nice summer day with a portable device to suck tiny amounts of gold out … Continue reading

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