ARCHIVE
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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,…
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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…
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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…
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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:…
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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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Climate change and California water – past, present and future
Everyone talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it. – Charles Dudley Warner, 1897 By Jay R. Lund Talk of climate change and water in California is fraught with handwringing and delusions. Much discussion borders on alarmist or seems to presume magical abilities to precisely plan and prepare for a future climate. Here…
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How engineers see the water glass in California
By Jay R. Lund Depending on your outlook, the proverbial glass of water is either half full or half empty. Not so for engineers in California. Civil engineer: The glass is too big. Flood control engineer: The glass should be 50 percent bigger. Army Corps levee engineer: The glass should be 50 percent thicker. Mexicali…
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Getting through the dry times
By Ellen Hanak and Elizabeth Stryjewski This week, the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) released a new report that provides a checkup on California’s progress with two innovative water management tools: water marketing and groundwater banking. These tools are part of a modern approach that will enable California to manage its scarce water resources…
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The dog that didn’t bark: Unexpectedly small effects of export changes on Delta farms
Inspector Gregory: Is there any other point to which you would wish to draw my attention? Sherlock Holmes: To the curious incident of the dog in the night-time. Gregory: The dog did nothing in the night-time. Holmes: That was the curious incident. By Josué Medellín-Azuara and Richard Howitt, UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences California…
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Fish and Game’s name change reflects broader mission
By Joshua Viers and Jacob Katz, UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences The California Department of Fish and Game is one of the few state agencies with an inherently likable name. Bent fishing rods come to mind. Fishing and hunting permits are tickets to outdoor adventure and family bonding, and a license to literally bring…
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Halloween hydrology
By the UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences staff If these 1950s ideas for solving California’s water problems don’t frighten you, we don’t know what will. Happy Halloween! The Cornell Plan Sidney Cornell, a Los Angeles construction engineer, circulated an idea for transporting Northern California water to the parched southern end of the state without…
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Lessons from Hurricane Sandy for Bay Area business leaders
By Jeffrey F. Mount, geology professor and founding director of the UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences As you read this today, Hurricane Sandy is colliding with cold air from Canada and creating an impressive storm in the Northeast. Strong onshore winds and an intense low-pressure system are causing storm surges as high as 13…
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Sierra frogs breed insights on river management
By Sarah Yarnell, hydrologist, UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences When dam operators schedule outflows to satisfy their downstream environmental obligations, they typically want to know, “How much?” How much cold mountain water must Shasta Dam release to preserve the Sacramento River’s imperiled winter run of salmon? How much fresh Sierra water must flow out…
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Knowing Delta’s past offers new ideas forward
By Alison Whipple San Francisco Estuary Institute-Aquatic Science Center Teetering atop a haystack to get his bearings, Sacramento County Surveyor Edwin Sherman observed “dense tules and willows” lining the sloughs that wove through “large tule plains and some grass.” The haystack also afforded him a dry bed at night when high tides inundated the surrounding…
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Restoring Hetch Hetchy Valley
Jay Lund, the Ray B. Krone Professor of Environmental Engineering, University of California – Davis In November, the people of San Francisco will vote on looking into alternatives to capturing water at the Hetch Hetchy reservoir site, which could lead to restoring the fabled valley in Yosemite National Park. While this modest step faces steep…