Tag Archives: Central Valley

Severe drought impacts to Central Valley agriculture forecast this year

By Richard Howitt, Josué Medellín-Azuara, Duncan MacEwan and Jay Lund This year’s drought will have severe impacts on irrigated agriculture in California’s Central Valley. To estimate this impact, we updated and applied the Statewide Agricultural Production (SWAP) model for estimated cutbacks in … Continue reading

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Are Central Valley steelhead really ‘threatened’?

By Peter Moyle The primary goal of the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA) is to shorten the government’s list of “endangered” and “threatened” species. The American Peregrine falcon, the brown pelican, the eastern Steller sea lion and California populations of … Continue reading

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Some springtime reading on California water

Jay R. Lund, Director, Center for Watershed Sciences and the Ray B. Krone Chair of Environmental Engineering, University of California – Davis California is a wonderful place to study water, with so many interesting and important problems, many thoughtful and … Continue reading

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Wanted: An integrated strategy for recovery of Central Valley salmon

Jacob Katz, Ph.D. Candidate, Center for Watershed Sciences Peter Moyle, Professor of Fish Biology, University of California – Davis Historically, the rivers of the Central Valley had seasonally variable stream flows and diverse habitats.  Rivers tended to flood in winter, … Continue reading

Posted in Biology, Conservation, Dam Removal, Fish, Restoration, Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, Sustainability | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Growing costs and concern for drinking water in Tulare Basin and Salinas Valley

Thomas Harter, Robert M. Hagan Endowed Chair in Water Management and Policy, University of California – Davis Jay R. Lund, The Ray B. Krone Chair of Environmental Engineering, University of California – Davis A potential public health concern has been … Continue reading

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Have our salmon and eat them too: Re-thinking Central Valley salmon hatcheries

By Jacob Katz and Peter Moyle In the previous blog, Jay Lund argued that wide-scale, integrated management of California’s water system will better balance water needs of the environment and water demands by humans.  Here we expand on the need … 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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Water to the sea isn’t wasted

By Jeffrey Mount In December of 2010 we had a remarkable set of storms.  Relentless rain and snowfall hit both southern and northern California.  The news reports about these events followed a predictable pattern, including the inevitable articles that bemoan … Continue reading

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Striped bass control: cure worse than disease?

By Peter B. Moyle and William A. Bennett Seven species of fish in the Delta are listed as threatened or endangered, including Delta smelt, salmon and steelhead. Although the ultimate cause of decline in these species is adverse water management … Continue reading

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