Tag: Delta
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A tribute to Alex Hildebrand
One of the best minds of the Delta and its most devoted advocate has left us. Alex Hildebrand passed away Monday at the venerable age of 98. Alex cared deeply for the land and the water of the South Delta, living his life and tending his farm in sync with the rise and fall of…
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Whither the Delta economy?
Josue Medellín-Azuara, Richard Howitt, Jay Lund – University of California, Davis Ellen Hanak – Public Policy Institute of California, San Francisco Today, PPIC and UC Davis released a new report on the economy of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. “Transitions for the Delta Economy” explores how the Delta’s economy has evolved since the early 1990s and…
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Israel’s Delta – The Hula Valley
Jay R. Lund, The Ray B. Krone Chair of Environmental Engineering, University of California – Davis History has many cases of deltas, lakes, and marshlands which have been “reclaimed” for agriculture, then as agriculture became uneconomical, have been returned to the environment (Mostert 2011). In far northern Israel is Hula Valley, about 44,000 acres of…
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Delta science in a post-Wanger world
Jeffrey F. Mount, Founding Director of the Center for Watershed Sciences, University of California – Davis The Chief Scientist for the Delta has retired. No, not Cliff Dahm. He’s the Lead Scientist for the Delta Science Program (although he is returning to the University of New Mexico). Rather, it is Oliver Wanger, the mercurial judge…
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Multiple stressors – funding the Delta like a public sewer
Jay R. Lund, The Ray B. Krone Chair of Environmental Engineering, University of California – Davis “There once was a woman who lived in a shoe. She had so many children, she didn’t know what to do.” It has become trite to observe that many environmental problems are caused by “multiple stressors.” Multiple historical and…
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Boldly approach the Delta’s future
By Jay R. Lund and Ellen Hanak Policy decisions on how to manage the lands and waters of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta are unavoidably controversial. The Delta Stewardship Council’s first Delta Plan, now under development, presents a rare opportunity to establish bold state policy directions on the Delta’s many controversies. Such bold action is needed…
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The Stockholm Syndrome in Water Planning in California
Jeffrey F. Mount, Founding Director of the Center for Watershed Sciences, University of California – Davis “…plans are nothing, planning is indispensable” – Dwight D. Eisenhower “If planning is everything, maybe it’s nothing” – Aaron Wildofsky. We all know the Stockholm Syndrome: the hostage falls in love with the hostage taker. Well, for those of…
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Adaptive management and experimental island flooding in the Delta
Robyn J. Suddeth, Hydrology Graduate Student, UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences Like many of the world’s deltas, the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta is in transition. A deteriorating native ecosystem, conflicting water quality objectives, and a fragile levee system are all threatened by climate change and potential levee failures from a major earthquake or flood.…
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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 every planning and policy document for the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. Indeed, under state law, habitat…
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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 (Hanak et al., 2011). As more fish species have been listed under the federal and…
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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 California – Davis “Restore” is a common cry for environmental problems. For the Sacramento-San…
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The Delta, in 3-D
Jay Lund, UC Davis Professor of Engineering Time and tide wait for no man, and change in the Delta won’t wait for a computer model either. Continued land subsidence and sea level rise, increasing likelihood of a major earthquake, and rising chances of major floods all pose serious threats to subsided islands in the…
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Water—Who uses how much?
Whereas agriculture used to consume 80 percent of the state’s water supply, today 46 percent of captured and stored water goes to environmental purposes, such as rebuilding wetlands. Meanwhile 43 percent goes to farming and 11 percent to municipal uses. — The Economist, October 2009 By Jeffrey Mount This excerpt is from an article that…
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New Life for the Delta Ecosystem
Peter Moyle, Professor of Fish Biology, University of California-Davis The Delta and Suisun Marsh were once part of a continuous, enormously productive aquatic ecosystem that supported dense populations of fish from Sacramento perch to salmon, huge flocks of wintering waterfowl, and concentrations of mammals from beaver to tule elk. This amazing ecosystem is gone and…
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Stressed Out—Dealing with the Delta’s non-native landscape
Jay R. Lund, Ray B. Krone Professor of Environmental Engineering, University of California – Davis Peter Moyle, Professor of Fish Biology, University of California – Davis Jeffrey Mount, Professor of Geology, University of California – Davis Ellen Hanak, Public Policy Institute of California William Fleenor, Research Engineer, University of California – Davis The Delta’s…
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Delta “chicken” – A tragedy
Jay Lund, UC Davis, Ray B. Krone Professor of Environmental Engineering Few dispute the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta’s poor and deteriorating condition—for native fishes, many landowners, and water users locally and statewide—and the subsequent need for major changes in Delta policy. Most parties understand that without a credible comprehensive solution, continued deterioration will become more…
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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 throughout the Central Valley, there is a constant search for ways to increase their numbers…