Two important water reports were released recently that address the lack of safe and affordable drinking water in some California communities, despite our state’s position as an environmental leader. Read More
Growing Returns
Selected tag(s): california
Don’t let funding dry up for safe and affordable drinking water
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Newsom, Safe Drinking Water, Safe Drinking Water Act, Water Resilience Portfolio, western water Read 2 Responses
These farms planted wildflowers to attract bugs to control pests. And it’s working.
Last fall, two farms in California’s Sacramento Valley planted a wildflower cover crop mix as part of a commitment to restore habitat within 325 acres of pecan orchards. The farms, Pacific Gold Agriculture and Bypass Farms, are participating in a project called “Orchards Alive” in hopes that wildflowers will attract pollinators and naturally reduce pest pressure.
Orchards Alive came about thanks to a $3 million monarch and pollinator recovery bill (AB 2421) designed to establish habitat restoration projects for important pollinator species facing steep population losses. Read More
Posted in Wildlife Protection Also tagged aphids, farmer, ladybird beetles, ladybugs, orchards, pecans, pest, soil health Comments are closed
Why I’m visiting the California Capitol to testify on groundwater
Update: This bill passed out of the Committee on Water, Parks and Wildlife in a 14-0 vote. It is expected to go before the Appropriations Committee in early June.
California lawmakers returned to work last week after taking measures to minimize the spread of COVID-19 in the state Capitol, acknowledging they must continue to tackle many other challenges still facing the state. Water is one of those perennial challenges.
That’s why I will be testifying Thursday on a bill, AB 2642, that will help farmers transition to more sustainable groundwater use.
(Photo Credit: Andre M.)
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged California Department of Conservation, Rudy Salas, San Joaquin, water, western water Comments are closed
A low snowpack makes it imperative to better manage groundwater supplies. Here’s how.
Despite the much-needed April showers we saw this week, our normally wet January and February were bone dry in most of California. So it came as little surprise when the annual April 1 snowpack measurement in the Sierras came in low, at about 53% of average statewide. It’s another important reminder of how California’s weather, and consequently our water supplies, are swinging to greater extremes.
The low snowpack and extreme weather makes it more imperative than ever to carefully manage another part of our water system: underground water supplies.
We need to measure groundwater as actively as we measure snowpack and double down on efforts to successfully implement the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA). Here are three ways to help ensure more sustainable groundwater supplies for generations to come. Read More
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged SGMA, snowpack, sustainable groundwater management act, western water Comments are closed
What are cover crops doing on a pecan orchard? Hopefully attracting bugs.
You don’t typically hear farmers saying they want to attract bugs to their farm, but that’s what a unique conservation project in California’s Sacramento Valley is doing – determining whether cover crops can attract more at-risk native pollinators, like monarch butterflies, in addition to insects that serve as pest control, like ladybugs.
The project came about thanks to a $3-million monarch and pollinator recovery bill (AB 2421) designed to establish habitat restoration projects for important pollinator species facing steep population losses. Read More
Posted in Wildlife Protection Also tagged habitat, monarch butterfly, orchard, pecan, pollinator, soil health, wildflower Read 2 Responses
Newsom’s Water Resilience Portfolio puts California on course to climate resilience
It is encouraging that one of California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s first actions in 2020 was the Jan. 3 release of the much-anticipated Water Resilience Portfolio.
While Newsom has been forced to address climate change on many fronts during the past year – think wildfires, blackouts and automobile standards – the state’s myriad water challenges must remain a priority. Our state’s water system is decades old and needs to be re-envisioned for a new era. Read More
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged climate change, Newsom, water, Water Resilience Portfolio, western water Comments are closed
2019 made climate impacts visible. Here are 4 stories of resilience that give me hope for 2020.
This year has been one of the toughest yet for communities across the country feeling the impacts of climate change.
Farmers took big hits from unprecedented flooding in the Midwest, coastal communities were pummeled with record-breaking rainfall and storms, and more than 250,000 acres in my home state of California burned from wildfires that took precious lives and left millions of people without power for days on end. As we enter a new decade, these four stories of resilience provide hope that we will take bold climate action in 2020. Click To Tweet
It’s easy to feel hopeless hearing one climate disaster story after another. But if you look around, there are also stories of resilience that can provide hope for the future. Here are four that inspire me. Read More
Posted in Climate Resilience Also tagged 2019, Coast, colorado, conservation, DCP, energy, Louisiana, Midwest, resilience Comments are closed
Broken pipes. Complex funding applications. The water challenges facing California’s disadvantaged communities.
This blog post was written by Adriana Fernandez, EDF’s 2019 Tom Graff Diversity Fellow.
California might have the fifth largest economy in the world, but many people in the state’s disadvantaged communities feel like they are living in a third world country because they don’t have safe, clean and affordable drinking water.
Throughout the past year as a Tom Graff Diversity Fellow at EDF, I had the privilege to gain a deeper understanding of these critical water challenges facing low-income, underrepresented communities in California and amplify the voices of community members left out of the decision-making process.
After conducting a series of interviews with community members, local nonprofit leaders, university professors and consultants, I identified three crucial challenges facing some of these communities. One water operator who I interviewed shared the story of a small water system in a rural community in the eastern part of Southern California that struggles with all three of these challenges. Read More
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged disadvantaged communities, SGMA, water, western water Comments are closed
Gov. Newsom can be a climate leader by focusing on resilience. Here’s how.
In pulling the plug on the twin Delta tunnels and scaling back California’s high-speed rail line, Gov. Newsom broke from his predecessor, who fiercely defended the projects as part of his climate agenda.
But that doesn’t mean Newsom can’t build on Jerry Brown’s strong climate legacy. He can, all while charting a different legacy for himself.
While it may be unfair to reduce Brown’s climate achievements to a few bullet points, two themes often appeared in his initiatives: prioritizing policies to slash greenhouse gas emissions, and capitalizing on the state’s ability to impose mandates.
Enough with the delays. Here’s why California’s rural communities need safe drinking water now.
Jim Maciel knows about the challenges of providing safe and affordable drinking in California all too well.
His experience serving as director of a small water district highlights why state legislators’ approval of $140 million in new annual funding to provide safe, affordable water to all Californians is long overdue.
Jim is one of about 37 water leaders who I have had the privilege of meeting through the Leadership Institute, a training program created by Rural Community Assistance Corporation and expanded by Environmental Defense Fund and Self Help Enterprises. Many of these leaders are stewards of small community water systems, which serve 10,000 or fewer customers. Their small size is a big part of their challenge.
Jim Maciel, a board member of the Armona Community Services District, and EDF’s Ana Lucia García Briones take a tour of the district’s arsenic treatment plant in the Central Valley. Photo Credit: Kike Arnal Read More