Category: Solutions
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Tule River Tribe reintroducing beavers to Tulare County
Some time this spring, beavers will return to the ancestral lands of the Tule River Tribe in the Southern Sierra Nevada. It will be a moment tribal leaders have spent a decade preparing for, hoping the once thriving and now missing aquatic rodent can help return the forest’s natural drought resistance. Beavers Create, Protect Wetlands…
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Five Guiding Principles for Effective Voluntary Agreements
A Case Study on VAs for Water and Habitat in California’s Bay-Delta Watershed California has increasingly emphasized efforts to develop voluntary agreements (VAs) with water users as a means of achieving regulatory goals. VAs are negotiated agreements that establish pathways for regulated entities to meet regulatory requirements through alternative means. In theory, a VA can…
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Risky reservoirs: States where aging dams pose the greatest threat
Record rainfall pelted parts of Iowa for 12 hours straight in July 2010, sending 10 inches of rainwater draining toward Lake Delhi, Iowa, a popular recreation destination for decades since its construction in the 1920s. Holding back 9 miles of lake water with more precipitation flowing in by the minute was the 80-year-old Lake Delhi…
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Reducing Residential Water Use in the Santa Clarita Valley
The Partnership During the drought of 2015, residents of California’s Santa Clarita Valley stepped up their water conservation activities in a huge way. Participation in conservation programs like lawn replacement were at an all time high and the community seemed to be pulling together as a whole to reduce their use. In the years since…
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How AI can help protect California streams and fish
Rivers in California once swelled and ebbed as the seasons changed and as wet years gave way to dry ones. Salmon and other now-imperiled aquatic species depended on these historic patterns. But today dams and diversions have altered most of the state’s waterways, leaving their natural flows a mystery. “Natural flows have been a longstanding…
