blog post What Are Baseflow Droughts—and Why Should We Care? By Sarah Bardeen Apr 23, 2024 For the six months when California receives no rain, how do its rivers keep flowing? The answer is groundwater. But increasingly frequent and intense droughts are having unexpected effects on this vital resource. We speak with two experts to learn more.
blog post Exploring the Yurok Tribe’s Management of the Klamath River By Sarah Bardeen Sep 5, 2023 The Yurok Tribe is one of the few California tribes whose members still reside on a portion of their ancestral lands, including a 44-mile stretch bordering the Klamath River. The Yurok are deeply involved with efforts to protect the river’s watershed, so we asked one of the Tribe’s lawyers to tell us more about what they’re doing—and what challenges they face.
blog post From Litigation to Collaboration on the San Joaquin River By Molly Peterson, Sarah Bardeen Jul 18, 2023 The San Joaquin Valley is one of the most productive agricultural regions in the world, and much of its success comes from the waters of the San Joaquin River. Today, the challenge is how to undo some of the damage done to the river’s ecosystems—and how to reconnect the river to its many communities.
Report Storing Water for the Environment By Sarah Null, Jeffrey Mount, Brian Gray, Kristen Dybala ... Aug 22, 2022 Large reservoirs are essential for managing water in California’s highly variable climate—but over the years, the construction and operation of these reservoirs have had significant environmental costs. Our new research outlines how reservoir operations could be changed to improve the health of the state’s fragile freshwater ecosystems.
Policy Brief Policy Brief: Storing Water for the Environment By Sarah Null, Jeffrey Mount, Brian Gray, Kristen Dybala ... Aug 22, 2022 To protect and restore California’s freshwater ecosystems and respond to the changing climate, California’s water managers must change how they operate reservoirs. Our policy brief offers recommendations for how to do this in a way that makes the most efficient use of scarce water for the environment while minimizing impacts on other water uses.
event Seizing the Drought: Water Priorities for Our Changing Climate Nov 15, 2021 The PPIC Water Policy Center will convene a diverse group of experts to discuss how to tackle the highly disruptive effects of climate change on our water system. It’s clear that we must step up our game to cope with the increasingly severe, warm droughts that are coming our way. This year’s conference will identify immediate actions we can take to boost the state’s resilience.
blog post Commentary: As Drought Alarms Sound, Don’t Ignore the Environment By Jeffrey Mount, Caitrin Chappelle Mar 29, 2021 The last major drought caused unprecedented stress to California’s freshwater ecosystems and pushed many native species to the brink. Are we ready this time to better manage ecosystems through another drought?
blog post Making End-of-Life Decisions on Aging Dams By Lori Pottinger Nov 9, 2020 Many of California’s large dams are outliving their functions and even becoming hazardous. We talked to Andrew Rypel of the UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences about how to address this aging dam population.
blog post Setting Aside Environmental Water for the San Joaquin River By Jeffrey Mount, Ted Grantham, Brian Gray, Ellen Hanak Oct 26, 2020 If we can find a way to restore the health of San Joaquin River while preserving the region’s social and economic vitality, we can do it anywhere in the state.
blog post Managing Freshwater Ecosystems in a Pandemic By Jeffrey Mount Jun 8, 2020 Efforts to maintain the health of California’s freshwater ecosystems have been disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet maintaining momentum on this work is key to reducing the impact of a hotter, drier climate.
