blog post Commentary: California Must Stop Relying on the Endangered Species Act to Manage the Environment By Jeffrey Mount Dec 5, 2019 California’s freshwater ecosystems are under pressure and aquatic biodiversity is in decline. The state needs a new approach to protect the many beneficial uses these ecosystems provide.
blog post Smoothing the Bumps in the Road to Ecosystem Restoration By Lori Pottinger Feb 22, 2021 California’s environmental permitting system was developed to prevent bad things from happening to ecosystems, but it often slows efforts to do good things, too. We talked with a group of experts about how to make the process more efficient and effective.
blog post Video: A Path Forward for California’s Freshwater Ecosystems By Lori Pottinger Dec 9, 2019 California’s current approach for managing freshwater ecosystems is not working. An expert panel discussed an alternative path.
Report A Path Forward for California’s Freshwater Ecosystems By Jeffrey Mount, Brian Gray, Karrigan Bork, James Cloern ... Dec 4, 2019 California’s freshwater ecosystems are under pressure and its aquatic biodiversity is in decline. The state needs a new approach to protect the many beneficial uses these ecosystems provide. This report describes a way to manage the state’s freshwater ecosystems—called “ecosystem-based management”—that can improve conditions for native biodiversity and human uses, and increase resilience to climate change.
blog post Creating a Place for Nature in the San Joaquin Valley By Lori Pottinger Apr 13, 2021 The quest for groundwater sustainability will result in large amounts of irrigated farmland being retired in the San Joaquin Valley. We talked to Scott Butterfield of The Nature Conservancy about how some of these lands could be restored to natural areas that bring multiple benefits.
blog post Understanding the New Federal Water Law By Jeffrey Mount, Brian Gray, Caitrin Chappelle Jan 17, 2017 A new law alters federal water policy in the Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta. The likely effects on both future water supply and environmental stewardship are largely unknown.
blog post A State of Water Independence By Brian Gray Jan 4, 2017 California’s authority to protect its water resources will be largely insulated from changes in federal environmental policy.
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 A Pragmatic Reason to Protect Freshwater Fish By Ellen Hanak, Jeffrey Mount, Peter Moyle Dec 15, 2015 When species make the endangered species list, we’ve not only failed them, we’ve made it harder to manage water during drought.
