Fact Sheet Droughts in California By Jeffrey Mount, Alvar Escriva-Bou, Gokce Sencan Apr 13, 2021 California is highly prone to droughts, and climate change makes them worse. This fact sheet describes key challenges to managing dry times.
blog post Why Is It Taking So Long to Restore the Sediment-Choked Elk River? By Lori Pottinger Apr 5, 2021 The Elk River was damaged by landslides from logged land more than 20 years ago, which harmed fisheries and drinking water supplies. Darren Mierau of CalTrout talks about ongoing efforts to restore the river.
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 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 Turning the Page on a Disruptive Year in the Water World By Ellen Hanak Jan 11, 2021 Ellen Hanak, director of the PPIC Water Policy Center, describes some of 2020’s more pressing water-world challenges, and the center’s response to them.
blog post A Wish List for Water Collaboration with the Biden‒Harris Administration By Lori Pottinger Jan 6, 2021 Cooperation between California and the federal government was at a low ebb over the past four years. A diverse group of experts discusses top water priorities for collaboration between the state and the new administration.
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 Commentary: New Approach Needed to Protect Health of California’s Rivers By Ted Grantham, Jeffrey Mount Sep 14, 2020 In the face of the changing climate, biodiversity loss, and continuing conflict over water, California urgently needs to rethink how it manages water for the environment. Restoring seasonal flows to rivers can help.
Report Making the Most of Water for the Environment: A Functional Flows Approach for California’s Rivers By Ted Grantham, Jeffrey Mount, Sarah Yarnell, Eric D. Stein Aug 24, 2020 Water and land management activities have substantially altered river flows across the state, degrading ecosystems and decimating populations of native species. Restoring seasonal components of river flow is key to sustaining the biological, chemical, and physical processes necessary for ecosystem health.
blog post A Faster Track for Ecosystem Restoration By Lori Pottinger Aug 24, 2020 The state’s rivers and aquatic species are in trouble, but restoration projects are often slowed by complex permitting requirements. We talked to Erika Lovejoy of Sustainable Conservation about efforts to simplify the process.
