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 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 Video: Improving the Health of California’s Freshwater Ecosystems By Lori Pottinger, Ashlyn Perri Mar 1, 2021 California’s freshwater ecosystems are in poor health, and the current approach for managing them is not working. Jeff Mount, senior fellow at the PPIC Water Policy Center, describes a path for improving their condition to protect the benefits they bring.
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 Budgeting for Agricultural Sustainability and Resiliency By Lori Pottinger Jan 27, 2021 We talked to Karen Ross, secretary of the California Department of Food and Agriculture, about agricultural programs designed to build climate resilience and support farmers’ financial resilience and water security.
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 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.