California drought: Lawmakers consider historic rules to limit groundwater pumping [San Jose Mercury News]
In
what would be the most significant water law passed in California in nearly 50
years, lawmakers in Sacramento are working with Gov. Jerry Brown on a landmark
measure to regulate groundwater pumping for the first time. With an Aug. 31
deadline until the end of the session and billions of dollars at stake,
negotiations among farmers, environmentalists, cities and elected officials are
reaching a crescendo….The governor has made Pavley's legislation a top
priority. But her bill, SB1168, is drawing opposition from the state's main
farm organization. "At some point in time there has to be some
accountability, and we have to get a handle on how much we are pumping,"
said Paul Wenger, president of the California Farm Bureau Federation. "But
this is bad legislation and we oppose it. We're afraid that if it passes, the
unintended consequences are going to be huge. The financial impacts are going
to be huge."
Editorial: Compromise will be
key in creating workable water bond [Sacramento Bee]
Does
Gov. Jerry Brown want to place an effective water bond on the November ballot?
Do Republicans want to blow up a bond that would improve California’s water
system by refusing to accept a penny less than $3 billion for new dams and
reservoirs? Do advocates for the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta want to forgo
millions of dollars in habitat restoration that could help the failing heart of
California’s water system? The governor and the Legislature need to answer
these questions in the next few days as negotiations approach the deadline to
get a water bond on the ballot, replacing an $11.1 billion bond approved in
2009.
California
drought transforms global food market [Bloomberg News]
For
more than 70 years, Fred Starrh’s family was among the most prominent cotton
growers in California’s San Joaquin Valley. Then shifting global markets and
rising water prices told him that wouldn’t work anymore. So he replaced most of
the cotton plants on his farm near Shafter, 120 miles northwest of Los Angeles,
and planted almonds, which make more money per acre and are increasingly
popular with consumers in Asia….Such crop switching is one sign of a sweeping
transformation going on in California -- the nation’s biggest agricultural
state by value -- driven by a three-year drought that climate scientists say is
a glimpse of a drier future….Growers have adapted to the record-low rainfall by
installing high-technology irrigation systems, watering with treated municipal
wastewater and even recycling waste from the processing of pomegranates to feed
dairy cows. Some are taking land out of production altogether, bulldozing
withered orange trees and leaving hundreds of thousands of acres unplanted.
Dwindling
numbers earn Clear Lake fish species new protection [Santa Rosa Press Democrat]
A
super-sized silvery minnow found only in Clear Lake is the newest threatened
species in California, representing a victory for environmentalists and Indian
tribes and a potential threat to Lake County ranchers and others who draw water
from the lake’s tributaries. The Clear Lake hitch, once abundant in the shallow
lake and a food staple of Native Americans for millennia, is now struggling for
survival after decades of dam-building, water diversion, mining and pollution
have damaged or isolated most of its spawning grounds. Last week, a coalition
of Lake County citizens, tribes and an Arizona-based conservation group found a
powerful ally in the California Fish and Game Commission, which unanimously
approved a proposal to designate the hitch as a threatened species, a step that
prevents any harm, even if it is incidental, to the fish.
Calif.
ag inspectors step up Valley search for Asian citrus psyllid [Fresno Bee]
Armed
with magnifying glasses and bug-sucking aspirators, state agriculture
technicians are in Fresno, checking residential citrus trees for any signs of
the Asian citrus psyllid and the tree-killing disease it can carry. The psyllid
poses one of the greatest threats to California's nearly $2 billion citrus
industry and officials want to keep it from gaining a foothold in the central
San Joaquin Valley. Inspectors will spend several weeks in the Fresno area and
then move into Tulare County — the largest citrus producer in the
state….Despite the regulatory net, the bug has hitchhiked its way to the
Valley, having been caught in insect traps in Fresno and Tulare counties. To
keep the psyllid in check, farmers have sprayed their groves and the state has
treated residential trees where the psyllids have been caught. A quarantine
also has been put in place that covers 870 square miles of the Valley's citrus
belt.
Opinion: Will major fires
like Rim spark changes in forest management practices? [Modesto Bee]
When
the Rim fire burned more than 400 square miles of Stanislaus National Forest
and Yosemite National Park land last year, it became immediately obvious that
the forest’s recovery will take decades and the fire’s impacts will be
long-lasting….Decades of fire suppression paired with decades of declining
timber harvesting on public lands simply hasn’t worked. The forests are far
more dense than they were more than a century ago. Fuel in the form of brush
and dead wood on the forest floor becomes pure kindling. When coupled with
drought, it’s a formula for exactly what we’re seeing throughout the West: Huge
fire after huge fire….“Every rural county feels like it will be home to the
next Rim fire,” Tuolumne County Supervisor Sherri Brennan said….Ranchers who graze
their animals in the forests took a huge hit from the fire and the Forest
Service refused to allow some to bring their animals into the burn area this
year. “It’s heavily impacted the permittees in huge numbers,” she said.
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