The Sacramento Valley Salmon Recovery Program partners – American Rivers, California Trout, The Nature Conservancy and Northern California Water Association – have released an updated summary of the Salmon Recovery Program.

Earlier today local, state, and federal officials gathered to celebrate the coming completion of the Knights Landing Outfall Gate (KLOG) Fish Barrier project—a $2.5 million project, the first of several in the lower Sacramento Valley to ensure safe salmon passage.

Drought is hard work—there are no simple solutions…If anyone tells you there is a simple solution in the water arena, immediately assume they do not know anything about water. Typically the simple solutions are offered to accommodate one beneficial purpose at the expense of another.

With the drought in California, a small group of academics are saying the water rights system in California does not work during drought periods. In fact, the water rights system has worked in California over the past several years and has provided a stable foundation for managing water for cities, farms, wildlife refuges and fish. Rather than focusing on the water rights system, which works, California should instead continue to focus energy on improving its water management system for the benefit of all these beneficial purposes.