By: Bryce Lundberg, Chair, Board of Directors
David Guy, President
The Northern California Water Association (NCWA) Board of Directors recently approved its 2024 Strategic Priorities–a new riverscape vision for the Sacramento River Basin that blends the wisdom of leading scientists and local knowledge to better understand and take various actions to integrate our wonderful rivers and creeks with our landscapes and communities in a way that will bring the entire region to life through our precious water resources.
NCWA and water leaders in the region continue to adapt to our climate reality by vitalizing our healthy rivers, landscapes, and communities in the Sacramento River Basin from ridgetop to river mouth. We look forward to working hard in 2024 with our many collaborators to advance multi-benefit water management to cultivate a shared vision in the region for a vibrant way of life. We appreciate our many collaborators and we hope many others will be inspired by this approach and will join our effort to work hard, scale-up our efforts, and harmonize our priorities with state, federal, and other regions’ priorities to advance our collective goal in California to ensure greater water and climate resilience throughout California for our people, communities, the economy, and the environment. We are blessed to live, work, and play in a dynamic region with a community that continues to evolve and integrate fresh new ideas for water management into these priorities. We encourage you to review our 2024 priorities and we welcome new ideas and additional partnerships to further explore and modernize our water system as we implement these actions for water and climate resilience.
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For the past several years there has been a focus on advancing healthy rivers and landscapes in the Sacramento River Basin—from ridgetop to river mouth. As we have been working with our various partners in these efforts, it has become clear that we need to continue and scale-up these efforts for healthy rivers, landscapes, and communities; yet, our vision for success relies upon an increased pace and scale that will require working closely with state and federal agencies to align and modernize three elements:
- The ongoing efforts to activate and vitalize our rivers, landscapes, and communities;
- Improved infrastructure (both nature-based solutions and backbone); and
- The regulatory processes surrounding these actions.
To align these efforts will require concerted action and is described in more detail in the document.
The Sacramento Valley is sourcing our sustainable future through responsible management of the essential resource that millions of birds, hundreds of thousands of fish, thousands of farms, and millions of people all rely on—water.
Californians have built an amazing and highly managed water system. But this system is under strain as our values in California water continue to evolve and we face increasing recurrence of droughts, floods, and fires. California’s current population of 40 million will likely grow to 50 million by 2050. We have the most abundant agricultural bounty in the world, we are graced with a stunning landscape and related natural infrastructure, we are the 4th largest economy in the world, and people pursue endless recreational opportunities in every part of the state. We cannot take any of this for granted! Water is life and is essential for all these special features that define California. A balanced and contemplative approach that embraces and then enhances California’s unique values in water is needed for this great state to continue to protect and enhance our communities, economy, and environment.
We encourage you to review and actively engage with us on our 2024 priorities. Our goal is to inspire thoughtful public discourse and collaboration that points positive and brings people together–working towards a modern water system that will ensure reliable, affordable, and high-quality water supplies will be available to serve multiple benefits in the Sacramento River Basin now and for future generations. Please share any additional ideas or thoughts as we point forward by emailing us at info@norcalwater.org.
