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The Sacramento Valley has a wonderful agricultural heritage with its 2 million productive acres woven together with numerous wildlife refuges and rivers and streams. This heritage can be seen in full bloom at the California Agricultural Museum in Woodland.

The Sacramento River Settlement Contractors (SRSCs), representing approximately 450,000 acres of irrigated agriculture in the western Sacramento Valley, are extremely disappointed by the two motions filed on November 9 by the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Bay Institute and other environmental organizations who, for the past decade, have challenged the validity of the water rights settlement contracts executed in 2005 between the SRSCs and the Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation). These settlement contracts have been in place for over 50 years, and are a fundamental operating component of the Central Valley Project and the statewide water system.

In a recent Sacramento Bee opinion piece, David Purkey described the successful effort by Yuba County Water Agency in 2012 and 2013 to work collaboratively with stakeholders to develop the county’s regional water management plan. In the article, Purkey goes on to state that the Yuba County effort could be a successful model for regional collaboration on new groundwater management requirements in California.

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.