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In early August, in celebration of National Peach Month, the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) Planting Seeds blog posted a picture of CDFA Undersecretary Jim Houston at the Lomo Station peach orchard in Live Oak, in Sutter County. Sutter County has a long history of growing peaches dating back to 1841 when John Augustus Sutter, after settling at Sutter’s Fort, created the first important agricultural project in Sacramento Valley by planting grapes, pomegranates, fig trees and the first peach orchard on his land at Hock Farm just south of Yuba City.

As California continues to experience its fourth year of drought conditions, the end of the summer does not signal the end of water management challenges for water resources managers in the Sacramento Valley. As we enter into the fall and winter months, a partnership of water management entities, conservation organizations and California Rice are pursuing numerous options to increase the available habitat for birds that are beginning to arrive in the region. The objective is to provide as much diverse and productive habitat spread throughout the region to help the birds in their annual migration and to avoid avian diseases.

El Niño has been in the news, associated with Godzilla, Bruce Lee and many other colorful terms. While interesting, the thought and prospect of very wet conditions on the heels of a four year drought is not new to the Sacramento Valley and is very real to those working out on the ground. Water resources … Continue reading “The Sacramento Valley Approach to Water Management in the Face of El Niño”

A recent study conducted by scientists with University of California, Davis and the University of California Cooperative Extension investigated the value deliberate winter flooding of fields during rainy years would have in recharging groundwater in California. According to the study, areas of open land that can be dedicated to groundwater recharge are scarce, but “Flooding agricultural land during fallow or dormant periods has the potential to increase groundwater recharge substantially….”