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As we are starting to approach harvest season in the Sacramento Valley, the water resources managers continue to work overtime this summer to pursue thoughtful and creative ways to stretch every drop of available water. We have learned a lot this year as we head into the late summer. Most notably, this year has revealed the value of both surface and groundwater storage. With the lowest snowpack in our lifetime, the only water available for this year is already in storage in a reservoir or aquifer.

With the consecutive dry years we are experiencing in California, the various Sacramento Valley salmon runs are being challenged. There are various measures now underway throughout the Sacramento Valley that are important to help winter-, spring- and the fall-run get through this year.

Earlier this week, the Department of Water Resources (DWR) conducted a webinar briefing on the recently-released California’s Groundwater Update 2013: A Compilation of Enhanced Content for California Water Plan Update 2013 (Groundwater Update).

According to DWR, the goal for the Groundwater Update is “to provide foundational information to improve the statewide and regional understanding of groundwater conditions and management programs” and “help set the stage for future Bulletin 118 [California’s Groundwater report] and California Water Plan updates, and help local and regional agencies plan for sustainable groundwater management by providing an on-going reporting of essential groundwater data, information, and analyses.”

Tom Ellis, Alfalfa grower Board member California Alfalfa and Forage Association There will be patches of green this summer amid a seemingly endless golden brown landscape that symbolizes California’s fourth year of an ongoing drought. Alfalfa fields will provide some of the green to an otherwise monochrome palate. Not only will alfalfa fields provide an … Continue reading “Alfalfa’s Multitude of Contributions to Environment”