Central Valley growers, undocumented farmworkers condemn Trump’s ’emergency’ [Visalia Times-Delta]
…Margarita and Jonathon are both undocumented farmworkers — two of an estimated 1.5 million working in the U.S….Margarita is not alone in her fear. Growers across the state have condemned Trump’s immigration policy. They say it has contributed to a mass labor shortage that is devastating farms across California — and inflating grocery store prices for citizens across the country. “I agree with Trump on keeping drugs and the criminal element out, but he does an injustice to the overwhelming majority of (immigrants) who want to work and earn an honest living,” said Joe Garcia, Jaguar Farm Labor Contracting CEO.
San Joaquin County farmers face tough economic conditions [Stockton Record]
San Joaquin County farmers are battling their share of obstacles. Prices of some of the region’s most prominent commodities such as walnuts and dairy have plummeted, the labor pool is dwindling, and more stringent environmental regulations have created wafer-thin margins for area farmers. “We see a lot of positives in the overall economy, but the agricultural economy isn’t showing that,” said Bruce Blodgett, executive director of the San Joaquin Farm Bureau….Toss in a tumultuous trade war with new environmental regulations and it becomes easy to see why farmers are scraping in a county where 58 percent of the land is devoted to farming,…
https://www.recordnet.com/special/20190225/san-joaquin-county-farmers-face-tough-economic-conditions
Plan to combat drought in West hinges on California, Arizona [Associated Press]
A California irrigation district with the highest-priority rights to water from a major Western river is using its power to demand federal funds to restore the state’s largest lake, hoping to capitalize on one of its best opportunities yet to tackle a long-standing environmental and human health hazard. The Imperial Irrigation District wants $200 million for the Salton Sea, a massive, briny lake in the desert southeast of Los Angeles created when the Colorado River breached a dike in 1905 and flooded a dry lake bed….The district says that if the federal government doesn’t commit to giving California the money, it won’t sign off on a multistate plan to preserve the river’s two largest reservoirs amid a prolonged drought.
https://www.apnews.com/06c0d5ff5ce34a3784ba8b37c25d9bc1
Water releases to increase at Lake Shasta, Folsom Lake ahead of pending storms [Capital Public Radio, Sacramento]
With four to 10 inches of rain in the forecast, operators at Northern California dams are opening the gates. The federal Bureau of Reclamation says Lake Shasta and Folsom Lake are above the levels the agency wants with heavy rains on the way. “Shasta Reservoir is approaching 3.5 million acre feet or about 77 percent full. Folsom is around 606,000 acre feet or about 62 percent full,” said bureau spokesman Todd Plain.
California studying cannabis impacts in Mattole River watershed [Eureka Times-Standard]
The state Department of Fish and Wildlife is researching how cannabis cultivators who divert water from Mattole River streams might be impacting the river’s fish and insect populations, though the head of a restoration organization says far more than cannabis is affecting the water….If the flows in the stream get low enough, they can break off into isolated pools, which in turn leave fish populations vulnerable to other animal predators, said Nathan Queener, executive director of the Mattole River Council….One thing to emphasize, Queener said, is that cannabis growers are not the only diverters of Mattole River water. Nearby residents use the water for other agricultural purposes or even housekeeping.
California commission’s task: Who should pay for wildfires? [Associated Press]
A state commission met for the first time Monday, tasked with answering the difficult question: Who should pay for California’s increasingly devastating and costly wildfires? It’s a question that has perplexed lawmakers following wildly expensive wildfires in 2017 and 2018 that partly prompted the state’s largest utility, Pacific Gas & Electric Corp., to file for bankruptcy….On their to-do list is determining how to spread costs from wildfires in “an equitable manner” and considering whether the state should create a special find to cover wildfire costs.
