Tensions rise in water battle along Oregon-California line [Associated Press]
… The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, which oversees water allocations in the federally owned Klamath Project, is expected to announce this week how the season’s water will be divvied up after delaying the decision a month. … The competing demands over a vanishing natural resource foreshadow a difficult and tense summer in a region where farmers, conservationists and tribes have engaged in years of legal battles over who has greater rights to an ever-dwindling water supply. Two of the tribes, the Klamath and Yurok, hold treaties guaranteeing the protection of their fisheries.
https://apnews.com/article/wildlife-fish-droughts-oregon-california-c202dd2986fb8b7fa2cf91695237c89c
IID decides to stand pat on Abatti’s Supreme Court petition [Imperial Valley Press]
Imperial Irrigation District apparently has decided not to sweat Michael Abatti’s decision to appeal his case against the district to the nation’s highest court. IID announced Monday it will not file a response to Abatti’s petition to the U.S. Supreme Court over his ongoing legal dispute with the district over water rights. … IID General Counsel Frank Oswalt said in a press release that a response is unnecessary. “After a thorough review of Mr. Abatti’s petition, it was the unanimous conclusion of counsel that there is almost no possibility that the United States Supreme Court will grant the petition,” he said.
Opinion: Drought hits California — and Newsom [CalMatters]
… The situation is roughly where it was six years ago when then-Gov. Jerry Brown declared a water emergency and ordered severe conservation measures. … As the very dry 2020-21 winter drove home the reality of another drought, a group of state legislators last week sent a letter to Brown’s successor, Gavin Newsom, urging him to also declare a drought emergency. … Newsom, however, is clearly reluctant to declare an emergency. … Legislators from agricultural areas, such as Borgeas, reflect farmers’ preference for suspending rules governing state and federal diversions from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta so as to provide more water for San Joaquin Valley farms and thus less for habitat protection in the Delta.
https://calmatters.org/commentary/2021/04/drought-hits-california-and-newsom/
Ag community welcomes more environmentally friendly farming but says it’ll take money [Bakersfield Californian]
California’s agricultural community made clear in a series of public meetings last month that growers, dairies and ranchers stand ready to expand forward-thinking environmental practices — but that such activities don’t necessarily make financial sense without some form of government support. Their message of enthusiastic, if somewhat conditional, embrace of biodiversity and carbon sequestration efforts carried across a new, 39-page draft document that lists many ways ag producers say they can help California’s fight against climate change.
Unwelcome and tough to evict: California’s costly, uphill battle against invasive species [CalMatters]
… As a research team from UC Davis discovered, invasive species don’t go quietly. Nor do they react well to full-on assaults. … Still, this serendipity has led to a new, live-and-let-live approach to combat invasive species: forget about trying to wipe them out, and get them down to a manageable population instead. … Costly to control, these invasives have damaged some California crops and critical flood control and water delivery systems. … Efforts to get rid of invasives have mixed results, and sometimes make things worse, as when animals or insects are introduced to eradicate pests, and instead wind up becoming a new pest.
https://calmatters.org/environment/2021/04/california-battle-invasive-species/
California dairy farmers are saving money—and cutting methane emissions—by feeding cows leftovers [Inside Climate News]
… By feeding leftover nut shells from nearby almond orchards, dairy farmers not only support their neighboring farmers, they divert waste that would otherwise go into landfills where it generates methane. These leftovers also provide nutrition for the animals, replacing traditional forage like alfalfa that requires big swathes of farmland and copious amounts of water to grow. … Dairy farmers in California feed their cows other by-products, too, including spent grains from breweries, and vegetable scraps. Much of this would end up in landfills if not fed to cows, because it’s either too expensive to transport to other markets or has little value beyond cow feed, the researchers say.
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