Madera County residents and farmers face groundwater challenge of a lifetime [Fresno Bee]
Madera County is running out of time as groundwater levels plummet to new depths. Wells are going dry everywhere. Drillers have months-long waitlists. Residents are scrambling for water tanks. And farmers will soon face a reckoning after agriculture’s footprint, particularly nut trees, has more than doubled in the past 50 years — far outpacing irrigation supplies. There’s growing consensus among farmers, county officials and residents that Madera’s groundwater problem will be solved mainly by cutting water demand, not by waiting for more dams to be built or even recharging excess water into the aquifer. There’s only so much water you can percolate into the ground,” explained David Loquaci, owner of Madera Ag Services and a Madera Irrigation District board member. “Guys who have been farming for years and years, and people who have planted more recently — they’ve all got to cut back. The disagreement is how fast.”
Matt Angell, president of the San Joaquin Valley Regional Resource Conservation District, has spent the better part of his six decades living in Madera County as an almond grower, an irrigation systems engineer, a soil enthusiast and owner of Madera Pumps, a well repair company. He has watched the water table at one of his own wells drop 60 feet since February and has seen similar drops in groundwater in the hundreds of wells his company has serviced this year.
https://www.fresnobee.com/fresnoland/article253392983.html
Many California farmers have water cut off, but a lucky few are immune to drought rules [Los Angeles Times]
The nearly 500,000 acres of sushi rice grown in the Sacramento Valley each year serve as the wetland habitat for thousands of migrating birds along the Pacific Coast. Yet the crop also uses more water than most, and about half of the product is exported to countries including Japan and South Korea. Since the 1920s, farmers have grown rice in the Sacramento Valley, where old hands fly crop duster planes and rice emblems mark the county buildings. Now, due to decades-old agreements with the federal government, rice farmers are going relatively unscathed by unprecedented emergency water cuts to farmers this month as others fallow fields, wells go dry and low water levels imperil Chinook salmon, the native cold-water fish that play critical ecological roles and support a billion-dollar fishing industry. A handful of districts supplying farmers are receiving nearly 2 million acre feet of water this drought year, enough to supply the city of Los Angeles for roughly four years. Their seniority is a function of the state’s complicated water rights system, which some experts say is ripe for reform as extreme drought magnifies the inequities within it.
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-08-29/rice-farmers-water-rights-drought-california
Wildfire, drought and chainsaws: California’s iconic trees are casualties in the war on fire [San Diego Union-Tribune]
California’s forests are in trouble. Rising temperatures, drought, beetles and massive blazes have taken a staggering toll on the state’s most iconic trees, such as sugar pine and giant sequoia. The implications are dire for everything from recreation and tourism to the state’s snowpack, rivers and reservoirs. The health of these exalted landscapes has for the last century taken a backseat to human interests and militarized firefighting forces. But a tipping point has been reached. Fires have become overwhelmingly explosive. As politicians and elected leaders grasp for answers, scientists are offering an inconvenient truth: Forests need more regular wildfire to burn off fuel in smaller, less destructive amounts.
A program that pays farmers not to farm isn’t saving the planet [Politico]
President Joe Biden wants to combat climate change by paying more farmers not to farm. But he’s already finding it’s hard to make that work.
His Agriculture Department is far behind its goal for enrolling new land in one program that has that goal, with participation being the lowest it’s been in more than three decades. Even though the USDA this summer more than doubled key incentive payments for the program that encourages farmers and ranchers to leave land idle, high commodity prices are keeping it more worthwhile for growers to raise crops. On top of that, the plan, known as the Conservation Reserve Program, takes land out of production for only 10 to 15 years — so those acres could release carbon into the atmosphere if the land is planted again and thus cancel out its environmental benefit. The slow pace of enrollment and the temporary nature of the program raise questions about whether it will ever contribute significantly to efforts to reduce carbon emissions. It also shows how difficult it is for government programs to voluntarily draw in the farm industry to combat pollution.
https://www.politico.com/amp/news/2021/08/29/usda-farmers-conservation-program-507028
Community Voices: Every drop in the bucket counts, but first you need a bucket [Bakersfied Californian]
Guest Column by state Sen. Shannon Grove, R-Bakersfield: We need to capture water in wet years, store it for dry years, and have the ability to move it around the state when it’s needed. Yet, when it comes to spending on water infrastructure, the Legislative Democrats have refused to make the necessary investments. Unfortunately, California is experiencing worsening drought conditions with depleted groundwater basins and dry wells which means farmers are forced to fallow crops. Many families wonder how they’ll survive and are concerned about the impact shortages will have on food security. Despite this, members of the State Water Resources Board, who are appointees of Governors Jerry Brown and Gavin Newsom, have approved emergency regulations temporarily barring thousands of farmers from pulling water from the rivers and streams of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta watershed. As a representative of the Central Valley, I’ve appealed to the water board and explained the devastating effect this curtailment would have on communities that depend on access to the watershed and have urged them to reconsider.
For some Napa Valley wineries, virtual tastings will persist beyond the pandemic [Napa Valley Register]
Virtual tastings have now become a viable sales channel for the winery business during the pandemic and many say they won’t be abandoning the medium anytime soon. For Chelsea Hoff and her company Fearless Wines, staff was able to begin virtual tastings very early after stay-at-home orders were put in place back in 2020. “Fortunately because of our size, we were able to create a unique virtual tasting experience practically overnight,” she said. “We have grown tremendously since our first virtual tastings early on. We’re unquestionably more efficient with scheduling tastings and handling shipping, but more importantly, we’ve gained a better understanding about why people are participating.” Hillary Cole of Bell Wine Cellars said they also started offering virtual experiences shortly after the area went into initial quarantine, and “that was kind of a valley standard.” Bell Wine Cellars sent their virtual tasters packs of airtight, 4oz. bottles, since many people were stuck at home with just their families, and thus didn’t want to open up multiple, 750 mL bottles for one sitting. The corporate world was also a big driver for these virtual tastings, as employers unable to connect with their employees in-person could book these events to be broadcasted to a handful or hundreds of people.
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