Reclamation says no water through A Canal this year [Klamath Falls Herald and News]
The Bureau of Reclamation announced Wednesday that Klamath Project’s A Canal will remain closed for the 2021 irrigation season, meaning that irrigators’ initial allocation of 33,000 acre-feet of water has been reduced to zero. Agency staff were seen lowering concrete bulkheads into the canal’s headworks early Wednesday morning, cutting its fish screen off from Upper Klamath Lake and preventing any water from entering the canal. It was a devastating scene for downstream farmers, who have relied on water from the lake to irrigate their crops for more than a century.
No water, no crops: farmers destroy fields due to drought, no water deliveries [KMPH TV, Fresno]
Farmers across the Central Valley are facing a difficult decision over the next couple of weeks and months– to keep or destroy their crops, as the drought situation appears to worsen by the day. “This drought is different than any of the other droughts,” says Joe Del Bosque of Firebaugh, in western Fresno County. … Tuesday, he posted a video to Twitter, showing a tractor destroying one of his asparagus fields. … Del Bosque says other farmers who fallowed their land have been willing to transfer their water, “But we’re having trouble getting it here because the government agencies are holding onto it and do not want to let that water come here.”
Fears of a massive salmon die-off this summer in Sacramento River water conflict [San Francisco Chronicle]
An entire run of endangered winter-run chinook salmon, as well as the fall-run salmon that make up the core of the California fishery, are in danger of being wiped out this year if the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation keeps diverting water to farmers at its current rate. With state water resources constrained by the extreme drought, that’s the alarm that environmental, fishing and tribal groups are sounding after reports show the Sacramento River will reach dangerous temperatures during spawning season, based on federal scientific scenarios that analyze the bureau’s planned water releases.
This year’s almond crop forecast to grow—again [The Business Journal, Fresno]
A survey from United States Department of Agriculture predicts an increase in almond production from last year. But while the survey foretells more acreage coming online for Fresno County’s most valuable crop, growers are already facing the reality of a drought, going so far as to pull out their years-long investments, casting a shadow of a doubt on a sunny outlook. … Production per acre is forecast to be at 2,410 pounds per acre — 3% lower than in 2020. The prediction surprised Fresno County Farm Bureau CEO Ryan Jacobsen, who thought production would be right at or even below last year’s levels.
https://thebusinessjournal.com/this-years-almond-crop-forecast-to-grow-again/
Two Sonoma winery layoffs show how the industry has changed in the past decade [San Francisco Chronicle]
Something unusual happened this week: Two longtime Sonoma County wineries announced they were each laying off about 30 employees and closing down their wine production facilities. … Due to a confluence of factors like rising Wine Country real estate costs and the increasing power of wine-industry branding, having a physical winery is no longer a requisite for any individual wine business. This is not a new phenomenon, but the shuttering of the two wineries in question, Geyserville’s Clos du Bois and Sonoma’s Sebastiani, drives home the point in a new way.
https://www.sfchronicle.com/food/wine/article/Double-Sonoma-winery-layoffs-show-how-the-16171818.php
Sonoma County set for reckoning amid cannabis ordinance fight [Petaluma Argus-Courier]
Just south of the historic Washoe House bar northwest of Petaluma, the first hints of neighborhood agitations against the area’s nascent cannabis industry appear on the asphalt of Pepper Road. In barely discernible white spray painted letters, someone has pledged neighbors’ wholesale opposition to marijuana cultivation in the bucolic Liberty Valley, home to numerous Sonoma County dairies. … This rural enclave in the dairylands west of Petaluma has become a microcosm in the burgeoning battle between Sonoma County’s rural neighborhoods and commercial pot operators.
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