Lake Shasta is facing its worst season in 44 years. Here’s what that means for those who rely on it [Redding Record Searchlight]
Lake Shasta this summer is facing possibly its lowest level in at least 44 years, and that could be bad news for the people who rely on it for drinking and irrigation water, as well as endangered salmon that depend on it to survive. Dam operators have to go all the way back to 1977 to compare how bad this year’s water situation is shaping up to be, said Don Bader, area manager for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, which manages the dam. … Dam operators also need to make sure there is enough cold water for wildlife that live downstream, including endangered winter-run chinook salmon, which require cold water from the lake to lay and hatch eggs in the Sacramento River from Redding to Red Bluff.
Marin County declares drought emergency [Marin Independent Journal]
The Marin County Board of Supervisors declared a drought emergency on Tuesday in response to historic dry conditions, potentially opening the door to state and federal disaster aid and new tools to prevent reservoirs from depleting. … Among the hardest hit have been dairy and beef cattle ranchers, especially in West Marin, said Stefan Parnay, the county’s acting agricultural commissioner. Agricultural producers say the drought is worse than the notorious 1976-77 crisis. Many have seen their water sources go dry months earlier than normal. … Additionally, about 50% of the county’s 300 acres of crop production will likely have to be fallowed because of the dry conditions.
https://www.marinij.com/2021/05/18/marin-county-declares-drought-emergency-3/
Workers clear canal in Fresno as irrigation season begins. Homeless nearby given notice [Fresno Bee]
Fresno Irrigation District workers Tuesday began clearing a canal of litter and assorted trash near a homeless encampment so water to could flow to Valley farmland. … Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, canals, CalTrans property next to freeways and other vacant lands have been utilized with increasing frequency by the city’s homeless. Irrigation district officials have joined with the city in an attempt to keep the canals clear of debris, something canal officials have said places a strain on the district’s budget.
https://www.fresnobee.com/news/local/article251512923.html
Editorial: Modesto Irrigation District, if you’re mad at river group, don’t punish school kids [Modesto Bee]
… This editorial board consistently has sided with MID against environmental and fishing entities in ongoing water rights conflicts. The Bee believes that compromise goals for both sides can best be served with voluntary agreement negotiations, and has called on California Gov. Gavin Newsom to use his influence to bring them to a close. In other words, MID is right about the big water picture, and the Tuolumne River Trust is wrong to hold out for more flows benefiting fish at the expense of our economy. But MID can afford to take a higher road when called out by a truth-telling intern. When you’re trying to swat a fly, swinging a sledgehammer just looks silly.
https://www.modbee.com/opinion/editorials/article251484673.html
Sonoma County supervisors pull back from revised cannabis cultivation ordinance [Santa Rosa Press Democrat]
Sonoma County supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to sideline a controversial measure aimed at easing the permit process for commercial cannabis cultivation while also calling for an environmental review that will take at least one year. The Board of Supervisors pulled back from a revised policy that eased regulations for the cannabis industry’s sake but prompted a revolt among rural residents adamantly against the prospect of pot farms dotting a wider swath of the county on larger footprints.
Opinion: To achieve forest health, we need to change our relationship with fire [CalMatters]
… As summer approaches and worse-than-ever blazes are predicted for the state officially sinking into drought, the urgency to dramatically increase controlled fire has morphed into frustration-fueled dread. Why can’t California set the intentional burns everyone knows are key to restoring biodiversity and fire resilience? A century of fire suppression and industrial logging has distanced us from natural fire, a keystone ecological process as essential to forests as sunshine and rain. We have severed that critical relationship maintained by Native Americans, who for millennia lit fires to keep forests cleansed of flammable underbrush.
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