In response to Western drought, a flood of legislation [Roll Call]
Much of the American West is struggling to cope with a worsening drought that has strained municipal water supplies, agricultural operations and wildlife populations. Tens of millions of Americans live in areas being punished by drought, from Oregon’s Klamath River basin to California’s Central Valley. The crisis is ramping up pressure on Capitol Hill to act even as lawmakers confront sharp partisan differences over the best ways to respond. The bipartisan infrastructure bill approved by the Senate includes provisions aimed at mitigating drought impacts, and Democrats are looking to build on that with additional measures in their budget reconciliation package. The seriousness of the situation is particularly evident in the seven-state Colorado River Basin, where water levels at Lake Mead and Lake Powell have dropped to record lows, not just affecting the amount of water available for households and agriculture but also threatening electricity generation at the Hoover Dam, which serves areas across Nevada, California and Arizona. The Bureau of Reclamation recently declared the first-ever federal water shortage for the Colorado River, triggering cuts in the water available to Arizona farmers. Climate change is expected to exacerbate the situation, in part by reducing the amount of snowpack that helps fill the river as it melts every year. House Natural Resources Chair Raúl M. Grijalva, D-Ariz., said the declaration represented a “stark reminder” of how climate change is affecting the water supply for tens of millions across the West. Drought mitigation measures have been included in the bipartisan infrastructure bill that was approved by the Senate and is now pending in the House, as well as the proposed reconciliation package being assembled by Democrats.
https://www.rollcall.com/2021/09/15/in-response-to-western-drought-a-flood-of-legislation/
This luxury Healdsburg winery is on aggressive expansion push with latest acquisition [San Francisco Chronicle]
Aperture Cellars, which is quickly becoming one of the major players in high-end Sonoma County wine, has just added a sizable new vineyard to its holdings. Winery owner Jesse Katz has closed on the purchase of Farrow Ranch, a 75-acre vineyard in Alexander Valley and the source of a $225 Malbec that Katz produces. The acquisition is the latest in a flurry of new developments for Aperture, which purchased a historic Russian River Valley vineyard in 2016, built a new winery in Healdsburg in 2019 and opened a flashy visitor center in 2020. Now producing about 20,000 cases of wine per year, Katz appears to be aspiring to household-name levels of recognition. Steadily, he’s built an audience for his luxury-priced, Bordeaux-inspired wines.
https://www.sfchronicle.com/food/wine/article/A-luxury-Healdsburg-winery-bought-this-16461247.php
Inside Hangar 1’s new vodka made from smoke-tainted Napa grapes [Bay Area News Group]
Alameda’s Hangar 1 Distillery is synonymous with world-class vodka. It’s also known for some rather clever experimentation. This month, the distillery is releasing a new vodka made from smoke-tainted Napa wine grapes damaged in the 2020 Glass Fire. Smoke Point has an elegant, floral nose with subtle flavors of licorice and allspice — and not a whiff of the fire that devastated Wine Country last year. The Glass Fire scorched 67,484 acres and damaged or destroyed 1,555 structures, including 308 homes and 31 wineries, restaurants and lodges. And smoke billowed across countless acres of vineyards. Smoke taint is tricky. It happens when wine grapes are exposed to smoke — the giveaway is a burnt taste akin to wet ash. But sometimes it’s undetectable, even in grapes that have been tested, until much later. The unfermented wine used for Smoke Point was sourced from Crimson Wine Group and made from merlot and malbec grapes grown in Napa, would have otherwise been discarded, making Smoke Point an act of sustainability as well as an experiment in terroir.
World’s largest trees under siege from California wildfire as sequoias face new perils
Deep inside the heart of Sequoia National Park lies a cathedral-like grove that is home to thousands of towering sequoia trees. Known as the Giant Forest, it draws throngs of visitors each year who come to marvel at its behemoths, including the 275-foot General Sherman tree, known as the largest tree on Earth.
Wildfire is a natural part of the life cycle of sequoias — helping to release their seeds. But with climate change fueling a new breed of extreme fire in California, that ecological contract has been betrayed. Flames from a wildfire are lapping at the Giant Forest and threatening to decimate some of the greatest natural wonders of the world. The 8,940-acre KNP Complex, composed of the Paradise and Colony fires, was roughly a mile from the ancient grove Wednesday, officials said. The new fire underscores the growing danger that faster, more intense fires pose to the sequoias. The 2020 Castle fire wiped out 10% of their population, leaving behind a graveyard of charred trunks and scorched crowns.
In California, Worsening Fires Show Limits of Biden’s Power [New York Times]
President Biden visited California to tout his efforts to better protect the state against the raging wildfires that have burned more than two million acres, displaced thousands and pushed responders to the brink of exhaustion. “These fires are blinking code red for our nation,” said Mr. Biden, who used the occasion to promote two bills pending in Congress that would fund forest management and more resilient infrastructure as well as combat global warming. The country couldn’t “ignore the reality that these wildfires are being supercharged by climate change,” he said. But experts say there are limits to what the federal government can do to reduce the scale and destructive power of the fires, at least in the short term. That’s because much of the authority needed relies on state and local governments, those experts said. Federal action largely depends on Congress approving new funding — but even if approved, that money might not make much of a difference anytime soon. “Climate change impacts can’t be absolved in a single year,” said Roy Wright, who was in charge of risk mitigation at the Federal Emergency Management Agency until 2018. The goal, he said, should be “investments that will pay back over the coming three to five years.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/13/climate/biden-california-wildfires.html
Opinion: California must reform meat supply chain if Sacramento wants to stay Farm to Fork capital [Sacramento Bee]
Amid Sacramento’s annual Farm to Fork celebration, a glaring contradiction remains: The pandemic and this summer’s ransomware attack on JBS (the world’s largest meat processor) disrupted the four industrial processors centered in the Midwest and South. Together they supply the vast majority of California’s meat. California’s small- and mid-scale livestock and poultry producers lost access to local processing as large-scale producers that usually export animals to the industrial plants took over the state’s small processors. COVID-19 sickened thousands of plant workers, hundreds died and tens of millions in lost wages resulting from the closures, particularly harming rural communities. These events showed that the concentration of processing is dangerous. California must act to increase our own meat supply chain resilience, protect workers and aid rural communities. A new white paper from the Food Systems Lab at UC Davis describes how a fairer regulatory environment, targeted investment from public and private sources and innovative collaborations could address these challenges. More importantly, it would help realize opportunities for small- and mid-scale producers, benefiting us all. (From Patrick Mulvaney, proprietor and executive chef of Mulvaney’s B&L, and Michael R. Dimock, program director of Roots of Change from the Public Health Institute.)
https://www.sacbee.com/article254243278.html
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