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Time to Review Some Dam Decisions?

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Time for Some Dam Decisions

Here are 181 Candidates to Seriously Consider
On October 22, 2014 the UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences identified 181 dams in California that are “high-priority” candidates for reallocating water flows, to protect the health of related watersheds and sensitive species—in keeping with the state constitution’s “beneficial use of water” section, the public trust doctrine, both state and federal endangered species acts, and Section 5937 of the California Fish and Game Code, a rarely enforced state law more than 100 years old.  (more…) Continue Reading →

Filed under: All Stories, The Worth of Water, Wildlife

Dreaming of Sunny and Warm

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Dreaming of Sunny and Warm

Road Trip! Sunny Dreams Part 1
No sooner do we stop complaining about the summer’s heat than we start grousing about the chill in the air—minding not so much the nippiness itself as anticipating the toe-numbing cold that comes later, hitched to the memory. Such ingrates, we Californians. Deciding where to go and what to do for some winter fun, that’s easy if you’re a skier or snowboarder. But what if you’re not a winter sports fan? Continue Reading →

Filed under: All Stories, Travel

Names and True Names

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Names and True Names

Any place is more than just material objects, landscapes, and homescapes. Things carry names as part of the history of a region. Names give meaning to the raw data of dirt, streams, weeds, and animals in a particular place, and especially to the integration of things. Layers of namescapes cover any landscape. Common names like “blackbird” or “poison oak,” “sparrow“ or “weed” may suit a population of adults and children who participate in everyday interactions with nature more or less absentmindedly, uncritically. Continue Reading →

Filed under: All Stories, In My Neighborhood, Birds, Wildlife

Into the Redwoods

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Big tree

Following Hwy. 1 north from Mendocino County leads to Leggett and the junction with Hwy. 101. The big attraction here is the Drive-Thru-Tree Park, as schlocky as it sounds, but for some reason we humans just love driving through trees. They carved this car-sized hole in the Chandelier Tree in the 1930s, and for a fee you can “drive thru” it, or bike or walk (RVs won’t make it). Continue Reading →

Filed under: All Stories, Travel, North Coast, Redwoods

The Lost (and Found) Coast

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King Range National Conservation Area. Photo by Bob Wick, US Bureau of Land Management.

Dust off the backpack, get new laces for those hiking boots. This is the place. California’s isolated “Lost Coast”—virtually uninhabited and more remote than any other stretch of coastline in the Lower 48—has been found. Here steep mountains soar like bald eagles, their domes tufted with chaparral, a few redwoods tucked behind the ears, and sink their rock-knuckled, grassy talons into surf that surges onto black-sand beaches. Local people, of course, snort over the very idea that this splendid stretch of unfriendly coast was ever lost in the first place, even if area highways were intentionally routed away from it. They knew it was here. Continue Reading →

Filed under: All Stories, Travel, North Coast, Redwoods

Into the Woods

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It’s not as if there are no redwoods before you get to Humboldt and Del Norte Counties. Stranded stands of coast redwoods can be found along the Central Coast, in protected, wetter areas as far as the southernmost reaches of Big Sur. But here, along the North Coast, is where the tribe truly thrives. They once numbered an estimated two million, but even here the native population of coastal redwood trees has been reduced through logging and agricultural clearing to isolated groves of virgin trees. (more…) Continue Reading →

Filed under: All Stories, Travel, North Coast, Redwoods

The War Waged for Mono Lake

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Mono photo 1

The war of politics and power waged on behalf of Mono Lake and its water has been so contentious, convoluted, and long-running, and has involved so many public agencies and public hearings, so many lawsuits and compromises, that the simple facts are virtually impossible to separate from the details. Central to the saga, though, is the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. “If we don’t get the water,” said self-taught engineer and water czar William Mulholland in 1907, “we won’t need it.” (more…) Continue Reading →

Filed under: All Stories, The Worth of Water

David Zetland (Part 3) – Water for Community

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General aerial of delta patterns shot north of Sacramento. Shot - 78/05 by Paul J. Hames.

In his new book Living with Water Scarcity, David Zetland offers a brief yet astute description of what have become universal water allocation conflicts:
“Go anywhere in the world and you’ll find two opposing sides to a water allocation. A farmer complains about water going to the environment. An environmentalist complains about water going to the city. A businessman complains about water going to farms.” All of them are certain that they deserve the water more than others, Zetland says. They agree that politicians should allocate water for its highest and best use, but doubt the ability of water managers, government officials, and political leaders to decide what “highest and best” might be.  (more…) Continue Reading →

Filed under: All Stories, David Zetland, The Worth of Water

David Zetland (Part 2) – Water as Commodity

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Aerial view showing water running dow the Oroville spillway at Lake Oroville, California. Also showing the "energy disipators" at the bottom of the spillway.

Valuing Water as the Good It Is, Not the Good It Was
As discussed previously, economist David Zetland wants us to understand the difference between water scarcity and water shortage. Water scarcity, he says, is a perception. We worry that there may not be enough water to meet our needs, the needs of the environment, and the needs of agriculture and other business. Water shortage, on the other hand, is a fact. In the midst of a shortage there is no water to be had, at any price. Effectively managing water scarcity can prevent water shortages. Continue Reading →

Filed under: All Stories, David Zetland, The Worth of Water

Making the Most of Mendocino

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Making the Most of Mendocino

The Gualala River forms the boundary between Sonoma and Mendocino Counties. Travelers heading north will find that most Bay Area weekenders have by now tailed off, leaving this stretch of coast highway for the locals and long-haul travelers. It’s a little greener (and wetter) here than in Sonoma County, but the crescent coves and pocket beaches you appreciated along the wild Sonoma Coast continue north across the county line, one after the next, like a string of pearls.  (more…) Continue Reading →

Filed under: All Stories, Travel, North Coast, Redwoods