San Joaquin River Stewardship Program

The Vanishing Valley By KEN and MELANIE LIGHT For five years, we roamed the Great Central Valley, the agricultural center of California. It is a dream for a photographer and a writer — an amazing mix of startling light, and a kaleidoscope of faces and stories. Like so many of our fellow Californians, we hadn’t really thought about the communities and people that provide our food, or the labor that has made the state what it is. Multimedia The valley supplies half of the fruits and vegetables for the United States. Everywhere we turned, people’s stories pulled us in deeper, and their circumstances seemed to get more and more desperate the longer we worked there. We followed the valley’s workers as they stood in a food line in Mendota, danced in Tulare, and sailed out across the San Joaquin River on a rope swing. They are hardworking people, fighting to preserve their livelihoods and traditions. We saw this fruit bowl of America being planted with its final crop of ticky-tacky cookie-cutter houses and gated communities with homes overlooking artificial lakes. How were these projects approved during a severe drought (which ended in March 2011) and against the growers’ constant requests for more water, more water, and more water? During the years of easy credit, even unskilled laborers in the region were moving into homeownership. After the bust, new homes were left to deteriorate while local residents struggled to find housing in trailers, apartments and even cars. Humans were not the only ones struggling for a home. The valley is one of the greatest North American flyways for millions of migrating birds, and their nesting ground has been stripped down to contain almost unimaginably big fields of crops that don’t accommodate animal life. The use of pesticides on this scale was mind-boggling. The Central Valley has provided the dream for many, but it is also deeply shadowed. The issues in the valley are the global challenges of our generation: water, land use, population, growing economic disparity.

Follow this link to view a pictorial slide show:  http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/20/opinion/sunday/the-vanishing-valley.html

Towing icebergs to California, diverting Mississippi River water to the Colorado Front Range or building massive plants to desalinize water from the Sea of Cortez are among the options to counter future water shortages in the two basins of the Colorado River. Other considerations include tearing down all the dams along the system to force groundwater recharge, prohibit new golf courses and place bans on man-made lakes, water parks or swimming pools for single-family homes. http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865555735/The-fight-for-water-Can-the-migh...

The West is running out of water. Its lifeblood, the Colorado River, is being hemorrhaged by cities, by farms and ranches, by power plants and by the more than 30 million people who depend on its water in the United States and another 6 million people in Mexico. This year's flows are near historic lows with runoff about a third of average, pushing the seven states that share the river toward another year of drought. But those stresses are trumped by dire predictions from the agency managing the Colorado River system, forecasting demand far outstripping supply during the next 50 years, reaching crisis levels within two decades. http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865555684/The-fight-for-water-Heres-why-th...

I guess you can call me a fisherman because I like to fish. However, I am no “angler.” You definitely do not want me in the boat with you at a bass tournament. Regardless, I love fish stories. This one is a doozy. It is about dubious salmon that could be the world’s most expensive fish and thousands of remarkably inexpensive trophy trout that will be caught by thousands of fisherman young and old. http://westernfarmpress.com/blog/500-salmon-versus-10-trout

The salmon will be jumping off the coast of California this summer and, for the first time in years, anglers will be allowed to snag them in large numbers for placement on dinner tables, fishery managers announced Wednesday. Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/03/07/MN471NHHMF.DTL#ixzz1oYC3dZK6

People are sometimes confused about why west-side farmers are so worried about the federal government refilling the dried San Joaquin River and restoring salmon. Probably the most consistent concern I hear is about seepage damage to crops near the river. But there's another, deeper concern that you don't hear much, probably because it really is not related to the river. But it's a central feature in the federal government's relationship to the west side of the San Joaquin Valley. Read more here: http://fresnobeehive.com/news/2012/03/a_west-side_suspicion_of_half-.html#sto...

he man-made drought in California is no secret. Burdensome environmental regulations restricting water pumping in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta have contributed to hundreds of thousands of acres of fertile farmland going fallow in recent years. During California's 2007-2009 drought, the Democratic majority and the Obama administration stood on the sidelines while farmers were forced to forgo planting, joblessness rose and families stood in food lines. It was a huge relief last year when we had abundant rain and snow, but instead of using 100 percent of that water for farming and storage, millions of acre-feet of water were allowed to be lost into the ocean. Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/03/05/ED161NG8VP.DTL#ixzz1oOCtQ2k6

A new federal analysis reveals $70 million has been invested in the San Joaquin River restoration since 2007, but no major projects have been completed. And as a Dec. 31 deadline nears to restart salmon runs on the previously dry river, riverside farmers say it's time to talk about a delay. They fear property damage from high flows, and they also worry about federal fines if protected fish stray into their irrigation canals. "There's no shame in adjusting the timetable," said farmer Cannon Michael, who owns land near the river on the Valley's west side. "What's the point of starting if the river is not ready?" Read more here: http://www.fresnobee.com/2012/03/05/2748599/san-joaquin-restoration-70m-goes....

Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar announced last week the creation of a new National Water Trails System. The system will increase access to water-based outdoor recreation, encourage community stewardship of local waterways, and promote tourism that fuels local economies across America. http://www.americanrivers.org/newsroom/blog/jmierau-20120305-obama-administra...

California water planners passed a milestone Wednesday in efforts to balance the competing needs of fish, farmers and cities when they released 10,000 pages of scientific documents framing the plan to restore the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta and increase water exports. Now the negotiations begin. Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/03/02/EDLH1NFBB7.DTL#ixzz1o6sMV0AG