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Record Number of Rattlesnakes Making Their Way Into Yards Due to Drought

/in /by /CBS Los Angeles

Southern California is known for its sun, sand, and of course, it’s snakes. And thanks to our ongoing drought, rattlesnakes are making their way out of the hills and into our yards in record numbers.“They’re out in full force right now,” said Bo Slyapich, who is known as the “rattlesnake wrangler.” He specializes in snake removal, relocation, and prevention. Slyapich has been working with snakes for more than 50 years and says homeowners are giving the rattlers exactly what they are looking for.

 

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San Juan Capistrano Keeps Water Rules in Place, Seeks Relaxation of State Mandate

/in /by /The Orange County Registerby Fred Swegles

A rainy winter in Northern California may have strengthened the state’s water supply, but San Juan Capistrano is keeping conservation tools in place in case Southern California’s drought continues.

The City Council voted 5-0 at its June 21 meeting to keep in place the city’s Stage 2 water alert, which limits lawn watering and irrigation to two days a week, bans all non-essential use of potable water and bans use of automatic sprinklers from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. and sets other restrictions.

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Perfect Storm Brewing for California Fire Season

/in /by /UPI (Washington, D.C.)by Tara Lohan

California’s climate has always been hospitable to fire – it comes with the territory. But add five years of drought, a bark beetle blight killing trees by the millions and rising temperatures, and it’s a recipe for disaster.

“We are seeing the compounded effects of climate change that includes five consecutive years of drought and rising mean temperatures across the West – last year was the hottest year on record,” said Janet Upton, deputy director of communications at the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. “All that is trending to a more flammable California.”

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More Wildfires, Starting Sooner, Burning More Acres

/in /by /Capital Public Radio (Sacramento)by Ed Joyce

A report by the nonpartisan Climate Central says that 11 million people in California are at risk of wildfire and that climate change is lengthening the wildfire season.

Previous reports by researchers have said wildfires in the western U.S. would become more intense, larger, and start earlier than usual as a result of climate change.

 

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Is California Sitting on the Solution to its Drought?

/in /by /CNNby Joshua Berlinger

Californians: A solution to the drought may be under your feet, according to a study from Stanford scientists.

Thousands of feet beneath the surface of the state’s Central Valley, one of the world’s biggest agricultural hubs, there may be up to 2,700 cubic kilometers of usable groundwater — nearly three times more than the amount previously thought.
“It’s not often that you find a ‘water windfall,’ but we just did,” said study co-author Robert Jackson, a professor at Stanford. “There’s far more fresh water and usable water than we expected.”
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Judge’s Ruling Could Delay California’s Water Tunnel Project

/in /by /Associated Press (As Published by KRON 4 - San Francisco)

A Northern California judge’s ruling could delay construction of two large tunnels to more easily move water from the state’s central valley to the parched south.

The Sacramento Bee reported that the judge invalidated a comprehensive environmental management plan for the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. The judge ruled that the plan must be “set aside” until deficiencies he found earlier are fixed. State officials say they will appeal Friday’s ruling.

 

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Drought Impact on Sierra Forests Starting to Show in Nevada

/in /by /Tahoe Daily Tribune

U.S. Forest Service officials say the number of trees in Sierra Nevada forests killed by drought and bark beetles now is in the millions. And Nevada forestry’s Natural Resources Manager says the damage is starting to show on this side of the Sierra as well. “All you’ve got to do is stand back and take a look up the hillside,” said John Christopherson. “You see dead trees and dying trees.” According to the forest service, an estimated 66 million trees have died over the past half-dozen years in California’s southern Sierra.

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“Water Windfall” Discovered Under California’s Drought-Stricken Central Valley

/in /by /Smithsonian.comby Jason Daley

California’s megadrought is stretching into its fifth year, and as the best hope for rain, El Niño, fizzles, the outlook is grim. While Northern California’s winter precipitation approached normal, 60 percent of the state remains in a severe drought.

So a new discovery under the Central Valley has residents excited; researchers from Stanford mapped out a deep groundwater reservoir under the Valley that holds three times more water than previously thought. They recently published their results in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
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With Doomsday in Mind, California Officials Are Ceding Water to Arizona, Nevada

/in /by /Voice of San Diegoby Ry Rivard Quoted: Mark Watton

Twenty-six million people in California, Nevada and Arizona rely on the Colorado River, but this magnificent source of water that carved a continent is drying up.

Representatives of the three states have been huddling behind closed doors and, for the first time ever, California water officials are offering to give up some of the state’s strongest claims to the river – at least temporarily. The thermometer of the river’s health is Lake Mead — the lake formed behind Hoover Dam. The lake is now lower than it’s been since it was first filled back in the mid-1930s.

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Water Restrictions Tapering Off

/in /by /The Coast News Group (Encinitas)by Bianca Kaplanek Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

Thanks in part to winter rain and snow storms, state and local agencies are loosening water-use restrictions in Solana Beach and Del Mar.

But one council member in the latter city called the move premature, prompting his colleagues to hold off on downgrading to a Stage 1 drought level. “I think it’s a mistake to relax our drought restrictions — a big mistake — because the drought’s not over,” Del Mar Councilman Don Mosier said. “The fact is that … two-thirds of the state is still in a drought.

 

 

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