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California has a stake in a sprawling public lands package moving through the Senate, including controversial water provisions that don’t even name the state.

The package includes expanding one national historic site honoring famed conservationist John Muir and designating a new historic site at the former Tule Lake camp that housed Japanese-Americans during World War II. Both proposals easily won approval Wednesday from a Senate panel.

A Western water bill inevitably is proving far trickier, squeaking through the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on a 12-10 vote and facing an uncertain future.

The California Supreme Court has cleared one of the hurdles for the Metropolitan Water District to buy 20,000 acres, including five islands, in the California Delta, according to the Los Angeles Times Friday evening.

The court ruled that the sale may go ahead even as the lawsuit by San Joaquin County opposing the land sale, wends its way through the courts, the newspaper says.

There was no decision to that effect posted on the court’s website, however.

 

With Lake Cachuma water levels plunging to historic lows, the Bureau of Reclamation began releasing 320 acre-feet of water down the Santa Ynez River a day and will continue doing so until 7,800 acre-feet have been let go as part of a legally mandated program to replenish the groundwater basins of downstream cities and water providers. With this release, the bathtub ring surrounding the lake will become much more visually dramatic. For those trying to maintain struggling populations of federally endangered steelhead trout: “We’re afraid we’re witnessing an extinction-level event,” said Scott Engblom, a biologist with the Cachuma Operation and Maintenance Board.

Under a comprehensive strategy released Tuesday, state and federal agencies will work to rapidly improve conditions for endangered Delta smelt, which are close to extinction after several extremely dry years.

According to a California Natural Resources Agency press release, the strategy represents a management shift for state and federal water and wildlife agencies, which are addressing multiple stressors on Delta smelt in a systematic way while studying the synergy of the actions.