Tribes are apprehensive, cities are more upbeat and farmers stand somewhere in between over a proposed plan to cut CAP water deliveries to keep Lake Mead from falling to dangerously low levels.

At separate meetings here this week, tribal officials, attorneys and irrigation officials grilled Central Arizona Project officials about the proposal. It would require a 33 percent cut in water deliveries once the lake dropped another 4 or 5 feet below where it’s expected to be at the end of this year, and cuts of up to 40 percent later.

The leaves atop giant sequoias in the Sierra Nevada are better at storing water than those closer to the ground, an adaptation that may explain how their treetops are able to survive 300 feet in the air, researchers at American River College and Humboldt State University have found.

“It can take over a week for water to get from the ground to the top of the tree,” says Alana Chin, who led the study and is an instructor at American River College. “When you’re that tall of a tree, you’re under tremendous water stress.”

Around the world, vital wetlands are being destroyed. Researchers recently estimated that the planet has lost at least 54 percent and as much as 87 percent of these important habitats globally since 1700. As the wetlands disappeared, so have many of the species that once called them home.

At the same time, something else is going on. Agriculture and other types of development are creating some new wetlands where they may not have existed before.

A new Stanford University study recommends groundwater recharge and storage across the state of California as what it calls as “an affordable solution” against drought in recent years.

In addition to building more resilient water supplies in the Golden State, the study suggests that the process, known as “managed aquifer recharge,” or MAR, can incorporate co-benefits such as flood control, improved water quality and wetland habitat protection.