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Californians hear a lot about the lessons they can learn from other areas that have coped with water scarcity, like Israel’s development of desalination or how Australia handled its Millennial Drought, which lasted more than a decade. But not all water issues come down to scarcity. And that’s why looking north to Canada could also provide some inspiration when it comes to technologies to treat water (and ways to save energy in the process), tools for finding and fixing leaks, faster processes for testing water and software for analyzing important water data.

A temporary truce has been called today in an ongoing dispute between Kern County, Bakersfield and the Kern Delta Water District. Six months ago, the city and KDWD announced that they were forming the Kern River Groundwater Sustainability Agency. Afterwards the county filed its own GSA application with the state in order to protect its policing and land use powers. California law says that if competing GSA organizations fail to resolve their differences, the state may come in and take over the use and management of ground water resources.

California officials crafting a new conservation plan for the state’s dry future drew criticism from environmentalists on Thursday for failing to require more cutbacks of farmers, who use 80 percent of the water consumed by people. Gov. Jerry Brown ordered up the state plans for improving long-term conservation in May, when he lifted a statewide mandate put in place at the height of California’s drought for 25-percent water conservation by cities and towns. Ben Chou, a water-policy analyst with the Natural Resources Defense Council, criticized state planners for not mandating any new water-savings by farm water districts.

California is finally embracing its rivers. But it may be a choking embrace. We Californians have long celebrated our coastal splendor and toasted the height and beauty of our mountains. But our rivers? For most of us, they have been a mere utility, the plumbing that moved water around the state.. Today the Golden State, its regions and its people are at long last taking the advice of the late environmentalist David Brower, who counseled his fellow Californians to “begin thinking like a river,” and fulfilling the eternal Christmas dream of Joni Mitchell, “I wish I had a river.”

It might not be the most wonderful time of the year to buy a Christmas tree. Tree shortages—brought on by droughts and other environmental problems—could be driving up the price of the centerpiece of your holiday decor, Consumerist reported. In particular, the rising cost of trees in Oregon and elsewhere in the Pacific Northwest could hike prices nationwide, since that region supplies to buyers from out of state. Dan Bollander—who was grown trees in drought-stricken Southern California for the past 37 years—told CBS Los Angeles prices spiked by 10% this year.