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As every Californian knows by now, our state is in the fifth year of a drought, and this persistent imbalance of supply and demand in our water supply is likely the new norm. The good news is that many of our state leaders have woken up to this fact, and in recent years have been clearing some of the logjams around smart water management. The state adopted a historic groundwater bill in 2014 to help ensure our reserves don’t run dry, and the legislature and voters passed a $7.5 billion water bond to help fund the infrastructure to make our state more resilient.

Californians are known to take pride in the state’s many exceptional characteristics. But in at least one important area, we’d be wise to learn a thing or two from our neighbors. Not only are the Golden State’s water management challenges shared by other western states, but many of these places use more advanced practices to understand how much water is available, who has claims to it, and how much is being used.

California’s high country is a delight in summer, a cool respite from the heat of the state’s lower elevations. That’s especially true in the Sierra Nevada, where a corridor of shade transports vacationers from Fresno to Yosemite National Park under a dense canopy of cedar trees, firs and pines. But after five years of drought and insect infestation, more than 66 million trees have died across the state, many in the eastern Sierra. In tree-ringed communities such as Bass Lake and Shaver Lake, up to 80 percent of the pines and other conifers have died.

 

The Assembly Committee on Appropriations voted 13-6 Wednesday to approve a measure by Senator Lois Wolk, D-Solano, to promote the protection and management of natural and working lands as part of California’s ongoing efforts to meet its climate change goals. “From farms to rangelands, wetlands to parks, California’s natural and working lands have the potential to store considerable amounts of carbon,” Wolk said. “SB 1386 will reinforce that investment in these lands’ management is an important strategy in meeting the California’s ongoing efforts to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions.”

 

Even before the plane left the runway, it was clear the crew of researchers examining the fallout from California’s historic drought would not return with good news.