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More rain arrived in Northern California this year, which is good news overall. Yet, more bad news is lurking in the forest: Bark beetles.

In fact, those bark beetles are lurking in backyards throughout Butte County. Trees were under stress the past few years due to lack of water. Bark beetles have an easier time attacking trees when the forest is in poor health. The adult insects work their way under the outer protective bark, feed on the soft inner bark, and lay eggs for the next generation.

Overhead irrigation systems have revolutionized agriculture across the United States and in other parts of the world, using less water than furrow irrigation and requiring significantly less labor and maintenance than drip systems. But in California, the No. 1 agriculture state in the nation, it hasn’t gotten off the ground.

That is beginning to change.

Californians continued to save water in April despite the easing of the drought, reducing use by about 26 percent compared to 2013, the State Water Resources Control Board said Monday.

The reductions came before the recent roll back of harsh mandatory conservation targets. They also came during a relatively dry April. Sacramento received about 1.5 inches of rain during that month. Los Angeles saw about 0.3 inches. Water savings ranged from 23 percent along the south coast to about 33 percent in the San Joaquin valley, state data show. Water districts in the Sacramento River watershed cut use by 31 percent.

The California Senate approved two water measures by Sen. Lois Wolk, D-Davis, last week, including legislation to protect California’s aquifers and groundwater resources from permanent damage due to overdraft. Both bills will head to the Assembly next.

The Senate voted 21-17 to support Senate Bill 1317, which addresses a sharp increase in groundwater extraction through new and deeper drilling across the state during the drought, including water basins currently in critical overdraft.

With a Southern California water district’s purchase of 20,000 acres in the Delta expected to become official as soon as next week, San Joaquin County and central Delta farmers have erected one more legal hurdle in an effort to stop the deal. They filed suit in Contra Costa County Superior Court, alleging that the terms of the sale are in violation of an earlier legal agreement that contains rules about how the land can be used.