You are now in California and the U.S. category.

In meeting rooms more than 2,200 miles from the slopes of the Sierra Nevada, the California drought dominated discussions as the California Farm Bureau Federation Board of Directors met with congressional representatives and agency officials in Washington, D.C.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., announced her introduction of California drought legislation as she met with the CFBF board last week, and both she and members of the House of Representatives lamented the loss of water that has been allowed to flow out to sea during this winter’s El Niño storms.

Researchers launched weather balloons Tuesday off the coast of Hawaii in an unprecedented effort to discover how El Nino affects weather forecasts thousands of miles away.

Craig McLean, assistant NOAA administrator for NOAA Research, explained how the project hopes to collect data from the Pacific Ocean using a research plane, a NOAA ship and drones.

A group of central San Joaquin Valley agriculture, government and Latino leaders is raising an alarm about a proposed ballot initiative to take money away from high-speed rail and use it instead for water-storage projects in California.

Their opposition to the initiative – which is now being circulated for signatures to qualify for the November ballot – is rooted not in support for the controversial bullet-train project, but because the measure would also divert $2.7 billion in water-storage money from Proposition 1, a water bond act approved by more than two-thirds of California voters in 2014.

The State Water Resources Control Board is expanding its 1 percent financing availability for recycled water projects to approximately $960 million.

The board says there’s increasing demand for the money as California continues to shore up its water supplies in the face of record-breaking drought.

Lawn has its limits, and so does our water supply. It may have taken four years of drought to convince us, but many Sacramentans are transitioning away from turf-heavy landscapes to something more river-friendly and resources-minded. And we can’t afford to let El Nino wash away our resolve.

Rain or no rain, California landscapes are definitely changing. We’re embracing our Mediterranean climate and the low-water plants that grow in it.