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California legislative staffers and environmental advocates took flight Tuesday to get a rare aerial view of watershed restoration in the Sierra Nevada, a project they say is critical to protecting the state’s water supply.

Much of California’s drinking water begins in places like the Yuba River Watershed, where decades of fire damage and climate change have left ecosystems fragile. From above, the contrast between green recovery zones and fire-scarred forest land was stark.

The Imperial Irrigation District, which provides water to farmers in the southeastern corner of California, drew a figurative line in the sand earlier this month, calling for a halt to the conversion of agricultural fields into solar panel farms.

Noting that more than 13,000 acres of fertile land had already been converted, the water district asked the Imperial County Board of Supervisors to protect productive farmland.

 

Some National Weather Service offices in California are among those hit hardest by meteorologist vacancies, according to new data from an employee union — heightening concerns as the state contends with another potentially devastating fire season and the ongoing threat of extreme weather.

The staffing shortages have forced some offices to outsource overnight operations to neighboring offices or reduce how often they issue forecast products that help keep decision-makers and first responders abreast of potentially hazardous weather conditions.

At first read, a water recycling plan coming out of California sounds tough to swallow.

That’s because the Groundwater Replenishment System in Orange County intends to mass-produce drinking water from purified sewage to combat shortages in dry regions, according to The Guardian. It builds on similar work already being done that churns out clean water by the millions of gallons.

When thimble-sized mussels were first detected last year in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, biologists quickly rang the alarm over how severely this invasive species could threaten the state’s water supply systems.

Now, nine months after the mollusks’ appearance near Stockton, officials are in a race to rein in golden mussels as their larvae spread through the state’s network of pumps, pipes and canals, reports CalMatters’ Rachel Becker.