You are now in San Diego County category.

The forests of San Diego County that have shaded 500 generations of local people and provided pine needle bedding, oak woodland and spiritual renewal could disappear. Overly intense fires in quick succession, along with drought, borer insects and climate extremes are laying waste to trees and creating a hostile environment for regrowth. Beloved local places — the Laguna mountains, Cuyamaca Rancho State Park, Palomar Mountain — could convert to chaparral or even to grasses. Some scientists mention even the Torrey pines as possibly at risk.

In the mid-1940s, the Salton Sea was a hotbed of activity, attracting Hollywood’s most glamorous actors and musicians to its yacht clubs and campgrounds. Now, what was once the largest lake in California is disappearing before our eyes and endangering all its life. We can still save it, but if we don’t, we will have a massive public health, environmental and economic crisis that could cost as much as $70 billion. The Salton Sea is a lake that was created most recently 112 years ago after canals and dikes failed along the Colorado River, opening the Imperial Valley to extreme flooding.

Nearly 200 small earthquakes — including three of a magnitude greater than 4 — struck the Salton Sea area over the last day or so. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the swarm of quakes started early Monday morning and continued into the evening. Quakes measuring 4.3 and 4.2 magnitude occurred Monday night.  Nine of the quakes measure greater than 3.0. Many of the quakes were centered near Bombay Beach. They were felt in a relatively small area around the Salton Sea, according to the USGS.

The North County’s unique and wonderful landscape, its vibrant communities and its orchards of avocados and other crops, rely on affordable water. Most is imported, either from the Colorado River or from Northern California. Neither source should be taken for granted. Both require investments to maintain their reliability. A key investment decision is on the horizon for the supply from Northern California.

Last month, California’s Water Resources Control Board took the easy way out on water conservation. In 2015, California nearly met Governor Brown’s mandatory water conservation goal of 25 percent thanks to transparent monthly reporting and identifying profligate water wasters. The water board even fined a few of the worst water hogs to demonstrate how serious it was about getting urban Californians to live within their water means.