Tag Archive for: Agriculture

Banking on Water That Never Came

/in , , /by /Herald and Newsby Alex Schwartz Herald

Nestled below rocky outcroppings dotted with junipers on the eastern shore of old Tule Lake, John Prosser’s 97-acre homestead at Bloody Point is a haven amidst the chaos of the Klamath Basin water crisis.

Prosser, a history buff, purchased the property last fall, its fields having sat largely fallow for years despite the presence of a private irrigation well. By August, the field’s newly planted stand of alfalfa was busy rebounding after its first cutting — a rare sight of green in the Klamath Project this year.

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State Allocates $50M to Fund Water Conservation Projects in Agricultural Centered Areas

/in , , /by /Bakersfield Nowby Elizabeth Christian

Today local lawmakers toured the Kern Water Bank to see drought impact firsthand.

$50 million from the state budget is going to fund Assembly Bill 252, which calls for land repurposing all to focus on the drought and getting water flow back to where it matters.

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A Tiny Piece of Plastic Is Helping Farmers Use Far Less Water

/in , /by /Bloomberg Businessweekby Elizabeth G. Dunn

On the bone-dry western flank of Arizona, where the Colorado River Basin meets the Mojave Desert, sit 11,000 acres of alfalfa, sorghum, wheat, and Sudan grass belonging to the Colorado River Indian Tribes (CRIT), all destined to be harvested and sold for animal feed. For anything to grow here, irrigation is a must. Less than a quarter inch of rain has fallen so far this year, according to Josh Moore, who manages the farm on behalf of his tribe.

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Southwest U.S. Drought, Worst in a Century, Linked by NOAA to Climate Change

/in , , /by /Reutersby Steve Gorman

Human-caused climate change has intensified the withering drought gripping the Southwestern United States, the region’s most severe on record, with precipitation at the lowest 20-month level documented since 1895, a U.S. government report said on Tuesday.

Over the same period, from January 2020 through August 2021, the region also experienced the third-highest daily average temperatures measured since record-keeping began near the end of the 19th century, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) drought task force

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Dry and Failing Wells in Tuolumne County are a Sign of Drought’s Severity

/in , , /by /The Union Democratby Guy McCarthy

Terry Carney, 71, showed the head of his well Thursday and said it dried up about two weeks after the July 9 magnitude 6.0 earthquake that struck near Walker, Nevada and was felt by people up and down the Sierra Nevada and as far west as the Bay Area.

Carney’s well is one of more than a dozen that have dried up so far this year in Tuolumne County, in addition to at least 19 other wells that are failing but have not yet dried up, according to county staff.

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Drought Haves, Have-Not’s Test How to Share Water in the West

/in , , /by /AP Newsby Gillian Flaccus and Brittany Peterson

Phil Fine stands in a parched field and watches a harvester gnaw through his carrot seed crop, spitting clouds of dust in its wake. Cracked dirt lines empty irrigation canals, and dust devils and tumbleweeds punctuate a landscape in shades of brown.

Across an invisible line separating Fine’s irrigation district from the next, it’s another world. Automated sprinklers hiss as they douse crops, cattle munch on green grass and water bubbles through verdant farmland.

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Sustainable Ramona Presents Water Conservation Zoom Series

/in , , /by /Ramona Sentinelby Julie Gallant

Sustainable Ramona will kick off a series of free Zoom meetings on sustainability with a Water Conservation Resources series set for Sept. 20-24.

Future Zoom series will cover resources for homes and businesses; transportation, including electric vehicles and public transportation; agriculture, including information on farming using solar energy, called agrivoltaics; sustainable gardening, including composting and worm farming.

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Water Transfers Helped Farmers Survive This Year. Now, All Eyes Are on the Coming Water Year

/in , , /by /SJV Waterby Jesse Vad

Water transfers, trades and sales doubled this year as drought left San Joaquin Valley farmers scrambling for supplies.

“This has been kind of an exceptional year for transfers,” said Sam Boland-Brien, program manager at the State Water Resources Control Board’s Division of Water Rights. Boland-Brien said he’s seen about twice the amount of transfers this year compared to an average water year.

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In Response to Western Drought, a Flood of Legislation

/in , , /by /Roll Callby Joseph Morton

Las Vegas visitors can still snap selfies with the mermaids swimming among tropical fish in the Silverton Casino’s massive aquarium and gaze at the colorful dancing water displays of the iconic Bellagio fountains — for now.

But southern Nevada and much of the American West are struggling to cope with a worsening drought that has strained municipal water supplies, agricultural operations and wildlife populations.

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Marin County Supes to Vote On Extending Drought Emergency Declaration

/in , , /by /CBS SF Bay Area

As an ongoing water shortage that’s hurting ranchers and dairies in the North Bay, the Marin County Board of Supervisors will consider extending a local emergency declaration of drought conditions at its meeting Tuesday.

Much of the state is facing parched conditions after two consecutive dry years and Marin County is no exception. The county’s two largest water suppliers, the Marin Municipal Water District and the North Marin Water District, have declared water shortage emergencies and put mandatory conservation measures in place.

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