Tag Archive for: Farmers

Running Out of Water and Time: How Unprepared is California for 2021’s Drought?

/in , , /by /CalMattersby Rachel Becker and Julie Cart

With most of the state gripped by extreme dryness, some conditions are better, some worse, than the last record-breaking drought. Over-pumping of wells hasn’t stopped. But urban residents haven’t lapsed back into water-wasting lifestyles. “We are in worse shape than we were before the last drought, and we are going to be in even worse shape after this one,” said Jay Lund, co-director of the Center for Watershed Sciences at University of California at Davis.

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California Farmers Facing Drought Are Choosing Empty Fields

/in , , /by /Bloomberg Greenby Daniela Sirtori-Cortina and Breanna T Bradham

In some areas of California it’s so dry that farmers aren’t even bothering to plant crops this season. Growers north of San Francisco have begun pulling out of local farmers markets and produce-box programs. County Line Harvest, which farms more than 30 acres in Petaluma, California, doesn’t have enough water to grow all the peppers, lettuces and other produce that normally go into its subscription boxes, according to a video posted to its Instagram page.

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Water Crisis “Couldn’t be Worse” on Oregon-California Border

/in , , /by /AP Newsby Gillian Flaccus

The water crisis along the California-Oregon border went from dire to catastrophic this week as federal regulators shut off irrigation water to farmers from a critical reservoir and said they would not send extra water to dying salmon downstream or to a half-dozen wildlife refuges that harbor millions of migrating birds each year.

In what is shaping up to be the worst water crisis in generations, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation said it will not release water this season into the main canal that feeds the bulk of the massive Klamath Reclamation Project, marking a first for the 114-year-old irrigation system.

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Farmers Grapple with Implications of Water Cuts

/in , /by /AgAlertby Christine Souza

In water-stressed farming areas of California, farmers removed productive trees and idled other land to divert what little water they have to other crops, as the reality of the 2021 drought became ever more apparent.

“We’re removing 15-year-old, prime-production almond trees,” said Daniel Hartwig of Woolf Farming in Fresno County. “We’re pulling out almost 400 acres, simply because there’s not enough water in the system to irrigate them, and long term, we have no confidence that there would be water in the future.”

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In California’s Farm Country, Climate Change Is Likely to Trigger More Pesticide Use, Fouling Waterways

/in , /by /Inside Climate Newsby Liza Gross

Every spring, California farmers brace themselves for signs of wriggling organisms destined to launch multigenerational attacks on their crops.

Many insect species survive the winter as eggs or larvae and then emerge in early spring as the first generation to feed and breed on millions of acres of California vineyards, orchards and row crops. Climate change will complicate farmers’ efforts to control these pests in complex and unpredictable ways.

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Opinion: No, California Isn’t ‘Flushing Water to the Ocean,’ Despite What Fresno Politicians Say

/in , , /by /The Fresno Beeby Marek Warszawski

It’s that time of drought again. During one of the driest years on record, once again curtailing water deliveries to local farms, Fresno-area lawmakers wasted little time trotting out one of their favorite falsehoods. That every year, including the parched ones like 2021, California “wastes” millions of gallons of water by “flushing it to the ocean.”

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Reclamation Halts Water Deliveries to Northern Calif. Farmers

/in , , /by /The San Joaquin Valley Sunby Alex Tavlian

More than a month after announcing it was suspending water deliveries to farmers on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley, the Bureau of Reclamation delivered equally bad news to farmers north of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.

Their water supplies, tabbed at 5 percent of their contracted amount, were not available for delivery via the Central Valley Project due to limited supply.

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Fish or Farmers? Newsom Drought Declaration Would Trigger New War Over California Water

/in , , /by /The Sacramento Beeby Dale Kasler and Ryan Sabalow

When a bipartisan group of state legislators held a press conference last week to demand that Gov. Gavin Newsom declare a statewide drought emergency, they assembled at a withered farm field east of Fresno, complete with piles of dead trees in the background.

The choice was no accident. With California already experiencing drought-like conditions, Central Valley farmers and their elected representatives are the ones putting the most political pressure on Newsom to make it official.

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Federal Dollars Available for Farmers, Ranchers Facing Drought in California

/in , /by /KCRA-TV (Sacramento)by Emily Maher

Federal dollars are on the table to help farmers and ranchers during the drought. The U.S. Department of Agriculture declared a drought disaster in 50 California counties last month. Grants are now available to help with costs associated with the dry conditions.

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Fresno County Joins Coalition Seeking California Emergency Drought Declaration

/in , , /by /Roseville Today

Fresno County is once again in a water crisis. In late March, the California Department of Water Resources announced the 2021 State Water Project allocation to Fresno County farmers would be only 5% of requested water supplies, half of what DWR had announced would be available in December.

The reduction will have a serious impact on Fresno County farmers and agriculture throughout the Central Valley.

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