The Dams That Launched a MAGA Crusade

Farmers and ranchers in a rural Mendocino County valley have long opposed the planned removal of two local dams because it would reduce their summer irrigation supply.

Over the past year, the pear and grape growers, cattle ranchers and their allies successfully turned their local fight into a national conservative cause, folded into President Donald Trump’s broader war with California over dams, fish and who gets to control the state’s water.