California’s public lands and resources are under siege by a powerful corporation and its allies in Washington. Congressional Republicans used a recent must-pass government spending bill to pave the way for the Cadiz water extraction project, a particularly destructive project in California’s Mojave Desert. Cadiz seeks to create a loophole in an 1875 railroad law to drain an ancient desert aquifer without any federal oversight. The aquifer supports the abundant wildlife of California’s desert – from tortoises and bighorn sheep to breathtaking wildflower blooms that blanket the region.