Green Sturgeon New Smelt for Bay-Delta Pumps?
A federal biologist holds a green sturgeon caught and released in San Pablo Bay, Calif., in 2002. Photo: NOAA
THE SAME day that Central Valley farmers filed suit over pumping stoppages to protect the Delta smelt, the spectre of additional protections for another fish, this time the green sturgeon, rose from government scientists. Reports Thursday May 21 from AP and Fresno Bee followed today (May 22) by a better report in Aquafornia.
For the full story, go to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announcement as to why its Fisheries Service “is seeking public comment on a proposed rule that generally prohibits acts that would kill or harm a distinct group of North American green sturgeon that spawn in the Sacramento River.
Listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, this distinct segment of green sturgeon is found from Alaska to California but is only known to reproduce …
In Defense of Salt Cedars
Those gorgeous plants are bad, right? They’re the invasive riparian trees sucking Western water ways so dry that in 2006 Congress dedicated $80 million to study how to get rid of them.
Wrong.
Yes, millions have been spent trying to kill them, but it turns out that they may be good for the West.
WaterWired spotted the story in the May / June issue of Southwest Hydrology and today zapped it straight into the echo chamber. It turns out that the much vilified Salt Cedar, aka Tamarisk, does not gulp inordinate amounts of water. Moreover, it cohabits nicely with native vegetation except where native vegetation is stressed by human pressure on the rivers. Evidently, tamarisk is even a good habitat for birds.
To read the article by Edward P. Glenn of the University of Arizona and Pamela L. Nagler and Jeffrey E. Lovich of the US Geological Survey, click here…
How To, Why To Save Water
A Grace Phillips garden from www.gracescapes.com
By Grace Phillips
RECENTLY, the Metropolitan Water District reduced water allocations to Southern California by about 20%. While we in Santa Monica are cushioned, the City will probably ask for further voluntary 10% reductions. That raises the question: Can you afford to reduce your water use? I have come to realize that it is very difficult for Santa Monica water users to answer that, because when you get your water bill, you have no way of knowing whether you are a good, careful water user, or a major water waster.
So, I thought I would share some information to help you figure out what kind of water user you are, and some more information on how to be a better one.
PART ONE: Some Interesting Factoids
- Santa Monica gets more than 80% of its water from far, far away. Pumping water up and over
Is Obama’s Gain the Great Basin’s Loss?
NOT EVERY American politician happens to be fluent in Mandarin. But Utah Governor Jon Huntsman is; he served his LDS mission in Taiwan. He is also no stranger to international industry. His father founded the Huntsman Corporation, which became a global chemical company whose products most of us know in the form of the Big Mac clamshell container. So President Obama’s choice of the Republican governor of Utah for ambassador to China is no surprise.
But regionally in rural Utah, Nevada and California, Gov Huntsman has an arguably rarer fluency — with western water. Utah’s West Desert counties running parallel to the Eastern Nevada valleys targeted by the Las Vegas pipeline plan have no more influential ally than the Mormon Governor. Those counties staunchly oppose the Las Vegas pipeline. In a tour of the West Desert last year, Gov. Huntsman told ranchers assembled in Delta, Millard County, “I want you …
Welcome to Met, Mr. Fleming
The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California sent out a press release Tuesday announcing the formal seating of its newest board member, David W. Fleming, an attorney with Latham & Watkins. Among his credentials to join the board of the country’s largest water wholesaler outside of the US Bureau of Reclamation, Mr Fleming has served as (or in some instances still serves as):
- a director of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority
- chair of the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce
- chair of the Los Angeles County Business Federation
- co-chair of the Southern California Leadership Council
- chair of the Economic Alliance of the San Fernando Valley
- member and chair of the Executive Committee of the Los Angeles Economic Development Corporation
- chair of the Valley Industry & Commerce Association
- member of the Los Angeles Police Foundation
- member of the Children’s Bureau of Los Angeles
- member of the Los Angeles County Children’s Planning
North American Native Plant Societies
After the lawn
Garden blogs
