California is one of the most hydrologically altered landscapes in the world. As water becomes ever more scarce and the human population continues to grow, that vast engineered system strains to meet the needs of people let alone the needs of nature.
Water rights allocations far exceed actual surface water supply, and millions of wells tap groundwater to meet the increasing demands of farms and communities. As groundwater reservoirs are depleted they can in turn reduce surface flows – exacerbating a vicious cycle in which people and nature both lose. Rivers, wetlands and groundwater-dependent ecosystems are caught in this struggle for an increasingly limited resource. Nearly half of California’s roughly 4,000 freshwater species are considered vulnerable to extinction. Of the taxa that are found nowhere but California – our endemic freshwater biodiversity – 90 percent are at risk.
But there is hope. While it is impossible to return natural flows to most of California’s rivers and streams, we can – through science, technology, and innovative market tools – endeavor to deliver water when and where nature needs it most.
Gorm E. Shackelford, Rodd Kelsey, Lynn V. Dicks
As California and other major agricultural regions around the world tackle the challenge of increasing the sustainability of agriculture to improve environmental health, cover crops are increasingly…
Houston Wilson, Hekia Bodwitch, Jennifer Carah, Kent Daane, Christy Getz, Theodore E. Grantham, Van Butsic
Cannabis has been an industry in the shadows for many decades and little studied. In partnership with U.C. Berkeley and U.C. Cooperative Extension, the Conservancy staff developed the first cannabis…
Laura S. Brophy, Correigh M. Greene, Van C. Hare, Brett Holycross, Andy Lanier, Walter N. Heady, Kevin O’Connor, Hiroo Imaki, Tanya Haddad, Randy Dana
The authors of this study generated new maps of current and historical tidal wetlands in 450 estuaries throughout Washington, Oregon, and California. Using laser-mapping technology known as LIDAR…
Sandi Matsumoto, Melissa M. Rohde, Sarah Heard
Groundwater is a critical water supply around the world and is increasingly under threat from pumping that exceeds natural replenishment. Successful implementation of California's Sustainable…
Rohde MM, Seapy B, Rogers R, Castañeda X, editors
Plant and animal species can rely on groundwater directly or indirectly for water, nutrients, and stable temperatures. The Critical Species LookBook is a compendium of 84 state and federally listed…
Samuel C. Zipper, Tom Gleeson, Ben Kerr, Jeanette K. Howard, Melissa M. Rohde, Jennifer Carah, Julie Zimmerman
Reductions in streamflow from groundwater pumping can negatively impact water users and aquatic ecosystems but are challenging to estimate due to the time and expertise required to develop numerical…
Parker SS, Randall JM, Pauly GB, Li E, Brown BV, Cohen BS
This report is a product of the Biodiversity Analysis in Los Angeles (BAILA) project. It provides details on why we conducted our analysis, how the partnership between the Museum and the Conservancy…
Enjie Li, Sophie S. Parker, Gregory B. Pauly, John M. Randall, Brian V. Brown, Brian S. Cohen
This dataset is a product of the Biodiversity Analysis in Los Angeles (BAILA) project, and demonstrates a new way to evaluate urban biogeography—patterns in the distribution of species across…
Enjie Li, Sophie S. Parker, Gregory B. Pauly, John M. Randall, Brian V. Brown, Brian S. Cohen
This paper presents a new way to evaluate urban biogeography—patterns in the distribution of species across urban areas. The authors developed a hierarchical, quantitative method for classifying…
Kirk Klausmeyer, Falk Schuetzenmeister, Nathaniel Rindlaub, Tanushree Biswas, Melissa M. Rohde, Jeanette Howard
94,333 unique ecosystems depend on groundwater in California. GDE Pulse lets you see how they have changed over the last 30 years. Groundwater managers and environmental stakeholders often lack…
Sarah Heard, E.J. Remson, Matthew Fienup, Siobhan King
In 2014, California passed the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) which regulates groundwater at scale for the first time, requiring the state’s largest source of stored water to be…
Prepared by Anchor QEA, LLC (John Ferguson, Elizabeth Greene, and Michelle L. Ratliff), Contributors and Participants: John Cain, Jon Rosenfield, Alison Weber-Stover, Stephen Louie, John Shelton, Tim Heyne, Brian Ellrott, Sierra Franks, Monica Gutierrez, Rhonda Reed, David Swank, Steve Edmundson, Katie Schmidt, Rachel Johnson, Jeanette Howard, Julie Zimmerman, Chris Carr, Daniel Worth, Rene Henery, Ron Yoshiyama, Joshua Israel, Paul Cadrett, Ramon Martin, and J.D. Wikert
Also view Appendix A: Stanislaus Survival Model and and other report Appendices.
Jacob E. Lucero, Taylor Noble, Stephanie Haas, Michael Westphal, H. Scott Butterfield, Christopher J. Lortie
Previous work at the Carrizo Plain by this team in 2018 showed that native shrubs facilitated endangered blunt-nosed leopard lizard populations, and should be considered part of plans for habitat…
Gregory J. Reis, Jeanette K. Howard, Jonathan A. Rosenfield
For years the narrative of the San Francisco Bay Delta has been driven by the contention that water use by agriculture was being limited by environmental regulation. Analyzing long-term trends…
Theodore E. Grantham, Julie K. H. Zimmerman, Jennifer K. Carah, Jeanette K. Howard
Management of California’s vast water distribution network, involving hundreds of dams and diversions from rivers and streams, provides water to 40 million people and supports a globally…
Joseph A. E. Stewart, H. Scott Butterfield, Jonathan Q. Richmond, David J. Germano, Michael F. Westphal, Erin N. Tennant, Barry Sinervo
Due to limited water resources, there is a global trend toward the retirement of farmland, especially in the San Joaquin Valley in California where the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act could…
Megan Jennings, Dan Cayan, Julie Kalansky, Amber Pairis, Alexandra Syphard, Rachel Clemesha, Alexander Gershunov, Kristen Guirguis, John Randall, Eric Stein, Sula Vanderplank, Shasta Gaughen
