Recent fish surveys confirm what many biologists, ecologists, and water experts have known for some time – Delta smelt remain on the brink of extinction. Zero Delta smelt were found in the California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s recent Fall Midwater Trawl Survey. Even the Enhanced Delta Smelt Monitoring Program, which is specifically designed to […]
Conflict to Collaboration
Conflict to Collaboration A regulatory approach has dominated water management in California over the past three decades. This was a significant shift from the development phase of California’s water system, as described by water policy expert Tim Quinn, former executive director of the Association of California Water Agencies. Many believe that policy-makers and water users […]
Statement on the Adoption of the New Biological Opinions
Statement by California Farm Water Coalition Executive Director Mike Wade on the Adoption of the New Biological Opinions “For the first time in more than a decade, the federal rules known as Biological Opinions are being updated. These rules exist to protect threatened species in the San Francisco Bay-Delta region while also meeting the water […]
2019 Biological Opinion Fact Sheet
In October of 2019, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) released new biological opinions (BiOps) analyzing the operation of the Federal Central Valley project (CVP) and the California State Water Project (SWP). Following the release of the BiOps, there were numerous inaccurate characterizations of the opinions. To […]
Clearing the Water on the Biological Opinions
Clearing the Water on the Biological Opinions There has been a lot of discussion recently about the federal rules known as biological opinions that are intended to protect threatened and endangered species in the San Francisco Bay-Delta region. According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, a biological opinion, “…is a document that states the […]
Statement by California Farm Water Coalition Executive Director Mike Wade on the Release of the New Biological Opinions
Statement by California Farm Water Coalition Executive Director Mike Wade on the Release of the New Biological Opinions The release of the new Biological Opinions on salmon, Delta smelt and other species is good news for water users and the environment. Moving from an approach that used a calendar to make ecosystem decisions to one […]
California’s Water Management Future – Voluntary Agreements
California’s Water Management Future – Voluntary Agreements In a 2008 speech to Google employees in Mountain View, then-San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newson repeated the axiom, “As goes California, so goes the nation.” He was expressing the progressive nature of The Golden State, which has been a national leader on many fronts since Admission Day on […]
STATEMENT: Voluntary Agreement on Water Represents the Future and Deserves Prop 68 Funding
STATEMENT: Voluntary Agreement on Water Represents the Future and Deserves Prop 68 Funding By Mike Wade, Executive Director California Farm Water Coalition California has always prided itself on cutting-edge ideas. It is the place others turn to for new solutions to old problems. We are currently faced with a choice to continue that tradition of innovation […]
Bold Actions for People, Farms, and the Environment
Bold Actions for People, Farms, and the Environment The United States Bureau of Reclamation is commencing a process aimed at modernizing the operations of the federal Central Valley Project (CVP). For decades, the approaches to protecting the fish and wildlife dependent on the Bay-Delta watershed and estuary have been species-by-species and stressor-by stressor. Those approaches […]
Countdown: 2 Days to Drought
Countdown: 2 Days to Drought On Wednesday, the State Water Board will vote to remove enough water from the system to irrigate over 200,000 acres of farmland or meet the annual domestic needs of 2 million people every year. If approved, this action will lead to one of the most preventable droughts California has faced. How […]