New rules and new technology are giving farmers and managers a better look at groundwater supplies.Continue readingAs California’s Groundwater Free-for-All Ends, Gauging What’s Left
See the most detailed survey ever done of crops and land use in California. It covers nine million acres of land devoted to grapes, alfalfa, cotton, plums, you name it – food for people and animals all over the world.Continue readingWhere California Grows Its Food
The growth of almond orchards has made the Central Valley the new center of gravity for migratory beekeeping. With this shift has come new concerns over the health and safety of bee colonies, both on the road, and while they forage in California’s crops.Continue readingBees for Hire: California Almonds Become Migratory Colonies’ Biggest Task
An arid region 180 miles south of Tijuana is the crossroads where strawberries, economics, and groundwater meet. Continue readingStrawberry Fields Forever? Thirsty Baja Turning to Seawater to Grow Lucrative Crop
A new law calls for reducing methane emissions by 40 percent from its 2013 levels by 2030, but comes with government outreach, economic incentives, and grant programs to help remake a more sustainable dairy industry.Continue readingUnder New Pollution Regulations, Milk Producers Seek Profit in Dairy Air
In the federal government, wildfires have a lesser claim on disaster funds. As fires burn with greater magnitude and frequency, the cost of fighting them is increasingly borne by money earmarked for prevention.Continue readingAre Forest Managers Robbing the Future to Pay for Present-Day Fires?
The power gained by harnessing the Columbia River paved the way for industrial development and widespread farmland irrigation. But what if, instead of public utilities, that power had been sold by private firms seeking profits? Continue readingChanging Currents: Picturing a Northwest Without Cheap, Public Hydropower
Master Leasing Plans were intended to manage resource conflicts on public lands that border national parks and monuments, contain popular hunting and fishing grounds, or shelter cultural artifacts. The Trump administration has moved quickly to set the program aside, freezing progress on proposed plans and restarting leasing in contested areas.Continue readingThe Short Life of The BLM’s Master Leasing Plans
In early December, the administration released further details that would sharply cut back several monuments, most particularly the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante monuments in Utah. Below, we have updated our breakdown of the status of affected monuments in the American West.Continue readingTracking Proposed National Monument Reductions in the West
The fraught statewide conditions that led to passage of the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act in 2014? They afflicted Ventura decades earlier. Continue readingPainful Experience Helps to Chart the Future of Groundwater in Ventura County