upper watershed management

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2018 Clear Creek Technical Team Annual Report for the Coordinated Long-Term Operations Biological Opinion

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2018 Clear Creek Technical Team Annual Report for the Coordinated Long-Term Operations Biological Opinion
Delta Stewardship Council (DSC) | July 1, 2019...
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California forest die-off linked to multi-year deep soil drying in 2012–2015 drought

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California forest die-off linked to multi-year deep soil drying in 2012–2015 drought
Nature Geoscience | July 1, 2019...
Summary
Widespread episodes of recent forest die-off have been tied to the occurrence of anomalously warm droughts, although the underlying mechanisms remain inadequately understood....

Widespread episodes of recent forest die-off have been tied to the occurrence of anomalously warm droughts, although the underlying mechanisms remain inadequately understood. California’s 2012–2015 drought, with exceptionally low precipitation and warmth, and widespread conifer death, provides an opportunity to explore the chain of events leading to forest die-off. Here, we present the spatial and temporal patterns of die-off and moisture deficit during California’s drought, based on field and remote sensing observations. We found that die-off was closely tied to multi-year deep-rooting-zone drying, and that this relationship provides a framework with which to diagnose and predict mortality. Marked tree death in an intensively studied Sierra Nevada forest followed a four-year moisture overdraft, with cumulative 2012–2015 evapotranspiration exceeding precipitation by ~1,500 mm, and subsurface moisture exhaustion to 5–15-m depth. Observations across the entire Sierra Nevada further linked tree death to deep drying, with die-off and moisture overdraft covarying across latitude and elevation. Unusually dense vegetation and warm temperatures accelerated southern Sierran evapotranspiration in 2012–2015, intensifying overdraft and compounding die-off by an estimated 55%. Climate change is expected to further amplify evapotranspiration and moisture overdraft during drought, potentially increasing Sierran tree death during drought by ~15–20% °C⁻¹.

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California Hydraulic Mining under the Caminetti Act

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California Hydraulic Mining under the Caminetti Act
Scientific American | July 21, 1900...
Summary
The gold deposits of California are, for a large part, contained in gravel beds once the channel of rivers which formed the drainage...

The gold deposits of California are, for a large part, contained in gravel beds once the channel of rivers which formed the drainage of the west slope of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. In the course of ages new rivers were formed, leaving the ancient gravel beds elevated often hundreds of feet above the river beds of the present. The depth of the gravel in the old channels is often several hundred feet and the width across them frequently one-half mile, while their courses may be traced for thirty or forty miles in length in detached sections, which are the remnants of once continuous beds. Denudation and the cutting down of the present streams has removed parts of the ancient channels and they often disappear below the surface for several miles underneath coverings of lava which have been spread over them ... Hydraulic mining became an immense industry. At the time when it had reached its greatest development it was estimated that more than one hundred millions of dollars had been invested in the construction of water supplies, mining plant, tunnels, and flumes, and more than two million dollars have been spent in the equipment of a single mine. Everything was upon an immense scale, and the amounts of gravel removed were in proportion. So large, in fact, that the material washed into the streams caused blockages over spreading agricultural lands in the Sacramento Valley, obstructing and raising the beds of the navigable rivers which enter San Francisco Bay, causing inundations at times of flood, and generally making its influence noticeable 200 miles from the seat of mining. In 1880 it was estimated that in the bed of the Yuba River alone there were stored more than one hundred and forty million cubic yards of accumulations, and the bed of the river had spread over a width of two and one-half miles between the side levees built to confine the spread of the deposits.

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California Water Plan 2013: Mountain Counties Regional Report
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California Water Plan 2013: Mountain Counties Regional Report
California Department of Water Resources (DWR) | October 30, 2014...
Summary
As the State works to solve the water crisis in California, the potential for redirected impacts in the Mountain Counties Area is acute....
As the State works to solve the water crisis in California, the potential for redirected impacts in the Mountain Counties Area is acute. It is critical that the State recognize the significance and importance of the Sierra Nevada mountain range to the local communities, the environment, the Delta, and all of California, now and for future generations.

Water resource managers are working with elected officials, governmental agencies, businesses, farmers and conservationists on innovative programs for watershed management, water use efficiency, conservation, reuse, and recycling. Water managers and others in the region are actively balancing the water supplies that support both a vibrant economy and a healthy environment. They are also continually improving the management of surface and groundwater sources to sustain this important balance for this region and California.

Statewide Significance

Water is the number one resource exported from the Sierra Nevada, and the 16-county Mountain Counties Area is the primary source for most of that exported water. The Mountain Counties Area is over 15,700 square miles and represents 9.9 percent of the state. More than 40 percent of California’s developed water supply originates in the Mountain Counties area serving end users throughout the state.

-The reservoirs in the region produce hydroelectricity to supply homes and businesses in the western United States. Mountain Counties has more hydroelectric generation facilities than any other region in California.

- Agriculture in this region feeds the state and the world and is an economic driver for California’s economy.

Recreation and tourism in the Sierra Nevada mountains help communities thrive economically as guests come from all over the world to hike, ski, fish, raft, and boat.
- Water stored behind designated reservoirs in the ten major watershed areas have dedicated in-stream flow releases designed to meet the many beneficial uses for the environment, agriculture, and urban users and provides storage to reduce the magnitude of flood flows.
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California’s Water: Protecting Headwaters
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California’s Water: Protecting Headwaters
Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) | October 1, 2016...
Summary
Mountainous regions provide most of the state’s water supply. But major problems loom— from a growing risk of wildfires to a shrinking snowpack....

Mountainous regions provide most of the state’s water supply. But major problems loom— from a growing risk of wildfires to a shrinking snowpack. This brief outlines ways California and the federal government—the largest landowner in headwater areas—could address critical problems in these areas.

This publication is part of a briefing kit that summarizes a dozen of the state’s most pressing water management issues.

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Climate change is increasing the likelihood of extreme autumn wildfire conditions across California

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Climate change is increasing the likelihood of extreme autumn wildfire conditions across California
Environmental Research Letters, IOP Publishing | August 20, 2020...
Summary
California has experienced devastating autumn wildfires in recent years. These autumn wildfires have coincided with extreme fire weather conditions during periods of strong...
California has experienced devastating autumn wildfires in recent years. These autumn wildfires have coincided with extreme fire weather conditions during periods of strong offshore winds coincident with unusually dry vegetation enabled by anomalously warm conditions and late onset of autumn precipitation. In this study, we quantify observed changes in the occurrence and magnitude of meteorological factors that enable extreme autumn wildfires in California, and use climate model simulations to ascertain whether these changes are attributable to human-caused climate change. We show that state-wide increases in autumn temperature (~1 °C) and decreases in autumn precipitation (~30%) over the past four decades have contributed to increases in aggregate fire weather indices (+20%). As a result, the observed frequency of autumn days with extreme (95th percentile) fire weather—which we show are preferentially associated with extreme autumn wildfires—has more than doubled in California since the early 1980s. We further find an increase in the climate model-estimated probability of these extreme autumn conditions since ~1950, including a long-term trend toward increased same-season co-occurrence of extreme fire weather conditions in northern and southern California. Our climate model analyses suggest that continued climate change will further amplify the number of days with extreme fire weather by the end of this century, though a pathway consistent with the UN Paris commitments would substantially curb that increase. Given the acute societal impacts of extreme autumn wildfires in recent years, our findings have critical relevance for ongoing efforts to manage wildfire risks in California and other regions.

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Climate change is increasing the risk of extreme autumn wildfire conditions across California

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Climate change is increasing the risk of extreme autumn wildfire conditions across California
Environmental Research Letters, IOP Publishing | March 26, 2020...
Summary
California has experienced devastating autumn wildfires in recent years. These autumn wildfires have coincided with extreme fire weather conditions during periods of strong offshore...
California has experienced devastating autumn wildfires in recent years. These autumn wildfires have coincided with extreme fire weather conditions during periods of strong offshore winds coincident with unusually dry vegetation enabled by anomalously warm conditions and late onset of autumn precipitation. In this study, we quantify observed changes in the occurrence and magnitude of meteorological factors that enable extreme autumn wildfires in California, and use climate model simulations to ascertain whether these changes are attributable to human-caused climate change. We show that state-wide increases in autumn temperature (~1 °C) and decreases 39 in autumn precipitation (~30%) over the past four decades have contributed to increases in aggregate fire weather indices (+20%). As a result, the observed frequency of autumn days with extreme (95th percentile) fire weather – which we show are preferentially associated with extreme autumn wildfires – has more than doubled in California since the early 1980s. We further find an increase in the climate model-estimated probability of these extreme autumn conditions since ~1950, including a long-term trend toward increased same-season co-occurrence of extreme fire weather conditions in northern and southern California. Our climate model analyses suggest that continued climate change will further amplify the number of days with extreme fire weather by the end of this century, though a pathway consistent with the UN Paris commitments would substantially curb that increase. Given the acute societal impacts of extreme autumn wildfires in recent years, our findings have critical relevance for ongoing efforts to manage wildfire risks in California and other regions.

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Effects of montane watershed development on vulnerability of domestic groundwater supply during drought

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Effects of montane watershed development on vulnerability of domestic groundwater supply during drought
Journal of Hydrology | April 1, 2020...
Summary
Climate change is expected to reduce recharge to montane aquifers in the western United States, but it is unclear how this will impact...

Climate change is expected to reduce recharge to montane aquifers in the western United States, but it is unclear how this will impact groundwater resources in watersheds where intensive surface-water development has disrupted the natural hydrologic regime. To better understand sources of recharge and associated vulnerabilities of groundwater supply in this setting, we made a detailed geochemical survey of domestic wells finished in fractured bedrock throughout the Yuba and Bear River watersheds (Sierra Nevada foothills, northern California) during historic drought (2015–2016). Stable isotopes of water and noble gas recharge temperatures closely tracked atmospheric lapse rates across a broad elevation gradient (100–2000 m), indicating groundwater inputs are dominated by local precipitation that rapidly recharges fractured bedrock during the winter wet-season. However, nearly one-quarter of wells had water isotopes that were fractionated by evaporation and warm recharge temperatures, indicative of mixing with dry-season recharge by surface water. Monte Carlo mixing models suggest evaporation-impacted groundwater samples are mixtures of local rain with an average of 28% ± 13% from diverted surface water that can recharge bedrock aquifers during the dry-season by either irrigation return flow or seepage from extensive distribution infrastructure. Wells that received recharge subsidies from diverted surface water had elevated levels of nitrate and coliform bacteria compared to those replenished exclusively by local precipitation, which are more vulnerable to supply shortage during drought. It is important to consider the impacts of increased surface-water development on the quantity and quality of groundwater recharge in rapidly developing montane watersheds.

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Excavation and Embankment by Water Power

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Excavation and Embankment by Water Power
Scientific American | July 24, 1886...
Summary
I wish to call the attention of the Society to a plan by which large excavations and embankments can be cheaply made —which is especially applicable to...
I wish to call the attention of the Society to a plan by which large excavations and embankments can be cheaply made —which is especially applicable to earthen dams— by simply applying the method used in the hydraulic mines that have been so largely developed in California. The system, in brief, is discharging the water under a vertical head of from 100 to 300 feet against the bank to be excavated. The momentum of the water cuts the bank, the material of which is conveyed by it into the flume, and thence by it to the place at which it is to be discharged. This point of discharge is generally in some water course or river, which soon becomes dammed by a perfectly water-tight dam, which remains intact and tight until it is destroyed, or partially so, by the winter's flood washing away the material from the top.

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Forest Management (Resource Management Strategy)
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Forest Management (Resource Management Strategy)
California Department of Water Resources (DWR) | July 29, 2016...
Summary
Forest lands in California, the majority of which are in the middle to high elevation foothills and mountains, produce a diverse array of...
Forest lands in California, the majority of which are in the middle to high elevation foothills and mountains, produce a diverse array of resources such as water, timber, native vegetation, fish, wildlife, and livestock, and outdoor recreation. However, the water produced by these forests has economic value that equals or exceeds that of any other forest resource (Krieger 2001; California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection 2003).

Most of California’s major rivers and a substantial portion of its runoff originate in these forests; therefore, most of California’s major water development projects are tied strongly to forested watersheds.

Forest management activities can affect water quantity and quality. This strategy focuses on forest management activities, on both public and privately-owned forest lands, whose goals specifically include improvement of the availability and quality of water for downstream users.

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2018 Clear Creek Technical Team Annual Report for the Coordinated Long-Term Operations Biological Opinion

2018 Clear Creek Technical Team Annual Report for the Coordinated Long-Term Operations Biological Opinion

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California forest die-off linked to multi-year deep soil drying in 2012–2015 drought

California forest die-off linked to multi-year deep soil drying in 2012–2015 drought

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California Hydraulic Mining under the Caminetti Act

California Hydraulic Mining under the Caminetti Act

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California Water Plan 2013: Mountain Counties Regional Report

California Water Plan 2013: Mountain Counties Regional Report

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California’s Water: Protecting Headwaters

California’s Water: Protecting Headwaters

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Climate change is increasing the likelihood of extreme autumn wildfire conditions across California

Climate change is increasing the likelihood of extreme autumn wildfire conditions across California

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Climate change is increasing the risk of extreme autumn wildfire conditions across California

Climate change is increasing the risk of extreme autumn wildfire conditions across California

Become a member to access this feature

Effects of montane watershed development on vulnerability of domestic groundwater supply during drought

Effects of montane watershed development on vulnerability of domestic groundwater supply during drought

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Excavation and Embankment by Water Power

Excavation and Embankment by Water Power

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Forest Management (Resource Management Strategy)

Forest Management (Resource Management Strategy)

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