The Economic Value of Nature's Services and its role in Integrated Water Management: Four California Case Studies

California Department of Water Resources (DWR) | July 1st, 2014

Here we present four case studies of integrated regional water management that include enhancement of biological diversity among their goals. Each pilot-scale project foc

Here we present four case studies of integrated regional water management that include enhancement of biological diversity among their goals. Each pilot-scale project focuses on multiple water-related natural resources in a defined geographic area, usually a watershed. A common element of the projects is to show the economic benefits of protecting and restoring natural resources in a manner that allows their continued use over the long term. One of the aims of the projects is to recognize the economic value of the goods and services that nature provides and to incorporate that value into natural resource management decisions. Such recognition includes development of ways to measure the economic value of those services. This can be important information for water managers who normally see only the costs of ecosystem protection and restoration, but not the benefits, in their budgets. The goods and services considered in these projects include water supply, water quality, erosion prevention, wildfire prevention, hydropower generation, wood products, flood attenuation, carbon sequestration, land subsidence reversal, and fish and wildlife. Collectively, the projects constitute on-the-ground efforts to advance several of the objectives in the implementation plan of Water Plan 2009. In particular, they aim to expand integrated regional water management (objective 1), protect surface water and groundwater quality (objective 4), expand environmental stewardship (objective 5), practice integrated flood management (objective 6) and manage a sustainable California Delta (objective 7). The case studies accomplish and document several key ingredients of integrated resource management--although no single study does all of them. They identify and involve watershed stakeholders, both managers and users of natural resources. In turn, the stakeholders come to agreement about how they want the watershed to look or function, usually in terms of the goods and services that they want the watershed to provide. Then they reach agreement on a set of management practices that can support and enhance those services and move the watershed toward the desired condition. Finally, the case studies seek to estimate the amounts of goods and services derived from specific management practices. The pilot projects go beyond most watershed management efforts and most ecosystem services work in laying the foundation for establishment of markets for nature’s services, that is, mechanisms for beneficiaries to pay producers for goods and services they receive. This requires some sort of assessment of the monetary value of the benefits. One desired end product is to put payments in the hands of producers-- that is, resource managers—as an incentive to keep them producing.

The effects of aquatic area abundance, buffer, and hydrology on depressional wetland condition based on CRAM

San Francisco Estuary Institute (SFEI) | April 1st, 2016

The effects of kaolin clay on the amphipod Eohaustorius estuarius: Part Two

San Francisco Estuary Institute (SFEI) | April 3rd, 2017

A number of lines-of-evidence suggest that the amphipod Eohaustorius estuarius has variable tolerance to clay in sediments. In Phase 1 of the current RMP special study, l

A number of lines-of-evidence suggest that the amphipod Eohaustorius estuarius has variable tolerance to clay in sediments. In Phase 1 of the current RMP special study, laboratory dose-response experiments were conducted in 2014 with kaolin clay to evaluate whether clay effects varied with amphipod size. The results indicated that smaller amphipods were more tolerant of clay than larger individuals. Average survival was 81%, 79%, and 65% for small, medium and large amphipods, respectively, in concentrations > 50% clay. As part of Phase 2 confirmation studies conducted in 2015-2016, the original kaolin dose-response experiments were repeated. Results of this experiment showed that average amphipod survival was 88%, 63%, and 41% for small, medium and large amphipods, respectively, in concentrations > 50% clay. Standard 96-hour reference toxicant tests with cadmium chloride (CdCl2) were conducted to determine whether there were size-specific differences in response to this metal reference toxicant. The CdCl2 median lethal concentrations (LC50s) for small, medium and large amphipods were 6.78, 5.13, and 4.63 mg/L, respectively. Responses of all three size classes to cadmium were within historic confidence intervals for this reference metal, and were not significantly different from one another based on overlapping confidence intervals. Additional experiments with high clay reference site sediments from San Francisco Bay were conducted to confirm the size related response with field sediments. The results confirm that use of smaller amphipods in routine monitoring of high clay sediments will reduce the influence of this factor on test results. 

The Great Salt Lake Strategic Plan

Office of the Great Salt Lake Commissioner | January 15th, 2024

This document represents an initial strategy to more effectively protect the Great Salt Lake, while balancing the other ecological, economic, and societal interests surro

This document represents an initial strategy to more effectively protect the Great Salt Lake, while balancing the other ecological, economic, and societal interests surrounding the lake. This is no small task, particularly in light of continued economic growth, sustained drought, and higher temperatures, which threaten to increase demand and shrink available water supplies even further.

The Historical Ecology of the Tijuana Estuary & River Valley (Restore America's Estuaries 2018 Conference Presentation)

San Francisco Estuary Institute (SFEI) | December 12th, 2018

This talk was given at the 2018 Restore America's Estuary Conference in Long Beach, CA as part of a special session titled "Restoration Perspectives from the Tijuana Rive

This talk was given at the 2018 Restore America's Estuary Conference in Long Beach, CA as part of a special session titled "Restoration Perspectives from the Tijuana River National Estuarine Research Reserve." It is based on information from the Tijuana River Valley Historical Ecology Investigation, a report published in 2017. Though many areas of the binational Tijuana River watershed remain relatively undeveloped, land and water use changes over the past 200 years have resulted in significant ecological impacts, particularly in the more urbanized areas of the lower watershed. Drawing upon a diverse set of historical data, we reconstructed the ecological and hydrogeomorphic conditions of the lower Tijuana River valley prior to major Euro-American modification (ca. 1850) and documented major changes in habitat distribution and physical processes over this time. The river corridor, which was historically dominated by riparian scrub, today instead supports dense stands of riparian forest. The valley bottom surrounding the river corridor, which historically supported extensive seasonal wetlands, has largely been converted to drier habitat types and agricultural uses. The estuary, which historically supported large expanses of salt marsh and mudflat as well as seasonally dry salt flats, has retained much of its former extent and character, but has been altered by increased sediment input and other factors. The new information about the historical landscape presented here is relevant to a number of issues scientists and managers are dealing with today, including the conservation of endangered species, the fate of the valley’s riparian habitats after the recent invasion of invasive shot-hole borer beetles, and the effects on groundwater levels on native plant communities. We will also draw from other historical ecology studies conducted in Southern California to illustrate how the information about the past has been utilized to improve the functioning and resilience of nearby coastal ecosystems.

The impact of vegetation on meandering rivers

Nature Portfolio (Springer Nature) | January 25th, 2022

The Palaeozoic evolution of land plants revolutionized river geomorphology. However, the relationships between biotic forcing and channel dynamics are still debated and,

The Palaeozoic evolution of land plants revolutionized river geomorphology. However, the relationships between biotic forcing and channel dynamics are still debated and, as such, the impacts of anthropogenic stressors such as climate change, reduced biodiversity and aridification on modern meandering rivers and their biogeochemical fluxes remain poorly understood. In this Review, we propose a unifying framework based on field and modelling data that describes the stability and dynamics of meandering rivers in both the presence and the absence of land plants. Based on evidence from the pre-vegetation rock record and from modern systems, we emphasize that meandering streams can indeed arise in the absence of land plants. However, plant evolution provided widespread settings suitable for stable meandering systems through retention of floodplain mud, sediment baffling and mechanical strengthening of channel banks. Altogether, these processes slowed the characteristic rates of meander growth and floodplain-soil reworking by up to an order of magnitude. Continued anthropogenic removal of riparian and watershed vegetation due to increased urbanization, deforestation, aridification and pollution could revert streams to pre-vegetation functioning, thereby increasing their channel and sediment mobility. Future research can use this framework to constrain the pace of ancient landscape processes on Earth and Mars, in addition to modern terrestrial rivers impacted by humans.

The Klamath River’s dams are being removed. Inside the effort to restore a scarred watershed

Los Angeles Times | March 24th, 2024

HORNBROOK, Calif. — Near the California-Oregon border, reservoirs that once submerged valleys have been drained, revealing a stark landscape that had been underwater fo

HORNBROOK, Calif. — Near the California-Oregon border, reservoirs that once submerged valleys have been drained, revealing a stark landscape that had been underwater for generations. A thick layer of muddy sediment covers the sloping ground, where workers have been scattering seeds and leaving meandering trails of footprints. In the cracked mud, seeds are sprouting and tiny green shoots are appearing. With water passing freely through tunnels in three dams, the Klamath River has returned to its ancient channel and is flowing unhindered for the first time in more than a century through miles of waterlogged lands.

The Once and Future Delta: Mending the broken heart of California

Bay Nature | April 1st, 2010

On March 30, 1772, Spanish explorer Pedro Pages was traveling east along the south shore of Suisun Bay, looking for a land route around the seemingly endless chain of b

On March 30, 1772, Spanish explorer Pedro Pages was traveling east along the south shore of Suisun Bay, looking for a land route around the seemingly endless chain of bays extending inland from the Golden Gate. Mounting to Willow Pass, the rise of land between present-day Concord and Pittsburg, he found himself staring at a new obstacle: an enormous expanse of marshland, threaded with bright channels. He had "discovered" the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.

The Role of Tidal Marsh Restoration in Fish Management in the San Francisco Estuary

University of California, Davis (UC Davis) | March 1st, 2014

Tidal marsh restoration is an important management issue in the San Francisco Estuary (estuary). Restoration of large areas of tidal marsh is ongoing or planned in the lo

Tidal marsh restoration is an important management issue in the San Francisco Estuary (estuary). Restoration of large areas of tidal marsh is ongoing or planned in the lower estuary (up to 6,000 ha, Callaway et al. 2011). Large areas are proposed for restoration in the upper estuary under the Endangered Species Act biological opinions (3,237 ha) and the Bay Delta Conservation Plan (26,305 ha). In the lower estuary, tidal marsh has proven its value to a wide array of species that live within it (Palaima 2012). In the Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta (Delta), one important function ascribed to restoration of freshwater tidal marshes is that they make large contributions to the food web of fish in open waters (BDCP 2013). The Ecosystem Restoration Program ascribed a suite of ecological functions to tidal marsh restoration, including habitat and food web benefits to native fish (CDFW 2010). This background was the basis for a symposium (Tidal Marshes and Native Fishes in the Delta: Will Restoration Make a Difference?) held at the University of California, Davis, on June 10, 2013. This paper summarizes conclusions the authors drew from the symposium.

The Salton Sea: A Status Update

Legislative Analyst's Office (LAO) | August 29th, 2018