The Ancient Lakes of Western America, their Deposits and Drainage

Nature Portfolio (Springer Nature) | September 8th, 1870

By continental elevation the whole country west of the Mississippi was raised out of the cretaceous sea, and these estnaries became lakes inclosed by raised dry land. The

By continental elevation the whole country west of the Mississippi was raised out of the cretaceous sea, and these estnaries became lakes inclosed by raised dry land. The knowledge of this country from the Mississippi to the Pacific Ocean has been accumulated by various explorers besides the writer, as Dr. Hayden, Mr. George Gibbs, Professors W. P. Blake and Thomas Antisell, and Prof. J. D. Whitney and the State Geological Survey of California, and Baron Richtofen, the lamented Rémond, Drs. Shiel, Wislizenus, and others. Besides Mr. Clarence King has explored a large tract of this country, but his very important contributions have not, as yet, been made public. The general character of the topography of the region west of the Mississippi has been given by these great lines of elevation traversing the country from north to south. There are the Rocky Mountains, the Sierra Nevada, and the Coast Ranges. The last is the most modern, and is composed, for the most part, of Miocene Tertiary rocks. Parallel with this lies a narrow trough, in California traversed by the Sacramento and San Joachin Rivers, encroached on by the mountains at places, but still in Oregon and Washington, traversed by the Willamette and Cowletz Rivers. These two sections are drained through the Golden Gate and Columbia.

The Bay Delta Conveyance Facility: Affordability and Financing Considerations

California Debt and Investment Advisory Commission (CDIAC) | November 1st, 2014

The Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) is a collaborative effort involving numerous state and federal agencies with the goal of restoring and protecting the environmental

The Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) is a collaborative effort involving numerous state and federal agencies with the goal of restoring and protecting the environmental health of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta while also improving the reliability of an important source of California’s water supply. Currently, the Delta provides vital water supplies to municipal, industrial and agricultural water users in the Central Valley and coastal and Southern California. These water deliveries are crucial to the state’s economy and represent a critical source of water for more than 25 million California residents. According to the BDCP documents, in the absence of the various conservation measures proposed in the plan, Delta water supplies are expected to become increasingly unreliable, water quality in the Delta would be vulnerable due to sea level rise and associated saltwater intrusion, and the state would be exposed to potentially severe public health consequences resulting from a major seismic event that could damage Delta facilities and temporarily halt water exports. This report provides a preliminary assessment of the affordability and financing considerations of the Delta conveyance facility. The report does not address the merits of the BDCP per se or the question of whether the state and other parties involved in the project should proceed with this project.

The California Peripheral Canal: Who Backed It, Who Fought It

California Agriculture (UCANR) | January 3rd, 1983

The Central Valley Project - Federal or State?

University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley) | June 1st, 1955

The Collapse of Pelagic Fishes in the Upper San Francisco Estuary: El Colapso de los Peces Pelagicos en La Cabecera Del Estuario San Francisco

American Fisheries Society (AFS) | January 9th, 2007

Although the pelagic fish community of the upper San Francisco Estuary historically has shown substantial variability, a recent collapse has captured the attention of res

Although the pelagic fish community of the upper San Francisco Estuary historically has shown substantial variability, a recent collapse has captured the attention of resource managers, scientists, legislators, and the general public. The ecological and management consequences of the decline are most serious for delta smelt (Hypomesus transpacificus), a threatened species whose narrow range overlaps with large water diversions that supply water to over 25 million people. The decline occurred despite recent moderate hydrology, which typically results in at least modest recruitment, and investments of hundreds of millions of dollars in habitat restoration and environmental water allocations to support native fishes. In response to the pelagic fish collapse, an ambitious multi-agency research team has been working since 2005 to evaluate the causes of the decline, which likely include a combination of factors: stock-recruitment effects, a decline in habitat quality, increased mortality rates, and reduced food availability due to invasive species.

The Decline of Striped Bass in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Estuary, California

American Fisheries Society (AFS) | July 1st, 1985

The abundance of young striped bass Morone saxatilis in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Estuary has suffered an unsteady but persistent decline from population levels that wer

The abundance of young striped bass Morone saxatilis in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Estuary has suffered an unsteady but persistent decline from population levels that were high in the middle 1960s. The decline was particularly severe in 1977 and abundance of young striped bass has been low every subsequent year. The adult striped bass population also has fallen during the past 20 years, but the exact period over which the decline occurred and the rate of decline are not clear. The adult population is now about one-quarter of its former size and there is little sign of recovery. We believe the Sacramento-San Joaquin striped bass population and the fishery that it supports are in serious danger. The cause is most likely one or more of four factors. (1) The adult population is now so low that egg production may be inadequate. (2) The plankton food supply of young striped bass in the western Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and Suisun Bay has been greatly reduced each spring. Diversion of water from the delta for agricultural purposes is a prime suspect for the decrease in food production. (3) Large numbers of young fish are lost by entrainment in water diversions. (4) The population is stressed by toxic substances such as petrochemicals and pesticides. Additional studies are underway to help determine the principal cause(s) of the striped bass decline.

The Delta as Changing Landscapes

University of California, Davis (UC Davis) | July 1st, 2016

What happens at one place in a landscape influences and is influenced by what happens in other places. Consequently, management and restoration that focus on individual p

What happens at one place in a landscape influences and is influenced by what happens in other places. Consequently, management and restoration that focus on individual places may fail to recognize and incorporate interactions across entire landscapes. The science of landscape ecology, which emphasizes the interplay of landscape structure, function, and change at multiple scales, offers a perspective that can integrate the spatial relationships of ecological processes and the functional interconnections of land and water in the Delta. Although the Delta is one of the most studied estuaries in the world, applications of landscape science have been limited. We describe why it is important to incorporate landscape science into management and restoration, emphasizing how Delta landscapes have changed over the past centuries. The land–water linkages of the past have been broken, waterways have been over-connected, and hard boundaries have replaced the gradual and dynamic transitions among landscape patches. The contemporary landscape also has new, novel assemblages of species and stressors that were not there in the past. This historical perspective indicates how knowledge of past landscape functions can contribute to the restoration and management of contemporary landscapes. We illustrate these points with case studies of inundation dynamics and riparian woodlands, and use a third example to describe a landscape approach to restoration. We propose that science that encompasses the multiple, interacting components of functional landscapes in the Delta will foster resilient and enduring restoration and management outcomes that benefit both people and wildlife. We suggest several ways of moving landscape science to the forefront of management and restoration in the Delta.

The Delta on Fast Forward - Thinking Beyond the Next Crisis (Summary for Policymakers of the State of Bay Delta Science 2016)

University of California, Davis (UC Davis) | December 1st, 2016

Delta science needs to push beyond its tendency to focus on short-term policy mandates and near-term crises. Taking a longer, 50- to 100-year viewpoint has been part of v

Delta science needs to push beyond its tendency to focus on short-term policy mandates and near-term crises. Taking a longer, 50- to 100-year viewpoint has been part of various planning exercises including Delta Vision. That kind of long-range thinking now needs to be more strongly incorporated into the whole Delta science and management endeavor. An appreciation of the changes that are coming, particularly those associated with climate change, needs to inform all our research and planning. In the meantime, despite management actions that in some instances appear heroic, native fish continue to decline in the Delta. The food web has changed dramatically, new stressors are added daily to existing ones, and several native species are virtually extinct. While we must continue to try to shore up the delta smelt, for example, it is time for serious debate about more radical alternatives to habitat restoration, including assisted relocation, assisted evolution, even perhaps cryopreservation (freezing of genetic materials). Agency mandates based on the past should not prevent us from taking actions that prepare us for a very different future. The capacity of the Delta to absorb extremes of all kinds is declining. In the future, water managers will have to adjust to reduced and more variable inflows to the Delta and to less predictable sources of water supply. Sustaining a Delta ecosystem hospitable to native species will be much more difficult. In that case, it may become necessary to refocus on managing for novel plant and animal communities that provide desirable ecosystem services. Delaying action until the next crisis is upon us will greatly increase the risk and costs of failure.

The Delta on Fast Forward: Thinking Beyond the Next Crisis

CALFED | September 1st, 2016

The Delta Plan

Delta Stewardship Council (Delta Council) | May 16th, 2013

The Delta Plan is a comprehensive, long-term management plan for the Delta. Required by the 2009 Delta Reform Act, it creates new rules and recommendations to further the

The Delta Plan is a comprehensive, long-term management plan for the Delta. Required by the 2009 Delta Reform Act, it creates new rules and recommendations to further the state’s coequal goals for the Delta: Improve statewide water supply reliability, and protect and restore a vibrant and healthy Delta ecosystem, all in a manner that preserves, protects and enhances the unique agricultural, cultural, and recreational characteristics of the Delta. Now the Council is considering updates to the Delta Plan. For information about the amendment process, please click here. Developed through eights drafts, hundreds of hours of public meetings and thousands of public comments over two years, the Delta Plan is guided by the best available science and is founded on cooperation and coordination among federal, State and local agencies. The Delta Plan is enforceable through regulatory authority in the Delta Reform Act that requires state and local agencies to be consistent with the Delta Plan. The Delta Plan was unanimously adopted by the Delta Stewardship Council on May 16, 2013. Subsequently its 14 regulatory policies were approved by the Office of Administrative Law, a state agency that ensures the regulations are clear, necessary, legally valid, and available to the public. The Delta Plan became effective with legally-enforceable regulations on September 1, 2013.