Thanks for welcoming me, and thanks for all you do.Ģ023: The California Weather Gods Must Be Crazyįor the past dozen years, California has been subject to large swings in precipitation, and some of these years have been the warmest in recorded history. To meet the challenges ahead, we must move swiftly but carefully, with the best possible data informing our actions. As its new director, I’m committed to continuing the mission to connect nonpartisan, objective research with the most pressing water management debates. I have valued the center’s research for many years-and collaborated with the center in the past. Let’s seize them, prepare for them, and make the best use of them possible.Īs we undertake this work, I’m both happy and humbled to find myself at the helm of the PPIC Water Policy Center. California’s infrequent deluge years can be seen as a nuisance or as an opportunity that must be harnessed. Finding and exploiting synergies can make state and federal dollars go farther and help more people. Investing in infrastructure to protect communities at risk of flooding could also assist wildlife, farmers, and community water systems. Recharging groundwater can aid growers, city dwellers, and wildlife simultaneously. The best way forward is to design projects that bring broad benefits. And the environment-too long an afterthought-must be an integral part of the picture. Communities and Tribes must have a say in how precious resources are spent-especially when it comes to protecting drinking water and preventing damaging floods. Local, state, and federal agencies must work together. Collaboration and cooperation are no longer icing on the cake: they are essential to help us respond to rapidly evolving conditions. This is a challenge Californians can and must rise to meet. We conclude that while California has made great strides in planning and preparing for a drier, hotter future, equal emphasis is now needed on improving management during wet years. This policy brief examines how California’s water sector managed the unusually wet conditions of the 2023 water year and outlines priorities for action, drawing on discussions with experts from around the state. The happy medium-never a common experience for the state- is shrinking. Californians are being asked to strike a strange balance between being prepared for both biblical droughts and unprecedented deluges. This year’s epic snowpack, dramatic flooding in the Central Valley, and tropical storm in the desert highlight the need to manage volatility. This year, the salmon fishing season experienced a full closure due to dwindling populations.Ī warmer atmosphere also holds more water, which means that when precipitation does show up, it’s often record-breaking. We are seeing the atmosphere grow warmer, which is drying the landscape, stressing vegetation, further depleting aquifers, and fueling extreme wildfires in places that hadn’t experienced them before. That has major implications for the entire planet, and in California-a state already known for its variable climate-the swings are becoming more pronounced and more damaging. This year’s unprecedented surge in global temperatures made the summer of 2023 the hottest in recorded history. Californians care deeply about protecting the magic of this place we call home.īut a highly engineered water system, heavily transformed landscapes, and a changing climate mean that much of what we hold dear is struggling. And Californians adore their state: an explosion of wildflowers-like this spring’s superbloom-is enough to inspire a temporary mass migration to the state’s most remote corners. Our vibrant agriculture, teeming fisheries, spectacular forests, raging rivers-many of these wonders must be seen to be believed. In the 1800s, the state’s ancient coast redwoods and sequoias generated disbelief on the East Coast: dwellers there imagined that photos of these giants were doctored. California has always been an exceptional place.
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