Drought
From: Rich Ibarra, Capital
Public Radio
Hundreds of thousands of farm
acres in California won't be growing crops for lack of water. This means higher
prices for produce and that will affect food banks throughout the state.
The State of California is giving
$25 million in extra aid to food banks in 24 counties affected by the drought.
Mike Mallory is with Second Harvest Food Bank which serves the Mother Lode,
Stanislaus and San Joaquin Counties. He says the drought is putting increasing
numbers of people out of work.
Groundwater
From: Mark Grossi, Fresno Bee
State water quality enforcers are
telling farmers it's time to join a groundwater protection program that has
been in the making for many years -- sign up by May 19 or face fines.
The deadline is for farmers in
Fresno, Kings and parts of Tulare counties. The land is within the Kings River
Conservation District, which is leading a coalition of growers to comply with
the order.
From: J.N. Sbranti, Modesto
Bee
Stanislaus County's groundwater
drilling boom continues. Five times more new irrigation wells have been
approved since January than were issued during the same four months last year,
drilling permit data obtained by The Modesto Bee show.
At least 170 new agricultural
wells were authorized from Jan. 1 through April 23 this year, compared with
only 34 approved during that period in 2013.
Fisheries
From: Jonah Goldberg, Los
Angeles Times
The pristine natural world is
gone; get used to it.
Nearly all of the earthworms in
New England and the upper Midwest were inadvertently imported from Europe. The
American earthworms were wiped out by the last Ice Age. That's why when
European colonists first got here, many forest floors were covered in deep
drifts of wet leaves. The wild horses of the American West may be no less
invasive than the Asian carp advancing on the Great Lakes. Most species of the
tumbleweed, icon of the Old West, are actually from Russia or Asia.
Water Supply
From: Jenny Espino, Redding
Record-Searchlight
In the wake of a rise in the
water supply, Bella Vista water officials will ease restrictions and increase
deliveries to households and landscape businesses, including golf courses.
The Bella Vista Water District
Board of Directors on Monday night voted unanimously in favor of increasing
residential water allocations to 70 percent, from the 40 percent set in
February, when the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation released its initial allocation
plan. The amount is based on a three-year average use.
From: Lauren Sommer, Capital
Public Radio
California's extreme drought has
drawn battle lines over who gets water and who doesn't. As KQED's Lauren Sommer
reports, fracking and farming are vying for freshwater in California's Central
Valley. [Audio]
Farming News
From: Norm Groot, Salinas
Californian
We live in a world of contexts,
one where any individual cannot have a full grasp on each and every thing that
happens in our daily lives. While I may be intimately involved in water issues
facing agriculture, I don't pretend to be an expert on issues facing the
homeless, for example.
Farming and ranching is a
complicated business. It takes lots of knowledge to understand how to raise
crops or animals, as well as utilizing natural resources in a manner that
conserves for years to come.
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