- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
The UC California Institute for Water Resources (CIWR) has announced the recipients of six grants to address the most critical water issues in the state. For this program, the Institute leverages funds it receives from the Water Resources Research Act of 1964 through the Department of Interior.
CIWR, which is part of UC Agriculture and Natural Resources, facilitates collaborative research and outreach on water issues across California's academic institutions and with international, federal, state, regional, nonprofit, and campus communities.
Small grants to support initial work will be dispersed to the following projects (click the headline for more...
- Author: Katherine E. Kerlin
While some people were spending spring break at the beach or catching up on their Netflix queue, students from the EcoGeoMorphology class at UC Davis were rafting down the Colorado River at the bottom of the Grand Canyon.
[Join the journey: UC Davis Grand Canyon interactive website, http://grandcanyon.ucdavis.edu.]
The class split in two groups for the 225-mile river journey. On March 10, the group embarked from Lee's Ferry, rafting 90 miles before hiking to the rim on March 19 along Bright Angel Trail. They passed the second group on their way down the same day. They traveled the...
- Author: Julie Van Scoy
As policy liberalization rapidly transforms the multi-billion-dollar cannabis agriculture industry in the United States, the need for regulation and assessment of environmental impacts becomes increasingly apparent.
A recent study led by UC Cooperative Extension specialist Van Butsic used high resolution satellite imagery to conduct a systematic survey of cannabis production and to explore its potential ecological consequences.
Published this spring in Environmental Research Letters, the study...
- Author: Zac Unger
- Contact: Julie Van Scoy
On June 3, 2004, a small trickle of water started to flow through a levee on the Jones Tract, a patch of farmland west of Stockton that sits below sea level. Of California's 27 million acres of irrigated croplands, the tract's 12,000 acres weren't exactly at the forefront of anyone's mind. But within a few hours the rivulet had become a deluge, opening a 350-foot-long gash in the wall that was built to hold back the waters of the Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta. The land quickly became a lake, submerging asparagus fields, corn silos, and dozens of homes beneath 60 million gallons of water. Repairing the break required six months of constant pumping and cost approximately $100 million; farmers throughout the Central Valley, who depend...
To keep pollution out of the ocean and natural creeks, California city planners are looking for creative ways to manage the large amount of water that falls during rain storms. More and more, they are building bioswales, shallow roadside basins designed to hold water as it slowly percolates into the soil or can be delivered to waste water treatment plants.
In many areas, the bioswales – sometimes called “rain gardens” or “stormwater planters” – are being beautifully designed and landscaped so that, in addition to addressing flood management, they provide an artful green oasis in the largely asphalt and concrete urban jungle. Ornamental trees are a common feature.
Street trees have...