More than a half-century ago, Tom Bell of Lander, Wyoming, bought a weekly recreational newsletter and eventually turned it into a shoestring operation called High Country News. He soon extended its coverage of the environmental crisis that he saw plaguing his state and much of the rest of the American West. Based in Colorado since the early 1980s, […]
Just before the California Department of Fish and Wildlife released a New Year’s Eve letter revealing that 2.6 percent of juvenile Chinook salmon had perished in lethally warm water conditions on the Sacramento River, a petition sponsored by Save California Salmon in opposition to the Sites Reservoir reached 50,000 signatures. By Dan Bacher This milestone also came […]
2021 was a very bad year for Delta smelt and other declining fish populations on the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. For the fourth year in a row, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife has caught zero Delta smelt in its Fall Midwater Trawl (FMWT) survey on the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. By Dan Bacher The […]
The year 2021 will likely be one of the worst for glaciers in southern British Columbia, Alberta, Washington and Montana. Brian Menounos, University of Northern British Columbia The Conversation It started out OK. A weak La Niña arrived in the fall of 2020 and continued through the winter. La Niñas tend to favour cool conditions […]
RedGREENandBlue’s top 10 stories of 2021: Steven Donziger beat Chevron in court, so they crucified him. He just won his appeal Michael Mann on “Don’t Look Up”: DO see this film! Earth’s magnetic field broke down 42,000 years ago and caused massive sudden climate change Sharkfest: 10 solutions to overfishing that could save our oceans […]
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and Sites Project Authority has announced an extension of the public comment period on the proposed Sites Reservoir project from Jan. 11 to Jan. 28, 2022. By Dan Bacher Sites Reservoir is opposed by California Tribal representatives, environmental justice groups, conservation organizations and fishing groups because the big threat that it poses […]
Sixteen tribal, environmental justice, fishing, and conservation groups on Tuesday announced their strong opposition to the “More Water Now” ballot measure initiative, otherwise known as the “Water Infrastructure Funding Act of 2022.” By Dan Bacher The initiative, being by pushed by Central Valley agribusiness and water districts to fund an array of new water projects in California, is being circulated for signatures and could potentially be placed on the […]
As the three latest fish surveys on the Delta reveal that the Delta smelt is virtually extinct in the wild, the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) today announced an initial State Water Project (SWP) allocation of 0 percent for state water contractors in 2022, with the exception of certain health and safety needs. By Dan Bacher DWR also announced several […]
Tribal activists, drinking water advocates and commercial and subsistence fishers are asking the public to stand with them in the fight for both the Trinity and Sacramento River salmon by supporting a California state process to restore flows in California’s largest rivers, and by fighting a proposal for a twenty square mile reservoir, the Sites […]
Anglers, divers and other residents of the Lake Tahoe Basin have reason to celebrate. Under a settlement agreement finalized this month in federal court in Sacramento, AT&T’s PacBell subsidiary will remove eight miles of decrepit telephone cable from Lake Tahoe, where it has been leaching toxic lead into the iconic lake’s water for decades. The cable […]
If all goes as planned, the removal of four PacifiCorp Dams on the Klamath River that have blocked salmon and steelhead migration for over 100 years will begin in early 2023, according to Klamath River Renewal Corporation (KRRC) Executive Director Mark Bransom. By Dan Bacher Branson spoke at a press briefing on Friday that also […]
I have reported every year for over a decade on the results of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Fall Midwater Trawl Survey. For the past three years, no Delta smelt, once the most abundant fish in the entire Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, have been found in this survey. None have been found in the […]
Faced with a lead crisis that drew comparisons to Flint, Michigan’s, some people have called Newark, New Jersey’s response a “national model.” Still, eliminating lead from drinking water nationwide will not be an easy task. By Lynne Peeples Ensia In July 2018, tests showed that the drinking water supply serving Yvette Jordan’s home in Newark, […]
Time is running out for the Delta smelt, once the most abundant fish in the entire Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. For the fourth October in a row, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife has caught zero Delta smelt in its Fall Midwater Trawl Survey of the Delta. By Dan Bacher The smelt is now near […]
The FracTracker Alliance has released a new report on water use by the oil and gas industry in California: www.fractracker.org/… By Dan Bacher “We found that the oil and gas industry consumed over 4.6 billion gallons of freshwater for extraction operations in California during the 3 year period from 2018-2020,” said Kyle Ferrar, author of the report. […]