Welcome to California River Watch

I find some hope for the future of our planet in the emergence of millions of unconnected environmental and social movements. The leaderless Anarchy of this mass phenomenon and its macro scale means that its cells will not be centrally controlled or turned aside by profit motives. It seems to be a genuine grass roots response to the global threat which our planet faces. —Paul Hawken «


“Fix it in your constitution that no corporation, no body of men, no capital can get possession and right to your waters. Hold the waters in the hands of the people.”

John Wesley Powell 1890 North Dakota Constitutional Convention

River Watch
montana hills

Halting the Run on Dwindling Groundwater

A judge in Montana recently ruled in favor of landowners and ranchers fighting against a housing development project near Helena that could have put further stress on steadily declining groundwater reserves.  Public defiance: Initially, the state and county governments had signed off on a developer’s plans to build 39 homes that would pull their water from […]

Almond trees in bloom

California’s farm belt sees thirstier crops — and more pressure on water supplies

By Kurtis AlexanderMarch 13, 2024 Climate change is driving up the thirst of crops significantly in California’s San Joaquin Valley, new research shows, adding to the critical water challenges faced by one of the world’s leading agricultural regions. The total water demand of orchards, vineyards and row crops in the area is up 4.4% over the past […]

Irrigation hardware

Position on California Groundwater Management, Regulation & Legislation

North Coast Stream Flow Coalition The Coalition is strongly in favor of regulation for California Groundwater Resources. Groundwater and surface waters constitute a single resource (see: Thomas C. Winter, Judson W. Harvey, O. Lehn Franke, and William M. Alley, Groundwater and Surface Water: A Single Resource, U.S. Geological Survey Circular 1139, 2006). This means that […]

Logs stacked in a forrest

Groundbreaking lawsuit takes aim at U.S. Forest Service’s timber targets

Mar 5, 2024 ASHEVILLE, N.C., March 5, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — A new lawsuit alleges the U.S. Forest Service’s practice of setting ‘timber targets’ puts the climate at risk, undermines the Biden administration’s important climate goals, and violates federal law. The Southern Environmental Law Center filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia […]