An archive of articles that where displayed on the River Watch main home page.
California’s Forests Targeted As Feedstock for Global Wood Bioenergy Industry – Civil Society Responds With United Force to Oppose Massive Wood Pellet Export Project The opening of the environmental review of the Golden State Natural Resources wood pellet manufacture and export scheme in California received a robust response from civil society environmental and environmental justice organizations from […]
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Published: March 9, 2023 8.40am EST Forests are critically important for slowing climate change. They remove huge quantities of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere – 30% of all fossil fuel emissions annually – and store carbon in trees and soils. Old and mature forests are especially important: They handle droughts, storms and wildfires better than young trees, […]
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Funding Will Help Communities Implement Groundwater Recharge, Flood Management, Water Conservation and Water Supply Reliability Projects May 17, 2023 “California’s changing climate presents unique challenges to our regions across the state,” said DWR Director Karla Nemeth. “These projects meet multiple needs including constructing new water infrastructure, improving water quality, protecting wildlife and preparing for a […]
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Brian Nguyen 1 , Dominique Claveau-Mallet 1 , Laura M Hernandez 1 , Elvis Genbo Xu 1 , Jeffrey M Farner 1 , Nathalie Tufenkji 1 March 29, 2023 Abstract The vast amount of plastic waste emitted into the environment and the increasing concern of potential harm to wildlife has made microplastic and nanoplastic pollution a growing environmental concern. Plastic pollution has the potential to cause both physical and chemical harm […]
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An annual report highlights 10 waterways that have arrived at forks: where public support could determine whether they receive protection. By: EosApril 20, 2023By Saima May Sidik America’s waterways need help. Threats such as industrial pollution, poorly planned development, and climate change are widespread. In some cases, help could be imminent—but only with support from the public […]
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“It’s way faster than we thought these circulations could slow down,” said one researcher. “We are talking about the possible long-term extinction of an iconic water mass.” Julia ConleyMar 30, 2023 Scientists from the United States and Australia on Wednesday warned in a new study that the current rate of greenhouse gas emissions and the resulting rapid […]
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California’s commercial and recreational salmon season was officially canceled late Thursday — and Gov. Newsom quickly announced he’s seeking a federal fishery disaster declaration to ease the pain for fishing communities.
As CalMatters’ Alastair Bland reported last month, California’s commercial and recreational fishing fleet landed about 300,000 salmon last year. But crashing populations are forcing this drastic move by the Pacific Fishery Management Council, something that hasn’t been done since 2009. The closure is expected to take effect in mid-May. And on May 17, […]
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Officials vow to push for speedy action to support a salmon fishing industry facing full season closure. MARY CALLAHANTHE PRESS DEMOCRATApril 7, 2023, 11:54AM State and federal officials are vowing to move quickly to secure disaster aid for Californians affected by the closure of this year’s commercial and recreational salmon season, which could have an […]
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Napa County has work to do to get Napa Valley wine country groundwater supplies in balance for the long haul. Groundwater pumping in 2021-22 was 18,790 acre-feet, according to a new report. It was the third consecutive year that pumping exceeded the Napa Valley sub-basin’s sustainable yield of 15,000 acre-feet, coinciding with a three-year drought. […]
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Forest Carbon Coalition and John Muir Project presents Biomass Logging: Bad for Communities, Climate & Forests Please join our esteemed panelists Katherine Egland of Mississippi’s Education, Economics, Environmental, Climate and Health Organization (EEECHO), Dr. Shaye Wolf, of Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) and biologist, author, and filmmaker Maya Khosla for an in-depth discussion of biomass logging. Katherine […]
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20 May 2021 Intense storms and flooding triggered three times more displacements than violent conflicts did last year, as the number of people internally displaced worldwide hit the highest level on record. There were at least 55 million internally displaced people (IDPs) by the end of last year, according to figures published by the Norwegian Refugee […]
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Yesterday, U.S. District Court Judge Ann Aiken denied the request of 18 Republican attorneys general to intervene as defendants in the Juliana case. Judge Aiken indicated that when her ruling comes down on the plaintiffs’ motion for leave to amend, the states could attempt to refile their motion, suggesting a ruling in Juliana v. United States – where a favorable decision would put the youth back on the path to trial – may be imminent! After we notify our […]
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What a difference 11 atmospheric rivers make. Metropolitan, as recently as January facing a 574,000-acre deficit, is now anticipating putting 119,000 acre-feet or more into storage this year, the first time since 2019. Metropolitan staff delivered the good news at the One Water Committee meeting on March 14. The big change is attributed to the […]
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The final report of a 6-year National Toxicology Program (NTP) review of fluoride neurotoxicity was blocked from public release by the Health and Human Services (HHS) Assistant Administrator in May 2022 according to the Fluoride Action Network (FAN). But under an agreement reached in an ongoing lawsuit against the EPA, the report was made public today […]
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(Complying with President Joe Biden’s Executive Order 14072 directing federal agencies to define and conduct an inventory of them for conservation purposes.)
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“Researchers say healthy thyroid function is crucial for fetal brain development and their latest research may explain earlier findings looking at fluoride and children’s IQ” A new study (Hall, et al., 2023) led by scientists from Toronto’s York University in the journal Science of the Total Environment linked fluoride exposure with an increased risk of hypothyroidism in […]
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Eric KlosterMay 14, 2022 During a visit to Seattle, President Joe Biden signed Executive Order 14072 on Earth Day, April 22, 2022, mandating that the government categorize and monitor old-growth trees on federal lands. Executive Order 14072 consists of five sections. Section 1 is a statement of the new federal policy regarding the protection of old-growth forests. […]
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The National Roadless Rule was rolled back for America’s last great rainforest by the Trump administration, threatening millions of acres of undeveloped national forest lands JUNEAU, Alaska (Áakʼw Ḵwáan Territory) — In a win for Southeast Alaska communities, wildlife, and the climate, the U.S. Forest Service reinstated Roadless Rule protections across the Tongass rainforest in Southeast […]
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At last year’s COP26 in Scotland, the United States and more than 140 other countries made an ambitious commitment to reverse global deforestation by 2030 to help combat climate change. President Joe Biden declared that the United States would “lead by our example at home” to conserve and restore forest carbon sinks.
At this year’s COP27 global climate summit in Egypt, Biden takes the world stage as U.S. forest-management agencies are failing to live up to his promise. They’re logging carbon-rich, mature and old-growth trees and forests on federally owned lands undercutting […]
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A new study published in the peer-reviewed journal Forests and Global Change presents the nation’s first assessment of carbon stored in larger trees and mature forests on 11 national forests from the West Coast states to the Appalachian Mountains. This study is a companion to prior work to define, inventory and assess the nation’s older forests published in a […]
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By Andrew Fisher, Resilience. January 15, 2023 Instead of watching epic atmospheric river rainfall drain into the Pacific. California has seen so much rain over the past few weeks that farm fields are inundated and normally dry creeks and drainage ditches have become torrents of water racing toward the ocean. Yet, most of the state remains in severe drought. […]
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At Thursday’s status hearing for our federal lawsuit against the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) over the neurotoxicity of fluoridation chemicals, the Judge acknowledged that “justice delayed is justice denied,” ultimately ruling against the EPA’s request for additional delay of the trial. The Court also set a timeline for the final phase leading up to a verdict. […]
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By Lela Nargi, November 20, 2022 Deepak Palakshappa became a pediatrician to give poor kids access to good medical care. Still, back in his residency days, the now-associate professor at Wake Forest University School of Medicine in Winston-Salem was shocked to discoverthat a patient caring for two young grandchildren was food insecure. “Our clinic had set up […]
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theconversation.com Many of the companies promising “net-zero” emissions to protect the climate are relying on vast swaths of forests and what are known as carbon offsets to meet that goal. On paper, carbon offsets appear to balance out a company’s carbon emissions: The company pays to protect trees, which absorb carbon dioxide from the air. The company […]
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Plot maps from the monthly NOAA/NCEI U.S. Climate Division dataset including means, anomalies, and climatologies. Maps can be created for an average (“composite”) of different years.
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PALO ALTO – In a deep muddy creek near Silicon Valley’s busiest freeway, a large furry head pokes up. And then quickly submerges.
The brief sighting, along with a growing collection of video footage, confirms something remarkable:
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As directed by 2018 legislation, the Department of Water Resources (DWR) today submitted a first report to the State Water Resources Control Board summarizing how urban water districts assess the adequacy of their supplies […]
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Below is a graph showing the water use of California crops. As you can see, forage and alfalfa for livestock are the two thirstiest crops. Question in this time of impending climate crisis: Does it make sense to raise these thirsty crops in California at a time when available water is over allocated and our and our streams have substantially impaired flows for fish, wildlife and people relying on […]
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BIG NEWS! The Court ruled in favor of our motion, and the lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in federal court is moving forward, bringing us another step closer to a final ruling. The court recorded the proceedings and will release it to the public. I was waiting to include a link to the recording in this bulletin, but it hasn’t been released yet. When it is, the Fluoride Action Network […]
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The International Society for Children’s Health and the Environment (ISCHE) has awarded Philippe Grandjean, MD, DMSc, the Herbert Needleman Award in Children’s Environmental Health “for his […]
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