California is one of the most hydrologically altered landscapes in the world. As water becomes ever more scarce and the human population continues to grow, that vast engineered system strains to meet the needs of people let alone the needs of nature.
Water rights allocations far exceed actual surface water supply, and millions of wells tap groundwater to meet the increasing demands of farms and communities. As groundwater reservoirs are depleted they can in turn reduce surface flows – exacerbating a vicious cycle in which people and nature both lose. Rivers, wetlands and groundwater-dependent ecosystems are caught in this struggle for an increasingly limited resource. Nearly half of California’s roughly 4,000 freshwater species are considered vulnerable to extinction. Of the taxa that are found nowhere but California – our endemic freshwater biodiversity – 90 percent are at risk.
But there is hope. While it is impossible to return natural flows to most of California’s rivers and streams, we can – through science, technology, and innovative market tools – endeavor to deliver water when and where nature needs it most.
In a normal year, groundwater accounts for 40 percent of California’s water supply. That number jumps to 60… >>
Californians have fundamentally altered many of the state’s rivers and streams with dams, pipes, and diversions, and the… >>
Julie K.H. Zimmerman, Daren M. Carlisle, Jason T. May, Kirk R. Klausmeyer, Theodore E. Grantham, Larry R. Brown, Jeanette K. Howard, Nathaniel Rindlaub, Falk Schuetzenmeister
Water is essential for California’s people, economy, and environment. Centuries of water management through dams and diversion have altered the flows in many streams and rivers, which can harm the freshwater ecosystems. The Nature Conservancy and the United States Geological Survey (USGS), and other partners…
Kirk Klausmeyer, Jeanette Howard, Melissa Rohde, Charlotte Stanley
The first step to sustainably manage groundwater dependent ecosystems (GDEs) is to identify where they are. The Nature Conservancy developed a statewide spatial database that provides locations of seeps and springs, wetlands, and vegetation likely to depend on groundwater. This database (version 2.0) is an…
Charlotte Stanley, Kirk Klausmeyer
This dataset categorizes the rivers and streams in the Central Valley on the likelihood that they are interconnected surface water (ISW) -- surface water hydraulically connected to groundwater. The dataset includes information on the average, maximum, and minimum depth to groundwater, using groundwater elevation…
Laurel Saito, Bill Christian, Jennifer Diffley, Holly Richter, Melissa M. Rohde, Scott A. Morrison
In this paper, we describe minimum provisions for planning, managing, and monitoring groundwater in a manner that collectively can lower the risk of harm to groundwater-dependent ecosystems and species, as well as providing sustainable groundwater resources for communities. The paper has a special emphasis on…
H. Scott Butterfield, T. Rodd Kelsey, and Abigail K. Hart, Editors
As the world population grows, so does the demand for food, putting unprecedented pressure on agricultural lands. At the same time, climate change, soil degradation, and water scarcity mean that productivity of many of these lands is deteriorating. In many desert dryland regions, drinking wells…
Sydney J. Chamberlin, Michelle Passero, Ashley Conrad-Saydah, Tanushree Biswas, Charlotte K. Stanley
California’s natural and working lands – its forests, grasslands, wetlands, farmlands, rangeland, and urban green spaces – provide Californians with numerous environmental, social, and economic benefits, including greenhouse gas reductions (e.g., carbon sequestration). However, extreme heat events, droughts, floods, wildfires, development, and other anthropogenic impacts…
Mary Kang, Debra Perrone, Ziming Wang, Scott Jasechko, Melissa M. Rohde
To ensure that California’s groundwater is sustainably managed in the future and over the long-term, current state definitions of what constitutes groundwater may need to be revised, according to this research published in PNAS. A research collaboration between McGill University, University of California Santa…
Sophie S. Parker, Andy Zdon, William T. Christian, Brian S. Cohen, Maura Palacios Mejia, Naomi S. Fraga, Emily E. Curd, Kiumars Edalati, Mark A. Renshaw
This paper presents results from the Mojave Desert Springs research project, and discusses why the conservation of these groundwater-dependent ecosystems is so critical to biodiversity. The authors present results of a comprehensive survey of Mojave Desert springs including hydrological and ecological observations, and an…
M. Florencia Miguel, H. Scott Butterfield, Christopher J. Lortie
This meta-analysis provides a global synthesis of the which restoration practices – active vs. passive – are most successful at restoring plants, animals, and other ecosystem functions to dryland agricultural (grazing and farmlands) ecosystems, including the San Joaquin Valley of California where The Nature Conservancy…
Maura Palacios Mejia, Emily Curd, Kiumars Edalati, Mark A. Renshaw, Roy Dunn, Daniel Potter, Naomi Fraga, Jenna Moore, Justin Saiz, Robert Wayne, Sophie S. Parker
This paper presents results from the Mojave Desert Springs research project. The authors used an environmental DNA (eDNA) technique to assess biodiversity at four naturally occurring springs. They compared the effectiveness of detecting DNA in water and sediment with conventional field survey and…
Aviv Karasov‐Olson, Alicia K. Bird, Amy C. Collins, Emily E. Graves, Julea A. Shaw, Eric F. Tymstra, T. Rodd Kelsey, Mark W. Schwartz
Conservation biology is particularly susceptible to the knowledge‐implementation gap where academic pursuits do not always meet the needs of practitioners. Providing future practitioners with relevant training and experiences as graduate students can help narrow this gap. An example of one such experience was a partnership…
Brian Cohen, Kelsey Jessup, Sophie Parker, John Randall, Jill Sourial
Cities across Southern California are investing in new infrastructure to address the challenges of stormwater management. We promote the use of nature-based solutions to ensure projects both treat stormwater and yield multiple additional benefits. TNC’s spatial analyses, summarized in this poster, help prioritize where to site…
Melissa M. Rohde, Laurel Saito, Ryan Smith
In addition to benefiting humans, groundwater is a critical water supply to many ecosystems, providing a buffer during dry periods and critical habitat for rare and endemic species. Increasing groundwater use to meet human water demands can outcompete these ecosystem water needs, causing irreversible damage to…
Benjamin P. Bryant, T R. Kelsey, Adrian L. Vogl, Stacey A. Wolny, Duncan J. MacEwan, Paul C. Selmants, Tanushree Biswas, H S. Butterfield
Irrigated agriculture has grown rapidly over the last 50 years, helping food production keep pace with population growth, but also leading to significant habitat and biodiversity loss globally. Now, in some regions, land degradation and overtaxed water resources mean historical production levels may need to…
Jonathan R. B. Fisher, Stephen A. Wood, Mark A. Bradford, Rodd Kelsey
Author: Chris Alford, Editors and Reviewers: Amy Campbell, Monty Schmitt, Sara Press, Wendy Eliot, Bob Neale
Evaluating and Protecting Environmental Water Assets: A Guide for Land Conservation Practitioners, a publication by TNC and the Sonoma Land Trust (SLT), provides provides easy to understand guidance, resources, and tools that California land trusts, open space districts, resource conservation districts, and others can…
Jonathan R. B. Fisher, Stephen A. Wood, Mark A. Bradford, Thomas Rodd Kelsey
Michael J. Paul, Ben Jessup, Larry R. Brown, James L. Carter, Marco Cantonatie, Donald F. Charles, Jeroen Gerritsena, David B. Herbst, Rosalina Stancheva, Jeanette Howard, Bill Isham, Rex Lowe, Raphael D. Mazor, Patina K. Mendez, Peter R. Ode, Alison O'Dowd, John Olson, Yangdong Pan, Andrew C. Rehn, Sarah Spaulding, Martha Sutula, Susanna Theroux
Water resource agencies assess stream water quality by determining the bugs and algae present to develop biotic indices. Yet translating these technical measures into meaningful language is difficult. This study finds that by placing technical numerical measures/indices into categories of condition allows resource manages to…
This article appears in the Desert Report, a news publication of the Sierra Club California/Nevada Desert Committee. The article introduces the Mojave Springs Research Project, led by The Nature Conservancy, that involves a research collaboration with UCLA, the California Botanic Garden, and Partner Engineering and…
