{"id":12754,"date":"2017-04-07T08:05:36","date_gmt":"2017-04-07T15:05:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/plantingseedsblog.cdfa.ca.gov\/wordpress\/?p=12754"},"modified":"2017-04-07T08:06:01","modified_gmt":"2017-04-07T15:06:01","slug":"californias-farmers-tackle-climate-change-in-their-own-way-from-the-christian-science-monitor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/plantingseedsblog.cdfa.ca.gov\/wordpress\/index.php\/2017\/04\/07\/californias-farmers-tackle-climate-change-in-their-own-way-from-the-christian-science-monitor\/","title":{"rendered":"California’s farmers tackle climate change in their own way – from the Christian Science Monitor"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Flooding<\/a>

Flooding farmland to recharge groundwater<\/p><\/div>\n

By Jessica Mendoza<\/strong><\/p>\n

Like all California farmers, Don Cameron is used to long dry spells interrupted by wet years. Drought and flood, he says, have always been a way of life in the Golden State.<\/p>\n

But in 36 years of farming, Mr. Cameron says he\u2019s never experienced anything like the swings of the past six years.<\/p>\n

(Note<\/strong> – Don Cameron is a member of the California State Board of Food and Agriculture<\/a>)<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve never seen a drought that long or that intense,\u201d says Cameron, general manager of Terranova Ranch, a 7,000-acre farm in Helm, Calif. \u201cAnd we\u2019ve never seen a change overnight from absolutely nothing in the reservoirs to now, they\u2019re spilling water.\u201d<\/p>\n

In response, Cameron and his crew have been partially submerging their fields in rainwater. It\u2019s a relatively new tactic to capture excess flow during wet years to recharge the diminishing underground aquifer that farmers in the region rely on to irrigate their crop. It\u2019s also used to reduce the risk of flooding downstream.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to take as much floodwater [as possible] to take pressure off the system,\u201d Cameron says.<\/p>\n

The very welcome news is that severe drought conditions in California are easing or ending. But a sequence of extremes \u2013 a record-setting five-year drought, followed by what’s shaping up to be the wettest year in decades \u2013 is serving as an alert for officials and residents alike. And it’s pushing change among some of the state’s most politically conservative citizens: farmers. Call it taking care of the land. Call it good business sense. Just don’t call it climate change.<\/p>\n

Some, like Cameron, are looking to new approaches to recharge groundwater. Others are calling for more storage to capture rainwater during wet periods, or applying technology to farm effectively with less water. As part of broader efforts to manage and improve the state’s water infrastructure, such efforts could be crucial to California’s ability to serve a growing population while producing food at current levels.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you talk about addressing the problem of extremes, you\u2019re talking about having more eggs in the management basket,\u201d says Lorraine Flint, a research hydrologist at the California Water Science Center, which collects and analyzes data for the US Geological Survey (USGS). \u201cWe have to look at the big picture and manage all aspects of the hydrologic system. That includes the vegetation and the soil and the infrastructure.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is where the paradigm shift needs to happen,\u201d she adds. \u201cYou have to have a healthy watershed.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Extreme swings<\/h2>\n

For five years, California\u2019s debilitating drought decimated forests, tormented farmers, and forced legislators to enact statewide emergency conservation measures. Then early this year, a series of atmospheric rivers \u2013 long columns carrying enough water vapor to match \u201caverage flow of water at the mouth of the Mississippi River<\/a>\u201d \u2013 made landfall in Northern California. The rain and snow that followed filled parched reservoirs and accumulated in snowpacks in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Now, with rain still falling in parts of the state, the National Drought Mitigation Center has declared about 75 percent of California out of the drought.<\/p>\n

The precipitation drew attention to the state\u2019s infrastructure \u2013 aging and poorly-maintained roads, bridges, levees, and dams that couldn\u2019t withstand the sudden surge in storms.<\/p>\n

In February, damage to the concrete spillways at Oroville Dam forced the evacuation of nearly 200,000 people in surrounding towns. The same month, San Jose became the site of massive flooding after officials were forced to release water from Santa Clara County\u2019s Anderson Dam. Levee breaches in San Joaquin and Sacramento counties also led to flooding. And residents near Big Sur in the state\u2019s Central Coast are still struggling with their daily commute\u00a0more than a month after mud- and rockslides led to the closure of a 48-mile stretch of Highway 1.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got a water infrastructure [system] that doesn\u2019t have any forgiveness in it,\u201d says David Zoldoske, director of the Center for Irrigation Technology at California State University, Fresno. \u201cRecent weather conditions have pushed it to the brink.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
\n

But aging infrastructure is just one part of a broader conversation, scientists say. Climate models suggest that swings from dry to wet and back are likely to become more extreme as the earth gets warmer.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe trend is toward periods that look like where we were just in, where you have wetter wet seasons, drier dries, and all of it warmer,\u201d says Jeffrey Mount, a senior fellow in water policy at the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC).<\/p>\n

The question is one of overall sustainability for the state. To respond to an increasingly variable climate, scientists say, California will need to apply a range of water management methods that would account for the effects of such extremes. That would include greater water storage capacity to capture rainfall during the wet season and make up for decreasing snowpacks, which serve as an important repository for water in the wintertime. Initiatives to ensure that soil traps moisture more efficiently, and programs and legislation to manage and recharge groundwater would also be crucial, they say.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur society needs to be concerned with the prospects of there being less and less water available,\u201d says Lowell Stott, professor of earth sciences at the University of Southern California. \u201cWe have to be prepared for the kind of variability that punctuated the past five or six years. We can\u2019t simply depend on government agencies to solve our water problems without participating.\u201d<\/p>\n

One indirect outcome of the extreme stress produced by the recent drought has been an increased willingness to\u00a0bring together traditionally conflicting sectors.\u00a0The landmark\u00a02014 Sustainable Groundwater Management Act<\/a>, for instance, has county farm bureaus working with local government agencies. While the law has drawn concerns from both environmentalists and farmers, it has brought the two groups to the table in ways that had previously seemed impossible.<\/p>\n

Overcoming ‘fault lines’<\/h2>\n

Such a comprehensive approach would need buy-in from the state\u2019s agricultural industry. In an average year, California agriculture irrigates more than 9 million acres of farmland, using about 80 percent of all water expended on businesses and homes in the state, the PPIC reports<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But the climate change argument has never been an easy sell in conservative communities. And though 62 percent of Californians voted for Hillary Clinton in the last election, the 33 percent who supported President Trump came largely<\/a> from the state\u2019s rural regions. The political and geographical lines run alongside decades-old urban-rural conflicts around water rights in the state, adding to a tangled history of resentment and mistrust.<\/p>\n

Farmers often say they feel attacked for their livelihood by city dwellers, scientists, and environmentalists who fail to recognize their relationship with the land.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople don\u2019t understand what it takes to grow a crop, what hours we put into it, to take something from field to the market,\u201d says Jason Giannelli, a farm manager in Bakersfield, a conservative bastion in the agriculture-reliant San Joaquin Valley.<\/p>\n

\u201cIs it warming up? Yeah, maybe. This [drought] was by far the worst one we\u2019ve been through,\u201d adds Dax Kimmelshue, a walnut and almond grower in Butte County, which voted for Mr. Trump. \u201cBut everybody tries to predict these things and weather changes yearly. And so what next year brings, we don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n

Such sentiments run up against concerns that growers depend too much on past experience to determine their present and future actions. The result, some say, is too short a perspective on climate and water \u2013 resistance that could be devastating for the state\u2019s environment and economy.<\/p>\n

\u201cFarmers\u00a0know what\u2019s worked for them and they want to continue [to do] that,\u201d\u00a0notes Robert Willmott, who manages technology for the 200-acre orchard at Fresno State.\u00a0\u201cThey\u00a0are probably the hardest people to change.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe lesson that needs to be learned by government and agencies and farmers \u2013 everybody \u2013 is that we need to be prepared for variability and uncertainty,\u201d says USC’s Professor Stott. \u201cWe can\u2019t bank on the past to give us an adequate estimate of what\u2019s going to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

Skepticism of climate change or its causes, however, doesn\u2019t mean farming communities have done nothing to respond to changes they have seen and felt. Farm water use in 2014 dropped about 15 percent, compared with 1980, according to the PPIC, and more farmers today are embracing technologies that give them \u201cmore crop per drop.\u201d Among some, the extreme swings between wet and dry have also brought home the urgency of a diminishing water supply, and how that affects agriculture\u2019s bottom line and its future.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are still fault lines in water that we have to overcome,\u201d says Sarge Green, a water management specialist with the California Water Institute at Fresno State. \u201cBut everybody seems to support the notion that we need to use water most efficiently. There\u2019s been tremendous investment in agricultural, municipal, and industrial use,\u201d from government, investors, and farmers themselves.<\/p>\n

Embracing change<\/h2>\n

At Terranova Ranch in Helm, about 30 miles southwest of Fresno, workers began a Friday morning in March by checking irrigation pipes and tilling the earth to prepare for the spring planting. A massive truck lumbered over the fields, pulling clusters of carrots out of the ground.<\/p>\n

Cameron, the general manager, stood at the edge of several acres of grapevines. Patches of soil peeked from water flooding the ground. \u201cWe take the floodwater and we use our old flood irrigation systems that we left in place to deliver the water to the fields,\u201d he says. Some of the water feeds the soil and the plants. Some evaporates. But the rest, he says, goes into recharging the aquifer.<\/p>\n

It was a practice the ranch first tested in 2011 \u2013 the last time the region saw significant rainfall. Cameron estimates that about 70 percent of the water they applied returned to the underground water table.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have been monitoring groundwater levels for 35 years. We had noticed a continual decline in the groundwater table,\u201d he says. \u201cWe felt it was responsible on our part to do something about that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Today some trade groups, like the Almond Board of California, are embracing the practice. The board in 2016 partnered with<\/a> the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory \u2013 a Department of Energy science lab run by the University of California \u2013 to study how to best utilize almond orchards for recharging groundwater and managing excess flood flows. (Almonds have received a lot of heat<\/a>\u00a0throughout the drought for being a water-intensive crop.)<\/p>\n

In Butte County, Mr. Kimmelshue has adjusted his approach to farming since taking over his family\u2019s 225 acres in the early 1980s. Despite his reluctance to discuss global warming, Kimmelshue has shifted from surface irrigation to a pressurized sprinkler system that distributes water more evenly and efficiently. He\u2019s two years into installing solar panels across the farm, which he says cuts down his energy use and cost. He\u2019s even let his daughter talk him into installing soil moisture sensors that inform him, via a mobile app, when and how much to irrigate certain areas of the farm.<\/p>\n

Part of that has to do with the bottom line, Kimmelshue says. Most farmers know what consumers want and are willing to grow those crops in ways that satisfy customer demand. But he adds that farmers also know how important the environment is to their livelihood.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not evil,\u201d he says. \u201cWe know you gotta take care of the land for the next generation. There are new things like this that [farmers] are trying, to create a more sustainable environment.\u201d<\/p>\n

That said, Kimmelshue and other farmers say they would like to see more efforts to develop aboveground storage to capture excess rainwater ahead of the extended dry season.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we possibly had increased storage capacities when we had extremely wet years like this, we could capture enough water to get us out of a five-year drought,\u201d says Mr. Willmott, the orchard technician.\u00a0\u201cIf we invest in the infrastructure for the state’s water system, we will make not only the farmer’s life better, but all other people’s lives better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Link to article<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Jessica Mendoza Like all California farmers, Don Cameron is used to long dry spells interrupted by wet years. Drought and flood, he says, have always been a way of life in the Golden State. 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