Well, during winter rainy days, water managers tend to have smiles on their faces. Rainy days are good days, days that fill lakes and recharge groundwater basins. Thoughts on rainy days are of a coming summer with adequate water supplies and low stress levels because there is enough water for everyone.

Then there are those dreaded dry winters. Water managers tend to worry during long winter dry spells. They worry about how they are going to ration what little water that might be available to their district or region next summer. They spend time looking at various weather forecasts trying to mentally bring those desperately needed rain clouds to the watershed that feeds their water supply. And when some rain does come, every drop is cherished even though not enough of those rain drops fall from the sky. Then, after that short spurt of a rain shower, water managers check and recheck lake levels and figure out if there is enough water to make it through the summer. And if there is just enough for this summer, they then start thinking about how little water might be left in storage for next year (also known as “carryover” storage). While some reservoirs have more than one year’s storage, most have just one year’s worth of supply when completely full. This makes those winter rains all the more important.

Walter Cotter
General Manager
Browns Valley Irrigation District

The intergenerational and interdependent life of our small farming community illustrates an instance of sustainability that isn’t talked about much. Farming and ranching operations that have been around for 3 or 4 generations know the importance of being interconnected. Education is an essential part of this too. Through education we are preparing the next generation to continue and effectively improve our economic and social community that works to feed the world. It isn’t easy in this economic climate. School budgets, from pre-school through high school, are under tremendous strains. In our small communities, we have been struggling to maintain our school programs with everyone doing more with less. It is not always a Norman Rockwell painting, but as bleak as it may seem at times, I know that we will get through it. Our parents and grandparents got through worse times and succeeded. Education is essential in preparing our youngsters for adulthood and to becoming the next generation of community, state and perhaps national leaders. This isn’t only about what goes on in the classrooms. It is about what goes on in 4-H and Future Farmers of America clubs and projects. It is about kids participating in many diverse activities in school, whether it is Band, or Sports, or Culture Club, or Interact, or Key Club, or Academic Decathlon. It is about involvement in the community that is unique with small farming towns. And it is about kids going out and walking the fields with Grandpa or riding the tractor with Dad. Agriculture in not only a lifestyle, it is a culture, with values that are held up as ideal characteristics of the American experience. Education weaves throughout and is essential to our success.

Sustainability means different things to different people. To me, it means being able to effectively and efficiently meet the needs of the present without compromising the future. And that is what we work for everyday in the Sacramento Valley on so many levels without stopping to dwell on it. It is our culture and we will persevere and succeed.

Harvest is always a busy and exciting time on the farm. Seeing the results of your hard work, love of farming, and dedication to agriculture is rewarding. Growing up on an almond ranch, harvest was a loud, dusty, and long couple of months. This year however, brought a different kind of harvest. There was no loud machinery and no large equipment. We had family and friends standing side by side with smiling faces and pairs of hands. It was our first wine grape harvest, picked and sorted by hand.

Following the devastating storms of January 2008, we decided it was time for a change on the family farm. The last few years have been spent transitioning from almonds to wine grapes and olives. The transition has been remarkable with less irrigation needed and much less dust. As grape vines mature, they become surprisingly self-sufficient. It has also been wonderful to see native species taking advantage of the shelter and habitat provided by the sweeping vine arms and big broad leaves. Even the dog seeks refuge under the vines on hot summer days. However, maturing vines and harvest is not where the story ends.

As we move into fermenting and bottling, the excitement and dedication continue. It is extremely fulfilling to not only nurture vines and harvest fruit, but then to create a finished product. There is nothing like actively participating in the entire “farm to table” process to love and understand the cycle of agriculture and to be a part of the earth. As I have grown into an adult and pursued my own professional and academic careers, it is for these reasons I am continually drawn back to the family farm.

We purchased our ranch in the Cascade Mountains, north of Mount Lassen and south of Mount Shasta, over a decade ago. After a career in aerospace and defense, my plan was to kick-back and enjoy the pastures, oak woodlands and pine forests. My ranch neighbors took me to local watershed group and cattlemen’s meetings and I got hooked on improving the environment while raising cattle; two mutually supportive endeavors. Ranchers and farmers I know are committed to sustainable agriculture and protecting land, water and wildlife in order to maintain a business and way of life for their family.

Our creek is bordered by cow/calf ranchers who prohibit development through use of Williamson Act contracts, a very successful conservation program in the state. We self-monitor creek flow for our irrigation water needs as well as other beneficial uses of water for the remainder of the state. It is rewarding to know that our clean creek water flows into the Sacramento River, which provides 80 percent of the state’s water needs. Our city guests marvel at seeing how a cow/calf ranch operates, the beauty of the land and the abundance of wildlife and return home intent on sharing positive impressions they have of ranching.

Our plants are like children–from the day they are born, to the day they mature and put forth their bounty. Like a child there is not one time in their development that you can cut back on their nutrients or their water and expect them to produce the food that the whole process is supposed to accomplish. The weather during all seasons has a profound effect on the water required for the crops to stay alive and produce a quality crop.

When a person talks about conserving water for crops, that can only mean one thing, and that is fallowing ground and not growing a crop at all. Yet, it does not take a very observant eye to see that worldwide, many countries do not have enough water to grow food, let alone clean water. Our nation grows its food with clean water, which produces the highest quality food in the world. We will continue to provide you with food as efficiently as possible and use as little water as possible. It is our goal to keep producing the high quality food we have grown to expect.

I am fortunate to farm an environmentally rich crop in an environmentally rich region. It is important for me to take time to be deliberate about seeing, understanding, and appreciating the environment where I farm. It is valuable to focus on the Macro environment, as in an entire field or portion of the farm; other times on the Micro level as small as one square foot of a flooded rice field. Have you ever seen an egret in a rice field staring intently into the water? Try it sometime. You will see an amazing diversity living in the rice: water beetles, dragonfly nymphs, varieties of algae, snails, crayfish, pollywogs and frogs, tadpole shrimp, mosquito fish, red worms, water walking spiders, lilies, rushes, duck salad and occasional azolla ferns.

I don’t often have time in my schedule to spend wading like an egret, but when I do it can be mentally stimulating. I like to think of it as being “Environ Mental”. Why don’t you try it sometime at your farm, garden, yard, sand box, hedge row, or simple drainage ditch?

As I reflect on how Dad farmed rice, I realize he truly cared abut being a sustainable farmer. He never burned rice straw, he started farming a portion of his farm organically in the sixties, and crop rotation with cover crops was always a part of his farm plan. We worked long summers leveling fields with survey stakes and instruments to improve water management and rice production. Dad didn’t invent the term “sustainable farming” but he sure knew a lot about it.

For thirty years I had the pleasure of farming alongside my Dad, during which time we shared ideas about farming with nature and farming with family. Caring for the environment, protecting the farm’s finances, producing healthy food, and being a good neighbor: aren’t these the elements of a sustainable farm? However, what if no one from my family wanted to farm? What if my siblings and I had to get jobs away from the farm? If this were the case, ideas about sustainability would not be passed down from generation to generation. Sustainability needs to include a passing of values and wisdom from one generation to the next.

I am thankful Dad raised me with a love for the farm; with as much concern about how we farm as what we farm. It takes a combination of stewardship and family transitions for a farm to be sustainable…

Thank you, Dad.

In Northern California’s Sacramento Valley, business leaders have been exploring new and creative ways to advance approaches to shared value, many of which are readily evident and can been seen when visiting the region. Prominently, family rice farmers have been on the leading edge in advancing shared values as they continually seek innovative ways to achieve economic success, while providing important habitat to support nearly 230 wildlife species along the Pacific Flyway. Similarly, the water resources managers in the region continue to develop creative ways to assure reliable water deliveries for farms, wildlife refuges and managed wetlands; while simultaneously undertaking aggressive efforts to protect and enhance habitat for Chinook salmon and other fisheries. In fact, it is the integrated nature of these shared values that defines the Sacramento Valley and makes it a truly special and unique region.

Although I have not heard the term shared value specifically used in these discussions, I have been a part of countless conversations throughout the Sacramento Valley where this triple bottom line approach to business and water resources management has been advanced. Interestingly, a management culture has emerged in the Sacramento Valley from these discussions where self-interested economic decisions are imbued with important environmental and social values. It should be noted that these same values (economic, social and environmental) are also the three pillars that form the foundation for the sustainability initiative that guides business and water resources managers in the Sacramento Valley.

We applaud the innovative thinking emerging around shared values and welcome thoughts on further advancing these concepts in the Sacramento Valley.

The report is styled as a draft as part of our ongoing effort to seek input on water management in the Sacramento Valley and to continually improve our understanding and efforts to actively manage water resources in the region. A full copy of the report is available on the NCWA website. We welcome your input.

http://www.norcalwater.org/efficient-water-management

Budget limitations however, are changing how we fulfill these obligations, whether it is on the Colorado River, on the Klamath River, or on one of the richest estuaries in North America that sources water for 20 million people – the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.

Because of our financial limits, we have increasingly called upon citizens and stakeholders to help craft responsible, sustainable solutions.

Fortunately, we are learning valuable lessons from several promising partnerships, including the Lower Yuba River Accord, implemented in 2008. The Lower Yuba is one of California’s signature salmon rivers; with no hatcheries, it nurtures one of the last natural chinook salmon runs along 24 miles in the Central Valley.

The impressive Lower Yuba River Accord illustrates the importance of three key elements of effective restoration. They include collaboration, the imagination of motivated parties and a commitment to science.

The Yuba Accord turned nearly two decades of controversy into consensus, after the board called upon the parties to build a sustainable solution through collaboration. In 2005, Trout Unlimited, the Bay Institute, California’s Department of Fish and Game, Department of Water Resources, federal resource agencies, irrigation districts and the Yuba County Water Agency announced a framework agreement that became the Yuba Accord. After two successful one-year pilot programs and an unchallenged environmental documentation process, the State Water Resources Control Board in 2008 amended YCWA’s water rights, clearing the way for the Yuba Accord’s implementation.

The Yuba Accord provides significant benefits, including optimum flow requirements for salmon and steelhead in 78 percent of the years, dependable surface water for the local agricultural economy, supplemental water supplies for cities, for farms and for the Bay-Delta and groundwater management.

Local citizens brought a spark of necessary creativity and imagination to the Yuba Accord, leading to several of the largest and most carefully managed water transfers in California history. Water transfers are a favored tool under state law for helping to meet California’s needs. During the drought years of 2007 through 2010, YCWA transferred more than 612,000 acre-feet of water, or an annual average of 153,000 acre-feet, to the Department of Water Resources. These supplies benefit fish and wildlife species in the Bay-Delta ecosystem and cities and farms statewide.

The Yuba County Water Agency is using this revenue to improve public safety and the environment on a local level. For example, partnering with Yuba County, YCWA secures $78 million in bonds to finance the local cost-share of the new $186 million Feather River setback levee.

This 6-mile-long setback will reduce the flood risk in southern Yuba County and neighboring Yuba City. It also established 1,550 acres of wildlife habitat. YCWA is also administering a $1 million program to reimburse farmers for the installation of more efficient electric groundwater pump motors, replacing up to 65 diesel pump engines. This reduces fossil fuel demands by more than 500,000 gallons a year and reduces greenhouse gas emissions by up to 6,000 tons a year.

Lastly, a commitment to science will net several generations of environmental improvements. State and federal agencies, conservation groups, and others worked to establish a matrix for prioritizing salmon and steelhead habitat limitations. This matrix led to biologically based flow requirements maximizing the occurrence of optimum fisheries flows, which in turn led YCWA to create a new operational index enabling it to meet these strategic flows.

The results are promising. The National Marine Fisheries Service – a leading Yuba Accord participant – in its 2009 draft Central Valley salmon and steelhead recovery plan stated that the Yuba Accord will “considerably improve conditions in the Lower Yuba River.” Further, a “River Management Team,” financed with $6 million by YCWA, is undertaking a comprehensive monitoring and evaluation program to determine the effectiveness of the new requirements.

Collaboratively managed by conservation groups, the Yuba County Water Agency, and state and federal agencies, and assisted by University of California, Davis, scientists, this team is performing numerous studies in the river.

The Yuba Accord is a landmark agreement, and an excellent example of collaboration, science and imagination. These valuable lessons should be considered a template of success for all of us working to improve California’s resources in a balanced, responsible manner, particularly in the Delta. In this way, the State Water Resources Control Board is fulfilling our responsibility to the people of California.

By Charles R. Hoppin, Special to The Bee
from sacbee.com.