Joe Del Bosque has owned his farm west of Mendota for 36 years. He’s grown cherries, tomatoes and asparagus. But the crop closest to his heart is melons. His dad began growing melons in the Mendota area in the 1950s. “They’ve been in my blood for all my life, you …
Read More »Emergency Funds Help Small Farms Grapple With Drought and Pandemic
Small farmers in the Central Valley operate on thin margins even in good years, and now they are also grappling with drought, wildfire and the recovery from market disruptions that were caused by the pandemic. To get a better sense of how family farms are weathering these challenges, Valley Edition …
Read More »State Senator Melissa Hurtado On Drought And Repairing California’s Water Infrastructure
When the one working well serving the unincorporated community of Teviston in Tulare County stopped working last month, the roughly 1,000 people who live there were left without running water in the middle of a drought. As the community waits for bureaucracy to clear the way for the well to …
Read More »As California Drought Worsens, Peak Wildfire Season Could Come Months Earlier Than Usual
Most of California is experiencing extreme drought right now. That means the possibility of bigger, more destructive wildfires earlier in the summer. CapRadio’s Scott Rodd has this report from Butte County. Lunchtime brings a crew of laborers to this taco stand in Oroville. They’re taking a break from clearing trees …
Read More »Journalist Steven Greenhut On California’s Drought Emergency Declaration
Earlier this week, Gov. Gavin Newsom extended the drought emergency declaration to much of California, including the San Joaquin Valley. To better understand the significance of that decision, Valley Edition Host Kathleen Schock spoke to journalist Steven Greenhut. He is a columnist for the Orange County Register and the author …
Read More »Extremely Dry Soil Connects Forest Die-Offs To Prolonged Drought, Says New UC Study
The U.S. Forest Service estimates 147 million trees in California died following the state’s prolonged drought. New research out of UC Merced suggests a culprit: Extremely dry soil. Not all California droughts have led to massive forest die-offs. The difference this time, according to an article published Monday in the …
Read More »Drought returns to huge swaths of US, fueling fears of a thirsty future
Less than eight months after Hurricane Harvey pelted the Texas Gulf Coast with torrential rainfall, drought has returned to Texas and other parts of the West, Southwest and Southeast, rekindling … Click to Continue »
Read More »Specter of drought looms as California’s weather turns dry again
The storms have passed and California’s dry winter has returned, raising the specter that the state could be entering another drought less than a year after the last one officially … Click to Continue »
Read More »A silver lining from California’s drought: Water conservation led to reduced energy use and less pollution
In April 2015, California Gov. Jerry Brown called on the people of the most populous state to reduce their water use by 25 percent in response to a punishing four-year … Click to Continue »
Read More »California climate study shows worsening drought
California could be hit with significantly more dangerous and more frequent droughts in the near future as changes in weather patterns triggered by global warming block rainfall from reaching the … Click to Continue »
Read More »In 2016, Fresno County Ag Profits Dropped By $482 Million, Drought And Global Prices To Blame
T he total value of agricultural goods sold last year in Fresno County dropped in value by around $ 482 million compared to 2015 according to the 2016 Annual Crop and Livestock Production Report released in mid-August by Fresno County Agricultural Commissioner Les Wright. Wright blames the lack of surface …
Read More »California’s rise from the drought as told through satellite images
Not so long ago, California was in the middle of a deep drought but in June its snow water equivalent rose to a heaping 170 percent of normal. NASA shows in its latest video that satellites were capturing that change. … Click to Continue »
Read More »The historic drought is over, but tree mortality spreads around California
Tree mortality remains a long-term issue in California despite an end to the state’s historic drought of six-plus years. As a result of the drought and subsequent bark beetle infestations, more than 102 million trees have died. Cal OES takes a closer look at how the drought has affected tree …
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