Valley Land Alliance

01/12/2020

What causes dangerous tule fog in California’s Central Valley, and why is it becoming less common?

Excerpt:

How does tule fog form?

The Central Valley’s thick tule fog is a type of radiation fog that forms on calm, clear nights, usually after a soaking rain, when the Earth gives up its heat — radiates its heat like a radiator — into space. Note that this happens on clear, starry nights, not when there’s cloud cover forming a cozy blanket that holds in the planet’s warmth. Fog can also form near any water, such as lakes, streams and aqueducts.

Source:

We take a look at the source of dense tule fog and the factors that are causing people in California's great Central Valley to see a little less of it.

12/31/2019

VLA wishes everyone a safe new year! Lots in store this coming 2020 as we try to make the Valley a better place!

12/24/2019

Season's greetings from VLA!

12/10/2019

Almond Conference in Sac this week! Plus, it's free:

I've just registered to attend The Almond Conference! Join me, and almond growers from across California at the only event dedicated entirely to almonds. With three days of research findings on hot topics like water and bees, a trade show floor with more than 250 exhibitors, and personal interaction...

12/05/2019

Webinar alert: A Path Forward for California's Freshwater Ecosystems

About the program
California’s freshwater ecosystems are under pressure and its aquatic biodiversity is in decline. The state needs a new approach to protect the many beneficial uses that these ecosystems provide. PPIC senior fellow Jeffrey Mount will outline findings from a new report that describes a better way to manage the state’s freshwater ecosystems, and a panel of experts will discuss ways to put this approach into practice.

This research was supported with funding from S. D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation and the funders of the PPIC CalTrout Ecosystem Fellowship.
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Participants
Heather Dyer, water resources project manager, San Bernardino Valley Municipal Water District
Ali Forsythe, environmental planning and permitting manager, Sites Reservoir Project
Letitia Grenier, program director, San Francisco Estuary Institute
Jeffrey Mount, senior fellow, PPIC Water Policy Center
Lester Snow, president, Klamath River Renewal Corporation

California’s freshwater ecosystems are under pressure and its aquatic biodiversity is in decline. The state needs a new approach to protect the many beneficial uses that these ecosystems provide.

11/05/2019

Today (Tuesday, 05 November 2019)! "Preparing California’s Water System for Climate Extremes" webinar.

Click here for more information:

California’s climate is changing. Warmer temperatures, a shrinking snowpack, shorter and more intense wet seasons, more volatile precipitation, and rising seas are stressing water management in the Golden State. Leaders across the state are working to address the challenges these climate pressures...

09/09/2019

How Modesto and others can access more water despite climate change



The column about Farmland Working Group fighting sprawl mentions the two authors who have been tremendous long-term leaders in saving farmland, and there are many others who also deserve some credit. What is not discussed are the tremendous benefits that preserving permeable farmland presents for increasing water availability during climate change.

Global warming is inevitable and is well along already. It is irreversible, except over millennia, and will probably be much worse before society does anything about it. In California we can expect a great reduction, and perhaps elimination, of snow storage in the mountains; increased intensity of precipitation; and much longer and intense droughts. That is where wholesale preserving of permeable farm soils becomes imperative.

The ability to store water underground far exceeds the capacity of surface reservoirs, and water underground does not evaporate. But the only easy way to create that underground storage is to spread irrigation water over huge areas of permeable soils when floods occur.

Considerable research has already been done at UC Davis on storm flooding of farmland during winter. That will mean a great change from the past, when groundwater recharge resulted in part from flood irrigation in the summer and from stream infiltration, with water coming from snow melt and from water stored in reservoirs. Those sources will no longer be reliable, especially during long droughts.

The only source of water then will be from underground storage. That means farmers will have to be encouraged to flood during the winter for their own benefit as well as for the good of the public at large. Financial help may be needed for some farmers if the recharged water is primarily for the benefit of others.

The state of California is notorious for lack of understanding of hydrology, especially that a well affects the water table many thousands of feet around it. Politicians are responsible for the problem, not professional hydrologists on state staff.

Just a few years ago a Modesto city planner said at a public meeting that he knew little about hydrology, even though water is indispensable to the city’s survival. That situation absolutely must change.

The state requires that local politicians plan for specified growth, ignoring the need for water and saving permeable farmland. It is sheer stupidity, but nothing new.

Local and state politicians are noted for only short-term planning so they can stay in office. Few businesses care about longer-term environmental effects. The politicians need some justification from well-known scientists to pass realistic rules on planning for much worse global warming yet to come. That certainly must include preserving any permeable soils potentially used for charging groundwater and not yet paved over.

Global warming is certain to get worse, and we must plan accordingly.

Modesto’s Vance Kennedy is a retired U.S. Geological Survey scientist. He wrote this for The Modesto Bee

09/03/2019

08/28/2019

Here's how almonds get harvested in the Central Valley
by Brandon Johansen

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- Almonds are the top crop in Fresno County and the second-largest in the state, but unless you grew up near orchards, you may not know how they're harvested.

"They're okay to drop and they can take a little more of a beating," said Emin Dhaliwal. His company, Pacific Distributing Inc., sells the tree shakers used to literally shake the almonds free from their branches.

The practice is fun to watch if you've never seen it: a mechanical arm grabs the trunk of the tree, then vigorously shakes until the ground around it is covered with almonds, still safe in their hulls. Each tree takes a matter of seconds and the settings can be adjusted to be softer on younger trees.

"I've heard they used to take tarps out and beat them with mallets," Dhaliwal said when asked how almonds were farmed before shakers came around. The same practice is also used for some other nuts, including walnuts.

Dhaliwal estimated that one drive in a tree shaker can shakedown 20-30 acres in a day, and he estimates they've sold about 100 machines in the Central Valley just this year. The high-efficiency is needed when you consider that California supplies 80% of the world's almonds.

"Almonds are the number one crop in Fresno County, number two in California," said Fresno County Farm Bureau CEO Ryan Jacobsen. "One in five almonds are coming from Fresno County, it's an integral part of our local ag industry."

The crop has become a solid alternative for Valley farmers who were struggling with other crops in years past. Jacobsen also said he estimates there are about 100,000 jobs directly or indirectly tied to the California almond industry.

Source: https://abc30.com/localish/heres-how-almonds-get-harvested-in-the-central-valley/5497263/Here's how almonds get harvested in the Central Valley

Almonds are the top crop in Fresno County and the second-largest in the state. Here's how Central Valley farmers harvest them.

08/21/2019

MANTECA-LATHROP HAS ENOUGH HOUSING UNITS IN APPROVAL PROCESS TO ADD 57,000+ PEOPLE
BY DENNIS WYATT

Make no mistake about it. And while growth may not accelerate, given the shortage of approved subdivisions in the greater Bay Area region as well as the infrastructure to serve them, San Joaquin County — particularly Manteca and Lathrop — will continue to either at the current pace or slightly slower.
Manteca now has 8,137 housing units in various stages of approval yet to be built. That assumes the 760 homes approved for Villa Ticino West on the southwest corner of Louise Avenue and Airport Way gets scratched for an industrial park of more than 5 million square feet. It also includes a plan for 700 plus homes just to the south of Lovelace Road that is in the process of being submitted to the city.
In Lathrop, River Islands alone has just a bit less than 10,000 approved housing units yet to be built. Between River Islands and Manteca that means there are 18,000 homes in the pipeline that based on a 3.18 person yield per home would generate 57,240 more residents. To put that in perspective Manteca had 56,838 residents in 2002.
The 8,137 housing units Manteca has approved or is in the process of doing so that haven’t been built does not reflect the number of homes that could be built on land being proposed for residential use in Manteca’s general plan update that does not currently have a project either approved or in the process of securing approvals. That land could easily yield an additional 5,000 homes.
From that perspective the general plan update that Manteca is now pursuing could cast the die for robust growth given that on current yields of 3.18 residents per house the homes in various stages of the approval process could add 25,780 residents to push the city’s population to almost 110,000.
The epicenter for population growth in the Northern San Joaquin Valley is Manteca-Lathrop.
In 2018, the two cities added a combined 4,034 residents — 2,759 in Manteca and 1,255 in Lathrop. That compares with Tracy that added 1,968 residents last year and Stockton that grew by 2,508 based on state Department of Finance estimates. Manteca, on its own, was the fastest growing city in the three-county Northern San Joaquin Valley.
If growth levels flat-lined based on 2018 activity in the 209, Manteca that had a population of 83,781 on Jan. 1, 2019 will top 100,000 residents sometime in 2025.
By 2033 Manteca would surpass Tracy as the second largest city in San Joaquin County and as the third largest city in the Northern San Joaquin Valley if the trend holds.
Manteca-Lathrop — with a current combined population of 106,000 — would be home to 150,000 plus people by 2030.
Now that the council has given the consultants piecing the general plan update together direction on basic land uses they’d like to see in specific undeveloped areas, they will be able to project the number of homes those areas could yield at buildout.
That number will be applied to yield factors in terms of residents for various housing types to determine future impacts on everything from traffic to city services.
Although it wouldn’t be cast in stone that land will actually develop the way the general plan update calls for it to, it sets the stage for developers to submit projects that — once they get entitlements — will continue to fuel growth for decades to come.
Growth that some see today as the proverbial runaway train will actually be set on course by the final land use decisions the current council makes for the general plan update. General plans are mandated by state law to serve as blueprints for city growth.

Link: http://www.209businessjournal.com/index.php/2019/08/14/ground-zero-for-growth/

Ground Zero for growth August 14, 2019 by Admin Leave a Comment 209 Business Journal file photo Home construction is booming in the Lathrop-Manteca region.Manteca-Lathrop has enough housing units in approval process to add 57,000+ people BY DENNIS WYATTMake no mistake about it. And while growth may....

08/05/2019

Merced SGMA Stakeholder Committee Members

The Merced Subbasin Draft GSP is now available for public review and comment for a 30-day public comment period, from July 19 through August 19. This will be discussed at the upcoming Stakeholder and Coordination Committee meetings on Monday.

Monday, July 22nd meeting locations and links to agendas:

Stakeholder Committee Meeting: 9:30am, agenda here
Coordination Committee Meeting: 1:30pm, agenda here
Both meetings take place at 1900 Airdrome Entry, Atwater, CA 95301

Where to Review the Draft GSP
1. Online at www.mercedsgma.org
2. Hardcopies will be available at the following public locations:

Merced Public Library, 2100 O St, Merced, CA 95340
Le Grand Branch Library, 12949 Le Grand Rd, Le Grand, CA 95333
Atwater Branch Library, 1600 Third St, Atwater, CA 95301
Winton Branch Library, 7057 Walnut Ave, Winton, CA 95388
Livingston Public Library, 1212 Main St, Livingston, CA 95334
Planada Community Services District, 103 Live Oak St, Planada, CA 95365

3. Hardcopies will also be available at the three GSA main offices:

MSGSA – Merced County Community and Economic Development, Front Counter, 260 E. 15th Street, Merced, CA 95341
MIUGSA – Merced Irrigation District, 744 W. 20th Street, Merced, CA 95340
TIWDGSA-1 – 1269 West I Street, Los Banos, CA 93635


Ways to Submit Public Comments by August 19, 2019
Comments on the Draft GSP can be submitted by mail or email to:
Email: [email protected]
U.S. Mail: Hicham Eltal, Merced GSP Contact, Merced Irrigation District, 744 W 20th St., Merced, CA 95340

Press Release and Notices
A press release and notices (in English and Spanish) are available on the Merced SGMA website. Please feel free to share widely to neighbors, friends, and colleagues.

We look forward to seeing you at the meetings.

Sincerely,
Merced SGMA Program
www.mercedsgma.org

08/05/2019

Did you know: Tap water is more regulated than bottled water?