CP&DR

Auburn Dam Dies 1,000 Deaths; This Time It Might Be For Good

Sep 1, 2002

Environment Watch, John Krist, Vol. 17 No. 09 Sep 2002

A ferocious debate that has raged for more than three decades over the fate of a river in the Sierra Nevada foothills appears likely to end soon with a whimper.

Coastal Landowners Fight To Keep Out The Riffraff

Aug 1, 2002

Environment Watch, John Krist, Vol. 17 No. 08 Aug 2002

Movies, music and television have created a global image of California as the land of sunshine and surf. Like many caricatures, the mystique has a nugget of truth at its core: Californians do love their beaches.

West Coast's Largest Wetlands Restoration Project Moves Forward

Jul 1, 2002

Environment Watch, John Krist, Vol. 17 No. 07 Jul 2002, Wetlands

To get some idea of how much San Francisco Bay has changed during the past two centuries, unfold a map and trace the estuary's amoeboid outline as it squeezes through Carquinez Strait into the Delta's confusion of sloughs and marshes. There, 33 miles inland from the Golden Gate but still bathed in tidewater, lie a pair of features named Grizzly Bay and Grizzly Island.

Water Bond Would Fund Environmental Projects

Jun 1, 2002

Environment Watch, John Krist, Vol. 17 No. 06 Jun 2002

Water bonds are as familiar as summer reruns to California voters, who have considered at least 16 of them on statewide ballots since 1960 — the year voters narrowly approved spending $1.75 billion to build the State Water Project. On November 5, however, the electorate is likely to consider a water bond measure that is different from all predecessors.

Central Valley Chokes While Regulators Point Fingers

Apr 1, 2002

Environment Watch, John Krist, Vol. 17 No. 04 Apr 2002

Quietly, while no one seemed to be paying much attention, the Central Valley has become one of the smoggiest places in the nation. Kern, Fresno and Tulare counties rank third, fourth and fifth among those counties that exceeded federal ozone standards the most days from 1997 to 1999, according to the American Lung Association's 2001 State of the Air report.

New Tax Credit Program Saves Coastal Open Space

Mar 1, 2002

Environment Watch, John Krist, Vol. 17 No. 03 Mar 2002

California's Revenue and Taxation Code contains provisions for all sorts of tax credits, most of them intended to encourage business or personal investment in activities deemed to have social value — creating jobs, saving energy, reducing waste, supporting charitable works.

Giant Water District Prepares to Retire One-Third of Its Farmland

Feb 1, 2002

Environment Watch, John Krist, Vol. 17 No. 02 Feb 2002

To critics of state and federal water policy in the California, the Westlands Water District symbolizes just about everything that could possibly go wrong with public management of this precious resource. But an $800 million deal that could retire one-third of the farmland in the huge water district might lay to rest one of the most vexing problems associated with Westlands while also ushering in a new era in Western water and land-use practices.

Bolsa Chica Saga Proves Wetlands Are for The Birds

Jan 1, 2002

Environment Watch, John Krist, Vol. 17 No. 01 Jan 2002

After 20 years of argument and struggle, numerous revisions and a predictable snarl of litigation, the most expensive wetland restoration project in California history has cleared one of its final hurdles and appears poised to become reality at last.

Klamath Basin Water Dispute Offers Preview Of West's Future

Oct 1, 2001

Endangered Species Act, Environment Watch, John Krist, Siskiyou County, Vol. 16 No. 10 Oct 2001

The fight over Klamath River water is not solely about the conflicting needs of farmers and fish, as protesters and newspaper headlines suggest. Nor is it about local control versus Washington bureaucrats. The simplistic slogans of the sagebrush rebels are inaccurate. Instead, it is about the false assumptions of the past finally colliding with the realities of the present, about faith in the land's boundless bounty finally running up against the truth of limits.

Long-Awaited Yolo County Habitat Plan Nears Completion

Sep 1, 2001

Environment Watch, John Krist, Vol. 16 No. 09 Sep 2001

Buffeted by competition from lower priced imports, snarled in a tangle of environmental regulations, besieged by sprawling cities and suburbs, America's small family farmers can be forgiven for feeling like members of an endangered species.

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