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"title": "A Racist Past and Hotter Future Are Testing Western Water Like Never Before",
"headTitle": "A Racist Past and Hotter Future Are Testing Western Water Like Never Before | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>As droughts strain water supplies across Western states, some cities and farmers have struggled with mandatory cutbacks. Determining who gets cut is decided by the foundational pecking order of Western water: the older your claim to water, created as the country expanded westward, the better protected it is.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When there’s a shortage, those with newer water rights have to cut back first, sometimes giving up their water completely before older claims lose a single drop.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s known as “first in time, first in right.” But “first” is a relative term.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“First in time, first in right is kind of laughable, because the ones that were here first were the indigenous people,” says Gary Mulcahy, government liaison for the Winnemem Wintu tribe in Northern California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the climate gets hotter and further shrinks strained water supplies, Western states are grappling with whether a century-old water system created by white settlers can equitably handle a future of worsening droughts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rights to water have long been seen as sacrosanct by many. But after decades of exclusion, Native American tribes are helping lead the charge both in California and on the Colorado River, arguing for overhauling an arcane system they say is inherently racist.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California lawmakers are debating whether to create new authority to rein in the oldest water users, who have long contended their rights can’t be constrained by the state. Cities like San Francisco and farming districts with senior water rights are lobbying hard against the bills, saying billions of dollars invested into the water system are at stake.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The weight of the inequities is really stunning,” say Felicia Marcus, a fellow at Stanford University’s Water in the West program and a former California water regulator. “Folks are going to need to think about what are the alternatives to cure what might be a historic injustice, while also being aware of the equities of all the communities and people dependent on the system that we do have.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983451\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1983451\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/lfc_3672_custom-0e499fdf69d08753c0ceebb82b9c055dcfc1d402-s1600-c85-800x533.jpg\" alt='A group of 9 people stand in protest with signs reading \"Free the eel\" and \"Save the salmon\" in front of a building. A man on the far right holds a microphone.' width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/lfc_3672_custom-0e499fdf69d08753c0ceebb82b9c055dcfc1d402-s1600-c85-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/lfc_3672_custom-0e499fdf69d08753c0ceebb82b9c055dcfc1d402-s1600-c85-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/lfc_3672_custom-0e499fdf69d08753c0ceebb82b9c055dcfc1d402-s1600-c85-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/lfc_3672_custom-0e499fdf69d08753c0ceebb82b9c055dcfc1d402-s1600-c85-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/lfc_3672_custom-0e499fdf69d08753c0ceebb82b9c055dcfc1d402-s1600-c85-1536x1022.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/lfc_3672_custom-0e499fdf69d08753c0ceebb82b9c055dcfc1d402-s1600-c85.jpg 1600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Gary Mulcahy of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe (right) speaks at a rally for water rights and the environment at California’s state Capitol building. \u003ccite>(Tim Daw)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>First in time, via a piece of paper on a tree\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>More than a century ago, San Francisco locked up a pristine water supply. The city was booming in the late 1800s, and officials knew that local supplies wouldn’t be enough for the growing population. They set their sights on a river high in the Sierra Nevada mountains, more than 150 miles away.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To tap into that river, the city had to first officially file for a water right.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It meant you write it on a piece of paper and nail it to a tree,” says Steve Ritchie, assistant general manager at the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Thanks to that piece of paper \u003ca href=\"https://www.google.com/books/edition/San_Francisco_Municipal_Reports/DHRFLjqZG3UC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=san+francisco+water+tree+tuolumne&pg=PA405&printsec=frontcover\">nailed to an 8-inch round oak tree\u003c/a> near the Tuolumne River in 1901, San Francisco has enjoyed a stable water supply ever since. During California’s most severe droughts, the city hasn’t had to make mandatory cutbacks, even when other cities and farms around the state saw their supplies dwindle.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We and others have invested a lot of money in our systems to make them work based on the principle of first in time and first in right,” Ritchie says.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>For tribes, being first doesn’t mean you have water\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>For California’s Native American tribes, which have largely been excluded from the water rights hierarchy, that focus on the history of settlers’ interests rings hollow.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What we say about the senior water rights holders is they all got their water through murder, mayhem, rape, theft and genocide,” Mulcahy says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The traditional land of the Winnemem Wintu tribe in Northern California was flooded in the 1940s when California built Shasta Dam, creating the largest reservoir in the state. Today, it’s one of the most valuable sources of water, supplying farms and cities that stretch hundreds of miles, all the way to Los Angeles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983446\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1983446\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/2023_06_12_kj_2673_aerials_lake_levels_custom-66cec55890637f346881987a0f214049cc0f2d5b-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"A vast blue lake is seen with a large dam connecting to a reservoir. In the background are white clouds in blue skies with green mountains.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/2023_06_12_kj_2673_aerials_lake_levels_custom-66cec55890637f346881987a0f214049cc0f2d5b-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/2023_06_12_kj_2673_aerials_lake_levels_custom-66cec55890637f346881987a0f214049cc0f2d5b-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/2023_06_12_kj_2673_aerials_lake_levels_custom-66cec55890637f346881987a0f214049cc0f2d5b-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/2023_06_12_kj_2673_aerials_lake_levels_custom-66cec55890637f346881987a0f214049cc0f2d5b-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/2023_06_12_kj_2673_aerials_lake_levels_custom-66cec55890637f346881987a0f214049cc0f2d5b-1536x1023.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/2023_06_12_kj_2673_aerials_lake_levels_custom-66cec55890637f346881987a0f214049cc0f2d5b-1920x1279.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/2023_06_12_kj_2673_aerials_lake_levels_custom-66cec55890637f346881987a0f214049cc0f2d5b.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lake Shasta in Northern California is one of the state’s most vital water supplies. When it was built in the 1940s, it also flooded the traditional homeland of the Wimmemem Wintu Tribe. \u003ccite>(Ken James/California Department of Water Resources)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We have no water rights,” Mulcahy says. “We’re the Winnemem Wintu tribe. Winnemem means ‘middle water’– middle water people. That kind of tells you our culture, our spirituality is based on water.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California’s tribes, like most across the West, were forced to sign treaties with the federal government, giving up their land in exchange for a reservation to live on. But the treaties with most California tribes were never ratified by the U.S. Senate and \u003ca href=\"https://www.archives.gov/files/publications/prologue/2013/fall-winter/treaties.pdf\">were lost for 50 years (PDF)\u003c/a>. As a result, the tribes have no federal recognition, giving them little standing to claim water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The water rights system absolutely totally needs to change for everybody’s right, for everybody’s health and well-being, and not just a select few who think that they are the gods of water and they can’t be touched,” Mulcahy says.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>State bills would grant authority over senior rights\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>California lawmakers are now debating whether to take some steps toward reform. State bills would give regulators more power to investigate the water use of senior rights holders, allow them to order those rights holders to stop using water when there’s a shortage, and to increase the fines against those who take water illegally.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The pushback has been swift from senior rights holders, which represent some of California’s wealthiest cities and farming areas. Many contend their water use can’t be curbed, since their rights were established before California created its regulatory water agency in 1914, the California State Water Resources Control Board.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We don’t think that curtailment should apply to us,” Ritchie says. “Water rights are basically a form of a property right. So having the uncertainty that that supply might be cut at some point, that is very troubling.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983447\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1983447\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/gettyimages-1153763326_custom-42a2dabb5e51047cf49fa272e6126303d6e5d965-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"Two women are seen on a truck filling up large containers of water through a pipe. \" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/gettyimages-1153763326_custom-42a2dabb5e51047cf49fa272e6126303d6e5d965-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/gettyimages-1153763326_custom-42a2dabb5e51047cf49fa272e6126303d6e5d965-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/gettyimages-1153763326_custom-42a2dabb5e51047cf49fa272e6126303d6e5d965-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/gettyimages-1153763326_custom-42a2dabb5e51047cf49fa272e6126303d6e5d965-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/gettyimages-1153763326_custom-42a2dabb5e51047cf49fa272e6126303d6e5d965-1536x1023.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/gettyimages-1153763326_custom-42a2dabb5e51047cf49fa272e6126303d6e5d965-1920x1279.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/gettyimages-1153763326_custom-42a2dabb5e51047cf49fa272e6126303d6e5d965.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Women who belong to the Navajo Nation fill up their family’s water containers. Parts of the reservation still lack running water and the tribe has been pushing for rights to the Colorado River for decades. \u003ccite>(Spencer Platt/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>During California’s last two droughts, state regulators struggled to order cutbacks among those with senior water rights, lacking data about how much water was being used and what rights were affected. When water users have defied orders to cut their use, \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/2022/11/california-ranchers-drought-fine/\">the state’s ability to levy fines has been minimal\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don’t mean to say it’s kind of a hot mess, but it’s kind of a mess,” Marcus says. “We have to figure out how to have a better way of allocating water more fairly according to set-upon rules that everybody can see.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Tribes push for water rights on the Colorado River\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Water cutbacks are also contentious on the Colorado River. There, a \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2021/06/09/1003424717/the-drought-in-the-western-u-s-is-getting-bad-climate-change-is-making-it-worse\">two-decades-long drought\u003c/a> is forcing states to face a harsh reality: the future will mean less water for everyone. But tribes on the river \u003ca href=\"https://www.kunc.org/thirstgap/2023-05-15/first-in-time\">have been left out from the very beginning\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/03/20/1164852475/supreme-court-navajo-nation-water-rights\">Navajo Nation has been battling with the state of Arizona\u003c/a> for decades over getting its water rights clarified on the river. Some parts of the reservation \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2015/01/06/374584452/for-many-of-navajo-nation-water-delivery-comes-monthly\">still lack running water\u003c/a>, forcing residents to get deliveries by truck. As a federally-recognized tribe, the Navajo Nation has rights to water as part of the “permanent home” the federal government granted with a treaty creating the reservation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The issue is that they haven’t been quantified and no one really knows what the scope of those rights look like,” says Dylan Hedden-Nicely, director of the Native American Law Program at the University of Idaho College of Law.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last month, the Supreme Court ruled against the tribe, saying the federal government had no duty to support the investment needed to deliver a water supply. Still, after a long-fought battle, tribes are now \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/04/27/1172273665/tribal-nations-were-once-excluded-from-colorado-river-talks-now-theyre-key-playe\">being included in key negotiations\u003c/a> over the future of the river.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983448\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1983448\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/hetch_hetchy_18_custom-1b4a57f0d87c8b165d5278a110d6a170c8924343-800x542.jpg\" alt=\"An image of a lake with a backdrop of mountain cliffs. Green trees, rocks and dirt surfaces are seen in the frame.\" width=\"800\" height=\"542\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/hetch_hetchy_18_custom-1b4a57f0d87c8b165d5278a110d6a170c8924343-800x542.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/hetch_hetchy_18_custom-1b4a57f0d87c8b165d5278a110d6a170c8924343-1020x692.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/hetch_hetchy_18_custom-1b4a57f0d87c8b165d5278a110d6a170c8924343-160x108.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/hetch_hetchy_18_custom-1b4a57f0d87c8b165d5278a110d6a170c8924343-768x521.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/hetch_hetchy_18_custom-1b4a57f0d87c8b165d5278a110d6a170c8924343-1536x1041.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/hetch_hetchy_18_custom-1b4a57f0d87c8b165d5278a110d6a170c8924343-1920x1302.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/hetch_hetchy_18_custom-1b4a57f0d87c8b165d5278a110d6a170c8924343.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">In 1901, San Francisco claimed water from the Tuolumne River by nailing a piece of paper to a tree. The city has long contended that its senior water rights shouldn’t be constrained by the state. \u003ccite>(California Department of Water Resources)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In cases where tribes have had their water rights spelled out, they’ve struck deals to \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/colorado-river-water-tribes-climate-drought-540c7db3588b2369985351ac9e9114b1\">transfer some of that water\u003c/a> to alleviate the overall shortage for everyone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Those are the types of opportunities that exist if people can get over this historical paradigm that this is a zero-sum game – if you get anything, it’s coming out of my hide and therefore I’m going to fight you tooth and nail,” Hedden-Nicely says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the climate gets hotter, water supplies both on the Colorado River and in California \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2021/06/09/1003424717/the-drought-in-the-western-u-s-is-getting-bad-climate-change-is-making-it-worse\">are expected to shrink\u003c/a> and become more erratic. With the pressure mounting, the inequities in the system are becoming hard to ignore.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think climate change is forcing these conversations that are uncomfortable because the water’s just not there,” Marcus says. “And we need to figure out what to do.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=A+racist+past+and+hotter+future+are+testing+Western+water+like+never+before&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "In Western states, the older a water claim, the more secure it is during a drought. Tribes have long been excluded from that system, and now, they're pushing for change.",
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"description": "In Western states, the older a water claim, the more secure it is during a drought. Tribes have long been excluded from that system, and now, they're pushing for change.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>As droughts strain water supplies across Western states, some cities and farmers have struggled with mandatory cutbacks. Determining who gets cut is decided by the foundational pecking order of Western water: the older your claim to water, created as the country expanded westward, the better protected it is.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When there’s a shortage, those with newer water rights have to cut back first, sometimes giving up their water completely before older claims lose a single drop.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s known as “first in time, first in right.” But “first” is a relative term.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“First in time, first in right is kind of laughable, because the ones that were here first were the indigenous people,” says Gary Mulcahy, government liaison for the Winnemem Wintu tribe in Northern California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the climate gets hotter and further shrinks strained water supplies, Western states are grappling with whether a century-old water system created by white settlers can equitably handle a future of worsening droughts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rights to water have long been seen as sacrosanct by many. But after decades of exclusion, Native American tribes are helping lead the charge both in California and on the Colorado River, arguing for overhauling an arcane system they say is inherently racist.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California lawmakers are debating whether to create new authority to rein in the oldest water users, who have long contended their rights can’t be constrained by the state. Cities like San Francisco and farming districts with senior water rights are lobbying hard against the bills, saying billions of dollars invested into the water system are at stake.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The weight of the inequities is really stunning,” say Felicia Marcus, a fellow at Stanford University’s Water in the West program and a former California water regulator. “Folks are going to need to think about what are the alternatives to cure what might be a historic injustice, while also being aware of the equities of all the communities and people dependent on the system that we do have.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983451\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1983451\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/lfc_3672_custom-0e499fdf69d08753c0ceebb82b9c055dcfc1d402-s1600-c85-800x533.jpg\" alt='A group of 9 people stand in protest with signs reading \"Free the eel\" and \"Save the salmon\" in front of a building. A man on the far right holds a microphone.' width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/lfc_3672_custom-0e499fdf69d08753c0ceebb82b9c055dcfc1d402-s1600-c85-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/lfc_3672_custom-0e499fdf69d08753c0ceebb82b9c055dcfc1d402-s1600-c85-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/lfc_3672_custom-0e499fdf69d08753c0ceebb82b9c055dcfc1d402-s1600-c85-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/lfc_3672_custom-0e499fdf69d08753c0ceebb82b9c055dcfc1d402-s1600-c85-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/lfc_3672_custom-0e499fdf69d08753c0ceebb82b9c055dcfc1d402-s1600-c85-1536x1022.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/lfc_3672_custom-0e499fdf69d08753c0ceebb82b9c055dcfc1d402-s1600-c85.jpg 1600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Gary Mulcahy of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe (right) speaks at a rally for water rights and the environment at California’s state Capitol building. \u003ccite>(Tim Daw)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>First in time, via a piece of paper on a tree\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>More than a century ago, San Francisco locked up a pristine water supply. The city was booming in the late 1800s, and officials knew that local supplies wouldn’t be enough for the growing population. They set their sights on a river high in the Sierra Nevada mountains, more than 150 miles away.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To tap into that river, the city had to first officially file for a water right.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It meant you write it on a piece of paper and nail it to a tree,” says Steve Ritchie, assistant general manager at the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Thanks to that piece of paper \u003ca href=\"https://www.google.com/books/edition/San_Francisco_Municipal_Reports/DHRFLjqZG3UC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=san+francisco+water+tree+tuolumne&pg=PA405&printsec=frontcover\">nailed to an 8-inch round oak tree\u003c/a> near the Tuolumne River in 1901, San Francisco has enjoyed a stable water supply ever since. During California’s most severe droughts, the city hasn’t had to make mandatory cutbacks, even when other cities and farms around the state saw their supplies dwindle.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We and others have invested a lot of money in our systems to make them work based on the principle of first in time and first in right,” Ritchie says.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>For tribes, being first doesn’t mean you have water\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>For California’s Native American tribes, which have largely been excluded from the water rights hierarchy, that focus on the history of settlers’ interests rings hollow.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What we say about the senior water rights holders is they all got their water through murder, mayhem, rape, theft and genocide,” Mulcahy says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The traditional land of the Winnemem Wintu tribe in Northern California was flooded in the 1940s when California built Shasta Dam, creating the largest reservoir in the state. Today, it’s one of the most valuable sources of water, supplying farms and cities that stretch hundreds of miles, all the way to Los Angeles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983446\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1983446\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/2023_06_12_kj_2673_aerials_lake_levels_custom-66cec55890637f346881987a0f214049cc0f2d5b-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"A vast blue lake is seen with a large dam connecting to a reservoir. In the background are white clouds in blue skies with green mountains.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/2023_06_12_kj_2673_aerials_lake_levels_custom-66cec55890637f346881987a0f214049cc0f2d5b-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/2023_06_12_kj_2673_aerials_lake_levels_custom-66cec55890637f346881987a0f214049cc0f2d5b-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/2023_06_12_kj_2673_aerials_lake_levels_custom-66cec55890637f346881987a0f214049cc0f2d5b-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/2023_06_12_kj_2673_aerials_lake_levels_custom-66cec55890637f346881987a0f214049cc0f2d5b-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/2023_06_12_kj_2673_aerials_lake_levels_custom-66cec55890637f346881987a0f214049cc0f2d5b-1536x1023.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/2023_06_12_kj_2673_aerials_lake_levels_custom-66cec55890637f346881987a0f214049cc0f2d5b-1920x1279.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/2023_06_12_kj_2673_aerials_lake_levels_custom-66cec55890637f346881987a0f214049cc0f2d5b.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lake Shasta in Northern California is one of the state’s most vital water supplies. When it was built in the 1940s, it also flooded the traditional homeland of the Wimmemem Wintu Tribe. \u003ccite>(Ken James/California Department of Water Resources)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We have no water rights,” Mulcahy says. “We’re the Winnemem Wintu tribe. Winnemem means ‘middle water’– middle water people. That kind of tells you our culture, our spirituality is based on water.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California’s tribes, like most across the West, were forced to sign treaties with the federal government, giving up their land in exchange for a reservation to live on. But the treaties with most California tribes were never ratified by the U.S. Senate and \u003ca href=\"https://www.archives.gov/files/publications/prologue/2013/fall-winter/treaties.pdf\">were lost for 50 years (PDF)\u003c/a>. As a result, the tribes have no federal recognition, giving them little standing to claim water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The water rights system absolutely totally needs to change for everybody’s right, for everybody’s health and well-being, and not just a select few who think that they are the gods of water and they can’t be touched,” Mulcahy says.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>State bills would grant authority over senior rights\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>California lawmakers are now debating whether to take some steps toward reform. State bills would give regulators more power to investigate the water use of senior rights holders, allow them to order those rights holders to stop using water when there’s a shortage, and to increase the fines against those who take water illegally.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The pushback has been swift from senior rights holders, which represent some of California’s wealthiest cities and farming areas. Many contend their water use can’t be curbed, since their rights were established before California created its regulatory water agency in 1914, the California State Water Resources Control Board.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We don’t think that curtailment should apply to us,” Ritchie says. “Water rights are basically a form of a property right. So having the uncertainty that that supply might be cut at some point, that is very troubling.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983447\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1983447\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/gettyimages-1153763326_custom-42a2dabb5e51047cf49fa272e6126303d6e5d965-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"Two women are seen on a truck filling up large containers of water through a pipe. \" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/gettyimages-1153763326_custom-42a2dabb5e51047cf49fa272e6126303d6e5d965-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/gettyimages-1153763326_custom-42a2dabb5e51047cf49fa272e6126303d6e5d965-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/gettyimages-1153763326_custom-42a2dabb5e51047cf49fa272e6126303d6e5d965-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/gettyimages-1153763326_custom-42a2dabb5e51047cf49fa272e6126303d6e5d965-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/gettyimages-1153763326_custom-42a2dabb5e51047cf49fa272e6126303d6e5d965-1536x1023.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/gettyimages-1153763326_custom-42a2dabb5e51047cf49fa272e6126303d6e5d965-1920x1279.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/gettyimages-1153763326_custom-42a2dabb5e51047cf49fa272e6126303d6e5d965.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Women who belong to the Navajo Nation fill up their family’s water containers. Parts of the reservation still lack running water and the tribe has been pushing for rights to the Colorado River for decades. \u003ccite>(Spencer Platt/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>During California’s last two droughts, state regulators struggled to order cutbacks among those with senior water rights, lacking data about how much water was being used and what rights were affected. When water users have defied orders to cut their use, \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/2022/11/california-ranchers-drought-fine/\">the state’s ability to levy fines has been minimal\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don’t mean to say it’s kind of a hot mess, but it’s kind of a mess,” Marcus says. “We have to figure out how to have a better way of allocating water more fairly according to set-upon rules that everybody can see.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Tribes push for water rights on the Colorado River\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Water cutbacks are also contentious on the Colorado River. There, a \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2021/06/09/1003424717/the-drought-in-the-western-u-s-is-getting-bad-climate-change-is-making-it-worse\">two-decades-long drought\u003c/a> is forcing states to face a harsh reality: the future will mean less water for everyone. But tribes on the river \u003ca href=\"https://www.kunc.org/thirstgap/2023-05-15/first-in-time\">have been left out from the very beginning\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/03/20/1164852475/supreme-court-navajo-nation-water-rights\">Navajo Nation has been battling with the state of Arizona\u003c/a> for decades over getting its water rights clarified on the river. Some parts of the reservation \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2015/01/06/374584452/for-many-of-navajo-nation-water-delivery-comes-monthly\">still lack running water\u003c/a>, forcing residents to get deliveries by truck. As a federally-recognized tribe, the Navajo Nation has rights to water as part of the “permanent home” the federal government granted with a treaty creating the reservation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The issue is that they haven’t been quantified and no one really knows what the scope of those rights look like,” says Dylan Hedden-Nicely, director of the Native American Law Program at the University of Idaho College of Law.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last month, the Supreme Court ruled against the tribe, saying the federal government had no duty to support the investment needed to deliver a water supply. Still, after a long-fought battle, tribes are now \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/04/27/1172273665/tribal-nations-were-once-excluded-from-colorado-river-talks-now-theyre-key-playe\">being included in key negotiations\u003c/a> over the future of the river.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983448\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1983448\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/hetch_hetchy_18_custom-1b4a57f0d87c8b165d5278a110d6a170c8924343-800x542.jpg\" alt=\"An image of a lake with a backdrop of mountain cliffs. Green trees, rocks and dirt surfaces are seen in the frame.\" width=\"800\" height=\"542\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/hetch_hetchy_18_custom-1b4a57f0d87c8b165d5278a110d6a170c8924343-800x542.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/hetch_hetchy_18_custom-1b4a57f0d87c8b165d5278a110d6a170c8924343-1020x692.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/hetch_hetchy_18_custom-1b4a57f0d87c8b165d5278a110d6a170c8924343-160x108.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/hetch_hetchy_18_custom-1b4a57f0d87c8b165d5278a110d6a170c8924343-768x521.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/hetch_hetchy_18_custom-1b4a57f0d87c8b165d5278a110d6a170c8924343-1536x1041.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/hetch_hetchy_18_custom-1b4a57f0d87c8b165d5278a110d6a170c8924343-1920x1302.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/hetch_hetchy_18_custom-1b4a57f0d87c8b165d5278a110d6a170c8924343.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">In 1901, San Francisco claimed water from the Tuolumne River by nailing a piece of paper to a tree. The city has long contended that its senior water rights shouldn’t be constrained by the state. \u003ccite>(California Department of Water Resources)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In cases where tribes have had their water rights spelled out, they’ve struck deals to \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/colorado-river-water-tribes-climate-drought-540c7db3588b2369985351ac9e9114b1\">transfer some of that water\u003c/a> to alleviate the overall shortage for everyone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Those are the types of opportunities that exist if people can get over this historical paradigm that this is a zero-sum game – if you get anything, it’s coming out of my hide and therefore I’m going to fight you tooth and nail,” Hedden-Nicely says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the climate gets hotter, water supplies both on the Colorado River and in California \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2021/06/09/1003424717/the-drought-in-the-western-u-s-is-getting-bad-climate-change-is-making-it-worse\">are expected to shrink\u003c/a> and become more erratic. With the pressure mounting, the inequities in the system are becoming hard to ignore.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think climate change is forcing these conversations that are uncomfortable because the water’s just not there,” Marcus says. “And we need to figure out what to do.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=A+racist+past+and+hotter+future+are+testing+Western+water+like+never+before&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Sea Lions Are Sick and Dying Along Southern California's Coast. Here's What to Know",
"headTitle": "Sea Lions Are Sick and Dying Along Southern California’s Coast. Here’s What to Know | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>It looked like something out of an apocalyptic movie.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over the past few weeks, droves of sick and dying sea animals have been washing up along the coast of Southern California, including beaches in Santa Barbara and Ventura.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The devastation has been caused by an outbreak of toxic algae on a scale never before seen in the region, according to NOAA Fisheries’ West Coast branch.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As of last week, local officials had estimated that over 100 dolphins and over 500 sea lions had been killed by the algal bloom. It appears that the toxins are slowly spreading to Northern California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983431\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1983431 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/photo-2023-06-16-10-59-521_custom-7acc15af608abbdc21effcd064aed6e71dfa61e7-s1200-c85-800x460.jpg\" alt=\"Sea lions and a dolphin are seen lying on the sea shore.\" width=\"800\" height=\"460\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/photo-2023-06-16-10-59-521_custom-7acc15af608abbdc21effcd064aed6e71dfa61e7-s1200-c85-800x460.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/photo-2023-06-16-10-59-521_custom-7acc15af608abbdc21effcd064aed6e71dfa61e7-s1200-c85-1020x586.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/photo-2023-06-16-10-59-521_custom-7acc15af608abbdc21effcd064aed6e71dfa61e7-s1200-c85-160x92.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/photo-2023-06-16-10-59-521_custom-7acc15af608abbdc21effcd064aed6e71dfa61e7-s1200-c85-768x441.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/photo-2023-06-16-10-59-521_custom-7acc15af608abbdc21effcd064aed6e71dfa61e7-s1200-c85.jpg 1046w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Channel Islands Marine and Wildlife Institute has been able to rescue over 100 sea mammals that were suffering from the algae outbreak. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Channel Islands Marine and Wildlife Institute)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Samuel Dover, who leads Channel Islands Marine & Wildlife Institute, has witnessed six algal blooms during his career and described the current one as the worst yet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The bloom is so much larger,” he told NPR. “This time, it’s in the center of the channel, where a lot of animals are.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>What is an algal bloom?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Algae are usually benign plants, commonly seen in the form of pond scum or kelp. But under certain conditions, they can grow out of control and generate deadly toxins.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When that happens, it is known as a \u003ca href=\"https://www.noaa.gov/what-is-harmful-algal-bloom\">bloom\u003c/a>. It tends to be a problem for U.S. states near the country’s coast and the Great Lakes. Over the years, algal blooms have \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2018/09/03/641606668/as-climate-warms-algae-blooms-in-drinking-water-supplies\">contaminated\u003c/a> tap water, \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/07/09/739874122/toxic-algae-bloom-closes-25-beaches-on-mississippis-coast-fed-by-fresh-floodwate\">forced\u003c/a> beaches to close, \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/03/06/1161339697/what-to-know-red-tide-florida-beaches-algae\">discolored\u003c/a> coastal waters and led to the demise of countless animals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Although algal blooms are considered a natural phenomenon, climate change and human activities do play a role in their frequency and intensity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In California, the algae outbreak is believed to have resulted from wind pushing water full of nutrients toward algae, making them grow. That process is not typically related to climate change, but it does not rule it out as a factor either, according to scientists at NOAA Fisheries’ West Coast branch.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>What are algae doing to the sea lions in California?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The bloom in California is producing domoic acid, which generally doesn’t affect humans but is poisonous to animals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When a sea creature suffers from domoic acid poisoning, it affects the animal’s brain and causes seizures, erratic behavior, bulging eyes and foaming at the mouth. Beachgoers have been warned to stay at least 50 feet away from sick animals in case they turn aggressive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983432\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1983432 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/photo-2023-06-16-10-34-04-1-_wide-0298a4fa48be217fb9eef8d674e930a04c358c9a-s1200-c85-800x450.jpg\" alt='The words \"Please keep back. Marine mammal rescue has been called\" is written on the sand, with a seal lying on the beach in the distance.' width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/photo-2023-06-16-10-34-04-1-_wide-0298a4fa48be217fb9eef8d674e930a04c358c9a-s1200-c85-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/photo-2023-06-16-10-34-04-1-_wide-0298a4fa48be217fb9eef8d674e930a04c358c9a-s1200-c85-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/photo-2023-06-16-10-34-04-1-_wide-0298a4fa48be217fb9eef8d674e930a04c358c9a-s1200-c85-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/photo-2023-06-16-10-34-04-1-_wide-0298a4fa48be217fb9eef8d674e930a04c358c9a-s1200-c85-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/photo-2023-06-16-10-34-04-1-_wide-0298a4fa48be217fb9eef8d674e930a04c358c9a-s1200-c85.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Beachgoers have been asked to stay at least 50 feet away from animals poisoned by toxic algae because of the risk that the sea creatures may turn aggressive. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Channel Islands Marine and Wildlife Institute)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>There is no antidote or specific remedy for domoic acid poisoning. Veterinarians have been giving some animals antiseizure medicine and keeping them hydrated in hopes that the toxins will flush out of their bodies. The problem is that the longer the toxins are in an animal’s system, the more difficult it becomes to treat the poisoning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Adult pregnant sea lions have been the most severely affected by the outbreak, according to Dover, of Channel Islands Marine & Wildlife Institute.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>When will it get better?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>When Southern California was struck by an algal bloom last year, it lasted about six weeks, Dover said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Similarly, the current outbreak, in its eighth week, appears to be improving, and fewer sick animals are appearing on shores.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983433\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1983433 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/copy-of-430b7d55-5d0f-462b-a575-4679173d3bfd_wide-ee901cd15f80791a43dfdfef4a884dc7fcddf545-s1200-c85-800x450.jpg\" alt='A sea lion droops on some rocks behind yellow tape that says \"Fire Line Do Not Cross.\"' width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/copy-of-430b7d55-5d0f-462b-a575-4679173d3bfd_wide-ee901cd15f80791a43dfdfef4a884dc7fcddf545-s1200-c85-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/copy-of-430b7d55-5d0f-462b-a575-4679173d3bfd_wide-ee901cd15f80791a43dfdfef4a884dc7fcddf545-s1200-c85-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/copy-of-430b7d55-5d0f-462b-a575-4679173d3bfd_wide-ee901cd15f80791a43dfdfef4a884dc7fcddf545-s1200-c85-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/copy-of-430b7d55-5d0f-462b-a575-4679173d3bfd_wide-ee901cd15f80791a43dfdfef4a884dc7fcddf545-s1200-c85-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/copy-of-430b7d55-5d0f-462b-a575-4679173d3bfd_wide-ee901cd15f80791a43dfdfef4a884dc7fcddf545-s1200-c85.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">There is no antidote or specific remedy for poisoning from domoic acid, the toxin that the algal bloom in California is producing. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Channel Islands Marine and Wildlife Institute)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>To compare, Dover said lately his volunteer group has been receiving about 40 to 50 reports of sick animals per day. A month ago, they were receiving 40 to 50 reports per hour, though many reports tend to be duplicates of the same animal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While that is a good sign, not much can be done to speed up the process. Harmful algal blooms are nearly impossible to clean, especially at the scale that has emerged near California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Sea+lions+are+sick+and+dying+along+Southern+California%27s+coast.+Here%27s+what+to+know&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "A deadly toxin has been poisoning sea lions and dolphins, causing seizures, erratic behavior, bulging eyes and foaming at the mouth. It has been especially worse for pregnant mammals.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>It looked like something out of an apocalyptic movie.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over the past few weeks, droves of sick and dying sea animals have been washing up along the coast of Southern California, including beaches in Santa Barbara and Ventura.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The devastation has been caused by an outbreak of toxic algae on a scale never before seen in the region, according to NOAA Fisheries’ West Coast branch.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As of last week, local officials had estimated that over 100 dolphins and over 500 sea lions had been killed by the algal bloom. It appears that the toxins are slowly spreading to Northern California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983431\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1983431 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/photo-2023-06-16-10-59-521_custom-7acc15af608abbdc21effcd064aed6e71dfa61e7-s1200-c85-800x460.jpg\" alt=\"Sea lions and a dolphin are seen lying on the sea shore.\" width=\"800\" height=\"460\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/photo-2023-06-16-10-59-521_custom-7acc15af608abbdc21effcd064aed6e71dfa61e7-s1200-c85-800x460.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/photo-2023-06-16-10-59-521_custom-7acc15af608abbdc21effcd064aed6e71dfa61e7-s1200-c85-1020x586.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/photo-2023-06-16-10-59-521_custom-7acc15af608abbdc21effcd064aed6e71dfa61e7-s1200-c85-160x92.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/photo-2023-06-16-10-59-521_custom-7acc15af608abbdc21effcd064aed6e71dfa61e7-s1200-c85-768x441.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/photo-2023-06-16-10-59-521_custom-7acc15af608abbdc21effcd064aed6e71dfa61e7-s1200-c85.jpg 1046w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Channel Islands Marine and Wildlife Institute has been able to rescue over 100 sea mammals that were suffering from the algae outbreak. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Channel Islands Marine and Wildlife Institute)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Samuel Dover, who leads Channel Islands Marine & Wildlife Institute, has witnessed six algal blooms during his career and described the current one as the worst yet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The bloom is so much larger,” he told NPR. “This time, it’s in the center of the channel, where a lot of animals are.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>What is an algal bloom?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Algae are usually benign plants, commonly seen in the form of pond scum or kelp. But under certain conditions, they can grow out of control and generate deadly toxins.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When that happens, it is known as a \u003ca href=\"https://www.noaa.gov/what-is-harmful-algal-bloom\">bloom\u003c/a>. It tends to be a problem for U.S. states near the country’s coast and the Great Lakes. Over the years, algal blooms have \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2018/09/03/641606668/as-climate-warms-algae-blooms-in-drinking-water-supplies\">contaminated\u003c/a> tap water, \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/07/09/739874122/toxic-algae-bloom-closes-25-beaches-on-mississippis-coast-fed-by-fresh-floodwate\">forced\u003c/a> beaches to close, \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/03/06/1161339697/what-to-know-red-tide-florida-beaches-algae\">discolored\u003c/a> coastal waters and led to the demise of countless animals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Although algal blooms are considered a natural phenomenon, climate change and human activities do play a role in their frequency and intensity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In California, the algae outbreak is believed to have resulted from wind pushing water full of nutrients toward algae, making them grow. That process is not typically related to climate change, but it does not rule it out as a factor either, according to scientists at NOAA Fisheries’ West Coast branch.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>What are algae doing to the sea lions in California?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The bloom in California is producing domoic acid, which generally doesn’t affect humans but is poisonous to animals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When a sea creature suffers from domoic acid poisoning, it affects the animal’s brain and causes seizures, erratic behavior, bulging eyes and foaming at the mouth. Beachgoers have been warned to stay at least 50 feet away from sick animals in case they turn aggressive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983432\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1983432 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/photo-2023-06-16-10-34-04-1-_wide-0298a4fa48be217fb9eef8d674e930a04c358c9a-s1200-c85-800x450.jpg\" alt='The words \"Please keep back. Marine mammal rescue has been called\" is written on the sand, with a seal lying on the beach in the distance.' width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/photo-2023-06-16-10-34-04-1-_wide-0298a4fa48be217fb9eef8d674e930a04c358c9a-s1200-c85-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/photo-2023-06-16-10-34-04-1-_wide-0298a4fa48be217fb9eef8d674e930a04c358c9a-s1200-c85-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/photo-2023-06-16-10-34-04-1-_wide-0298a4fa48be217fb9eef8d674e930a04c358c9a-s1200-c85-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/photo-2023-06-16-10-34-04-1-_wide-0298a4fa48be217fb9eef8d674e930a04c358c9a-s1200-c85-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/photo-2023-06-16-10-34-04-1-_wide-0298a4fa48be217fb9eef8d674e930a04c358c9a-s1200-c85.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Beachgoers have been asked to stay at least 50 feet away from animals poisoned by toxic algae because of the risk that the sea creatures may turn aggressive. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Channel Islands Marine and Wildlife Institute)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>There is no antidote or specific remedy for domoic acid poisoning. Veterinarians have been giving some animals antiseizure medicine and keeping them hydrated in hopes that the toxins will flush out of their bodies. The problem is that the longer the toxins are in an animal’s system, the more difficult it becomes to treat the poisoning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Adult pregnant sea lions have been the most severely affected by the outbreak, according to Dover, of Channel Islands Marine & Wildlife Institute.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>When will it get better?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>When Southern California was struck by an algal bloom last year, it lasted about six weeks, Dover said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Similarly, the current outbreak, in its eighth week, appears to be improving, and fewer sick animals are appearing on shores.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983433\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1983433 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/copy-of-430b7d55-5d0f-462b-a575-4679173d3bfd_wide-ee901cd15f80791a43dfdfef4a884dc7fcddf545-s1200-c85-800x450.jpg\" alt='A sea lion droops on some rocks behind yellow tape that says \"Fire Line Do Not Cross.\"' width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/copy-of-430b7d55-5d0f-462b-a575-4679173d3bfd_wide-ee901cd15f80791a43dfdfef4a884dc7fcddf545-s1200-c85-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/copy-of-430b7d55-5d0f-462b-a575-4679173d3bfd_wide-ee901cd15f80791a43dfdfef4a884dc7fcddf545-s1200-c85-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/copy-of-430b7d55-5d0f-462b-a575-4679173d3bfd_wide-ee901cd15f80791a43dfdfef4a884dc7fcddf545-s1200-c85-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/copy-of-430b7d55-5d0f-462b-a575-4679173d3bfd_wide-ee901cd15f80791a43dfdfef4a884dc7fcddf545-s1200-c85-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/copy-of-430b7d55-5d0f-462b-a575-4679173d3bfd_wide-ee901cd15f80791a43dfdfef4a884dc7fcddf545-s1200-c85.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">There is no antidote or specific remedy for poisoning from domoic acid, the toxin that the algal bloom in California is producing. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Channel Islands Marine and Wildlife Institute)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>To compare, Dover said lately his volunteer group has been receiving about 40 to 50 reports of sick animals per day. A month ago, they were receiving 40 to 50 reports per hour, though many reports tend to be duplicates of the same animal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While that is a good sign, not much can be done to speed up the process. Harmful algal blooms are nearly impossible to clean, especially at the scale that has emerged near California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Sea+lions+are+sick+and+dying+along+Southern+California%27s+coast.+Here%27s+what+to+know&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>[dl_subscribe]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Go clamber around the tide pools at Asilomar State Beach this summer and you might notice something odd: Some of the rocks look like someone haphazardly glued twisty scraps of old macaroni to them. \u003cem>Nature enrolled in a kindergarten art class\u003c/em>, you might think.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983395\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 500px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/DL1009_wormsnail_shell_tower.gif\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/DL1009_wormsnail_shell_tower.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1983395\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A scaled wormsnail retracts into its tower-like shell to avoid drying out when exposed to the air during low tide. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But if you watch one of those noodle-like tubes closely, after a few seconds a squishy, speckled, black-and-orange creature may peep out from the opening. You’ve just found a scaled wormsnail — a curious marine animal that built this tube out of calcium carbonate secreted from its body.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It might look tiny and fragile, but looks can deceive: As climate change fuels marine heat waves that threaten countless ocean species, this odd little mollusk could prove to be a survivor. Its strength may stem, at least in part, from an adaptable diet of marine detritus, which it plucks from the current with a net made of its own mucus.\u003cbr>\n\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>A Fishing Net ‘Like Snot in Seawater’\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The scaled wormsnail is a snail, not a worm. It gets its confounding name because it resembles marine worms that also live in tubes. But while other snails carry their houses around on their backs, this one doesn’t move at all. It anchors itself to a rock and never leaves, its tube home protecting it from the crashing surf.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The wormsnail’s cloistered lifestyle brings with it a major drawback, though.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It can’t do the normal thing other gastropods would do, which is crawl around and search for food,” says Peter Macht, aquarium curator at the Seymour Marine Discovery Center at UC Santa Cruz.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So how can it find anything to eat?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a process that Macht sees every day at the Seymour Center’s aquarium, wormsnails fish for their dinner by casting a net. But instead of fashioning it from rope or thread like human fishers, they use something all snails have plenty of: mucus. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s going to look like snot in seawater,” Macht says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983393\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 500px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/DL1009_wormsnail_hauling_in.gif\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/DL1009_wormsnail_hauling_in.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1983393\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">One big pull at a time, a scaled wormsnail hauls in its mucus net, which has bits of food attached to it. In the wild, the snail’s diet typically includes tiny plankton, little bits of seaweed, and detritus churned up by the waves. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The snail releases mucus from a gland just below its mouth. But, unlike its more mobile relatives, which leave a trail of the slimy substance, the wormsnail sends mucus down the tentacles on either side of its head, forming it into strings like some invertebrate Spiderman slinging a web. The mucus strands ride the tides, spreading out into the water to create a miniature fishing net. It can cover more than 7 square inches in a matter of minutes, an impressive feat for a snail living in a tube the width of a pencil. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Reeling in the Catch With a Monstrous Mouth\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Once it casts its net, the snail simply sits and waits for goodies to drift by and get caught — a tiny crustacean here, a savory mote of algae there. As it gathers particles, the net gradually becomes visible to the human eye, like a fresh spiderweb gathering dust. And by snatching random organic detritus from the water, the snail acts as a recycler, similar to a hungry earthworm breaking down meal scraps.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When it’s time to eat, the wormsnail uses its radula — an undulating conveyor belt of jagged teeth — to snag and pull the mucus net down the hatch. Seen up close, a feeding wormsnail looks a bit like the Sarlacc, the tentacled desert monster from “Return of the Jedi,” as it drags struggling prey down its gaping maw.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983390\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 500px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/DL1009_wormsnail_radula.gif\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/DL1009_wormsnail_radula.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1983390\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A wormsnail hauls in its mucus net using a belt of hooked teeth called the radula. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>With no way of disentangling its catch from the net, the wormsnail swallows the entire bundle, mucus and all. This way, it recoups the calories it spent to make the net in the first place.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But a wormsnail has to stay alert if it wants to keep all that phlegmy goodness for itself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Often, their mucus nets fuse,” says biologist Michael Hadfield, who has studied wormsnails extensively at the University of Hawai’i at Manoa. “When one of them starts to pull it in, the others sense it, and they all pull in to make sure they get their share.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scourge of the Aquarium\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the Indian and Pacific oceans, the scaled wormsnail’s cousins antagonize other creatures, too. Tropical species of wormsnail sometimes coat corals with their mucus nets, making it harder for those corals to \u003ca href=\"https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsbl.2010.0291\">grow and survive\u003c/a>. Researchers aren’t sure why, but some suggest wormsnails’ nets hog food particles or alter the balance of \u003ca href=\"https://www.researchgate.net/publication/258391779_Detection_of_Bioactive_Compounds_in_the_Mucus_Nets_of_Dendropoma_maxima_Sowerby_1825_Prosobranch_Gastropod_Vermetidae_Mollusca\">chemicals \u003c/a>around the surfaces of corals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s always this death zone around the vermetids,” says Rüdiger Bieler of Chicago’s Field Museum, referring to the name given to the family of wormsnail species around the world. This can make them a pest to saltwater aquarium keepers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983403\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 500px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/DL1009_Wormsnail_in_private_aquarium_Brock_Leonard.gif\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/DL1009_Wormsnail_in_private_aquarium_Brock_Leonard.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1983403\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A wormsnail has cast a long net inside a private aquarium tank in Shreveport, Louisiana. \u003ccite>(Brock Leonard)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I’ve talked to a lot of aquarium folks,” Bieler says, “and it took me a while to realize how much they hate these things.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>In Warming Waters, a Varied Menu Goes a Long Way\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Along the California coast, the scaled wormsnail may be gaining a competitive advantage over its neighbors, as climate change heats up ocean habitats. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Biologists at UC Santa Barbara found that the 2014-15 marine heat wave known as the “Blob” gave a boost to scaled wormsnails living along the coast near the university’s campus. By contrast, invertebrates like sea stars, which eat wormsnails, perished during the event. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That freed up a lot of space that the wormsnail could colonize,” says marine ecologist Bob Miller, senior author on the 2022 study. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As a result, wormsnails spread to occupy over 80 times more space than before the Blob — from less than one-fifth of a square foot at each study site to over 16 square feet per site, on average.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Miller believes the scaled wormsnail may be able to withstand heat waves along the California coast because it has evolved within a range that extends south to Baja California, Mexico, where waters are already warmer to begin with.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not being a picky eater may help, too, the researchers noted. When a heat wave makes nutritious plankton hard to come by, for instance, shreds of kelp and other floating food bits can fill the snails’ phlegmy nets instead. \u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983401\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 500px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/DL1009_wormsnail_tangled_nets.gif\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/DL1009_wormsnail_tangled_nets.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1983401\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A wormsnail’s net can cover over 7 square inches in a few minutes. When multiple snails cluster together, their combined nets can span an even broader area. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Whatever may end up in their nets, wormsnails will continue to perform an important job: As their nets filter the water, they keep coastal habitats clean for everyone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’re doing their part in recycling dead plant material,” biologist Hadfield says. “If there were no recyclers except bacteria and fungi in the sea, there would be huge piles of decaying detritus.” Those piles would suck oxygen from the environment as they decomposed, potentially harming other marine animals. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So next time you’re exploring the tide pools, peering through clean, clear water at anemones, crabs and nudibranchs, just remember — among many other creatures, you’ve got a sedentary little snail and its mucus to thank.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Go clamber around the tide pools at Asilomar State Beach this summer and you might notice something odd: Some of the rocks look like someone haphazardly glued twisty scraps of old macaroni to them. \u003cem>Nature enrolled in a kindergarten art class\u003c/em>, you might think.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983395\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 500px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/DL1009_wormsnail_shell_tower.gif\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/DL1009_wormsnail_shell_tower.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1983395\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A scaled wormsnail retracts into its tower-like shell to avoid drying out when exposed to the air during low tide. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But if you watch one of those noodle-like tubes closely, after a few seconds a squishy, speckled, black-and-orange creature may peep out from the opening. You’ve just found a scaled wormsnail — a curious marine animal that built this tube out of calcium carbonate secreted from its body.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It might look tiny and fragile, but looks can deceive: As climate change fuels marine heat waves that threaten countless ocean species, this odd little mollusk could prove to be a survivor. Its strength may stem, at least in part, from an adaptable diet of marine detritus, which it plucks from the current with a net made of its own mucus.\u003cbr>\n\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>A Fishing Net ‘Like Snot in Seawater’\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The scaled wormsnail is a snail, not a worm. It gets its confounding name because it resembles marine worms that also live in tubes. But while other snails carry their houses around on their backs, this one doesn’t move at all. It anchors itself to a rock and never leaves, its tube home protecting it from the crashing surf.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The wormsnail’s cloistered lifestyle brings with it a major drawback, though.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It can’t do the normal thing other gastropods would do, which is crawl around and search for food,” says Peter Macht, aquarium curator at the Seymour Marine Discovery Center at UC Santa Cruz.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So how can it find anything to eat?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a process that Macht sees every day at the Seymour Center’s aquarium, wormsnails fish for their dinner by casting a net. But instead of fashioning it from rope or thread like human fishers, they use something all snails have plenty of: mucus. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s going to look like snot in seawater,” Macht says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983393\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 500px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/DL1009_wormsnail_hauling_in.gif\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/DL1009_wormsnail_hauling_in.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1983393\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">One big pull at a time, a scaled wormsnail hauls in its mucus net, which has bits of food attached to it. In the wild, the snail’s diet typically includes tiny plankton, little bits of seaweed, and detritus churned up by the waves. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The snail releases mucus from a gland just below its mouth. But, unlike its more mobile relatives, which leave a trail of the slimy substance, the wormsnail sends mucus down the tentacles on either side of its head, forming it into strings like some invertebrate Spiderman slinging a web. The mucus strands ride the tides, spreading out into the water to create a miniature fishing net. It can cover more than 7 square inches in a matter of minutes, an impressive feat for a snail living in a tube the width of a pencil. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Reeling in the Catch With a Monstrous Mouth\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Once it casts its net, the snail simply sits and waits for goodies to drift by and get caught — a tiny crustacean here, a savory mote of algae there. As it gathers particles, the net gradually becomes visible to the human eye, like a fresh spiderweb gathering dust. And by snatching random organic detritus from the water, the snail acts as a recycler, similar to a hungry earthworm breaking down meal scraps.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When it’s time to eat, the wormsnail uses its radula — an undulating conveyor belt of jagged teeth — to snag and pull the mucus net down the hatch. Seen up close, a feeding wormsnail looks a bit like the Sarlacc, the tentacled desert monster from “Return of the Jedi,” as it drags struggling prey down its gaping maw.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983390\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 500px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/DL1009_wormsnail_radula.gif\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/DL1009_wormsnail_radula.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1983390\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A wormsnail hauls in its mucus net using a belt of hooked teeth called the radula. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>With no way of disentangling its catch from the net, the wormsnail swallows the entire bundle, mucus and all. This way, it recoups the calories it spent to make the net in the first place.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But a wormsnail has to stay alert if it wants to keep all that phlegmy goodness for itself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Often, their mucus nets fuse,” says biologist Michael Hadfield, who has studied wormsnails extensively at the University of Hawai’i at Manoa. “When one of them starts to pull it in, the others sense it, and they all pull in to make sure they get their share.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Scourge of the Aquarium\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the Indian and Pacific oceans, the scaled wormsnail’s cousins antagonize other creatures, too. Tropical species of wormsnail sometimes coat corals with their mucus nets, making it harder for those corals to \u003ca href=\"https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsbl.2010.0291\">grow and survive\u003c/a>. Researchers aren’t sure why, but some suggest wormsnails’ nets hog food particles or alter the balance of \u003ca href=\"https://www.researchgate.net/publication/258391779_Detection_of_Bioactive_Compounds_in_the_Mucus_Nets_of_Dendropoma_maxima_Sowerby_1825_Prosobranch_Gastropod_Vermetidae_Mollusca\">chemicals \u003c/a>around the surfaces of corals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s always this death zone around the vermetids,” says Rüdiger Bieler of Chicago’s Field Museum, referring to the name given to the family of wormsnail species around the world. This can make them a pest to saltwater aquarium keepers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983403\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 500px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/DL1009_Wormsnail_in_private_aquarium_Brock_Leonard.gif\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/DL1009_Wormsnail_in_private_aquarium_Brock_Leonard.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1983403\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A wormsnail has cast a long net inside a private aquarium tank in Shreveport, Louisiana. \u003ccite>(Brock Leonard)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I’ve talked to a lot of aquarium folks,” Bieler says, “and it took me a while to realize how much they hate these things.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>In Warming Waters, a Varied Menu Goes a Long Way\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Along the California coast, the scaled wormsnail may be gaining a competitive advantage over its neighbors, as climate change heats up ocean habitats. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Biologists at UC Santa Barbara found that the 2014-15 marine heat wave known as the “Blob” gave a boost to scaled wormsnails living along the coast near the university’s campus. By contrast, invertebrates like sea stars, which eat wormsnails, perished during the event. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That freed up a lot of space that the wormsnail could colonize,” says marine ecologist Bob Miller, senior author on the 2022 study. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As a result, wormsnails spread to occupy over 80 times more space than before the Blob — from less than one-fifth of a square foot at each study site to over 16 square feet per site, on average.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Miller believes the scaled wormsnail may be able to withstand heat waves along the California coast because it has evolved within a range that extends south to Baja California, Mexico, where waters are already warmer to begin with.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not being a picky eater may help, too, the researchers noted. When a heat wave makes nutritious plankton hard to come by, for instance, shreds of kelp and other floating food bits can fill the snails’ phlegmy nets instead. \u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983401\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 500px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/DL1009_wormsnail_tangled_nets.gif\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/DL1009_wormsnail_tangled_nets.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1983401\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A wormsnail’s net can cover over 7 square inches in a few minutes. When multiple snails cluster together, their combined nets can span an even broader area. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Whatever may end up in their nets, wormsnails will continue to perform an important job: As their nets filter the water, they keep coastal habitats clean for everyone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’re doing their part in recycling dead plant material,” biologist Hadfield says. “If there were no recyclers except bacteria and fungi in the sea, there would be huge piles of decaying detritus.” Those piles would suck oxygen from the environment as they decomposed, potentially harming other marine animals. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So next time you’re exploring the tide pools, peering through clean, clear water at anemones, crabs and nudibranchs, just remember — among many other creatures, you’ve got a sedentary little snail and its mucus to thank.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "record-lows-to-near-brimming-north-bay-reservoirs-stage-remarkable-recovery",
"title": "Record Lows to Near Brimming: North Bay Reservoirs Stage Remarkable Recovery",
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"content": "\u003cp>Two North Bay reservoirs are flush with water just a year after their levels fell to record-setting lows.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Heading into the second week of July, Lake Sonoma and Lake Mendocino — at 66% and 79% full, respectively — are both well \u003ca href=\"https://cdec.water.ca.gov/reportapp/javareports?name=RES\">above their average levels for this time of year\u003c/a>, and roughly twice as full as they were last summer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Unless you count the first year it was filled, Lake Sonoma had dropped to the lowest level ever,” said David Rabbitt, a Sonoma County supervisor and a Sonoma Water director. “To rebound like that in one year was beyond anyone’s imagination.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983352\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2500px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1983352\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/071023-Lakes-Sonoma-Mendocino-Diptych-1-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"Two photos of the a lake with low water levels. On the left, a bridge crosses a span where the banks of the lake are so low that the lake bed has been exposed. On the right, the same is the case but boats are also seen in dock.\" width=\"2500\" height=\"827\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/071023-Lakes-Sonoma-Mendocino-Diptych-1-KQED.jpg 2500w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/071023-Lakes-Sonoma-Mendocino-Diptych-1-KQED-800x265.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/071023-Lakes-Sonoma-Mendocino-Diptych-1-KQED-1020x337.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/071023-Lakes-Sonoma-Mendocino-Diptych-1-KQED-160x53.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/071023-Lakes-Sonoma-Mendocino-Diptych-1-KQED-768x254.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/071023-Lakes-Sonoma-Mendocino-Diptych-1-KQED-1536x508.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/071023-Lakes-Sonoma-Mendocino-Diptych-1-KQED-2048x677.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/071023-Lakes-Sonoma-Mendocino-Diptych-1-KQED-1920x635.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2500px) 100vw, 2500px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Left: A view of the Warm Springs Creek Bridge from the Lake Sonoma Overlook on the southeastern coast of the lake on June 11, 2021. Right: A view of the Lake Sonoma Resort Area from the Lake Sonoma Overlook on the southeastern coast of the lake on June 11, 2021. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>As the summer heats up, \u003ca href=\"https://cdec.water.ca.gov/reportapp/javareports?name=RES\">reservoir levels statewide are collectively at around 87%\u003c/a>, the result of the massive amount of precipitation that storms dumped on the state this year. But while other reservoirs across California depend on runoff from the Sierra Nevada snowpack, Lake Mendocino and Lake Sonoma — serving over 600,000 customers in Sonoma and Marin counties — rely on seasonal rains in the hills above the Russian River.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And although this flash-in-the-pan system normally goes through wet-to-dry extremes, human-caused climate change has significantly widened that chasm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The weather patterns are so volatile,” said Rabbitt. “Three years of drought can be followed by one year of intense rainfall can be followed by three or more years of drought again. And we seem to be in this pattern.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983333\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1983333\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/RS49925_029_MendocinoCounty_LakeMendocinoDrought_06112021-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"Two people stand in the middle of a dried out lake bed.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1331\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/RS49925_029_MendocinoCounty_LakeMendocinoDrought_06112021-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/RS49925_029_MendocinoCounty_LakeMendocinoDrought_06112021-KQED-800x532.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/RS49925_029_MendocinoCounty_LakeMendocinoDrought_06112021-KQED-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/RS49925_029_MendocinoCounty_LakeMendocinoDrought_06112021-KQED-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/RS49925_029_MendocinoCounty_LakeMendocinoDrought_06112021-KQED-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/RS49925_029_MendocinoCounty_LakeMendocinoDrought_06112021-KQED-1536x1022.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/RS49925_029_MendocinoCounty_LakeMendocinoDrought_06112021-KQED-1920x1278.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Two people and a dog wade near the coast of Lake Mendocino on June 11, 2021. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>He notes that even with the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1982822/6-common-misconceptions-about-el-nino-and-its-impact-on-california-weather\">grand reentrance of El Niño this summer\u003c/a> — which could usher in another wet, stormy winter — his agency has to prepare for what may be a dry year ahead.[pullquote size='medium' align='right' citation=\"Supervisor David Rabbitt, Sonoma County\"]‘The weather patterns are so volatile. Three years of drought can be followed by one year of intense rainfall can be followed by three or more years of drought again.’[/pullquote]Regardless of what comes from the skies, Sonoma Water, which collectively manages both reservoirs with the Army Corps of Engineers, uses satellite forecasting to watch for coming storms to decide in real time when to release water. When a storm is on its way, the agency can decide to let water out or keep it in the reservoir if there is no storm on track. While it sounds like a no-brainer, the concept is new to how the reservoirs are managed because of rules set up decades ago. This practice allowed the agencies to keep 19,000 acre-feet of water in Lake Sonoma and 5,000 acre-feet of water in Lake Mendocino this winter, instead of releasing it into the ocean.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“While we think of Lake Sonoma as a large reservoir, compared to some of the others in the state, it’s not,” said Nicholas Malasavage, chief of the operations and readiness division at the Army Corps’ San Francisco office. “Imagine the amount of water that could be saved if [the state] utilized that tool to its fullest potential.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983350\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2500px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1983350\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/071023-Lakes-Sonoma-Mendocino-Diptych-2-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"Two photos of the boat dock at different points in time. On the left, the dock sits on the floor of the dried out lake bed. On the right, it floats on top of the water.\" width=\"2500\" height=\"827\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/071023-Lakes-Sonoma-Mendocino-Diptych-2-KQED.jpg 2500w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/071023-Lakes-Sonoma-Mendocino-Diptych-2-KQED-800x265.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/071023-Lakes-Sonoma-Mendocino-Diptych-2-KQED-1020x337.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/071023-Lakes-Sonoma-Mendocino-Diptych-2-KQED-160x53.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/071023-Lakes-Sonoma-Mendocino-Diptych-2-KQED-768x254.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/071023-Lakes-Sonoma-Mendocino-Diptych-2-KQED-1536x508.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/071023-Lakes-Sonoma-Mendocino-Diptych-2-KQED-2048x677.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/071023-Lakes-Sonoma-Mendocino-Diptych-2-KQED-1920x635.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2500px) 100vw, 2500px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A boat dock at Lake Mendocino on June 11, 2021 (left) and July 5, 2023 (right). \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Sonoma Water also uses a series of stationary radar units across the Bay Area to better understand where these storms will drop the majority of their rainfall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Malasavage said fuller reservoirs and the possibility of another wet year also raise a concern that was avoided last winter along the Russian River: disastrous flooding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Last year we were just hoping for rain,” he said. But this year, with reservoirs fuller, the agency has “to be more methodical and more mindful” of potential flooding when winter begins.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983339\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1983339\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/RS66732_230705-LakeMendocino-21-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A person wearing a baseball cap wades into water holding a fishing rod in their hands.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/RS66732_230705-LakeMendocino-21-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/RS66732_230705-LakeMendocino-21-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/RS66732_230705-LakeMendocino-21-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/RS66732_230705-LakeMendocino-21-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/RS66732_230705-LakeMendocino-21-BL-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/RS66732_230705-LakeMendocino-21-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/RS66732_230705-LakeMendocino-21-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sean Adams stands on a partially submerged park bench to fish at the Lake Mendocino South Ramp on July 5, 2023. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>During the rainy season, managers in charge of flows from the reservoirs also allowed farmers to use excess water from the Russian River to submerge their land, a process meant to slowly recharge groundwater aquifers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They were just simulating what naturally would have been a rainy season,” said Elizabeth Salomone, general manager for the Russian River Flood Control and Water Conservation Improvement District. “Some of these farmers who did that saw better yields in 2022. Word of mouth got around and now folks are opening up a lot more to it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But even with all the rain this year, Salomone said she is worried about both too much and too little rainfall next winter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983351\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2500px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1983351\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/071023-Lakes-Sonoma-Mendocino-Diptych-3-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"Two photos of the same iron bridge at different moments in time. On the left, there are standing pools of water in the river bed. On the right, the banks of the river brim with flowing water.\" width=\"2500\" height=\"827\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/071023-Lakes-Sonoma-Mendocino-Diptych-3-KQED.jpg 2500w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/071023-Lakes-Sonoma-Mendocino-Diptych-3-KQED-800x265.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/071023-Lakes-Sonoma-Mendocino-Diptych-3-KQED-1020x337.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/071023-Lakes-Sonoma-Mendocino-Diptych-3-KQED-160x53.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/071023-Lakes-Sonoma-Mendocino-Diptych-3-KQED-768x254.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/071023-Lakes-Sonoma-Mendocino-Diptych-3-KQED-1536x508.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/071023-Lakes-Sonoma-Mendocino-Diptych-3-KQED-2048x677.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/071023-Lakes-Sonoma-Mendocino-Diptych-3-KQED-1920x635.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2500px) 100vw, 2500px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Memorial Bridge over the Russian River near Healdsburg on June 3, 2021 (left), and July 5, 2023 (right). \u003ccite>(Justin Sullivan/Getty Images (left), Beth LaBerge/KQED (right))\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I need to dust off my crystal ball because as a water supplier, I always have to consider the worst-case scenario,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She says she gets calls from farmers all the time asking whether the drought is over, and tells them they’re asking the wrong question.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We need to stop focusing on whether we are out of a drought, but instead, ask this question: What if it doesn’t rain when we expect it to rain?” Salomone said. “Because one thing we can expect is that it’s likely not going to occur the way we have expected it to in the past. The historical patterns of precipitation are no more.”[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Lake Sonoma and Lake Mendocino — at 66% and 79% full, respectively — are both well above their average levels for this time of year. But there are concerns about future rainfall.",
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"title": "Record Lows to Near Brimming: North Bay Reservoirs Stage Remarkable Recovery | KQED",
"description": "Lake Sonoma and Lake Mendocino — at 66% and 79% full, respectively — are both well above their average levels for this time of year. But there are concerns about future rainfall.",
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"headline": "Record Lows to Near Brimming: North Bay Reservoirs Stage Remarkable Recovery",
"datePublished": "2023-07-10T15:04:21-07:00",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Two North Bay reservoirs are flush with water just a year after their levels fell to record-setting lows.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Heading into the second week of July, Lake Sonoma and Lake Mendocino — at 66% and 79% full, respectively — are both well \u003ca href=\"https://cdec.water.ca.gov/reportapp/javareports?name=RES\">above their average levels for this time of year\u003c/a>, and roughly twice as full as they were last summer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Unless you count the first year it was filled, Lake Sonoma had dropped to the lowest level ever,” said David Rabbitt, a Sonoma County supervisor and a Sonoma Water director. “To rebound like that in one year was beyond anyone’s imagination.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983352\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2500px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1983352\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/071023-Lakes-Sonoma-Mendocino-Diptych-1-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"Two photos of the a lake with low water levels. On the left, a bridge crosses a span where the banks of the lake are so low that the lake bed has been exposed. On the right, the same is the case but boats are also seen in dock.\" width=\"2500\" height=\"827\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/071023-Lakes-Sonoma-Mendocino-Diptych-1-KQED.jpg 2500w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/071023-Lakes-Sonoma-Mendocino-Diptych-1-KQED-800x265.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/071023-Lakes-Sonoma-Mendocino-Diptych-1-KQED-1020x337.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/071023-Lakes-Sonoma-Mendocino-Diptych-1-KQED-160x53.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/071023-Lakes-Sonoma-Mendocino-Diptych-1-KQED-768x254.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/071023-Lakes-Sonoma-Mendocino-Diptych-1-KQED-1536x508.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/071023-Lakes-Sonoma-Mendocino-Diptych-1-KQED-2048x677.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/071023-Lakes-Sonoma-Mendocino-Diptych-1-KQED-1920x635.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2500px) 100vw, 2500px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Left: A view of the Warm Springs Creek Bridge from the Lake Sonoma Overlook on the southeastern coast of the lake on June 11, 2021. Right: A view of the Lake Sonoma Resort Area from the Lake Sonoma Overlook on the southeastern coast of the lake on June 11, 2021. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>As the summer heats up, \u003ca href=\"https://cdec.water.ca.gov/reportapp/javareports?name=RES\">reservoir levels statewide are collectively at around 87%\u003c/a>, the result of the massive amount of precipitation that storms dumped on the state this year. But while other reservoirs across California depend on runoff from the Sierra Nevada snowpack, Lake Mendocino and Lake Sonoma — serving over 600,000 customers in Sonoma and Marin counties — rely on seasonal rains in the hills above the Russian River.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And although this flash-in-the-pan system normally goes through wet-to-dry extremes, human-caused climate change has significantly widened that chasm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The weather patterns are so volatile,” said Rabbitt. “Three years of drought can be followed by one year of intense rainfall can be followed by three or more years of drought again. And we seem to be in this pattern.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983333\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1983333\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/RS49925_029_MendocinoCounty_LakeMendocinoDrought_06112021-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"Two people stand in the middle of a dried out lake bed.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1331\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/RS49925_029_MendocinoCounty_LakeMendocinoDrought_06112021-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/RS49925_029_MendocinoCounty_LakeMendocinoDrought_06112021-KQED-800x532.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/RS49925_029_MendocinoCounty_LakeMendocinoDrought_06112021-KQED-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/RS49925_029_MendocinoCounty_LakeMendocinoDrought_06112021-KQED-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/RS49925_029_MendocinoCounty_LakeMendocinoDrought_06112021-KQED-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/RS49925_029_MendocinoCounty_LakeMendocinoDrought_06112021-KQED-1536x1022.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/RS49925_029_MendocinoCounty_LakeMendocinoDrought_06112021-KQED-1920x1278.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Two people and a dog wade near the coast of Lake Mendocino on June 11, 2021. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>He notes that even with the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1982822/6-common-misconceptions-about-el-nino-and-its-impact-on-california-weather\">grand reentrance of El Niño this summer\u003c/a> — which could usher in another wet, stormy winter — his agency has to prepare for what may be a dry year ahead.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘The weather patterns are so volatile. Three years of drought can be followed by one year of intense rainfall can be followed by three or more years of drought again.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Regardless of what comes from the skies, Sonoma Water, which collectively manages both reservoirs with the Army Corps of Engineers, uses satellite forecasting to watch for coming storms to decide in real time when to release water. When a storm is on its way, the agency can decide to let water out or keep it in the reservoir if there is no storm on track. While it sounds like a no-brainer, the concept is new to how the reservoirs are managed because of rules set up decades ago. This practice allowed the agencies to keep 19,000 acre-feet of water in Lake Sonoma and 5,000 acre-feet of water in Lake Mendocino this winter, instead of releasing it into the ocean.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“While we think of Lake Sonoma as a large reservoir, compared to some of the others in the state, it’s not,” said Nicholas Malasavage, chief of the operations and readiness division at the Army Corps’ San Francisco office. “Imagine the amount of water that could be saved if [the state] utilized that tool to its fullest potential.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983350\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2500px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1983350\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/071023-Lakes-Sonoma-Mendocino-Diptych-2-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"Two photos of the boat dock at different points in time. On the left, the dock sits on the floor of the dried out lake bed. On the right, it floats on top of the water.\" width=\"2500\" height=\"827\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/071023-Lakes-Sonoma-Mendocino-Diptych-2-KQED.jpg 2500w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/071023-Lakes-Sonoma-Mendocino-Diptych-2-KQED-800x265.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/071023-Lakes-Sonoma-Mendocino-Diptych-2-KQED-1020x337.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/071023-Lakes-Sonoma-Mendocino-Diptych-2-KQED-160x53.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/071023-Lakes-Sonoma-Mendocino-Diptych-2-KQED-768x254.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/071023-Lakes-Sonoma-Mendocino-Diptych-2-KQED-1536x508.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/071023-Lakes-Sonoma-Mendocino-Diptych-2-KQED-2048x677.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/071023-Lakes-Sonoma-Mendocino-Diptych-2-KQED-1920x635.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2500px) 100vw, 2500px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A boat dock at Lake Mendocino on June 11, 2021 (left) and July 5, 2023 (right). \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Sonoma Water also uses a series of stationary radar units across the Bay Area to better understand where these storms will drop the majority of their rainfall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Malasavage said fuller reservoirs and the possibility of another wet year also raise a concern that was avoided last winter along the Russian River: disastrous flooding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Last year we were just hoping for rain,” he said. But this year, with reservoirs fuller, the agency has “to be more methodical and more mindful” of potential flooding when winter begins.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983339\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1983339\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/RS66732_230705-LakeMendocino-21-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A person wearing a baseball cap wades into water holding a fishing rod in their hands.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/RS66732_230705-LakeMendocino-21-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/RS66732_230705-LakeMendocino-21-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/RS66732_230705-LakeMendocino-21-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/RS66732_230705-LakeMendocino-21-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/RS66732_230705-LakeMendocino-21-BL-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/RS66732_230705-LakeMendocino-21-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/RS66732_230705-LakeMendocino-21-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sean Adams stands on a partially submerged park bench to fish at the Lake Mendocino South Ramp on July 5, 2023. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>During the rainy season, managers in charge of flows from the reservoirs also allowed farmers to use excess water from the Russian River to submerge their land, a process meant to slowly recharge groundwater aquifers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They were just simulating what naturally would have been a rainy season,” said Elizabeth Salomone, general manager for the Russian River Flood Control and Water Conservation Improvement District. “Some of these farmers who did that saw better yields in 2022. Word of mouth got around and now folks are opening up a lot more to it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But even with all the rain this year, Salomone said she is worried about both too much and too little rainfall next winter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983351\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2500px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1983351\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/071023-Lakes-Sonoma-Mendocino-Diptych-3-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"Two photos of the same iron bridge at different moments in time. On the left, there are standing pools of water in the river bed. On the right, the banks of the river brim with flowing water.\" width=\"2500\" height=\"827\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/071023-Lakes-Sonoma-Mendocino-Diptych-3-KQED.jpg 2500w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/071023-Lakes-Sonoma-Mendocino-Diptych-3-KQED-800x265.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/071023-Lakes-Sonoma-Mendocino-Diptych-3-KQED-1020x337.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/071023-Lakes-Sonoma-Mendocino-Diptych-3-KQED-160x53.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/071023-Lakes-Sonoma-Mendocino-Diptych-3-KQED-768x254.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/071023-Lakes-Sonoma-Mendocino-Diptych-3-KQED-1536x508.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/071023-Lakes-Sonoma-Mendocino-Diptych-3-KQED-2048x677.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/07/071023-Lakes-Sonoma-Mendocino-Diptych-3-KQED-1920x635.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2500px) 100vw, 2500px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Memorial Bridge over the Russian River near Healdsburg on June 3, 2021 (left), and July 5, 2023 (right). \u003ccite>(Justin Sullivan/Getty Images (left), Beth LaBerge/KQED (right))\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I need to dust off my crystal ball because as a water supplier, I always have to consider the worst-case scenario,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She says she gets calls from farmers all the time asking whether the drought is over, and tells them they’re asking the wrong question.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We need to stop focusing on whether we are out of a drought, but instead, ask this question: What if it doesn’t rain when we expect it to rain?” Salomone said. “Because one thing we can expect is that it’s likely not going to occur the way we have expected it to in the past. The historical patterns of precipitation are no more.”\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>San Francisco’s future looks a whole lot wetter, thanks in part to human-caused climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s according to a new city-funded study that predicts that San Francisco will be hit by\u003ca href=\"https://sfpuc.org/about-us/reports/san-francisco-bay-area-precipitation-warmer-world\"> increasingly intense storms in the coming decades\u003c/a>, and needs to dramatically update its stormwater infrastructure to try to handle the deluge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re gonna see more areas that flood that have never flooded before,” said Kris May, founder of the Pathways Climate Institute, a San Francisco-based consulting firm, who helped lead the study. “I don’t think we have nomenclature anymore for what is coming with climate change.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The report, which was released weeks after KQED filed a public records request about it, predicts that storms in San Francisco, and throughout the Bay Area, could become 37% wetter by the end of this century.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our infrastructure is not designed for these big storms, and we’re never going to really be able to design it to handle them,” said May, noting that the study stops short of recommending how the city should adapt its sewer system and water-related infrastructure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We don’t know how to solve this yet and that’s what’s scary for most of the folks I’ve been working with,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While San Francisco has its own unique challenges, May added, it’s among scores of coastal cities that are now being forced to address storm-related threats.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don’t think any city is really in the shape to prepare for the storms that are coming,” May said. “It’s just going to be a big change that the country as a whole has to deal with.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label=\"more on climate adaptation\" tag=\"climate-change-adaptation\"]Unlike typical climate studies that cover larger geographic areas, this report focuses on only 3 kilometers (just under 2 miles), in an effort to identify which parts of the city are most vulnerable to flooding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It enables us to look at extreme weather in ways we hadn’t before,” said study co-author Michael Wehner, a senior scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. “If you use the old techniques, you’re underestimating how bad the future is.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For San Francisco, that future periodically brings the heightened risk of intense flooding in a city with aging infrastructure that’s bordered by water on three sides.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The public needs to know that dangerous climate change is already here,” he said, pointing to the intense atmospheric river storms that battered the city earlier this year. “This is not our grandchildren’s problem or our children’s problem. It’s ours.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition to overall wetter conditions, the study predicts increasingly intense bursts of heavy rain during storms — up to two-thirds wetter by the end of the century — the type of brief torrents that can easily overwhelm sewer systems, swamp cars and cause significant property damage and even loss of life, said Michael Mak, a Pathways water resources engineer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Francisco got a preview of that this winter, when massive amounts of rainfall in short periods left thousands without power, turned roads into rivers and downed scores of trees across the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If the city does not adapt, “we’re going to see more events like we saw over the past few months, except it might be much more frequent than once every few decades and might be every other year, or it might be multiple times a season,” said Mak.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to Mak, San Francisco’s sewer system and flood infrastructure, designed to clean and push water out to the bay during storms, simply don’t have the capacity to handle the extreme influxes of water that are expected to become more frequent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“At first, it was like, ‘Wow, OK, these extreme storms are going to be much more extreme than what we’ve seen,’” said Brian Strong, San Francisco’s chief resilience officer. “Then this past year, we’ve seen some of that come true.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Strong, whose office helped commission the study, recognizes there are limits to how San Francisco can physically adapt its infrastructure to deal with substantially more rainfall. 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Gavin Newsom\"]‘Today, truck manufacturers join our urgent efforts to slash air pollution, showing the rest of the country that we can both cut dangerous pollution and build the economy of the future.’[/pullquote]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jed Mandel, president of the manufacturing association, said in a statement that the agreement is evidence of the group’s “commitment to reducing emissions and to a zero-emissions commercial vehicle future.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He touted it as an example of industry and California’s air regulators working together, although truck makers had previously fought these clean truck rules.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mandel’s manufacturers association and several truck companies, including Volvo, Daimler Truck, Volkswagen and PACCAR, had opposed clean truck rules on the federal and state level while they were publicly promoting zero-emissions fleets, \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2022/12/08/1141303693/truck-makers-lobby-to-weaken-u-s-climate-policies-report-finds\">KQED’s Laura Klivans reported\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sasan Sadaat, a senior researcher and policy analyst with the environmental law organization Earth Justice, said the manufacturing association has for years actively fought against clean trucks in California and across the country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“At every turn, whether it’s the Advanced Clean Truck rule, the Advanced Clean Fleets rule, the Heavy Duty NOx rule, challenging California’s authority to pass its own regulations, countering the stringency of EPA’s regulations, they’ve been the greatest barrier to more ambitious rules in slashing air pollution from trucks.” he said. “That’s their record.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As part of the new agreement, California will adopt some of the federal Environmental Protection Agency’s less-strict rules on nitrogen oxide emissions and provide several years of lead time before passing new regulations.[aside label='More on Climate Change' tag='climate-change']“Through this agreement, we have aligned on a single nationwide nitrogen oxide emissions standard, secured needed lead time and stability for manufacturers, and agreed on regulatory changes that will ensure continued availability of commercial vehicles,” Mandel said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The American Trucking Associations has said that California’s regulations are too costly and will be burdensome for businesses to adopt.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The industry group did not appear to approve of the agreement and issued a statement Thursday that said that while it has long advocated for harmonious regulations between California and the federal government, “the trucking industry shouldn’t be strong armed by the government into an agreement with such terms.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our association represents motor carrier members — the paying customers who will inherit the costs of this agreement — and we will not roll over nor relinquish our right to litigate with any party when our interests are threatened,” the statement said. “It is clear that America has lost its way when the government bullies the private sector to succumb to unachievable timelines, targets and technologies.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The pact will have national implications, as other states typically follow California’s rules. 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"title": "How Greening California Schoolyards Protects Kids and the Climate",
"publishDate": 1688043601,
"format": "audio",
"headTitle": "How Greening California Schoolyards Protects Kids and the Climate | KQED",
"labelTerm": {
"site": "science"
},
"content": "\u003cp>Mayra Gudiño walked across the central schoolyard at Bridges Academy at Melrose, a public elementary school in East Oakland last fall. It’s a familiar place, where Gudiño has sent all three of her children for their education.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Mayra Gudiño, parent\"]‘They don’t have green areas, they don’t have shade. Everything is cement, children get hurt very often.’[/pullquote]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the yard didn’t look much like one, it was closer to an enormous parking lot, surrounded by blue, one-story school buildings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’ve always said Bridges is my second home and the second home of my children,” Gudiño said in Spanish.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Gudiño said it looks sad. She’d like something far happier for her kids.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They don’t have green areas, they don’t have shade. Everything is cement, children get hurt very often,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983205\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1983205\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS59505_036_KQEDScience_BridgesAcademyOakland_10202022-qut.jpg\" alt=\"Children wearing masks play in a schoolyard on asphalt.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS59505_036_KQEDScience_BridgesAcademyOakland_10202022-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS59505_036_KQEDScience_BridgesAcademyOakland_10202022-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS59505_036_KQEDScience_BridgesAcademyOakland_10202022-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS59505_036_KQEDScience_BridgesAcademyOakland_10202022-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS59505_036_KQEDScience_BridgesAcademyOakland_10202022-qut-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS59505_036_KQEDScience_BridgesAcademyOakland_10202022-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Children play in the schoolyard at Bridges Academy at Melrose in Oakland on Oct. 20, 2022. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>And even on a mild morning, the blacktop beneath Gudiño’s feet was getting warm. Asphalt and other surfaces made from petroleum (asphalt is a byproduct of refining crude oil) heat up far beyond the temperature of the surrounding air, especially in the direct sun. As the world warms, schoolyards like this one are becoming a safety hazard due to extreme heat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sharon Danks is the founder and CEO of \u003ca href=\"https://www.greenschoolyards.org/\">Green Schoolyards America\u003c/a>, a nonprofit that works to transform asphalt playgrounds into ones teeming with nature. She said asphalt-based schoolyards are common: “It’s the standard way our schools have been built: Take out the trees, flatten the site, build your school.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[ad fullwidth]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She and her colleagues are concerned about the effect extreme heat from these schoolyards will have on the young bodies running across them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Danks has taken many schoolyard heat measurements in her years in this field. “On a 90-degree day when we’ve measured temperatures with our surface thermometers, rubber safety surfaces are 165 degrees and asphalt is a mere 140,” she said. Rubber safety surfaces are spongy materials sometimes made from recycled tires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those temperatures can overheat or burn a young body.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Grass, on the other hand, is typically just above air temperature in the sun, and below it in the shade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983207\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1983207\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/Screen-Shot-2022-11-30-at-2.11.36-PM-800x447-1.png\" alt=\"An infographic slide showing side by side thermal imaging of a playground and a regular photo of a playground.\" width=\"800\" height=\"447\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/Screen-Shot-2022-11-30-at-2.11.36-PM-800x447-1.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/Screen-Shot-2022-11-30-at-2.11.36-PM-800x447-1-160x89.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/Screen-Shot-2022-11-30-at-2.11.36-PM-800x447-1-768x429.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The nonprofit Green Schoolyards America regularly finds that asphalt and rubber surfaces in full sun greatly exceed the temperature of the air, as seen in this image taken with a thermal camera. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Green Schoolyards America)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Using geographic information system (GIS) mapping, Danks and colleagues at the mapping service \u003ca href=\"https://www.greeninfo.org/\">GreenInfo Network\u003c/a> found that the average California school has just 9% of tree cover. And those trees are typically in places where students are not, like outside the front entrance, or by a parking lot.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All this asphalt can contribute to the \u003ca href=\"https://www.epa.gov/heatislands/climate-change-and-heat-islands\">urban heat island effect\u003c/a>, in which structures like buildings and roads absorb and reemit the sun’s heat more than natural landscapes like forests or bodies of water, leading to higher-than-average temperatures in urban areas.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>California invests in greening schoolyards\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Last year, California earmarked $150 million for green schoolyards. One initiative pushing the work forward is called the “\u003ca href=\"https://www.greenschoolyards.org/ca-schoolyard-forests\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">California Schoolyard Forest System\u003c/a>,” a collaboration between the California Department of Education, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire), nonprofits Green Schoolyards America and Ten Strands, school districts and county offices of education.[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Walter Passmore, CAL FIRE State Urban Forester\"]‘Our big, green audacious goal is to plant enough trees by 2035 so that when mature, they’ll provide 30% shade cover to child-accessible areas.’[/pullquote]“Our big, green audacious goal is to plant enough trees by 2035 so that when mature, they’ll provide 30% shade cover to child-accessible areas,” said Walter Passmore, a State Urban Forester with CAL FIRE.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Passmore said the money is just a drop in the bucket when you consider the state’s more than 10,000 public schools, roughly 130,000 acres of land, and nearly 6 million students. The program will prioritize schools in communities with high poverty levels, minimal tree cover and hot climates. Passmore hopes the initial funding will be a “down payment,” with more to come in the future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State legislators also sent a bill to Gov. Gavin Newsom to \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billStatusClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB2566\">codify a grant program for school greening projects\u003c/a>. Newsom vetoed the bill in September, stating it would put “cost pressure” on the state with an “ongoing commitment not provided for in the budget.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State lawmakers are working on various bills to accelerate the greening of schoolyards. \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240AB527\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">One bill\u003c/a> aims to codify a grant program for school greening projects (a \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billStatusClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB2566\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">similar bill\u003c/a> was vetoed by Gov. Gavin Newsom last year, in which he stated it would put cost pressure on the state with an “ongoing commitment not provided for in the budget”). \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240SB499\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Another\u003c/a> focuses on creating extreme heat plans for schools and includes planting shade trees and gardens. And \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240SB394\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">a third\u003c/a> would require various state agencies to build a “master plan for healthy, sustainable, and climate resilient schools.” There are others in the works, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nationally, U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich of New Mexico introduced the \u003ca href=\"https://www.heinrich.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/heinrich-introduces-legislation-to-help-schools-re-envision-build-outdoor-learning-spaces\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Living Schoolyards Act\u003c/a> in May, legislation that, if passed, would fund outdoor classrooms and other greening projects through the U.S. Department of Education.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983208\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1238px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1983208\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/Screen-Shot-2022-11-30-at-2.13.19-PM.png\" alt=\"Children playing on equipment in a schoolyard.\" width=\"1238\" height=\"822\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/Screen-Shot-2022-11-30-at-2.13.19-PM.png 1238w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/Screen-Shot-2022-11-30-at-2.13.19-PM-800x531.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/Screen-Shot-2022-11-30-at-2.13.19-PM-1020x677.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/Screen-Shot-2022-11-30-at-2.13.19-PM-160x106.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/Screen-Shot-2022-11-30-at-2.13.19-PM-768x510.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1238px) 100vw, 1238px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Children play on the newly renovated ‘green’ schoolyard at Oakland Unified School District’s Cesar Chavez campus in East Oakland. Fence-to-fence asphalt a few years ago, the schoolyard is now home to 64 new trees. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>An urban oasis\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Just a few miles away from the asphalt schoolyard at Bridges Academy at Melrose is an outdoor space that’s quite the opposite. Oakland Unified School District’s Cesar Chavez campus houses two elementary schools, and nature abounds outside its classrooms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kira Maritano is a senior program manager for the \u003ca href=\"https://www.tpl.org/\">Trust for Public Land\u003c/a>, a nonprofit that has partnered with the district to pilot a handful of green schoolyards.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Maritano points out some of the 64 new trees on this campus: Catalina ironwoods, southern live oaks, red maples and Chinese evergreen elms. She said they were chosen for a host of reasons, like how fast they grow, how much heat they can tolerate, and how much carbon they can sequester.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This schoolyard is now built to get cooler and cooler every year as we see the effects of climate change increase,” Maritano said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The trees shade the yard and building. They cool the air around them through evapotranspiration: water evaporating from their leaves.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are still sections of asphalt. Maritano explains that they’re needed for the myriad functions a schoolyard serves. But these paved surfaces make up far less of the overall outdoor footprint. A few years ago, the asphalt was fence-to-fence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983209\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1983209\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS59531_031_KQEDScience_IntCommunitySchoolOakland_10202022-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A display in both English and Spanish on the schoolyard.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS59531_031_KQEDScience_IntCommunitySchoolOakland_10202022-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS59531_031_KQEDScience_IntCommunitySchoolOakland_10202022-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS59531_031_KQEDScience_IntCommunitySchoolOakland_10202022-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS59531_031_KQEDScience_IntCommunitySchoolOakland_10202022-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS59531_031_KQEDScience_IntCommunitySchoolOakland_10202022-qut-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS59531_031_KQEDScience_IntCommunitySchoolOakland_10202022-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Students play near a sign describing the living schoolyard at International Community School in Oakland on Oct. 20, 2022. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Now children swing on ropes attached to logs above wood chips, two girls wander across a “bioswale” — a curving ditch, now dry, which collects stormwater when it rains — and a group of boys play soccer on a grass field. There’s an enormous garden and a fruit tree orchard.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Giving kids the opportunity to have a tangible relationship with these natural materials is really important,” Maritano said. “A lot of these kids don’t have a chance in their day-to-day life, in their urban environment, to climb on a tree. Just knowing what that feels like starts to break down outdoor equity gaps.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A green schoolyard is also more permeable than one covered in asphalt or rubber safety tiles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is basically a stormwater sink,” Maritano said, referring to a woodchip-covered play area. “As much as possible, if we can remove asphalt and sink that water back into the earth, we’re benefiting the environment,” and avoiding putting pressure on public utilities like sewer systems, she adds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983210\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1983210\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS59518_016_KQEDScience_IntCommunitySchoolOakland_10202022-qut.jpg\" alt=\"Children running after a soccer ball on a grassy school yard.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS59518_016_KQEDScience_IntCommunitySchoolOakland_10202022-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS59518_016_KQEDScience_IntCommunitySchoolOakland_10202022-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS59518_016_KQEDScience_IntCommunitySchoolOakland_10202022-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS59518_016_KQEDScience_IntCommunitySchoolOakland_10202022-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS59518_016_KQEDScience_IntCommunitySchoolOakland_10202022-qut-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS59518_016_KQEDScience_IntCommunitySchoolOakland_10202022-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Students play soccer in a grass field at International Community School in Oakland on Oct. 20, 2022. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>Benefits for health, gender equality\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Proponents of green schoolyards throw around the word “co-benefits” with regularity. One of the co-benefits of such a yard, beyond cooling a school and even a neighborhood, is better human health.[aside label='More on Climate Change' tag='climate-change']“Our immune system becomes more robust and stronger against infectious agents when we spend time digging in the dirt, when we have regular exposure to vitamin D from sunlight, and when we engage in physical activity on a regular basis,” said Marcella Raney, of the Office of Well-Being at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She said for many kids, their schoolyard is one of the only places to exercise and be outside — and, to combat issues like obesity, it’s important that their schoolyard be an inviting place.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Raney has also found \u003ca href=\"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S016920462200281X\">differences in how boys and girls use schoolyards\u003c/a>: Kids who identify as boys are more active on asphalt schoolyards than kids who identify as girls. That’s because asphalt schoolyards are typically designed for “ball-based” games such as basketball, kickball and dodgeball — larger group sports that are competitive — and, Raney said, these games appeal most to boys.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Green schoolyards appeal to both genders, however.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Girls are going to be a lot more active on a green schoolyard than they are on an asphalt schoolyard,” Raney said. “When we compare girls versus boys in green spaces, their activity levels are the same.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983211\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1983211\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS59515_007_KQEDScience_IntCommunitySchoolOakland_10202022-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A group of children play on equipment in a school yard.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS59515_007_KQEDScience_IntCommunitySchoolOakland_10202022-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS59515_007_KQEDScience_IntCommunitySchoolOakland_10202022-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS59515_007_KQEDScience_IntCommunitySchoolOakland_10202022-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS59515_007_KQEDScience_IntCommunitySchoolOakland_10202022-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS59515_007_KQEDScience_IntCommunitySchoolOakland_10202022-qut-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS59515_007_KQEDScience_IntCommunitySchoolOakland_10202022-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Students play in the schoolyard at International Community School in Oakland on Oct. 20, 2022. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Raney has observed that girls favor smaller group activities and want to challenge themselves by climbing, jumping and swinging. A green schoolyard is designed to promote more of these activities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And, better physical activity for kids tends to mean better school performance.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Barriers to change\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>For many, green schoolyards are a no-brainer, but there are hurdles to overcome before they’re widely adopted. One such hurdle, according to Cal Poly Pomona landscape architecture professor Claire Latané, is that decision-makers in schools and cities often work in silos, with very specific responsibilities like curriculum design, mental health or maintenance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But “when we do get people together to have those conversations and really talk about the multiple benefits [of green schoolyards], that conversation changes dramatically, because when thinking about the big picture, everyone wants what’s best for students and the community,” Latané said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Districts are also hesitant to jump into large projects spearheaded by one “champion,” Latané said, for fear no one will maintain the work when that individual moves on. Schools are understandably risk-averse, and a schoolyard of abandoned trees can become a liability.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Latané said another challenge is that “schools have always been strained for finances in terms of maintenance. And asphalt is seen as a really low-maintenance material,” despite studies showing that over the long term,\u003ca href=\"https://www.planetizen.com/news/2022/05/117296-social-and-economic-benefits-green-schoolyards\"> green schoolyards are actually less expensive than asphalt ones\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983212\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1983212\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS59528_025_KQEDScience_IntCommunitySchoolOakland_10202022-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A monarch butterfly rests on a plant outside.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS59528_025_KQEDScience_IntCommunitySchoolOakland_10202022-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS59528_025_KQEDScience_IntCommunitySchoolOakland_10202022-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS59528_025_KQEDScience_IntCommunitySchoolOakland_10202022-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS59528_025_KQEDScience_IntCommunitySchoolOakland_10202022-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS59528_025_KQEDScience_IntCommunitySchoolOakland_10202022-qut-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS59528_025_KQEDScience_IntCommunitySchoolOakland_10202022-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A monarch butterfly lands on a plant growing in the schoolyard at International Community School in Oakland on Oct. 20, 2022. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>LaMonte Douglas was a maintenance project manager for the Los Angeles Unified School District for 35 years. He has since retired. He says that when LA started greening schools, he saw the directive as “yet another thing on the plate to do.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But when he learned of and saw the benefits of a green schoolyard, he said it became a no-brainer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He remembers a day he planted a bush at a school site and, immediately, he said, “Some exotic bird came and landed right by that bush. I’ve never seen that type of bird before. And it was almost like the bird was saying, ‘Well, finally, you give me a place to rest.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Schoolyard as community space\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>At Bridges Academy at Melrose in Oakland, Mayra Gudiño lays out a vision for the transformation she wants for her kids’ asphalt schoolyard: trees, green spaces and more color.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983213\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1983213\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS59504_033_KQEDScience_BridgesAcademyOakland_10202022-qut.jpg\" alt=\"Two women walking on a schoolyard with children playing in the background.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS59504_033_KQEDScience_BridgesAcademyOakland_10202022-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS59504_033_KQEDScience_BridgesAcademyOakland_10202022-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS59504_033_KQEDScience_BridgesAcademyOakland_10202022-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS59504_033_KQEDScience_BridgesAcademyOakland_10202022-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS59504_033_KQEDScience_BridgesAcademyOakland_10202022-qut-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS59504_033_KQEDScience_BridgesAcademyOakland_10202022-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mayra Gudiño walks through the schoolyard with her daughter at Bridges Academy at Melrose in Oakland on Oct. 20, 2022. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>It turns out they’ll get it. Through Gudiño and other parents, teacher and administrative activism, the school has received funding to transform their schoolyard: to rip up asphalt and plant trees. They broke ground early this summer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One condition of their funding is that they keep the schoolyard open for community use on nights and weekends, a boon for their neighborhood without nearby parks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gudiño said they deserve it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "With $150 million dedicated to green schoolyards over the next 2 years under the California Schoolyard Forest System, Oakland campuses are already feeling the impact.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Mayra Gudiño walked across the central schoolyard at Bridges Academy at Melrose, a public elementary school in East Oakland last fall. It’s a familiar place, where Gudiño has sent all three of her children for their education.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘They don’t have green areas, they don’t have shade. Everything is cement, children get hurt very often.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the yard didn’t look much like one, it was closer to an enormous parking lot, surrounded by blue, one-story school buildings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’ve always said Bridges is my second home and the second home of my children,” Gudiño said in Spanish.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Gudiño said it looks sad. She’d like something far happier for her kids.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They don’t have green areas, they don’t have shade. Everything is cement, children get hurt very often,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983205\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1983205\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS59505_036_KQEDScience_BridgesAcademyOakland_10202022-qut.jpg\" alt=\"Children wearing masks play in a schoolyard on asphalt.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS59505_036_KQEDScience_BridgesAcademyOakland_10202022-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS59505_036_KQEDScience_BridgesAcademyOakland_10202022-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS59505_036_KQEDScience_BridgesAcademyOakland_10202022-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS59505_036_KQEDScience_BridgesAcademyOakland_10202022-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS59505_036_KQEDScience_BridgesAcademyOakland_10202022-qut-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS59505_036_KQEDScience_BridgesAcademyOakland_10202022-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Children play in the schoolyard at Bridges Academy at Melrose in Oakland on Oct. 20, 2022. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>And even on a mild morning, the blacktop beneath Gudiño’s feet was getting warm. Asphalt and other surfaces made from petroleum (asphalt is a byproduct of refining crude oil) heat up far beyond the temperature of the surrounding air, especially in the direct sun. As the world warms, schoolyards like this one are becoming a safety hazard due to extreme heat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sharon Danks is the founder and CEO of \u003ca href=\"https://www.greenschoolyards.org/\">Green Schoolyards America\u003c/a>, a nonprofit that works to transform asphalt playgrounds into ones teeming with nature. She said asphalt-based schoolyards are common: “It’s the standard way our schools have been built: Take out the trees, flatten the site, build your school.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She and her colleagues are concerned about the effect extreme heat from these schoolyards will have on the young bodies running across them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Danks has taken many schoolyard heat measurements in her years in this field. “On a 90-degree day when we’ve measured temperatures with our surface thermometers, rubber safety surfaces are 165 degrees and asphalt is a mere 140,” she said. Rubber safety surfaces are spongy materials sometimes made from recycled tires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those temperatures can overheat or burn a young body.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Grass, on the other hand, is typically just above air temperature in the sun, and below it in the shade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983207\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1983207\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/Screen-Shot-2022-11-30-at-2.11.36-PM-800x447-1.png\" alt=\"An infographic slide showing side by side thermal imaging of a playground and a regular photo of a playground.\" width=\"800\" height=\"447\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/Screen-Shot-2022-11-30-at-2.11.36-PM-800x447-1.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/Screen-Shot-2022-11-30-at-2.11.36-PM-800x447-1-160x89.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/Screen-Shot-2022-11-30-at-2.11.36-PM-800x447-1-768x429.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The nonprofit Green Schoolyards America regularly finds that asphalt and rubber surfaces in full sun greatly exceed the temperature of the air, as seen in this image taken with a thermal camera. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Green Schoolyards America)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Using geographic information system (GIS) mapping, Danks and colleagues at the mapping service \u003ca href=\"https://www.greeninfo.org/\">GreenInfo Network\u003c/a> found that the average California school has just 9% of tree cover. And those trees are typically in places where students are not, like outside the front entrance, or by a parking lot.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All this asphalt can contribute to the \u003ca href=\"https://www.epa.gov/heatislands/climate-change-and-heat-islands\">urban heat island effect\u003c/a>, in which structures like buildings and roads absorb and reemit the sun’s heat more than natural landscapes like forests or bodies of water, leading to higher-than-average temperatures in urban areas.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>California invests in greening schoolyards\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Last year, California earmarked $150 million for green schoolyards. One initiative pushing the work forward is called the “\u003ca href=\"https://www.greenschoolyards.org/ca-schoolyard-forests\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">California Schoolyard Forest System\u003c/a>,” a collaboration between the California Department of Education, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire), nonprofits Green Schoolyards America and Ten Strands, school districts and county offices of education.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘Our big, green audacious goal is to plant enough trees by 2035 so that when mature, they’ll provide 30% shade cover to child-accessible areas.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“Our big, green audacious goal is to plant enough trees by 2035 so that when mature, they’ll provide 30% shade cover to child-accessible areas,” said Walter Passmore, a State Urban Forester with CAL FIRE.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Passmore said the money is just a drop in the bucket when you consider the state’s more than 10,000 public schools, roughly 130,000 acres of land, and nearly 6 million students. The program will prioritize schools in communities with high poverty levels, minimal tree cover and hot climates. Passmore hopes the initial funding will be a “down payment,” with more to come in the future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State legislators also sent a bill to Gov. Gavin Newsom to \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billStatusClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB2566\">codify a grant program for school greening projects\u003c/a>. Newsom vetoed the bill in September, stating it would put “cost pressure” on the state with an “ongoing commitment not provided for in the budget.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State lawmakers are working on various bills to accelerate the greening of schoolyards. \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240AB527\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">One bill\u003c/a> aims to codify a grant program for school greening projects (a \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billStatusClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB2566\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">similar bill\u003c/a> was vetoed by Gov. Gavin Newsom last year, in which he stated it would put cost pressure on the state with an “ongoing commitment not provided for in the budget”). \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240SB499\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Another\u003c/a> focuses on creating extreme heat plans for schools and includes planting shade trees and gardens. And \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240SB394\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">a third\u003c/a> would require various state agencies to build a “master plan for healthy, sustainable, and climate resilient schools.” There are others in the works, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nationally, U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich of New Mexico introduced the \u003ca href=\"https://www.heinrich.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/heinrich-introduces-legislation-to-help-schools-re-envision-build-outdoor-learning-spaces\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Living Schoolyards Act\u003c/a> in May, legislation that, if passed, would fund outdoor classrooms and other greening projects through the U.S. Department of Education.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983208\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1238px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1983208\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/Screen-Shot-2022-11-30-at-2.13.19-PM.png\" alt=\"Children playing on equipment in a schoolyard.\" width=\"1238\" height=\"822\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/Screen-Shot-2022-11-30-at-2.13.19-PM.png 1238w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/Screen-Shot-2022-11-30-at-2.13.19-PM-800x531.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/Screen-Shot-2022-11-30-at-2.13.19-PM-1020x677.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/Screen-Shot-2022-11-30-at-2.13.19-PM-160x106.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/Screen-Shot-2022-11-30-at-2.13.19-PM-768x510.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1238px) 100vw, 1238px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Children play on the newly renovated ‘green’ schoolyard at Oakland Unified School District’s Cesar Chavez campus in East Oakland. Fence-to-fence asphalt a few years ago, the schoolyard is now home to 64 new trees. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>An urban oasis\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Just a few miles away from the asphalt schoolyard at Bridges Academy at Melrose is an outdoor space that’s quite the opposite. Oakland Unified School District’s Cesar Chavez campus houses two elementary schools, and nature abounds outside its classrooms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kira Maritano is a senior program manager for the \u003ca href=\"https://www.tpl.org/\">Trust for Public Land\u003c/a>, a nonprofit that has partnered with the district to pilot a handful of green schoolyards.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Maritano points out some of the 64 new trees on this campus: Catalina ironwoods, southern live oaks, red maples and Chinese evergreen elms. She said they were chosen for a host of reasons, like how fast they grow, how much heat they can tolerate, and how much carbon they can sequester.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This schoolyard is now built to get cooler and cooler every year as we see the effects of climate change increase,” Maritano said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The trees shade the yard and building. They cool the air around them through evapotranspiration: water evaporating from their leaves.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are still sections of asphalt. Maritano explains that they’re needed for the myriad functions a schoolyard serves. But these paved surfaces make up far less of the overall outdoor footprint. A few years ago, the asphalt was fence-to-fence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983209\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1983209\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS59531_031_KQEDScience_IntCommunitySchoolOakland_10202022-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A display in both English and Spanish on the schoolyard.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS59531_031_KQEDScience_IntCommunitySchoolOakland_10202022-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS59531_031_KQEDScience_IntCommunitySchoolOakland_10202022-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS59531_031_KQEDScience_IntCommunitySchoolOakland_10202022-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS59531_031_KQEDScience_IntCommunitySchoolOakland_10202022-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS59531_031_KQEDScience_IntCommunitySchoolOakland_10202022-qut-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS59531_031_KQEDScience_IntCommunitySchoolOakland_10202022-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Students play near a sign describing the living schoolyard at International Community School in Oakland on Oct. 20, 2022. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Now children swing on ropes attached to logs above wood chips, two girls wander across a “bioswale” — a curving ditch, now dry, which collects stormwater when it rains — and a group of boys play soccer on a grass field. There’s an enormous garden and a fruit tree orchard.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Giving kids the opportunity to have a tangible relationship with these natural materials is really important,” Maritano said. “A lot of these kids don’t have a chance in their day-to-day life, in their urban environment, to climb on a tree. Just knowing what that feels like starts to break down outdoor equity gaps.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A green schoolyard is also more permeable than one covered in asphalt or rubber safety tiles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is basically a stormwater sink,” Maritano said, referring to a woodchip-covered play area. “As much as possible, if we can remove asphalt and sink that water back into the earth, we’re benefiting the environment,” and avoiding putting pressure on public utilities like sewer systems, she adds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983210\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1983210\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS59518_016_KQEDScience_IntCommunitySchoolOakland_10202022-qut.jpg\" alt=\"Children running after a soccer ball on a grassy school yard.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS59518_016_KQEDScience_IntCommunitySchoolOakland_10202022-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS59518_016_KQEDScience_IntCommunitySchoolOakland_10202022-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS59518_016_KQEDScience_IntCommunitySchoolOakland_10202022-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS59518_016_KQEDScience_IntCommunitySchoolOakland_10202022-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS59518_016_KQEDScience_IntCommunitySchoolOakland_10202022-qut-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS59518_016_KQEDScience_IntCommunitySchoolOakland_10202022-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Students play soccer in a grass field at International Community School in Oakland on Oct. 20, 2022. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>Benefits for health, gender equality\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Proponents of green schoolyards throw around the word “co-benefits” with regularity. One of the co-benefits of such a yard, beyond cooling a school and even a neighborhood, is better human health.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“Our immune system becomes more robust and stronger against infectious agents when we spend time digging in the dirt, when we have regular exposure to vitamin D from sunlight, and when we engage in physical activity on a regular basis,” said Marcella Raney, of the Office of Well-Being at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She said for many kids, their schoolyard is one of the only places to exercise and be outside — and, to combat issues like obesity, it’s important that their schoolyard be an inviting place.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Raney has also found \u003ca href=\"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S016920462200281X\">differences in how boys and girls use schoolyards\u003c/a>: Kids who identify as boys are more active on asphalt schoolyards than kids who identify as girls. That’s because asphalt schoolyards are typically designed for “ball-based” games such as basketball, kickball and dodgeball — larger group sports that are competitive — and, Raney said, these games appeal most to boys.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Green schoolyards appeal to both genders, however.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Girls are going to be a lot more active on a green schoolyard than they are on an asphalt schoolyard,” Raney said. “When we compare girls versus boys in green spaces, their activity levels are the same.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983211\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1983211\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS59515_007_KQEDScience_IntCommunitySchoolOakland_10202022-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A group of children play on equipment in a school yard.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS59515_007_KQEDScience_IntCommunitySchoolOakland_10202022-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS59515_007_KQEDScience_IntCommunitySchoolOakland_10202022-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS59515_007_KQEDScience_IntCommunitySchoolOakland_10202022-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS59515_007_KQEDScience_IntCommunitySchoolOakland_10202022-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS59515_007_KQEDScience_IntCommunitySchoolOakland_10202022-qut-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS59515_007_KQEDScience_IntCommunitySchoolOakland_10202022-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Students play in the schoolyard at International Community School in Oakland on Oct. 20, 2022. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Raney has observed that girls favor smaller group activities and want to challenge themselves by climbing, jumping and swinging. A green schoolyard is designed to promote more of these activities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And, better physical activity for kids tends to mean better school performance.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Barriers to change\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>For many, green schoolyards are a no-brainer, but there are hurdles to overcome before they’re widely adopted. One such hurdle, according to Cal Poly Pomona landscape architecture professor Claire Latané, is that decision-makers in schools and cities often work in silos, with very specific responsibilities like curriculum design, mental health or maintenance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But “when we do get people together to have those conversations and really talk about the multiple benefits [of green schoolyards], that conversation changes dramatically, because when thinking about the big picture, everyone wants what’s best for students and the community,” Latané said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Districts are also hesitant to jump into large projects spearheaded by one “champion,” Latané said, for fear no one will maintain the work when that individual moves on. Schools are understandably risk-averse, and a schoolyard of abandoned trees can become a liability.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Latané said another challenge is that “schools have always been strained for finances in terms of maintenance. And asphalt is seen as a really low-maintenance material,” despite studies showing that over the long term,\u003ca href=\"https://www.planetizen.com/news/2022/05/117296-social-and-economic-benefits-green-schoolyards\"> green schoolyards are actually less expensive than asphalt ones\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983212\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1983212\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS59528_025_KQEDScience_IntCommunitySchoolOakland_10202022-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A monarch butterfly rests on a plant outside.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS59528_025_KQEDScience_IntCommunitySchoolOakland_10202022-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS59528_025_KQEDScience_IntCommunitySchoolOakland_10202022-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS59528_025_KQEDScience_IntCommunitySchoolOakland_10202022-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS59528_025_KQEDScience_IntCommunitySchoolOakland_10202022-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS59528_025_KQEDScience_IntCommunitySchoolOakland_10202022-qut-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS59528_025_KQEDScience_IntCommunitySchoolOakland_10202022-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A monarch butterfly lands on a plant growing in the schoolyard at International Community School in Oakland on Oct. 20, 2022. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>LaMonte Douglas was a maintenance project manager for the Los Angeles Unified School District for 35 years. He has since retired. He says that when LA started greening schools, he saw the directive as “yet another thing on the plate to do.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But when he learned of and saw the benefits of a green schoolyard, he said it became a no-brainer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He remembers a day he planted a bush at a school site and, immediately, he said, “Some exotic bird came and landed right by that bush. I’ve never seen that type of bird before. And it was almost like the bird was saying, ‘Well, finally, you give me a place to rest.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Schoolyard as community space\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>At Bridges Academy at Melrose in Oakland, Mayra Gudiño lays out a vision for the transformation she wants for her kids’ asphalt schoolyard: trees, green spaces and more color.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983213\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1983213\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS59504_033_KQEDScience_BridgesAcademyOakland_10202022-qut.jpg\" alt=\"Two women walking on a schoolyard with children playing in the background.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS59504_033_KQEDScience_BridgesAcademyOakland_10202022-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS59504_033_KQEDScience_BridgesAcademyOakland_10202022-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS59504_033_KQEDScience_BridgesAcademyOakland_10202022-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS59504_033_KQEDScience_BridgesAcademyOakland_10202022-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS59504_033_KQEDScience_BridgesAcademyOakland_10202022-qut-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS59504_033_KQEDScience_BridgesAcademyOakland_10202022-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mayra Gudiño walks through the schoolyard with her daughter at Bridges Academy at Melrose in Oakland on Oct. 20, 2022. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>It turns out they’ll get it. Through Gudiño and other parents, teacher and administrative activism, the school has received funding to transform their schoolyard: to rip up asphalt and plant trees. They broke ground early this summer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One condition of their funding is that they keep the schoolyard open for community use on nights and weekends, a boon for their neighborhood without nearby parks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gudiño said they deserve it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "What California's Wet Winter Means for Fire Season",
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"content": "\u003cp>The series of 31 atmospheric rivers that drenched California this past winter has wildfire officials and scientists breathing sighs of relief — for the most part.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to a coalition of state and federal fire directors, which puts out regular \u003ca href=\"https://gacc.nifc.gov/oncc/predictive/outlooks/Outlook_NOps.pdf\">predictions about wildfire season in Northern California (PDF)\u003c/a>, the potential for significant fires this year is normal to below normal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That Northern California Geographic Area Coordination Center’s prediction comes from a compilation of factors, chief among them weather (past, present and future) and fuel moisture (how much water trees and plants are holding onto). Given the wet, cool winter and spring months, this year’s fire season is off to a slow start. The ground is still wet and grasses, shrubs and trees are holding onto that moisture, making them less likely to burn.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s the same thing as when you try to start a campfire: You don’t use wet wood. It’s very hard to get wet wood to ignite,” said Craig Clements, \u003ca href=\"https://www.sjsu.edu/wildfire/team/faculty.php\">director\u003c/a> of the Wildfire Interdisciplinary Research Center at San José State University.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"California Statewide Rainfall/Acres Burned (2000-2022) \" aria-label=\"Scatter Plot\" id=\"datawrapper-chart-61l7B\" src=\"https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/61l7B/4/\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" style=\"border: none;\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" data-external=\"1\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>But what about all that extra vegetation?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Maybe you’ve heard that all that rain means more vegetation, and that more vegetation means more fuel for wildfires. That’s true — but only in certain ecosystems.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For example, you might’ve noticed grasses are extra tall this year due to all the rain. Grassland ecosystems are certainly more dense this year and once those grasses cure, they’ll be primed for burning. Thus, if conditions are ripe for fires in August, September and October, grassy environments could be at increased risk. That risk could spill over into next year, too, depending on the weather.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This year is going to be more a function of the soil moisture content being so high,” said Clements. In other words, because grasses, shrubs and trees are holding onto their moisture longer than usual, the window for them to cure — and for severe wildfire risk — is narrower.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Plus, Clements added, grass fires are among the least concerning to firefighters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’re dangerous, they spread rapidly, but aircraft suppression works really well on grass fires,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cal Fire ramped up its flight suppression last year, which the agency said helped prevent wildfires from blazing out of control.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>So where will fires be worst this year?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In short: likely in the coastal grasslands.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If we do get significant heat waves or wind events in August, September and October, there could be a high level of fire activity in [the grasslands],” UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain said in a recent live YouTube \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E45I9YeO0ek\">video\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Much of the Bay Area is considered coastal grassland and, depending on the late summer weather — particularly heat waves followed by gusty, dry offshore winds — the region could see increased fire activity later this year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On the other hand, forest and mountain ecosystems like the Sierra Nevada are still blanketed in snow, which could mean they’ll be spared this fire season. The \u003ca href=\"https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2023/03/30/california-snowpack-record-sierra/\">record-breaking snowpack in the mountains is lingering into the summer months\u003c/a>, thereby decreasing fire danger. Even when it all melts later this summer, the fuel moisture will likely stay high enough to ward off any severe burning.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>How will this summer’s weather factor in?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Of course all of these predictions are contingent upon the weather, which in California is notoriously fickle. June has already been cooler and wetter than usual, and with \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1982822/6-common-misconceptions-about-el-nino-and-its-impact-on-california-weather\">El\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1982822/6-common-misconceptions-about-el-nino-and-its-impact-on-california-weather\">Niño\u003c/a> conditions here, that trend is likely to continue later on this year. That narrows the window for high fire danger conditions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But that window will still exist. Although fuel moisture is higher than normal right now, the tall grasses and shrubs will cure at some point this summer, likely in August, and will be ready to burn. August, September and October are notoriously hot, dry and windy across California, and even the dozens of atmospheric rivers from the previous winter won’t be enough to quell the fire season entirely. That’s thanks in part to climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re getting more fire weather days and worse high fire risk days because of climate change,” said Clements. “It’s day-to-day weather that really drives fire behavior on the ground.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One heatwave can drastically change the fire danger outlook. “It can happen just in a matter of days,” said Clements.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s too soon to know how those late summer months will play out weather-wise, but one thing is for sure: There will be fires in California this year. Because fire is a natural part of the state’s landscape, and many ecosystems are adapted to it and even need it to survive and thrive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The series of 31 atmospheric rivers that drenched California this past winter has wildfire officials and scientists breathing sighs of relief — for the most part.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to a coalition of state and federal fire directors, which puts out regular \u003ca href=\"https://gacc.nifc.gov/oncc/predictive/outlooks/Outlook_NOps.pdf\">predictions about wildfire season in Northern California (PDF)\u003c/a>, the potential for significant fires this year is normal to below normal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That Northern California Geographic Area Coordination Center’s prediction comes from a compilation of factors, chief among them weather (past, present and future) and fuel moisture (how much water trees and plants are holding onto). Given the wet, cool winter and spring months, this year’s fire season is off to a slow start. The ground is still wet and grasses, shrubs and trees are holding onto that moisture, making them less likely to burn.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s the same thing as when you try to start a campfire: You don’t use wet wood. It’s very hard to get wet wood to ignite,” said Craig Clements, \u003ca href=\"https://www.sjsu.edu/wildfire/team/faculty.php\">director\u003c/a> of the Wildfire Interdisciplinary Research Center at San José State University.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"California Statewide Rainfall/Acres Burned (2000-2022) \" aria-label=\"Scatter Plot\" id=\"datawrapper-chart-61l7B\" src=\"https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/61l7B/4/\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" style=\"border: none;\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" data-external=\"1\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>But what about all that extra vegetation?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Maybe you’ve heard that all that rain means more vegetation, and that more vegetation means more fuel for wildfires. That’s true — but only in certain ecosystems.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For example, you might’ve noticed grasses are extra tall this year due to all the rain. Grassland ecosystems are certainly more dense this year and once those grasses cure, they’ll be primed for burning. Thus, if conditions are ripe for fires in August, September and October, grassy environments could be at increased risk. That risk could spill over into next year, too, depending on the weather.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This year is going to be more a function of the soil moisture content being so high,” said Clements. In other words, because grasses, shrubs and trees are holding onto their moisture longer than usual, the window for them to cure — and for severe wildfire risk — is narrower.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Plus, Clements added, grass fires are among the least concerning to firefighters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’re dangerous, they spread rapidly, but aircraft suppression works really well on grass fires,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cal Fire ramped up its flight suppression last year, which the agency said helped prevent wildfires from blazing out of control.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>So where will fires be worst this year?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In short: likely in the coastal grasslands.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If we do get significant heat waves or wind events in August, September and October, there could be a high level of fire activity in [the grasslands],” UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain said in a recent live YouTube \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E45I9YeO0ek\">video\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Much of the Bay Area is considered coastal grassland and, depending on the late summer weather — particularly heat waves followed by gusty, dry offshore winds — the region could see increased fire activity later this year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On the other hand, forest and mountain ecosystems like the Sierra Nevada are still blanketed in snow, which could mean they’ll be spared this fire season. The \u003ca href=\"https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2023/03/30/california-snowpack-record-sierra/\">record-breaking snowpack in the mountains is lingering into the summer months\u003c/a>, thereby decreasing fire danger. Even when it all melts later this summer, the fuel moisture will likely stay high enough to ward off any severe burning.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>How will this summer’s weather factor in?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Of course all of these predictions are contingent upon the weather, which in California is notoriously fickle. June has already been cooler and wetter than usual, and with \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1982822/6-common-misconceptions-about-el-nino-and-its-impact-on-california-weather\">El\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1982822/6-common-misconceptions-about-el-nino-and-its-impact-on-california-weather\">Niño\u003c/a> conditions here, that trend is likely to continue later on this year. That narrows the window for high fire danger conditions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But that window will still exist. Although fuel moisture is higher than normal right now, the tall grasses and shrubs will cure at some point this summer, likely in August, and will be ready to burn. August, September and October are notoriously hot, dry and windy across California, and even the dozens of atmospheric rivers from the previous winter won’t be enough to quell the fire season entirely. That’s thanks in part to climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re getting more fire weather days and worse high fire risk days because of climate change,” said Clements. “It’s day-to-day weather that really drives fire behavior on the ground.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One heatwave can drastically change the fire danger outlook. “It can happen just in a matter of days,” said Clements.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s too soon to know how those late summer months will play out weather-wise, but one thing is for sure: There will be fires in California this year. Because fire is a natural part of the state’s landscape, and many ecosystems are adapted to it and even need it to survive and thrive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "This Fishing Gear Can Help Save Whales. What Will It Take for Fishermen to Use It?",
"headTitle": "This Fishing Gear Can Help Save Whales. What Will It Take for Fishermen to Use It? | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>Fishing boats would normally still be unloading Dungeness crabs at San Francisco’s fisherman’s wharf in May. This year, the docks were quiet, except for one berth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re the only boat right now,” says Brand Little, standing next to a large tank of bright red crabs on the deck of his boat, the Pale Horse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State regulators closed the Dungeness season two months early this year, due to the arrival of humpback whales in the area. On both the East and West Coasts, crab and lobster fishermen are \u003ca href=\"https://www.wbur.org/news/2023/02/01/massachusetts-lobster-crab-fishing-banned-restriction-noaa-whale\">seeing their fishing seasons shrink\u003c/a> over concerns that whales are getting entangled in the long ropes attached to their gear, accidents that often end up injuring or killing the animals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983168\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1983168 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/dsc04615_custom-1696faf5fb1bdfd3e39e5bf9e6318eb2ccb805aa-s1300-c85-800x532.jpg\" alt=\"A fisherman wearing a black baseball cap, black sweater, and black shorts is standing at a fishery posing for a photo. There is a large blue bin next to him on the far right of the photo. The fisherman's right hand is rested on a large white compartment that is half opened. \" width=\"800\" height=\"532\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/dsc04615_custom-1696faf5fb1bdfd3e39e5bf9e6318eb2ccb805aa-s1300-c85-800x532.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/dsc04615_custom-1696faf5fb1bdfd3e39e5bf9e6318eb2ccb805aa-s1300-c85-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/dsc04615_custom-1696faf5fb1bdfd3e39e5bf9e6318eb2ccb805aa-s1300-c85-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/dsc04615_custom-1696faf5fb1bdfd3e39e5bf9e6318eb2ccb805aa-s1300-c85-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/dsc04615_custom-1696faf5fb1bdfd3e39e5bf9e6318eb2ccb805aa-s1300-c85.jpg 1300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Despite the early closure of the Dungeness crab fishery, fisherman Brand Little has been able to keep fishing using pop-up gear, designed to avoid entangling whales. \u003ccite>(Lauren Summer/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But Little is still fishing, because he’s trying out a system that many hope will be a technological fix to the problem: \u003ca href=\"https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/new-england-mid-atlantic/marine-mammal-protection/developing-viable-demand-gear-systems\">“pop-up” fishing gear\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Normally, crab and lobster traps sit on the bottom of the ocean and are tethered to the surface by a rope that can stretch hundreds of feet. Pop-up fishing gear, also known as on-demand or ropeless gear, keeps the rope and buoy stowed on the ocean floor, until the fisherman comes to retrieve it. This spring, a dozen lobstermen were also permitted to fish in closed areas off Massachusetts and Rhode Island with pop-up gear.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983156\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1983156 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/348274596_6193085530739907_7897540296190815100_n_custom-30c3cb9e5b3f2cf30b41e5dba60414747cbeb77d-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"A man in a black and gray baseball cap is wearing a red t-shirt and brown pants. He wears orange gloves and is holding a circular shaped crab trap.\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/348274596_6193085530739907_7897540296190815100_n_custom-30c3cb9e5b3f2cf30b41e5dba60414747cbeb77d-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/348274596_6193085530739907_7897540296190815100_n_custom-30c3cb9e5b3f2cf30b41e5dba60414747cbeb77d-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/348274596_6193085530739907_7897540296190815100_n_custom-30c3cb9e5b3f2cf30b41e5dba60414747cbeb77d-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/348274596_6193085530739907_7897540296190815100_n_custom-30c3cb9e5b3f2cf30b41e5dba60414747cbeb77d-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/348274596_6193085530739907_7897540296190815100_n_custom-30c3cb9e5b3f2cf30b41e5dba60414747cbeb77d-1536x1151.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/348274596_6193085530739907_7897540296190815100_n_custom-30c3cb9e5b3f2cf30b41e5dba60414747cbeb77d-1920x1439.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/348274596_6193085530739907_7897540296190815100_n_custom-30c3cb9e5b3f2cf30b41e5dba60414747cbeb77d.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Deckhand Justin Middleton pulls in a crab trap off San Francisco, where new pop-up fishing gear is being piloted. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Brand Little)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The new gear has the potential to help whales and fishermen alike, but it isn’t a quick fix. There are technical issues to iron out, including ensuring the gear can be used in crowded areas. The cost for each pop-up system can also run thousands of dollars, a massive expenditure for boats that would need to buy hundreds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Within the fishing community, there’s also reluctance to even test the equipment because many fishermen fear government regulators will mandate it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, the urgency to make the gear work is growing, as fishermen keep taking financial hits and whales remain at risk. On the East Coast, North Atlantic right whales are dangerously close to extinction and more than 85% show injuries from being entangled.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983169\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1983169 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/dsc2058_custom-bb7e686498dea94d5c8feb848702d71d513b0f78-s1300-c85-800x534.jpg\" alt=\"An orange float is seen floating in the dark ocean with clear blue and cloudy skies at the top.\" width=\"800\" height=\"534\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/dsc2058_custom-bb7e686498dea94d5c8feb848702d71d513b0f78-s1300-c85-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/dsc2058_custom-bb7e686498dea94d5c8feb848702d71d513b0f78-s1300-c85-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/dsc2058_custom-bb7e686498dea94d5c8feb848702d71d513b0f78-s1300-c85-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/dsc2058_custom-bb7e686498dea94d5c8feb848702d71d513b0f78-s1300-c85-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/dsc2058_custom-bb7e686498dea94d5c8feb848702d71d513b0f78-s1300-c85.jpg 1300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">With ropeless technology, orange markers rise to the surface of the water at the traps once they are triggered remotely. \u003ccite>(Claire Harbage/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I think this on-demand system, this ropeless fishing, is a very human way to tackle the problem because it’s technology,” says Mark Baumgartner, senior scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. “What we’re good at is coming up with technology to solve problems.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Testing pop-up gear in the water\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>On a Saturday morning, a steady stream of customers stop by Little’s boat to snag a few crabs. Little’s catch is far less than he’d get at the peak of crab season, but his goal is to test the pop-up fishing gear and look for pitfalls.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s what fishermen need to do — be part of the development of it or take what’s handed to you,” he says. “And 90% of what’s out there I would not want to be handed.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The system works like this: The large round crab trap is tossed overboard along with a coiled rope, buoy and inflatable bag. After it’s collected crabs on the seafloor, Little returns, finding the trap on an app. He hits a button, sending an acoustic signal to release the rope and buoy, which rise to the surface. Other gear manufacturers have different variations of this system.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Little says he was skeptical at first, but has found the gear has potential. The last few years have been tough on him and the rest of California’s crab fleet. The season opening was also delayed several times in recent years, after humpback whales returned to coastal waters on their yearly migration in the winter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983170\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1983170 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/mg_2944_custom-0a14d18f1ff372add0dfaf81a0bcac4ca091561c-s1300-c85-800x532.jpg\" alt=\"A person in orange overalls is holding a large shrimp in their hands. The person is on a boat.\" width=\"800\" height=\"532\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/mg_2944_custom-0a14d18f1ff372add0dfaf81a0bcac4ca091561c-s1300-c85-800x532.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/mg_2944_custom-0a14d18f1ff372add0dfaf81a0bcac4ca091561c-s1300-c85-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/mg_2944_custom-0a14d18f1ff372add0dfaf81a0bcac4ca091561c-s1300-c85-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/mg_2944_custom-0a14d18f1ff372add0dfaf81a0bcac4ca091561c-s1300-c85-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/mg_2944_custom-0a14d18f1ff372add0dfaf81a0bcac4ca091561c-s1300-c85.jpg 1300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lobster fishermen on the East Coast have faced closures over North Atlantic right whales. Only around 340 right whales remain in the population. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Ryan Kellman)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Lobster fishermen on the East Coast have faced similar closures over North Atlantic right whales. Only around 340 right whales remain in the population and federal officials \u003ca href=\"https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/national/marine-life-distress/2017-2023-north-atlantic-right-whale-unusual-mortality-event\">have documented dozens of entanglements since 2017\u003c/a>. The whales feed by swimming slowly with open mouths, making them vulnerable to long ropes hanging in the water. The injuries can be grisly. Ropes dig into the whale’s flesh, exhausting or killing whales after they drag the gear for miles. Earlier this year, rescuers worked for 3 days to \u003ca href=\"https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/national/endangered-species-conservation/north-atlantic-right-whale-updates#entanglement-response-mounted-for-newly-entangled-right-whale,-argo-(#1218)\">remove more than 150 feet of rope\u003c/a> from a whale, equipment later linked to the Canadian fishing industry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Concerns about whales led Whole Foods to announce last spring that it would \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2022/11/30/1139876157/whole-foods-maine-lobster-north-atlantic-right-whale\">no longer sell live lobsters from Maine\u003c/a>. The controversy has been intense, with Maine’s lobster industry contending that no whale deaths have been linked to their fishery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s challenging for regulators to determine exactly where whales are being entangled. Many injured whales are found after the ropes have fallen off, and federal rules only recently required fishermen to put \u003ca href=\"https://www.mainepublic.org/environment-and-outdoors/2023-04-13/right-whales-arent-having-a-good-year-the-pressure-is-on-to-save-this-hard-to-track-species\">color coding on their ropes\u003c/a> to better identify where they came from. As the oceans get hotter with climate change, \u003ca href=\"https://apps.npr.org/arctic-ice-melting-climate-change/greenland-whales.html\">right whales have also been shifting their migration\u003c/a>, spending less time in Maine waters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983171\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1983171\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/11468719096_f7acc916b7_k_custom-ae5d1a61371fef3c6991ec8d352ce37fd353a5d9-s1300-c85-800x422.jpg\" alt=\"An image of a whale swimming in dark green waters.\" width=\"800\" height=\"422\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/11468719096_f7acc916b7_k_custom-ae5d1a61371fef3c6991ec8d352ce37fd353a5d9-s1300-c85-800x422.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/11468719096_f7acc916b7_k_custom-ae5d1a61371fef3c6991ec8d352ce37fd353a5d9-s1300-c85-1020x538.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/11468719096_f7acc916b7_k_custom-ae5d1a61371fef3c6991ec8d352ce37fd353a5d9-s1300-c85-160x84.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/11468719096_f7acc916b7_k_custom-ae5d1a61371fef3c6991ec8d352ce37fd353a5d9-s1300-c85-768x405.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/11468719096_f7acc916b7_k_custom-ae5d1a61371fef3c6991ec8d352ce37fd353a5d9-s1300-c85.jpg 1300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Entangled North Atlantic right whales can drag fishing gear hundreds of miles, like this whale off of Florida. The injuries can be life-threatening. \u003ccite>(NOAA News Archive 123110)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>Some fishermen hesitant to dive in\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>On social media, Little has been posting when “whale-safe” crab is available to help customers understand what fishermen are doing about the problem.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For me, it’s adapt or die,” he says. “You gotta roll with the punches. This problem isn’t going away without changing the way we do stuff.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, his willingness to test out the new fishing gear has not made him popular at the docks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I get a lot of flack,” Little says. “There’s a lot of guys really upset with me for doing this.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On the East Coast, gear testing has faced a similar atmosphere of doubt. Dave Casoni, who has been lobstering off Cape Cod for five decades, said he’s tested pop-up gear, but there’s a fair amount of peer pressure to steer clear over worries it will bring more regulation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Maybe it would send a message that: See, the industry did it, therefore they were in favor of it,” Casoni says. “I was accused of that and I had not intended to do that. I intended to find the shortfalls.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>NOAA’s Northwest Fisheries Science Center has created a \u003ca href=\"https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/new-england-mid-atlantic/marine-mammal-protection/borrow-northeast-fisheries-science-center-gear\">library of ropeless gear\u003c/a>, where fishermen can test gear in the water and help provide feedback to manufacturers. But of more than 5,000 lobstermen in New England, only 50 have used the library since it was created several years ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983172\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1983172\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/dsc1970_custom-2b5f7edde43a70922a02d838f137c4d3c3f6e628-s1300-c85-800x532.jpg\" alt=\"A white woman in a gray baseball cap, light blue t-shirt, blue jeans, and gray sneakers stands on a wooden surface next to a white boat. The backdrop is a lakeside with houses in front of the lake.\" width=\"800\" height=\"532\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/dsc1970_custom-2b5f7edde43a70922a02d838f137c4d3c3f6e628-s1300-c85-800x532.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/dsc1970_custom-2b5f7edde43a70922a02d838f137c4d3c3f6e628-s1300-c85-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/dsc1970_custom-2b5f7edde43a70922a02d838f137c4d3c3f6e628-s1300-c85-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/dsc1970_custom-2b5f7edde43a70922a02d838f137c4d3c3f6e628-s1300-c85-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/dsc1970_custom-2b5f7edde43a70922a02d838f137c4d3c3f6e628-s1300-c85.jpg 1300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Patrice McCarron of the Maine Lobsterman’s Association says the fear among fishermen is that if regulators see them using pop-up gear, they’ll mandate it year-round. \u003ccite>(Claire Harbage/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Patrice Maccarron, policy director of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association, says the fear among fishermen is that if regulators see them using pop-up gear, they’ll mandate it year-round, even when whales are not present. But some lobstermen are still trying to be part of the process.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They tend to be younger people with families who want to be in the fishery,” Maccarron says. “And they’re thinking, you know, I don’t want to do this. This is going to be really hard. But I also don’t want my livelihood to be removed and to reach a point where we don’t have options.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the fishery closures have mounted, hitting the more than $500 million lobster industry, the conversation is shifting, albeit slowly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think we’re now seeing a lot more willingness to try this, a lot more feedback, a lot more people who are understanding that we’re simply trying to provide fishermen a tool so they can access these closed areas,” says Henry Milliken, who helps run the gear library at NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983173\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1983173\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/2014summerswans-181-4c921061ff7d5c703fd8d037747254058a049943-s1300-c85-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"A boat with a blue sail is seen on the waters during the early hours of the morning.\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/2014summerswans-181-4c921061ff7d5c703fd8d037747254058a049943-s1300-c85-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/2014summerswans-181-4c921061ff7d5c703fd8d037747254058a049943-s1300-c85-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/2014summerswans-181-4c921061ff7d5c703fd8d037747254058a049943-s1300-c85-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/2014summerswans-181-4c921061ff7d5c703fd8d037747254058a049943-s1300-c85-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/2014summerswans-181-4c921061ff7d5c703fd8d037747254058a049943-s1300-c85.jpg 1300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A boat is prepared for a day at sea. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Ryan Kellman)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>Technical issues still remain\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Pop-up gear may work well in tests, but many fishermen worry it could be a different story when hundreds of boats use it during a busy commercial fishing season.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Buoys on the surface normally mark where traps are located, so fishermen can avoid putting their traps on top of someone else’s. With pop-up gear, fishermen would need to use an app or their onboard navigation system to see where traps already are on the seafloor. And some worry there could be conflict when boats are working close together.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s very, very congested,” Casoni says. “So I think the fear is it would create more problems amongst each other just fishing. It’s a very busy, dangerous operation to begin with, and we don’t need to add that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To prevent problems, fishing gear made by different manufacturers needs to show up on the same maps, just as cell phones from different carriers can all use the same network. NOAA plans on holding a workshop this fall to develop universal technical standards for manufacturers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then there’s the question how much slower it is to use pop-up gear. Dick Ogg, a crab fisherman from Bodega Bay, California, says he’s tested the gear. He points out that fishermen work with hundreds of traps during already grueling work days, and adding any extra time with new gear would be an economic hit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The process is very fast and it’s important to understand if we alter any of this, it has to be comparable,” Ogg says. “If I do one extra minute on my pot allocation, that’s an extra 5.8 hours a day.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983174\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1983174\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/ogg1_custom-394b757826fc16c16c2af78babed56b7be77eca0-s1300-c85-800x599.jpg\" alt=\"A fisherman with gray hair is wearing a gray sweater and sunglasses poses for a photo in front of some fishing gear.\" width=\"800\" height=\"599\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/ogg1_custom-394b757826fc16c16c2af78babed56b7be77eca0-s1300-c85-800x599.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/ogg1_custom-394b757826fc16c16c2af78babed56b7be77eca0-s1300-c85-1020x763.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/ogg1_custom-394b757826fc16c16c2af78babed56b7be77eca0-s1300-c85-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/ogg1_custom-394b757826fc16c16c2af78babed56b7be77eca0-s1300-c85-768x575.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/ogg1_custom-394b757826fc16c16c2af78babed56b7be77eca0-s1300-c85.jpg 1300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dick Ogg, a crab fisherman from Bodega Bay, California, says he’s tested the gear, but since fishermen work with hundreds of traps during already grueling work days, adding any extra time would be an economic hit. \u003ccite>(Lauren Sommer/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The price tag for pop-up systems can cost from hundreds to thousands of dollars per unit, which adds up for boats with hundreds of traps. To deploy the gear in a fishery equitably, boats would likely need grants or loans to defray the costs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If we bring in a capital-intensive model, we know our small boats don’t have that sort of operating capital,” McCarron says. “And, you know, there’s a very, very strong concern that we’re going to lose them and there won’t be a place for them.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>New resources to make pop-up gear work\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>To accelerate the process, the federal government is putting almost $68 million toward efforts to help North Atlantic right whales this year, funding that comes from the Inflation Reduction Act and the omnibus spending bill passed in December. Of that, $27 million will go to new kinds of fishing gear.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a very significant investment that we haven’t seen before to address the issues that are facing North Atlantic right whales,” says Kim Damon-Randall, director of NOAA Fisheries Office of Protected Resources. “If we can develop on-demand technology for gear in the Northeast, that technology can be applied elsewhere.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fishermen on both coasts are able to use pop-up gear voluntarily now, and lobstermen on the East Coast aren’t facing imminent rules mandating the gear. While NOAA had developed new regulations that would close fishing grounds and limit the number of traps in the water, a last-minute Congressional effort in December \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/01/04/1146637583/maine-lobster-industry-wins-reprieve-but-environmentalists-say-whales-will-die\">delayed those rules for six years\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983175\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1983175\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/mg_3876-2_custom-5b88e265b16803d0d69913005aeed519cf012d80-s1300-c85-1-800x532.jpg\" alt=\"A person wearing purple gloves and an orange fishing overall carries a blue tub that is filled with large shrimp.\" width=\"800\" height=\"532\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/mg_3876-2_custom-5b88e265b16803d0d69913005aeed519cf012d80-s1300-c85-1-800x532.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/mg_3876-2_custom-5b88e265b16803d0d69913005aeed519cf012d80-s1300-c85-1-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/mg_3876-2_custom-5b88e265b16803d0d69913005aeed519cf012d80-s1300-c85-1-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/mg_3876-2_custom-5b88e265b16803d0d69913005aeed519cf012d80-s1300-c85-1-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/mg_3876-2_custom-5b88e265b16803d0d69913005aeed519cf012d80-s1300-c85-1.jpg 1300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Federal officials say pop-up gear technology being piloted in the lobster industry could lead the way for other fisheries around the world that risk entangling whales. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Ryan Kellman)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>No matter what side of the issue, most agree that pop-up gear will take some time, both to iron out the technical issues and to work on acceptance in the fishing industry. In the Northeast, a group of manufacturers, fishermen and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, known as the \u003ca href=\"https://ropeless.org/\">Ropeless Consortium\u003c/a>, is working together on improving the technology.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Everything just needs to happen faster,” Baumgartner says. “So more focus and more resources are what’s needed. Those are coming but it’s been slow in coming.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=This+fishing+gear+can+help+save+whales.+What+will+it+take+for+fishermen+to+use+it%3F&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "On both the East and West coasts, whales are at risk of being entangled and injured by ropes used by fishermen. Fishing grounds are being closed, but new technology could help avoid that. ",
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"description": "On both the East and West coasts, whales are at risk of being entangled and injured by ropes used by fishermen. Fishing grounds are being closed, but new technology could help avoid that. ",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Fishing boats would normally still be unloading Dungeness crabs at San Francisco’s fisherman’s wharf in May. This year, the docks were quiet, except for one berth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re the only boat right now,” says Brand Little, standing next to a large tank of bright red crabs on the deck of his boat, the Pale Horse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State regulators closed the Dungeness season two months early this year, due to the arrival of humpback whales in the area. On both the East and West Coasts, crab and lobster fishermen are \u003ca href=\"https://www.wbur.org/news/2023/02/01/massachusetts-lobster-crab-fishing-banned-restriction-noaa-whale\">seeing their fishing seasons shrink\u003c/a> over concerns that whales are getting entangled in the long ropes attached to their gear, accidents that often end up injuring or killing the animals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983168\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1983168 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/dsc04615_custom-1696faf5fb1bdfd3e39e5bf9e6318eb2ccb805aa-s1300-c85-800x532.jpg\" alt=\"A fisherman wearing a black baseball cap, black sweater, and black shorts is standing at a fishery posing for a photo. There is a large blue bin next to him on the far right of the photo. The fisherman's right hand is rested on a large white compartment that is half opened. \" width=\"800\" height=\"532\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/dsc04615_custom-1696faf5fb1bdfd3e39e5bf9e6318eb2ccb805aa-s1300-c85-800x532.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/dsc04615_custom-1696faf5fb1bdfd3e39e5bf9e6318eb2ccb805aa-s1300-c85-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/dsc04615_custom-1696faf5fb1bdfd3e39e5bf9e6318eb2ccb805aa-s1300-c85-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/dsc04615_custom-1696faf5fb1bdfd3e39e5bf9e6318eb2ccb805aa-s1300-c85-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/dsc04615_custom-1696faf5fb1bdfd3e39e5bf9e6318eb2ccb805aa-s1300-c85.jpg 1300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Despite the early closure of the Dungeness crab fishery, fisherman Brand Little has been able to keep fishing using pop-up gear, designed to avoid entangling whales. \u003ccite>(Lauren Summer/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But Little is still fishing, because he’s trying out a system that many hope will be a technological fix to the problem: \u003ca href=\"https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/new-england-mid-atlantic/marine-mammal-protection/developing-viable-demand-gear-systems\">“pop-up” fishing gear\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Normally, crab and lobster traps sit on the bottom of the ocean and are tethered to the surface by a rope that can stretch hundreds of feet. Pop-up fishing gear, also known as on-demand or ropeless gear, keeps the rope and buoy stowed on the ocean floor, until the fisherman comes to retrieve it. This spring, a dozen lobstermen were also permitted to fish in closed areas off Massachusetts and Rhode Island with pop-up gear.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983156\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1983156 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/348274596_6193085530739907_7897540296190815100_n_custom-30c3cb9e5b3f2cf30b41e5dba60414747cbeb77d-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"A man in a black and gray baseball cap is wearing a red t-shirt and brown pants. He wears orange gloves and is holding a circular shaped crab trap.\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/348274596_6193085530739907_7897540296190815100_n_custom-30c3cb9e5b3f2cf30b41e5dba60414747cbeb77d-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/348274596_6193085530739907_7897540296190815100_n_custom-30c3cb9e5b3f2cf30b41e5dba60414747cbeb77d-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/348274596_6193085530739907_7897540296190815100_n_custom-30c3cb9e5b3f2cf30b41e5dba60414747cbeb77d-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/348274596_6193085530739907_7897540296190815100_n_custom-30c3cb9e5b3f2cf30b41e5dba60414747cbeb77d-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/348274596_6193085530739907_7897540296190815100_n_custom-30c3cb9e5b3f2cf30b41e5dba60414747cbeb77d-1536x1151.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/348274596_6193085530739907_7897540296190815100_n_custom-30c3cb9e5b3f2cf30b41e5dba60414747cbeb77d-1920x1439.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/348274596_6193085530739907_7897540296190815100_n_custom-30c3cb9e5b3f2cf30b41e5dba60414747cbeb77d.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Deckhand Justin Middleton pulls in a crab trap off San Francisco, where new pop-up fishing gear is being piloted. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Brand Little)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The new gear has the potential to help whales and fishermen alike, but it isn’t a quick fix. There are technical issues to iron out, including ensuring the gear can be used in crowded areas. The cost for each pop-up system can also run thousands of dollars, a massive expenditure for boats that would need to buy hundreds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Within the fishing community, there’s also reluctance to even test the equipment because many fishermen fear government regulators will mandate it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, the urgency to make the gear work is growing, as fishermen keep taking financial hits and whales remain at risk. On the East Coast, North Atlantic right whales are dangerously close to extinction and more than 85% show injuries from being entangled.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983169\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1983169 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/dsc2058_custom-bb7e686498dea94d5c8feb848702d71d513b0f78-s1300-c85-800x534.jpg\" alt=\"An orange float is seen floating in the dark ocean with clear blue and cloudy skies at the top.\" width=\"800\" height=\"534\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/dsc2058_custom-bb7e686498dea94d5c8feb848702d71d513b0f78-s1300-c85-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/dsc2058_custom-bb7e686498dea94d5c8feb848702d71d513b0f78-s1300-c85-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/dsc2058_custom-bb7e686498dea94d5c8feb848702d71d513b0f78-s1300-c85-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/dsc2058_custom-bb7e686498dea94d5c8feb848702d71d513b0f78-s1300-c85-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/dsc2058_custom-bb7e686498dea94d5c8feb848702d71d513b0f78-s1300-c85.jpg 1300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">With ropeless technology, orange markers rise to the surface of the water at the traps once they are triggered remotely. \u003ccite>(Claire Harbage/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I think this on-demand system, this ropeless fishing, is a very human way to tackle the problem because it’s technology,” says Mark Baumgartner, senior scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. “What we’re good at is coming up with technology to solve problems.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Testing pop-up gear in the water\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>On a Saturday morning, a steady stream of customers stop by Little’s boat to snag a few crabs. Little’s catch is far less than he’d get at the peak of crab season, but his goal is to test the pop-up fishing gear and look for pitfalls.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s what fishermen need to do — be part of the development of it or take what’s handed to you,” he says. “And 90% of what’s out there I would not want to be handed.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The system works like this: The large round crab trap is tossed overboard along with a coiled rope, buoy and inflatable bag. After it’s collected crabs on the seafloor, Little returns, finding the trap on an app. He hits a button, sending an acoustic signal to release the rope and buoy, which rise to the surface. Other gear manufacturers have different variations of this system.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Little says he was skeptical at first, but has found the gear has potential. The last few years have been tough on him and the rest of California’s crab fleet. The season opening was also delayed several times in recent years, after humpback whales returned to coastal waters on their yearly migration in the winter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983170\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1983170 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/mg_2944_custom-0a14d18f1ff372add0dfaf81a0bcac4ca091561c-s1300-c85-800x532.jpg\" alt=\"A person in orange overalls is holding a large shrimp in their hands. The person is on a boat.\" width=\"800\" height=\"532\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/mg_2944_custom-0a14d18f1ff372add0dfaf81a0bcac4ca091561c-s1300-c85-800x532.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/mg_2944_custom-0a14d18f1ff372add0dfaf81a0bcac4ca091561c-s1300-c85-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/mg_2944_custom-0a14d18f1ff372add0dfaf81a0bcac4ca091561c-s1300-c85-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/mg_2944_custom-0a14d18f1ff372add0dfaf81a0bcac4ca091561c-s1300-c85-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/mg_2944_custom-0a14d18f1ff372add0dfaf81a0bcac4ca091561c-s1300-c85.jpg 1300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lobster fishermen on the East Coast have faced closures over North Atlantic right whales. Only around 340 right whales remain in the population. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Ryan Kellman)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Lobster fishermen on the East Coast have faced similar closures over North Atlantic right whales. Only around 340 right whales remain in the population and federal officials \u003ca href=\"https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/national/marine-life-distress/2017-2023-north-atlantic-right-whale-unusual-mortality-event\">have documented dozens of entanglements since 2017\u003c/a>. The whales feed by swimming slowly with open mouths, making them vulnerable to long ropes hanging in the water. The injuries can be grisly. Ropes dig into the whale’s flesh, exhausting or killing whales after they drag the gear for miles. Earlier this year, rescuers worked for 3 days to \u003ca href=\"https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/national/endangered-species-conservation/north-atlantic-right-whale-updates#entanglement-response-mounted-for-newly-entangled-right-whale,-argo-(#1218)\">remove more than 150 feet of rope\u003c/a> from a whale, equipment later linked to the Canadian fishing industry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Concerns about whales led Whole Foods to announce last spring that it would \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2022/11/30/1139876157/whole-foods-maine-lobster-north-atlantic-right-whale\">no longer sell live lobsters from Maine\u003c/a>. The controversy has been intense, with Maine’s lobster industry contending that no whale deaths have been linked to their fishery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s challenging for regulators to determine exactly where whales are being entangled. Many injured whales are found after the ropes have fallen off, and federal rules only recently required fishermen to put \u003ca href=\"https://www.mainepublic.org/environment-and-outdoors/2023-04-13/right-whales-arent-having-a-good-year-the-pressure-is-on-to-save-this-hard-to-track-species\">color coding on their ropes\u003c/a> to better identify where they came from. As the oceans get hotter with climate change, \u003ca href=\"https://apps.npr.org/arctic-ice-melting-climate-change/greenland-whales.html\">right whales have also been shifting their migration\u003c/a>, spending less time in Maine waters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983171\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1983171\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/11468719096_f7acc916b7_k_custom-ae5d1a61371fef3c6991ec8d352ce37fd353a5d9-s1300-c85-800x422.jpg\" alt=\"An image of a whale swimming in dark green waters.\" width=\"800\" height=\"422\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/11468719096_f7acc916b7_k_custom-ae5d1a61371fef3c6991ec8d352ce37fd353a5d9-s1300-c85-800x422.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/11468719096_f7acc916b7_k_custom-ae5d1a61371fef3c6991ec8d352ce37fd353a5d9-s1300-c85-1020x538.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/11468719096_f7acc916b7_k_custom-ae5d1a61371fef3c6991ec8d352ce37fd353a5d9-s1300-c85-160x84.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/11468719096_f7acc916b7_k_custom-ae5d1a61371fef3c6991ec8d352ce37fd353a5d9-s1300-c85-768x405.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/11468719096_f7acc916b7_k_custom-ae5d1a61371fef3c6991ec8d352ce37fd353a5d9-s1300-c85.jpg 1300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Entangled North Atlantic right whales can drag fishing gear hundreds of miles, like this whale off of Florida. The injuries can be life-threatening. \u003ccite>(NOAA News Archive 123110)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>Some fishermen hesitant to dive in\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>On social media, Little has been posting when “whale-safe” crab is available to help customers understand what fishermen are doing about the problem.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For me, it’s adapt or die,” he says. “You gotta roll with the punches. This problem isn’t going away without changing the way we do stuff.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, his willingness to test out the new fishing gear has not made him popular at the docks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I get a lot of flack,” Little says. “There’s a lot of guys really upset with me for doing this.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On the East Coast, gear testing has faced a similar atmosphere of doubt. Dave Casoni, who has been lobstering off Cape Cod for five decades, said he’s tested pop-up gear, but there’s a fair amount of peer pressure to steer clear over worries it will bring more regulation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Maybe it would send a message that: See, the industry did it, therefore they were in favor of it,” Casoni says. “I was accused of that and I had not intended to do that. I intended to find the shortfalls.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>NOAA’s Northwest Fisheries Science Center has created a \u003ca href=\"https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/new-england-mid-atlantic/marine-mammal-protection/borrow-northeast-fisheries-science-center-gear\">library of ropeless gear\u003c/a>, where fishermen can test gear in the water and help provide feedback to manufacturers. But of more than 5,000 lobstermen in New England, only 50 have used the library since it was created several years ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983172\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1983172\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/dsc1970_custom-2b5f7edde43a70922a02d838f137c4d3c3f6e628-s1300-c85-800x532.jpg\" alt=\"A white woman in a gray baseball cap, light blue t-shirt, blue jeans, and gray sneakers stands on a wooden surface next to a white boat. The backdrop is a lakeside with houses in front of the lake.\" width=\"800\" height=\"532\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/dsc1970_custom-2b5f7edde43a70922a02d838f137c4d3c3f6e628-s1300-c85-800x532.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/dsc1970_custom-2b5f7edde43a70922a02d838f137c4d3c3f6e628-s1300-c85-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/dsc1970_custom-2b5f7edde43a70922a02d838f137c4d3c3f6e628-s1300-c85-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/dsc1970_custom-2b5f7edde43a70922a02d838f137c4d3c3f6e628-s1300-c85-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/dsc1970_custom-2b5f7edde43a70922a02d838f137c4d3c3f6e628-s1300-c85.jpg 1300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Patrice McCarron of the Maine Lobsterman’s Association says the fear among fishermen is that if regulators see them using pop-up gear, they’ll mandate it year-round. \u003ccite>(Claire Harbage/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Patrice Maccarron, policy director of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association, says the fear among fishermen is that if regulators see them using pop-up gear, they’ll mandate it year-round, even when whales are not present. But some lobstermen are still trying to be part of the process.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They tend to be younger people with families who want to be in the fishery,” Maccarron says. “And they’re thinking, you know, I don’t want to do this. This is going to be really hard. But I also don’t want my livelihood to be removed and to reach a point where we don’t have options.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the fishery closures have mounted, hitting the more than $500 million lobster industry, the conversation is shifting, albeit slowly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think we’re now seeing a lot more willingness to try this, a lot more feedback, a lot more people who are understanding that we’re simply trying to provide fishermen a tool so they can access these closed areas,” says Henry Milliken, who helps run the gear library at NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983173\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1983173\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/2014summerswans-181-4c921061ff7d5c703fd8d037747254058a049943-s1300-c85-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"A boat with a blue sail is seen on the waters during the early hours of the morning.\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/2014summerswans-181-4c921061ff7d5c703fd8d037747254058a049943-s1300-c85-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/2014summerswans-181-4c921061ff7d5c703fd8d037747254058a049943-s1300-c85-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/2014summerswans-181-4c921061ff7d5c703fd8d037747254058a049943-s1300-c85-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/2014summerswans-181-4c921061ff7d5c703fd8d037747254058a049943-s1300-c85-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/2014summerswans-181-4c921061ff7d5c703fd8d037747254058a049943-s1300-c85.jpg 1300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A boat is prepared for a day at sea. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Ryan Kellman)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>Technical issues still remain\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Pop-up gear may work well in tests, but many fishermen worry it could be a different story when hundreds of boats use it during a busy commercial fishing season.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Buoys on the surface normally mark where traps are located, so fishermen can avoid putting their traps on top of someone else’s. With pop-up gear, fishermen would need to use an app or their onboard navigation system to see where traps already are on the seafloor. And some worry there could be conflict when boats are working close together.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s very, very congested,” Casoni says. “So I think the fear is it would create more problems amongst each other just fishing. It’s a very busy, dangerous operation to begin with, and we don’t need to add that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To prevent problems, fishing gear made by different manufacturers needs to show up on the same maps, just as cell phones from different carriers can all use the same network. NOAA plans on holding a workshop this fall to develop universal technical standards for manufacturers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then there’s the question how much slower it is to use pop-up gear. Dick Ogg, a crab fisherman from Bodega Bay, California, says he’s tested the gear. He points out that fishermen work with hundreds of traps during already grueling work days, and adding any extra time with new gear would be an economic hit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The process is very fast and it’s important to understand if we alter any of this, it has to be comparable,” Ogg says. “If I do one extra minute on my pot allocation, that’s an extra 5.8 hours a day.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983174\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1983174\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/ogg1_custom-394b757826fc16c16c2af78babed56b7be77eca0-s1300-c85-800x599.jpg\" alt=\"A fisherman with gray hair is wearing a gray sweater and sunglasses poses for a photo in front of some fishing gear.\" width=\"800\" height=\"599\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/ogg1_custom-394b757826fc16c16c2af78babed56b7be77eca0-s1300-c85-800x599.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/ogg1_custom-394b757826fc16c16c2af78babed56b7be77eca0-s1300-c85-1020x763.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/ogg1_custom-394b757826fc16c16c2af78babed56b7be77eca0-s1300-c85-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/ogg1_custom-394b757826fc16c16c2af78babed56b7be77eca0-s1300-c85-768x575.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/ogg1_custom-394b757826fc16c16c2af78babed56b7be77eca0-s1300-c85.jpg 1300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dick Ogg, a crab fisherman from Bodega Bay, California, says he’s tested the gear, but since fishermen work with hundreds of traps during already grueling work days, adding any extra time would be an economic hit. \u003ccite>(Lauren Sommer/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The price tag for pop-up systems can cost from hundreds to thousands of dollars per unit, which adds up for boats with hundreds of traps. To deploy the gear in a fishery equitably, boats would likely need grants or loans to defray the costs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If we bring in a capital-intensive model, we know our small boats don’t have that sort of operating capital,” McCarron says. “And, you know, there’s a very, very strong concern that we’re going to lose them and there won’t be a place for them.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>New resources to make pop-up gear work\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>To accelerate the process, the federal government is putting almost $68 million toward efforts to help North Atlantic right whales this year, funding that comes from the Inflation Reduction Act and the omnibus spending bill passed in December. Of that, $27 million will go to new kinds of fishing gear.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a very significant investment that we haven’t seen before to address the issues that are facing North Atlantic right whales,” says Kim Damon-Randall, director of NOAA Fisheries Office of Protected Resources. “If we can develop on-demand technology for gear in the Northeast, that technology can be applied elsewhere.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fishermen on both coasts are able to use pop-up gear voluntarily now, and lobstermen on the East Coast aren’t facing imminent rules mandating the gear. While NOAA had developed new regulations that would close fishing grounds and limit the number of traps in the water, a last-minute Congressional effort in December \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/01/04/1146637583/maine-lobster-industry-wins-reprieve-but-environmentalists-say-whales-will-die\">delayed those rules for six years\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983175\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1983175\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/mg_3876-2_custom-5b88e265b16803d0d69913005aeed519cf012d80-s1300-c85-1-800x532.jpg\" alt=\"A person wearing purple gloves and an orange fishing overall carries a blue tub that is filled with large shrimp.\" width=\"800\" height=\"532\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/mg_3876-2_custom-5b88e265b16803d0d69913005aeed519cf012d80-s1300-c85-1-800x532.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/mg_3876-2_custom-5b88e265b16803d0d69913005aeed519cf012d80-s1300-c85-1-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/mg_3876-2_custom-5b88e265b16803d0d69913005aeed519cf012d80-s1300-c85-1-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/mg_3876-2_custom-5b88e265b16803d0d69913005aeed519cf012d80-s1300-c85-1-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/mg_3876-2_custom-5b88e265b16803d0d69913005aeed519cf012d80-s1300-c85-1.jpg 1300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Federal officials say pop-up gear technology being piloted in the lobster industry could lead the way for other fisheries around the world that risk entangling whales. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Ryan Kellman)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>No matter what side of the issue, most agree that pop-up gear will take some time, both to iron out the technical issues and to work on acceptance in the fishing industry. In the Northeast, a group of manufacturers, fishermen and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, known as the \u003ca href=\"https://ropeless.org/\">Ropeless Consortium\u003c/a>, is working together on improving the technology.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Everything just needs to happen faster,” Baumgartner says. “So more focus and more resources are what’s needed. Those are coming but it’s been slow in coming.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=This+fishing+gear+can+help+save+whales.+What+will+it+take+for+fishermen+to+use+it%3F&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "MAP: More Than 5,000 Toxic Sites Along SF Bay Threatened by Rising Groundwater, New Study Finds",
"headTitle": "MAP: More Than 5,000 Toxic Sites Along SF Bay Threatened by Rising Groundwater, New Study Finds | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>More than 5,200 toxic sites buried along the lip of San Francisco Bay could be impacted by rising groundwater levels over the next century, posing potentially severe risks to human and environmental health, according to a \u003ca href=\"https://news.berkeley.edu/2023/06/20/rising-groundwater-threatens-thousands-of-toxic-sites-in-the-bay-area/\">recently released study\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s more than 10 times as many potentially at-risk Bay Area sites as had been identified in previous reports. A disproportionate number are located in lower-income communities of color, including in low-lying areas of San Francisco, Richmond, West Oakland and East Palo Alto.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The higher the social vulnerability, the higher the density of contaminated sites,” said Kristina Hill, director of UC Berkeley’s Institute of Urban and Regional Development, who co-authored the study.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Unlike much lower tallies from the federal and state agencies that oversee these sites, Hill’s study includes 1,480 open sites, which are in the process of being cleaned up or have not yet been cleaned up, as well as an additional 3,817 closed sites where some level of cleanup work may have been conducted, but that may still contain residual contaminants and be vulnerable to rising groundwater.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>The map below shows the more than 5,000 open (orange circle) and closed (black square) contaminated sites in the Bay Area that UC Berkeley Institute of Urban and Regional Development researchers identified as being potentially at risk of inundation by rising groundwater over the next century. Open sites include areas where cleanup has yet to begin or is still in progress. Closed sites include areas where cleanup has been completed but may still contain harmful toxins. For more information on each toxic site and the agency overseeing its cleanup, visit either of these searchable databases: \u003ca href=\"https://www.envirostor.dtsc.ca.gov/public/\">Envirostor\u003c/a> (from California’s Department of Toxics Control) or \u003ca href=\"https://geotracker.waterboards.ca.gov/\">GeoTracker\u003c/a> (from the state Water Resources Control Board).\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv style=\"width: 100%;\" align=\"center\">\n\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1000\" height=\"750\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" marginheight=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" title=\"Contaminated sites\" src=\"//www.arcgis.com/apps/Embed/index.html?webmap=35ac1447ecd04b8faa3429f3e8fa429e&extent=-123.928,37.114,-120.4481,38.5586&home=true&zoom=true&previewImage=false&scale=true&search=true&searchextent=true&details=true&legendlayers=true&active_panel=legend&disable_scroll=false&theme=light\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv align=\"left\">\u003csmall>\u003ci>Map by Matthew Green/KQED\u003c/i>\u003c/small>\u003c/div>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sites are contaminated with everything from radioactive materials and small underground petroleum tanks to toxic chemicals that can vaporize into pipes leading directly to homes, Hill said. Some sites date to the 19th century.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s like a graveyard,” Hill said. “Everything we’ve done in the past is coming up with that groundwater to haunt us in the present.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1979645/see-a-map-of-hazardous-sites-at-risk-from-rising-seas\">other studies have identified toxic sites at risk of coastal flooding\u003c/a> due to climate change, this is the first to comprehensively pinpoint areas where rising groundwater is likely to come into contact with contaminants and potentially move them toward both the bay and people’s homes. Twice as much land in the Bay Area could be affected by groundwater rise compared to coastal flooding, according to the new study, which is currently in the process of peer review (a \u003ca href=\"https://essopenarchive.org/users/621729/articles/645176-rising-coastal-groundwater-as-a-result-of-sea-level-rise-will-influence-contaminated-coastal-sites-and-underground-infrastructure\">preprint\u003c/a> and preliminary data are publicly available).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hill found that in nearly all Bay Area counties, the impact from rising groundwater along the bay will be more severe than from the more than three feet of sea level that could take place by mid-century. She said additional research is needed to better understand the risks those contaminants pose to human health.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the study, Hill found that in all but one Bay Area county (Santa Clara County), the impact from rising groundwater along the bay will be more severe than that from rising seas. She said additional research is needed to better understand the risks those contaminants pose to human health.[aside label=\"More on toxic sites\" postID=\"science_1979645,science_1980255,science_1979092\"]The risk of potential contamination from groundwater rise is notably higher in California as compared to most other states because of its vast coastline and sheer number of vulnerable sites, she noted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hill said that rising groundwater — potentially made worse during atmospheric river storms and rising tides — is “already moving contaminants”\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1981077/state-regulators-scrutinize-climate-plan-for-controversial-richmond-housing-development\">\u003cb> toward homes and businesses from toxic sites in places like Richmond.\u003c/b>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The two state agencies in charge of enforcing cleanup of the sites, Hill said, need “to flip a switch” to the default goal of removing or neutralizing contaminants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a solvable problem. But it requires us to dig up the graves,” she said, emphasizing the need to consider rising groundwater levels in future climate adaptation plans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The idea is not to run away from these places,” she added. “The idea is to make them safe and healthy again.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cleanup of toxic sites can range from digging up contaminants and trucking debris to contained locations, treating toxics directly on-site, or capping the pollutants in the ground with materials like cement to prevent them from leaking. That third option, Hill said, is likely not a good long-term solution because groundwater rise will generally circumvent barriers over time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The new findings presented in the study are revelatory and underscore the urgency of the situation, said Todd Sax, deputy director of site mitigation and restoration with the California Department of Toxic Substances Control, or DTSC, one of the agencies tasked with holding polluters accountable for cleaning up at-risk contaminated areas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sax said his agency has identified about 300 particularly vulnerable toxic sites in the Bay Area and has set the goal of shoring them up to withstand 3.5 feet of sea level rise by 2050 and 6 feet by 2100. On a rolling basis, the agency is beginning to require known polluters to \u003ca href=\"https://dtsc.ca.gov/climate-change/\">assess the risks posed by sea-level and groundwater rise\u003c/a> at those sites and perform the necessary cleanups.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The bottom line is the polluter will pay for the vulnerability assessment unless the site does not have a responsible party,” Sax said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But he noted that a site cleanup doesn’t always mean polluters will be required to remove all contamination, even after a vulnerability assessment. He said that sometimes trucking contaminants out of a community can be more harmful to human health and the bay than leaving them in the ground.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There aren’t any magic bullets to help solve the environmental contamination problem,” he said. “The best we can do is remove or treat the contamination where we can and then to engineer robust solutions that protect public health and the environment into the future.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board, which oversees cleanup operations in some 1,000 vulnerable toxic sites in the region, has only begun enforcing groundwater rise assessment in a tiny percentage of cleanup plans, said Alec Naugle, the agency’s toxics cleanup division manager.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have to act more quickly on the most vulnerable sites,” he said, stressing the need for more caseworkers to manage the cleanups. He said the agency recently began requiring landfill operators to account for groundwater rise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The public can understand that this isn’t going ignored,” he said. “It is a sort of a slow-moving train and, at the same time, we need to have eyes on it now because the remedy is going to be costly.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Naugle and Sax note that the number of toxic sites identified in this study is substantially larger than the number their agencies oversee, due largely to Hill’s inclusion of closed sites, which could pose a lower risk to public health.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, both agencies said they are assessing Hill’s data.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What Dr. Hill’s study points out, is that fundamentally, there’s going to be issues with these sites into the future,” Sax said.[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>More than 5,200 toxic sites buried along the lip of San Francisco Bay could be impacted by rising groundwater levels over the next century, posing potentially severe risks to human and environmental health, according to a \u003ca href=\"https://news.berkeley.edu/2023/06/20/rising-groundwater-threatens-thousands-of-toxic-sites-in-the-bay-area/\">recently released study\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s more than 10 times as many potentially at-risk Bay Area sites as had been identified in previous reports. A disproportionate number are located in lower-income communities of color, including in low-lying areas of San Francisco, Richmond, West Oakland and East Palo Alto.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The higher the social vulnerability, the higher the density of contaminated sites,” said Kristina Hill, director of UC Berkeley’s Institute of Urban and Regional Development, who co-authored the study.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Unlike much lower tallies from the federal and state agencies that oversee these sites, Hill’s study includes 1,480 open sites, which are in the process of being cleaned up or have not yet been cleaned up, as well as an additional 3,817 closed sites where some level of cleanup work may have been conducted, but that may still contain residual contaminants and be vulnerable to rising groundwater.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>The map below shows the more than 5,000 open (orange circle) and closed (black square) contaminated sites in the Bay Area that UC Berkeley Institute of Urban and Regional Development researchers identified as being potentially at risk of inundation by rising groundwater over the next century. Open sites include areas where cleanup has yet to begin or is still in progress. Closed sites include areas where cleanup has been completed but may still contain harmful toxins. For more information on each toxic site and the agency overseeing its cleanup, visit either of these searchable databases: \u003ca href=\"https://www.envirostor.dtsc.ca.gov/public/\">Envirostor\u003c/a> (from California’s Department of Toxics Control) or \u003ca href=\"https://geotracker.waterboards.ca.gov/\">GeoTracker\u003c/a> (from the state Water Resources Control Board).\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv style=\"width: 100%;\" align=\"center\">\n\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1000\" height=\"750\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" marginheight=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" title=\"Contaminated sites\" src=\"//www.arcgis.com/apps/Embed/index.html?webmap=35ac1447ecd04b8faa3429f3e8fa429e&extent=-123.928,37.114,-120.4481,38.5586&home=true&zoom=true&previewImage=false&scale=true&search=true&searchextent=true&details=true&legendlayers=true&active_panel=legend&disable_scroll=false&theme=light\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv align=\"left\">\u003csmall>\u003ci>Map by Matthew Green/KQED\u003c/i>\u003c/small>\u003c/div>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sites are contaminated with everything from radioactive materials and small underground petroleum tanks to toxic chemicals that can vaporize into pipes leading directly to homes, Hill said. Some sites date to the 19th century.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s like a graveyard,” Hill said. “Everything we’ve done in the past is coming up with that groundwater to haunt us in the present.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1979645/see-a-map-of-hazardous-sites-at-risk-from-rising-seas\">other studies have identified toxic sites at risk of coastal flooding\u003c/a> due to climate change, this is the first to comprehensively pinpoint areas where rising groundwater is likely to come into contact with contaminants and potentially move them toward both the bay and people’s homes. Twice as much land in the Bay Area could be affected by groundwater rise compared to coastal flooding, according to the new study, which is currently in the process of peer review (a \u003ca href=\"https://essopenarchive.org/users/621729/articles/645176-rising-coastal-groundwater-as-a-result-of-sea-level-rise-will-influence-contaminated-coastal-sites-and-underground-infrastructure\">preprint\u003c/a> and preliminary data are publicly available).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hill found that in nearly all Bay Area counties, the impact from rising groundwater along the bay will be more severe than from the more than three feet of sea level that could take place by mid-century. She said additional research is needed to better understand the risks those contaminants pose to human health.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the study, Hill found that in all but one Bay Area county (Santa Clara County), the impact from rising groundwater along the bay will be more severe than that from rising seas. She said additional research is needed to better understand the risks those contaminants pose to human health.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The risk of potential contamination from groundwater rise is notably higher in California as compared to most other states because of its vast coastline and sheer number of vulnerable sites, she noted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hill said that rising groundwater — potentially made worse during atmospheric river storms and rising tides — is “already moving contaminants”\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1981077/state-regulators-scrutinize-climate-plan-for-controversial-richmond-housing-development\">\u003cb> toward homes and businesses from toxic sites in places like Richmond.\u003c/b>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The two state agencies in charge of enforcing cleanup of the sites, Hill said, need “to flip a switch” to the default goal of removing or neutralizing contaminants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a solvable problem. But it requires us to dig up the graves,” she said, emphasizing the need to consider rising groundwater levels in future climate adaptation plans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The idea is not to run away from these places,” she added. “The idea is to make them safe and healthy again.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cleanup of toxic sites can range from digging up contaminants and trucking debris to contained locations, treating toxics directly on-site, or capping the pollutants in the ground with materials like cement to prevent them from leaking. That third option, Hill said, is likely not a good long-term solution because groundwater rise will generally circumvent barriers over time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The new findings presented in the study are revelatory and underscore the urgency of the situation, said Todd Sax, deputy director of site mitigation and restoration with the California Department of Toxic Substances Control, or DTSC, one of the agencies tasked with holding polluters accountable for cleaning up at-risk contaminated areas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sax said his agency has identified about 300 particularly vulnerable toxic sites in the Bay Area and has set the goal of shoring them up to withstand 3.5 feet of sea level rise by 2050 and 6 feet by 2100. On a rolling basis, the agency is beginning to require known polluters to \u003ca href=\"https://dtsc.ca.gov/climate-change/\">assess the risks posed by sea-level and groundwater rise\u003c/a> at those sites and perform the necessary cleanups.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The bottom line is the polluter will pay for the vulnerability assessment unless the site does not have a responsible party,” Sax said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But he noted that a site cleanup doesn’t always mean polluters will be required to remove all contamination, even after a vulnerability assessment. He said that sometimes trucking contaminants out of a community can be more harmful to human health and the bay than leaving them in the ground.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There aren’t any magic bullets to help solve the environmental contamination problem,” he said. “The best we can do is remove or treat the contamination where we can and then to engineer robust solutions that protect public health and the environment into the future.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board, which oversees cleanup operations in some 1,000 vulnerable toxic sites in the region, has only begun enforcing groundwater rise assessment in a tiny percentage of cleanup plans, said Alec Naugle, the agency’s toxics cleanup division manager.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have to act more quickly on the most vulnerable sites,” he said, stressing the need for more caseworkers to manage the cleanups. He said the agency recently began requiring landfill operators to account for groundwater rise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The public can understand that this isn’t going ignored,” he said. “It is a sort of a slow-moving train and, at the same time, we need to have eyes on it now because the remedy is going to be costly.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Naugle and Sax note that the number of toxic sites identified in this study is substantially larger than the number their agencies oversee, due largely to Hill’s inclusion of closed sites, which could pose a lower risk to public health.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, both agencies said they are assessing Hill’s data.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What Dr. Hill’s study points out, is that fundamentally, there’s going to be issues with these sites into the future,” Sax said.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "California Lawmakers Wage Delta Water War With Newsom",
"headTitle": "California Lawmakers Wage Delta Water War With Newsom | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>Amping up their concerns as a deadline looms, key California legislators today escalated their pushback on Gov. Gavin Newsom’s efforts to streamline the Delta water tunnel and other infrastructure projects.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The stalemate could become a critical lever while lawmakers haggle with Newsom over the 2023–2024 budget leading up to his \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/explainers/california-budget-2023/\">June 27 deadline for approving the spending plan\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A bipartisan group of \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/AsmVillapudua/status/1671286825888129027?s=20\">10 lawmakers from the Assembly and the Senate signed on to a letter today\u003c/a> urging Newsom and legislative leaders to stall Newsom’s package of infrastructure bills “for as long as \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/2022/06/california-water-delta-tunnel/\">the Delta Conveyance Project\u003c/a> remains a part of the proposal.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The legislators said Newsom’s proposals — which would overhaul permitting and litigation for expansive projects like the controversial tunnel plan to replumb the Delta and send more water south — could cause environmental harm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Rather than taking up a few blocks like a stadium, the tunnel would span multiple counties and impose water and air quality concerns throughout the region. If the project is litigated under (the California Environmental Quality Act), the process should not be rushed,” said the letter, spearheaded by Assemblymember \u003ca href=\"https://a13.asmdc.org/\">Carlos Villapudua\u003c/a>, a Democrat from Stockton and a member of the Delta Caucus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In mid-May, Newsom unveiled an executive order and package of wide-ranging proposals to streamline state approval of major infrastructure projects, \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/2023/05/19/governor-newsom-unveils-new-proposals-to-build-californias-clean-future-faster/\">such as bridges, reservoirs, semiconductor plants and the Delta tunnel\u003c/a>. Some of his proposals aim to keep transportation, energy and water projects from stalling under legal challenges related to the \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/2023/05/gavin-newsom-ceqa-reform/\">California Environmental Quality Act\u003c/a> and make the state more appealing for federal funding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The fight pits Newsom against lawmakers who say they feel “jammed” by Newsom’s use of the budget process to fast-track the bills. Environmental groups and salmon fishermen are squaring off against building and labor groups. And Delta counties are once again waging \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/2022/06/california-water-delta-tunnel/\">a decades-long battle against a massive water project\u003c/a> that would reshape their region.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Newsom administration says the changes are urgent because California needs to more rapidly build water and energy projects to prepare for climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The proposals that the governor brings forward we don’t bring forward lightly into the budget process, but because we have to take action now,” California Natural Resources Secretary Wade Crowfoot said at a joint hearing of the Assembly Judiciary and Natural Resources committees in early June. “We need to be in a dead sprint implementing what we call our water supply strategy for a hotter, drier future.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newsom’s Deputy Communications Director Alex Stack said the package “ensures California would still have the same nation-leading environmental protections while also cutting unnecessary red tape that has stalled key climate projects for years.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The final budget is not contingent on Newsom’s infrastructure proposals, and they could be enacted after it’s signed. But experts suspect they will be used as a political lever while negotiations hashing out the budget continue through the end of this month.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Introduced as budget trailer bills less than a month before the \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/explainers/california-budget-2023/\">Legislature’s June 15 budget deadline\u003c/a>, Newsom’s proposals bypass the typical legislative policy committee lineup and give lawmakers and the public less opportunity for deliberation or amendments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It feels disrespectful to the process, to all the work that we’ve done … to have something come at this late date and want to be rushed through that has had such an impact on my district, and the state and the 4 million people who reside in that area,” Sen. Susan Talamantes Eggman, a Democrat from Stockton, said in a committee hearing this month.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Assembly consultants warned in a report that this approach “significantly limits transparency and public input” and “increases the potential for creating unintended consequences.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They (Newsom officials) want to rewrite more than a century of California law in a backroom deal,” Doug Obegi, a senior attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council, told CalMatters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size='medium' align='right' citation='Alex Stack, deputy communications director for Gov. Newsom']‘California would still have the same nation-leading environmental protections while also cutting unnecessary red tape that has stalled key climate projects for years.’[/pullquote]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During informational hearings held in early June, lawmakers noted that this is not the first time that the Newsom administration has \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/2022/06/energy-deal-budget-talks/\">brought policy proposals into the budget process\u003c/a>. “It is starting to feel like we are being jammed by design,” Sen. Monique Limón, a Democrat from Santa Barbara, said at the Senate Natural Resources and Water hearing.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘Overly onerous’ regulations or ‘railroading’ projects in?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Water providers, business interests and several labor unions have voiced support for Newsom’s policy package.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Major infrastructure projects are too often bogged down in overly onerous regulatory processes and a siloed approach to permitting approvals, which increases overall costs and delays critical projects,” the Association of California Water Agencies, Mojave Water Agency, and the Almond Alliance all wrote in individual letters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Much of the opposition stressed the impact on the tunnel project, including a coalition of the five counties ringing the Delta — Sacramento, Solano, San Joaquin, Contra Costa and Yolo.[pullquote size='medium' align='right' citation='Doug Obegi, senior attorney, Natural Resources Defense Council']‘They want to rewrite more than a century of California law in a backroom deal.’[/pullquote]“The Legislature is being asked to railroad over the objections of 4 million people and the 25 county supervisors that represent them and are trying to protect their homes and communities,” said Karen Lange on behalf of the Delta Counties Coalition at an informational hearing of the Assembly Committee on Water, Parks and Wildlife. “In the case of the tunnel, every county and city that is affected by it opposes it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stockton community organizations, salmon fishers and environmental groups said Newsom’s plan would remove guardrails and hamper litigation against the Delta tunnel and other projects.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One Newsom proposal, for instance, would exclude \u003ca href=\"https://esd.dof.ca.gov/trailer-bill/public/trailerBill/pdf/954\">certain internal communications (PDF)\u003c/a> such as emails from the administrative record prepared for litigation if they didn’t ultimately reach the final decision-making body.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Assembly \u003ca href=\"https://antr.assembly.ca.gov/sites/antr.assembly.ca.gov/files/June%207%2C%202022%20Info%20Hearing%20Documents.pdf\">analysts warned that this “allows the agency to pick and choose what documents to include in the record” (PDF)\u003c/a>. Though these records could be available under a separate California Public Records Act request, this too can lead to lawsuits and delays and “could prove very costly to public agencies.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In today’s letter, legislators criticized parts of the package that would set a time limit for lawsuits challenging the tunnel and other projects and reduce protections against killing certain wildlife species, such as sandhill cranes that winter in the Delta.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Crowfoot told CalMatters that the proposals were not developed specifically to push through the tunnel project.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I haven’t been part of any internal conversation on fully protected species and our need to modernize it that discuss the Sandhill crane or its relationship to the project,” he said. “The intent is not to short circuit any environmental review or public input, but it is to ultimately get to an answer around whether this project can be supported and move forward.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/2022/06/california-water-delta-tunnel/\">Decades in the making yet still decades from completion\u003c/a>, the proposed tunnel has been called both a water grab and a critical update to water supplies for 27 million people, mostly in Southern California, and 750,000 acres of farmland. State officials say it would protect a vital water artery from earthquakes, sea level rise and extreme swings from wet to dry, while local communities and environmental groups say it would upend the way of life and sensitive ecosystems of the Delta.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The estimated price tag, last updated in 2020, is around $16 billion, which would eventually be paid back by water agencies receiving its supplies. Last year, \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/2022/07/delta-tunnel-water-report/\">a draft state environmental report\u003c/a> warned that the tunnel project would harm endangered and threatened species, convert 2,300 acres of farmland, and disrupt cultural and historic sites.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Asked why the administration included such a fiercely contested issue in the infrastructure package as part of the budget process, Crowfoot said in an interview, “We simply can’t kick the can down the road on this question because it generates disagreements and controversy.”\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Amping up their concerns as a deadline looms, key California legislators today escalated their pushback on Gov. Gavin Newsom’s efforts to streamline the Delta water tunnel and other infrastructure projects.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The stalemate could become a critical lever while lawmakers haggle with Newsom over the 2023–2024 budget leading up to his \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/explainers/california-budget-2023/\">June 27 deadline for approving the spending plan\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A bipartisan group of \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/AsmVillapudua/status/1671286825888129027?s=20\">10 lawmakers from the Assembly and the Senate signed on to a letter today\u003c/a> urging Newsom and legislative leaders to stall Newsom’s package of infrastructure bills “for as long as \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/2022/06/california-water-delta-tunnel/\">the Delta Conveyance Project\u003c/a> remains a part of the proposal.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The legislators said Newsom’s proposals — which would overhaul permitting and litigation for expansive projects like the controversial tunnel plan to replumb the Delta and send more water south — could cause environmental harm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Rather than taking up a few blocks like a stadium, the tunnel would span multiple counties and impose water and air quality concerns throughout the region. If the project is litigated under (the California Environmental Quality Act), the process should not be rushed,” said the letter, spearheaded by Assemblymember \u003ca href=\"https://a13.asmdc.org/\">Carlos Villapudua\u003c/a>, a Democrat from Stockton and a member of the Delta Caucus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In mid-May, Newsom unveiled an executive order and package of wide-ranging proposals to streamline state approval of major infrastructure projects, \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/2023/05/19/governor-newsom-unveils-new-proposals-to-build-californias-clean-future-faster/\">such as bridges, reservoirs, semiconductor plants and the Delta tunnel\u003c/a>. Some of his proposals aim to keep transportation, energy and water projects from stalling under legal challenges related to the \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/2023/05/gavin-newsom-ceqa-reform/\">California Environmental Quality Act\u003c/a> and make the state more appealing for federal funding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The fight pits Newsom against lawmakers who say they feel “jammed” by Newsom’s use of the budget process to fast-track the bills. Environmental groups and salmon fishermen are squaring off against building and labor groups. And Delta counties are once again waging \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/2022/06/california-water-delta-tunnel/\">a decades-long battle against a massive water project\u003c/a> that would reshape their region.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Newsom administration says the changes are urgent because California needs to more rapidly build water and energy projects to prepare for climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The proposals that the governor brings forward we don’t bring forward lightly into the budget process, but because we have to take action now,” California Natural Resources Secretary Wade Crowfoot said at a joint hearing of the Assembly Judiciary and Natural Resources committees in early June. “We need to be in a dead sprint implementing what we call our water supply strategy for a hotter, drier future.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newsom’s Deputy Communications Director Alex Stack said the package “ensures California would still have the same nation-leading environmental protections while also cutting unnecessary red tape that has stalled key climate projects for years.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The final budget is not contingent on Newsom’s infrastructure proposals, and they could be enacted after it’s signed. But experts suspect they will be used as a political lever while negotiations hashing out the budget continue through the end of this month.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Introduced as budget trailer bills less than a month before the \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/explainers/california-budget-2023/\">Legislature’s June 15 budget deadline\u003c/a>, Newsom’s proposals bypass the typical legislative policy committee lineup and give lawmakers and the public less opportunity for deliberation or amendments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It feels disrespectful to the process, to all the work that we’ve done … to have something come at this late date and want to be rushed through that has had such an impact on my district, and the state and the 4 million people who reside in that area,” Sen. Susan Talamantes Eggman, a Democrat from Stockton, said in a committee hearing this month.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Assembly consultants warned in a report that this approach “significantly limits transparency and public input” and “increases the potential for creating unintended consequences.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They (Newsom officials) want to rewrite more than a century of California law in a backroom deal,” Doug Obegi, a senior attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council, told CalMatters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During informational hearings held in early June, lawmakers noted that this is not the first time that the Newsom administration has \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/2022/06/energy-deal-budget-talks/\">brought policy proposals into the budget process\u003c/a>. “It is starting to feel like we are being jammed by design,” Sen. Monique Limón, a Democrat from Santa Barbara, said at the Senate Natural Resources and Water hearing.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘Overly onerous’ regulations or ‘railroading’ projects in?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Water providers, business interests and several labor unions have voiced support for Newsom’s policy package.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Major infrastructure projects are too often bogged down in overly onerous regulatory processes and a siloed approach to permitting approvals, which increases overall costs and delays critical projects,” the Association of California Water Agencies, Mojave Water Agency, and the Almond Alliance all wrote in individual letters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Much of the opposition stressed the impact on the tunnel project, including a coalition of the five counties ringing the Delta — Sacramento, Solano, San Joaquin, Contra Costa and Yolo.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“The Legislature is being asked to railroad over the objections of 4 million people and the 25 county supervisors that represent them and are trying to protect their homes and communities,” said Karen Lange on behalf of the Delta Counties Coalition at an informational hearing of the Assembly Committee on Water, Parks and Wildlife. “In the case of the tunnel, every county and city that is affected by it opposes it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stockton community organizations, salmon fishers and environmental groups said Newsom’s plan would remove guardrails and hamper litigation against the Delta tunnel and other projects.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One Newsom proposal, for instance, would exclude \u003ca href=\"https://esd.dof.ca.gov/trailer-bill/public/trailerBill/pdf/954\">certain internal communications (PDF)\u003c/a> such as emails from the administrative record prepared for litigation if they didn’t ultimately reach the final decision-making body.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Assembly \u003ca href=\"https://antr.assembly.ca.gov/sites/antr.assembly.ca.gov/files/June%207%2C%202022%20Info%20Hearing%20Documents.pdf\">analysts warned that this “allows the agency to pick and choose what documents to include in the record” (PDF)\u003c/a>. Though these records could be available under a separate California Public Records Act request, this too can lead to lawsuits and delays and “could prove very costly to public agencies.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In today’s letter, legislators criticized parts of the package that would set a time limit for lawsuits challenging the tunnel and other projects and reduce protections against killing certain wildlife species, such as sandhill cranes that winter in the Delta.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Crowfoot told CalMatters that the proposals were not developed specifically to push through the tunnel project.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I haven’t been part of any internal conversation on fully protected species and our need to modernize it that discuss the Sandhill crane or its relationship to the project,” he said. “The intent is not to short circuit any environmental review or public input, but it is to ultimately get to an answer around whether this project can be supported and move forward.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/2022/06/california-water-delta-tunnel/\">Decades in the making yet still decades from completion\u003c/a>, the proposed tunnel has been called both a water grab and a critical update to water supplies for 27 million people, mostly in Southern California, and 750,000 acres of farmland. State officials say it would protect a vital water artery from earthquakes, sea level rise and extreme swings from wet to dry, while local communities and environmental groups say it would upend the way of life and sensitive ecosystems of the Delta.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The estimated price tag, last updated in 2020, is around $16 billion, which would eventually be paid back by water agencies receiving its supplies. Last year, \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/2022/07/delta-tunnel-water-report/\">a draft state environmental report\u003c/a> warned that the tunnel project would harm endangered and threatened species, convert 2,300 acres of farmland, and disrupt cultural and historic sites.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "California Congressmembers Urge EPA to Support Prescribed Fire",
"headTitle": "California Congressmembers Urge EPA to Support Prescribed Fire | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>The smoke from wildfires that bathed the Eastern Seaboard in recent days prompted officials to issue air quality alerts and refocused wide attention on the issue of fire pollution.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s also the urgent backdrop to \u003ca href=\"https://www.padilla.senate.gov/wp-content/uploads/Letter-to-EPA-re_-PM2.5-Rule-Limiting-Prescribed-Fire-Opportunities1.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">a letter congressional leaders from California\u003c/a> sent to the Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday, pressing regulators to amend their update of the Clean Air Act.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While specifying their support for cleaner standards, the members of Congress want the implementation of the EPA’s new rule to support, rather than hinder, the use of prescribed burns.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A lot of our colleagues from other parts of the country [are] finally getting an appreciation for a very real challenge that we’ve had in California for many years,” said Sen. Alex Padilla in an interview with KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He led the effort to draft the letter and is one of 25 leaders to co-sign, along with Sen. Dianne Feinstein, Rep. Katie Porter, Rep. Adam Schiff and Rep. Zoe Lofgren.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They expressed concern that a new rule intended to improve air quality — tightening standards on a class of pollutants that include soot and smoke — could have the opposite intended effect by making it harder to conduct prescribed burns, setting the stage for the types of big fires currently raging out of control in Canada.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We ask for your continued focus on developing a solution that both safeguards clean air and prevents the consistent cycle of devastating wildfires that also undermines our efforts to make progress on clean air,” the letter says. It also urges officials to collaborate with air districts, land managers and fire practitioners.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The problem is, if you don’t do these controlled burns, you’re going to have more catastrophic fires that blast way past anyone’s air quality standards. And that has become a chronic problem in Northern California year after year,” said North Bay Congressmember Jared Huffman, who co-signed the letter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While controlled burns do produce smoke, it’s more manageable and less toxic than wildfire smoke. And, crucially, prescribed fires help inoculate areas against disastrous fires — the kind that produce debilitating\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>smoke for weeks on end.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If regulators are not allowing us to use the most powerful tool we have to prevent those kind of massive air quality violations, then we need to urge them to do better. That’s what this letter is all about,” Huffman said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Increasing the pace and scale of prescribed fire is a cornerstone of plans from both the state of California and the U.S. Forest Service for addressing the wildfire crisis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the EPA’s proposed rule might hinder that approach by requiring air districts to meet newly strengthened standards for smoke and soot. Air districts, in turn, might err on the side of not approving planned burns to safeguard their compliance with air quality standards. (Consequences can be severe for air districts that are out of compliance. The EPA may take over air permitting and impose a ban on new federal highway funds.) \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1982166\">The fire science community in California has said this is wrongheaded\u003c/a> and risks ultimately leading to smokier days in this state and beyond.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“By treating prescribed fire smoke similarly to industrial pollution sources, the draft EPA rule would significantly curb the use of beneficial fire,” wrote Matt Weiner of the nonprofit Megafire Action in an email; Megafire Action gave input on the letter. “This letter shows that the issue has gone from relatively obscure to top of mind, even among those who are fiercely supportive of EPA lowering the PM 2.5 threshold.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PM 2.5 is a class of pollutants defined by their size: 2.5 microns in length or smaller (about 3% of a hair’s width). Their small size allows them to get deep into the lungs and even pass into the bloodstream.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The EPA has not said when it will publish their final rule. According to reports, they are in discussions with the U.S. Forest Service and other agencies about this issue.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The smoke from wildfires that bathed the Eastern Seaboard in recent days prompted officials to issue air quality alerts and refocused wide attention on the issue of fire pollution.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s also the urgent backdrop to \u003ca href=\"https://www.padilla.senate.gov/wp-content/uploads/Letter-to-EPA-re_-PM2.5-Rule-Limiting-Prescribed-Fire-Opportunities1.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">a letter congressional leaders from California\u003c/a> sent to the Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday, pressing regulators to amend their update of the Clean Air Act.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While specifying their support for cleaner standards, the members of Congress want the implementation of the EPA’s new rule to support, rather than hinder, the use of prescribed burns.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A lot of our colleagues from other parts of the country [are] finally getting an appreciation for a very real challenge that we’ve had in California for many years,” said Sen. Alex Padilla in an interview with KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He led the effort to draft the letter and is one of 25 leaders to co-sign, along with Sen. Dianne Feinstein, Rep. Katie Porter, Rep. Adam Schiff and Rep. Zoe Lofgren.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They expressed concern that a new rule intended to improve air quality — tightening standards on a class of pollutants that include soot and smoke — could have the opposite intended effect by making it harder to conduct prescribed burns, setting the stage for the types of big fires currently raging out of control in Canada.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We ask for your continued focus on developing a solution that both safeguards clean air and prevents the consistent cycle of devastating wildfires that also undermines our efforts to make progress on clean air,” the letter says. It also urges officials to collaborate with air districts, land managers and fire practitioners.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The problem is, if you don’t do these controlled burns, you’re going to have more catastrophic fires that blast way past anyone’s air quality standards. And that has become a chronic problem in Northern California year after year,” said North Bay Congressmember Jared Huffman, who co-signed the letter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While controlled burns do produce smoke, it’s more manageable and less toxic than wildfire smoke. And, crucially, prescribed fires help inoculate areas against disastrous fires — the kind that produce debilitating\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>smoke for weeks on end.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If regulators are not allowing us to use the most powerful tool we have to prevent those kind of massive air quality violations, then we need to urge them to do better. That’s what this letter is all about,” Huffman said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Increasing the pace and scale of prescribed fire is a cornerstone of plans from both the state of California and the U.S. Forest Service for addressing the wildfire crisis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the EPA’s proposed rule might hinder that approach by requiring air districts to meet newly strengthened standards for smoke and soot. Air districts, in turn, might err on the side of not approving planned burns to safeguard their compliance with air quality standards. (Consequences can be severe for air districts that are out of compliance. The EPA may take over air permitting and impose a ban on new federal highway funds.) \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1982166\">The fire science community in California has said this is wrongheaded\u003c/a> and risks ultimately leading to smokier days in this state and beyond.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“By treating prescribed fire smoke similarly to industrial pollution sources, the draft EPA rule would significantly curb the use of beneficial fire,” wrote Matt Weiner of the nonprofit Megafire Action in an email; Megafire Action gave input on the letter. “This letter shows that the issue has gone from relatively obscure to top of mind, even among those who are fiercely supportive of EPA lowering the PM 2.5 threshold.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PM 2.5 is a class of pollutants defined by their size: 2.5 microns in length or smaller (about 3% of a hair’s width). Their small size allows them to get deep into the lungs and even pass into the bloodstream.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The EPA has not said when it will publish their final rule. According to reports, they are in discussions with the U.S. Forest Service and other agencies about this issue.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"info": "Possible is hosted by entrepreneur Reid Hoffman and writer Aria Finger. Together in Possible, Hoffman and Finger lead enlightening discussions about building a brighter collective future. The show features interviews with visionary guests like Trevor Noah, Sam Altman and Janette Sadik-Khan. Possible paints an optimistic portrait of the world we can create through science, policy, business, art and our shared humanity. It asks: What if everything goes right for once? How can we get there? Each episode also includes a short fiction story generated by advanced AI GPT-4, serving as a thought-provoking springboard to speculate how humanity could leverage technology for good.",
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"soldout": {
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