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The number of acres burned was the lowest since 2011, and the wildfire-related death toll dropped to three, down from the dozens of fatalities in both 2017 and 2018.

The biggest winter storm in weeks will be moving through California on Thursday. Expect rain, snow, wind and thunderstorms.

Plastic pollution is getting under our skin. Literally. As plastics have become ubiquitous in modern society, so too has plastic pollution, including tiny plastic particles. These microplastics have been detected in the air, water and in foods, making their presence in our bodies inevitable. 

A new habitat restoration effort completed in fall to protect salmon and steelhead in the lower American River. Over three weeks in September, the project placed more than 14,000 cubic yards of cleaned and sorted gravel into the river and carved out a new side channel to help fish spawn and rear their young.

Despite what seems like a lot of rain since about the Thanksgiving week, accumulated totals really have not amounted to much. North State and central Sierra Nevada precipitation values to date are still below their long-term averages but have arisen considerably over the Holiday season. 

The presence of fecal bacteria in water is usually the result of problems with sewer systems and septic tanks. But water quality officials agree that the source of at least some of the fecal bacteria is California’s growing homeless population, most of whom don’t have reliable access to toilets.

It’s a new year, and a time to take stock in California’s most precious commodity: water.

The Department of Water Resources (DWR) today conducted the first manual snow survey of 2020 at Phillips Station. The manual survey recorded 33.5 inches of snow depth and a snow water equivalent (SWE) of 11 inches, which is 97 percent of average for this location. The SWE measures the amount of water contained in the snowpack, which provides a more accurate forecast of spring runoff.

Dry farming has a very long history of use. Particularly crops such as olives and grapes have been dry farmed for thousands of years. The production of some of the finest wines and olive oils in the world is accomplished with dry-farmed fruit. The famous California wines that won the 1976 Paris Wine Tasting were all dry farmed.

After extremely wet winter of 2016-2017 the bumper crop of grasses and other vegetation that grew then dried to become the combustible mix of fuels that played a role in the severe fires that have swept California in the past two years.

A report on preparing for sea-level-rise (SLR) along the California coast calls for coastal communities to increase the extent and the SLR preparation efforts. The recommendations in the report include increasing public awareness of the risks and effects of SLR.

California is increasing regulations on groundwater. For many farmers in the state, it is a step too far. The law's critics say it could lead to a loss of half a million acres of farmland in California's Central Valley.