As the state’s drought conditions continue to worsen, Californians have been asked to voluntarily reduce water use by 15%. If conservation efforts don’t improve this summer, the state could be forced to impose mandatory water restrictions throughout the state.
California is feeling the impacts of climate change like never before – cycles of extreme heat and weather variability, long periods of drought and low snowpack are putting California on the cusp of the worst drought in our state’s history. Today, more than 95% of the state is in “severe drought,” and we simply do not have enough water to meet the needs of California’s homes, businesses, farms and wildlife. Continue reading Save Water, Save California→
Hogweed is popping up in more backyards, and environmental agencies are warning of the dangers of coming into contact with it. For those who do, the giant weed can reportedly give you blisters, cause third-degree burns, and even permanently blind you if you get in your eyes.
The towering weed may look unassuming. Realtor.com® describes it as looking similar to Queen Anne’s lace. However, it can grow up to 14 feet high and it can reproduce quickly and spread fast, appearing in urban, suburban, and rural areas’ yards and gardens. Don’t be fooled by its delicate white flowers either.
“It has purple blotches and coarse white hairs along the stem, very large, lobed leaves with serrated edges, and a large white umbrella-shaped flower growing on top of the plant,” Daniel Waldhorn, a hogweed information line coordinator for New York state’s Department of Environmental Conservation, told realtor.com®.
Hogweed is most often found in the northeast—Maine down to North Carolina. But it can also pop up elsewhere, like in Oregon or the Pacific Northwest. Craig Vacula, owner of Lawn Tech in Flemington, N.J., says that hogweed tends to grow best in areas with lots of rain and sunlight.
The sap of hogweed is the true danger to humans. The sap covers the leaves and stems of the plant. “There are toxic chemicals in it called furanocoumarins that can cause photodermatitis—making your skin unable to protect itself from the sun, so it causes severe burning and blistering when exposed to ultraviolet light,” Vacula says.
Reactions to the plant can happen within 15 minutes of coming into contact with it; blisters typically appear within 48 hours.
For those who do come into contact with hogweed, wash immediately with soap and water and then consult a doctor, Waldhorn says. Also, if you suspect hogweed in a yard, report it to environmental services in your area and leave getting rid of it to the professionals, who will wear protective suits to eradicate it. Some states, like New York where hogweed is the most common, even have “hogwood hotlines” to report sightings.
Source: Realtor.com®
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(NewsUSA) – For many homeowners, the backyard is not at the forefront of their home-design plans. But procrastination can be an advantage when it comes to outdoor living. By the time many people consider the backyard, they have developed a strong sense of their own décor personality.
Most consumers’ design styles can be classified as traditionalist, bohemian, modern, eclectic, rustic or industrial, according to Belgard, a company dedicated to outdoor living design and elements for patio spaces and beyond.
Fortunately, there are backyard design plans to suit any taste, as well as any budget. Some design elements that might have particular appeal to different décor personalities include:
*For the traditionalist:
Classic comfort. What is the primary purpose of a patio? A place for sitting and relaxing. Attractive, sturdy pavers in appealing patterns provide easy walking and an artistic base for conversation nooks of tables, chairs, planters, and picnic tables.
*For the bohemian:
Fire pit. Fire pits are an easy way to promote cozy gathering for all ages. And everyone can appreciate freedom from bugs; wood fires can help hold mosquitoes at bay.
*For the modernist:
Multiple levels. Homeowners seeking a modern look can consider a range of options for walkways and pavers that might include steps and slopes to wind through a terraced garden.
*For the eclectic:
Water features. But not just for swimming. Homeowners can show off an eclectic backyard style with a fountain, fish pond, or other water feature that makes a splash.
*For the rustic:
Eating out.
Cooking outdoors can reach a new level, as advanced outdoor kitchen units allow guests to help with meal preparation or just chat with the host/chef while enjoying the outdoor setting.
*For the industrial:
Unique lighting is a way to make a statement and set a mood in an outdoor setting. Some ways to get creative with light include not only hardscape lighting and illuminated planters, but short-term elements such as lighting fixtures that highlight cool metals and metallics for a more urban, industrial vibe.
Belgard, part of Oldcastle Architectural, was established in 1995 and remains a respected source of durable, classic, stylish outdoor-living products and a resource for design ideas to help homeowners take on backyard design with confidence.
Visit www.Belgard.com for more ideas on optimizing your outdoor living environment.
Rising sea levels and climate change are putting a significant number of homes at risk of tidal flooding, according to a report released Monday by the Union of Concerned Scientists. The report warns that up to 311,000 coastal homes and about 14,000 commercial properties will be at risk of chronic flooding within the next 30 years. By the end of the century, the UCS says that number will increase to 2.4 million homes—valued at about $912 billion—and 107,000 commercial properties—valued at $152 billion.
The UCS’s study used three sea level rise scenarios to determine how many residential and commercial properties along the entire coastline of the lower 48 are at risk of becoming chronically inundated by high tides (which they defined as flooding an average of 26 times per year or more). The scenarios were in the absence of any major storm.
The state with the most homes at risk by the end of the century was Florida, with about 1 million homes—or more than 10 percent of the state’s current residential properties. New Jersey follows with 250,000 homes at risk, followed by New York with 143,000 homes at risk. These three states were also identified as thse that stand to lose the most in home property values by year 2100: Florida risks $351 billion, New Jersey may lose $108 billion, and New York nearly $100 billion, according to the analysis.
“Not all affected communities will share the same experience,” says Erika Spanger-Siegfried, senior analyst in the Climate and Energy Program at the UCS and a report coauthor. “Some may see sharp adjustments to their housing market in the not-too-distant future; some could see a slow, steady decline in home values; and others could potentially invest in protective measures to keep impacts at bay for a few more decades. In any case, by knowing how much time they have before a significant number of properties will be regularly flooded, communities can start planning and implementing responses now, while they still have a range of options from which to choose.”
Delta–Picture courtesy of the California Department of Water Resources
Water Fraud Update
By Bill Wells
The Santa Clara Valley Water District voted 4-3 to use $650 million of their ratepayer’s money to help fund the Brown / Laird twin tunnel WaterFraud. A joint powers authority, the Delta Conveyance Design and Construction Authority has been created to oversee the final design and of the tunnels. I am sure nothing can go wrong with that. So far Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, Kern County Water Authority, and Contra Costa Valley Water District have committed a total of about $12.5 billion of their ratepayer’s money leaving it about $42.5 billion short if you use Arnold Schwarzenegger’s $55 billion estimate of the cost of the project.
Governor Brown is quoted as saying: “the only time you get anything done with water is when a Brown is governor and there are no more Browns coming along so you better get it done. I can tell you if I wasn’t pushing this thing it wouldn’t be going anywhere. If it doesn’t make it this time forget it. You will all be dead before it is even thought of again.” I am confident this mother of all boondoggles can be stopped if enough good people stand up against it. The California Department of Water Resources has proven over and over again that they don’t understand and can not manage a project like this. The state Waterboard hearings are available on YouTube, when you have some spare time listen to the states attorneys’ presentations and draw your own conclusions. You will note too in unintentional irony that the states lead attorney Tripp Mizzel bears a resemblance to the Roman Polanski character in the film Chinatown.
Pine trees killed by bark beetles. Little York Close cul-de sac
I’ve noticed with great alarm the number of trees dying from the drought and beetle infestation here in Nevada County It seems like every day, while driving around the county, I see another group of pine trees dying or dead.
There is a small about 1,000 foot long cul-de-sac near my house. I counted 27 pine trees dead or dying in that cul-de-sac. According to various sources we have 66 million trees that are dead from the drought and the number is growing. Pine beetles of different varieties are to blame and the principal species which are responsible are: mountain pine beetle, fir engraver beetle, western pine beetle, Jeffrey pine beetle and pine engraver beetles.
Mountain pine beetle, about the size of a grain of rice.
The U.S. Forest Service today announced that it has identified an additional 26 million trees dead in California since October 2015. These trees are located in six counties across 760,000 acres in the southern Sierra Nevada region of the state, and are in addition to the 40 million trees that died statewide from 2010 to October 2015, bringing the total to at least 66 million dead trees. Four consecutive years of severe drought in California, a dramatic rise in bark beetle infestation and warmer temperatures are leading to historic levels of tree die-off.
“Tree dies-offs of this magnitude are unprecedented and increase the risk of catastrophic wildfires that puts property and lives at risk,” said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. “While the fire risk is currently the most extreme in California because of the tree mortality, forests across the country are at risk of wildfire and urgently need restoration requiring a massive effort to remove this tinder and improve their health. Unfortunately, unless Congress acts now to address how we pay for firefighting, the Forest Service will not have the resources necessary to address the forest die-off and restore our forests. Forcing the Forest Service to pay for massive wildfire disasters out of its pre-existing fixed budget instead of from an emergency fund like all other natural disasters means there is not enough money left to do the very work that would help restore these high mortality areas. We must fund wildfire suppression like other natural disasters in the country.”
Between 2010 and late 2015, Forest Service aerial detection surveys found that 40 million trees died across California – with nearly three quarters of that total succumbing to drought and insect mortality from September 2014 to October 2015 alone. The survey identified approximately 26 million additional dead trees since the last inventory in October, 2015. The areas surveyed in May covered six southern Sierra counties including Fresno, Kern, Madera, Mariposa, Tuolumne and Tulare. Photos and video of the May survey are available on the Forest Service multimedia webpage.
Scott’s Flat Reservoir Sept 25, 2014. Lowest I’ve seen the reservoir since I’ve lived in Cascade Shores. Picture taken by John J. O’Dell off my deck in Cascade Shores.
The Golden State is drying up and it could have repercussions for its real estate market. Lawmakers have called for unprecedented measures to curb residents’ water consumption in response to a severe drought, now running into its fourth year.
Gov. Jerry Brown last week called for a 25 percent reduction in water consumption throughout the state. The move will force a change among home owners and communities.
As water bills get more pricey, home owners will need to find ways to conserve, and their outdoor landscaping may be one likely place to do it. Lush lawns will need to be uprooted in favor of more drought-tolerant ones. Those long-held favored aesthetics for green yards and colorful, water-loving plants will need to shift among residents. “This will change what Californians see as beautiful,” says Heather Cooley, water program director for the Pacific Institute, an Oakland, Calif.-based environmental research group.
Also, resort communities in the state — known for their green oasis looks — are growing concerned at how the water reduction will affect their communities. For example, Palm Springs – which is in the middle of the desert – may see some of the biggest repercussions to its real estate. Known for its green golf courses, businesses will need to look for ways to conserve.
The daily per capita water use in Palm Springs is 201 gallons – more than double the state’s average. Palm Springs has ordered 50 percent reduction in water use by its city agencies. The city plans to replace lawns and annual flowers around the community with water-saving native landscapes. It also is paying residents to replace their lush green lawns with rocks and desert plants, as well as even offering rebates to those who install low-flow toilets too.
“Years ago the idea was, come to Palm Springs, and people see the grass and the lushness and the green,” says David Ready, the city manager. “We’ve got to change the way we consume water.”
Meanwhile, in the agricultural Central Valley of California, farmlands are drying up and unemployment is surging among farm workers. Some communities are seeing an exodus of residents as some farmers are relocating 70 miles out or more in search of work.
The drought could also prompt a reduction in housing construction, says Richard White, a history professor at Stanford University. That could come at a time when more residential development is needed in cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco to meet higher demand too, he says.
“It’s going to be harder and harder to build new housing without an adequate water supply,” White says. “How many developments can you afford if you don’t have water?”
I remember in the seventy’s I had built a home for a client. He insisted that I build the front deck such that it wrapped around some large pine trees. We finished the house in the middle of a drought. Soon enough the bark beetles hit his trees and they died. We are back again with an explosive growth of bark beetles.
Local, state and federal officials are virtually helpless against the pestilence, which has turned hundreds of thousands of acres of forest brown and left huge fire-prone stands of dead wood.
The trees are being devoured by millions of native beetles, each about the size of a grain of rice. The insects, thriving in the warm weather and lack of freezing temperatures, are overwhelming the defenses of water-starved trees, attacking in waves and multiplying at a frenzied pace, depositing eggs under the bark that hatch into ravenous larval grubs.
Mountain pine beetle (photo: U.S. Forest Service)
“Things are looking really, really bad,” said Tom Smith, a forest pest management specialist for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. “Basically we’ve got native bark beetles that are attacking the pines. They are only successful in attacking the trees when the trees are stressed. Right now all the trees are stressed because of drought.”
The infected trees are on private and public lands, in national parks, wilderness areas and managed forests. There seems to be no solution short of removing the dead and dying trees and hoping against hope for rain and cold. The worst of it is in the southern part of the state, but pest management experts say the plague is moving north.
A healthy tree can usually beat back invading beetles by deploying chemical defenses and flooding them out with sticky resin. But just as dehydration makes humans weaker, heat and drought impede a tree’s ability to fight back—less water means less resin. In some areas of the Rocky Mountain West, the mid-2000s was the driest, hottest stretch in 800 years. From 2000 to 2012, bark beetles killed enough trees to cover the entire state of Colorado. “Insects reflect their environment,” explains renowned entomologist Ken Raffa—they serve as a barometer of vast changes taking place in an ecosystem.
Sheri Smith, the regional entomologist for the U.S. Forest Service in California, said bark beetle and drought-caused tree mortality more than doubled across forests in California last year and is expected to increase even more this year. The Forest Service mapped tree mortality across 820,000 acres of forested land in 2014 compared
with 350,000 acres in 2013, according to the service’s annual Aerial Detection Survey Program results. The results of this year’s surveys, which are just getting under way, are not expected until later in the year.
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Scott’s Flat Reservoir Sept 25, 2014. Lowest I’ve seen the reservoir since I’ve lived in Cascade Shores. Picture taken by John J. O’Dell off my deck in Cascade Shores.
April 1, 2015
SACRAMENTO – The California Department of Water Resources (DWR) found no snow whatsoever today during its manual survey for the media at 6,800 feet in the Sierra Nevada. This was the first time in 75 years of early-April measurements at the Phillips snow course that no snow was found there.
Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. observed the survey, which confirmed electronic readings showing the statewide snowpack with less water content today than any April 1st since 1950.
Attending the survey with Governor Brown was DWR Director Mark Cowin, who said Californians can expect to receive almost no water from the meager snowpack as it melts in the coming weeks.
“Today’s survey underscores the severity of California’s drought,” he said. “Water conservation must become a way of life during the worst drought in most Californians’ lifetimes.”
Today’s readings are historically significant, since the snowpack traditionally is at its peak by early April before it begins to melt. Electronic readings today found that the statewide snowpack holds only 1.4 inches of water content, just 5 percent of the historical average of 28.3 inches for April 1. The previous low for the date was 25 percent in 2014 and 1977.
The Phillips snow course, which has been surveyed since 1941, has averaged 66.5 inches in early-April measurements there. Four years ago today, the measured depth at Phillips was 124.4 inches. The deepest April 1st Phillips measurement was 150.7 inches in 1983, and the lowest previously was 1.04 inches in 1988. Photos of previous surveys at Phillips can be found here.Images from today’s survey will be posted at that link as soon as possible.
Electronic readings indicate the water content of the northern Sierra snowpack today is 1.4 inches, 5 percent of average for the date. The central and southern Sierra readings were 1.5 inches (5 percent of average) and 1.3 inches (5 percent) respectively.
Today’s manual survey was the fourth of the season conducted for the news media at the Phillips snow course just off Highway 50 near Sierra at Tahoe Road 90 miles east of Sacramento. When DWR conducted the first three manual surveys on December 30, January 29 and March 3, the statewide water content in the snowpack was 50 percent, 25 percent and 19 percent respectively of the historical averages for those dates. The decline reflects California’s significantly lower precipitation and the warming trend that made this winter the warmest in the state’s recorded history. What precipitation there was fell mostly as rain due to warmer temperatures.
In what were considered normal precipitation years, the snowpack supplied about 30 percent of California’s water needs as it melts in the spring and summer. The greater the snowpack water content, the greater the likelihood California’s reservoirs will receive ample runoff as the snowpack melts to meet the state’s water demand in the summer and fall.
Looking over Scott’s Flat Reservoir Picture taken from my deck John J. O’Dell
March 25, 2015
Directors of the Nevada Irrigation District on Wednesday (Mar. 25) adopted a series of drought measures that include limits on outdoor watering and a call for continued 20 percent reductions in water use by all district customers.
In a presentation to the NID Board of Directors, Water Operations Manager Chip Close recommended a package of conservation measures designed to meet requirements adopted Mar. 17 by the State Water Board and to ensure that NID has adequate carryover water storage going into next year in case the drought continues into a fifth year.
Urban Water Use
Drought measures in effect for users of piped, treated water include:
Outdoor watering no more than three days per week, with no watering during the heat of the day (10 a.m. to 6 p.m.).
No watering until 48 hours after a rain.
No drinking water service in restaurants unless requested.
Hotel and motel guest option of not having towels and linens changed daily.
No water use that creates unnecessary runoff.
Use of shutoff nozzle on hoses.
No washing down of sidewalks
Fountains must recycle water
NID and other water purveyors are being required to provide the State Water Board with monthly reports on water use, conservation compliance and enforcement efforts.
Irrigation Water Use
Drought measures in effect for users of canal water include:
Voluntary reductions of 20 percent or more with mandatory reductions possible later in the year if conservation goals are not being met.
New and increased irrigation water sales are limited to the smallest amount of water necessary for the customer’s beneficial use.
All customers are encouraged to use efficient irrigation practices.
The irrigation season, which normally runs Apr. 15-Oct. 14, could be shortened this year depending on water availability.
In a water supply update, Water Resources Superintendent Sue Sindt said this year’s water outlook is slightly worse than last year. She said the mountain snowpack is only about 6 percent of average water content for this time of year and that seasonal runoff is anticipated to be only 20-25 percent of average.
Officials credited district customers with reducing water use by an overall 16.4 percent during the 2014 drought and said an equal level or more will be needed to get through this year.
Close said that continued conservation, tight measurement and controls on the canal system, and the purchase of an available 20,000-25,000 acre-feet of additional water from the Pacific Gas and Electric Company will help meet the district’s water supply needs for this year and next.
For drought information and helpful water efficiency advice, please see NID’s website atwww.nidwater.com. Water waste may be reported through an online form or by telephone, (530) 271-6799.
Help keep this blog going
Call or write today for all your
real estate needs
John J. O’Dell Realtor® GRI
O’Dell Realty
(530) 263-1091
EMail John O’Dell
BRE#00669941
– For many homeowners, the backyard is not at the forefront of their home-design plans. But procrastination can be an advantage when it comes to outdoor living. By the time many people consider the backyard, they have developed a strong sense of their own décor personality.
