San Joaquin Research Paper

With the amount of dams being built it was seen that it could become a problem from the amount of money being spent. Though there were many attempts to try and stop the growth of the many dams going up all this was being fought by President Carter but his many attempts were trumped due to bill and congress and also the election of President Reagan. In Chapter 10: Chinatown, Reisner begins by illustrating how there is a misunderstanding and how people say California is this place with prolific land with its beaches and green grasses, in all reality it is mainly semi-desert terrain. Reisner than talks about the 1960’s State Water Project and how it had affected the economy and ecology of the U.S. then to wrap it up in line with this topic was the talk of the California Aqueduct, corporate farms, and the low cost of water and how issue came to arise due to all the water projects and irrigation throughout

Along this journey created by nature, the river interacts with man’s influence to encapsulate the full geographic experience of this region. The succession of dams along the river’s path is a major contribution to how man has decided to mesh with the river. The dams have created reservoirs for water supplies, harnessed energy to provide electric power to the southwestern region, and controlled flooding. Flood control was the main concern at the time between the years 1905 and 1907 when large floods broke through the irrigation gates and destroyed crops in California. The flooding was so large it actually created a 450 square mile sea, named the Salton Sea. As a result of this major disaster, ideas were formulated to

wild is while Wade, a Calamus local, is at work and he witnesses a horrific event. Wade says, “One time at a deep green pool below the dam I saw a big humpback male take a run at the concrete base of the dam. He smacked right into it, head on. Whump, he hit it. I could hear the silent impact in my own stomach. The fish dropped back dazed. Then he took another run at the base of the dam. Whump, again, he butted the concrete with his snout. It was too terrible to watch” (108). This not only depicts a literal clash between nature and modern technology, but it also represents a clash between the metaphorical ideas of tame and wild. The humpback salmon is doing what any salmon would do travel up the river to spawn, but the dam is put in his way as an obstacle. The dam represents modern technology and society and the salmon represents wild land that Oregon use to be. This relationship of tame vs. wild is carried throughout the story in countless ways and the salmon helps to show it in a literal way. Another example of where salmon help to illustrate the struggle between tame and wild salmon are trapped above the dam. Salmon above

In the ¨River Restoration Project Offers a Sprinkling of Hope¨, Ron Jacobsma, general manager of the Friant Water Authority, said “We hope to get double duty out of that water by taking it the long way around.¨ As Jacobsma is a general manager of the Friant water Authority, this offers us his experience, his ideas and his thoughts of how we can have hope for the project. President Barack Obama signed the Omnibus Public Lands Bill in March, the agreement turned into federal law when he signed it. The parties had been working on the restoration plan for more than two years laying the groundwork for the physical changes to come. When the president signed it, it made them get the approval which he supported for them to continue the process. The credibility of the author right has now been believable because he provided us with the ethics of President Obama and Jacobsma. The river will not necessarily end up to its full, natural path along its entire length. Too much has changed in the decades since the dams construction. They would use canals along some stretches to carry the water short distances and to ferry the salmon upstream. This is showing us logos with facts and information it offers an explanation on how to solve one of the problems with the plan. A professor named Peter Moyole, from UC Davis also had his opinion on the project. He said “We have never done anything on this scale”, but we were willing to try it and approve of the

Beside these arguments, there is also a more quantitative side to the debate. The ecological detriments of the Glen Canyon Dam have been well-documented. Extensive changes were brought about in the Colorado River ecosystem by the construction of the Glen Canyon Dam. Most of these alterations negatively affected the functioning of the system and the native aquatic species of the river. The reduced supply and transport of

Two of the projected plans include keeping things the way they are and allowing more of the water in Friant Dam to flow into the river to bring back the former environment that was once there as well as improve the conditions for west-side farmers. The two plans contrast drastically with each other but both have positive and negative consequences.

Yet, humans have limited control on natural events, so this only reinforces the importance of managing water wisely. Recently California’s government has begun to focus more on sustaining and restoring the water supply. Dale Kasler (2016) articulates in his article some of the steps they have decided to make to solve this serious issue. The government has made the following investments: “$415 million for watershed restoration and other environmental aid for Lake Tahoe; up to $335 million for two proposed reservoirs in California, including the Sites reservoir north of Sacramento; $880 million for flood-control projects on the American and Sacramento rivers in Sacramento; and $780 million for flood-control projects in West Sacramento” (para. 10). This could be the first step to restoring the water to California. But these

     The Klamath Lake, along with other various rivers, lakes and canals that surround it, are the basis for almost 500 species of wildlife in southern Oregon and parts of northern California. It also serves as the most important factor in a farmer’s livelihood; their irrigation. The basis for the water crisis that is going to today in this region is that the current water levels and somewhat water quality are diminishing and reeking havoc on the area’s

Within the novel Overstory: Zero is a piece of writing authored by Robert Heilman titled “Who Owns the River?”; he describes the effects humans have on the environment from a different perspective. Heilman explains the significance of rivers in his life, allowing the reader to understand how the ecology of the area is effected by human intrusion. Through the history of the South Umpqua River, his life experiences in Myrtle Creek and also, in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles, Heilman emphasizes the importance of treating the environment with care so it can do its job of providing for its people. After growing up in Los Angeles, Heilman understands what it is like to live in an environment without a river.

National Geographic’s American science journalist, Michelle Nijhuis published an article on August 27th, 2014 discussing the process of the removal of the Glines Canyon Dam on the Elwha River in Washington State. The removal of the Glines Canyon dam is the largest dam removal that has ever taken place thus far. The removal of the dam began in late 2011, 3 years later after the removal of the dam was complete the salmon began again migrating down river, trees and vegetation began to sprout in the reservoir bed, and sediment that was once trapped behind the dams walls are now rebuilding beaches at Elwha’s outlet to the sea. In the last 5 miles of the 45 mile Elwha river, where Olympic National Park now lies, the salmon run were world famous and

Restoring a river? Completely possible when you have a dam holding all the water back. The San Joaquin River, the longest river in Central California, begins from the Thousand Island Lake and then reaches the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. The Sacramento Bee’s Daniel Weintraub supports the plan with his article “River Restoration Project Offers a Sprinkling of Hope” where he explains the San Joaquin River Project’s stupendousness. The project plans to restore the San Joaquin River by increasing the amount of water released from the Friant Dam in an endeavor to restore the salmon in the river. Weintraub, a native of California, worked in the political field for twenty-two years, including the eighteen he worked for the Sacramento Bee. In Sacramento, republicans, big businessmen, and others live there abundantly. The San Joaquin River Project shows promise for the future and will partially reverse the effects of the Friant Dam’s placement.

Water is a precious resource. It is the lifeblood of every living thing on Earth. California is in the midst of a water crisis. Combined with a three (plus) year drought and many people moving into the state there is not enough water to support the crops the farmers need to grow. There is also a tiny little fish that is causing a mess in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. The Delta water pumps were turned off to prevent the extinction of the tiny little fish. Some farmers have to let their fields sit idle for the fall and spring planting season. This is causing a lot of problems in California. The pumps need to be turned back on. The needs of the people should come before that of a fish.

Rivers die out every year in the United States, but some rivers are important to the people and environment. California should restore the San Joaquin for the better. It’d restore the salmon, help with agriculture, and help with California’s drought.

The topic for my essay was a filtering of my thoughts for most of this past summer—how can we as humans harmonize with our environment for a net, positive outcome? Water and dams provided the backdrop for most of those thoughts and not without a bit of hypocrisy since a lot of them came while floating down a beautiful trout river in Tennessee created by a hydroelectric dam. I tried to be explicit in my paper that not all dams are bad (again, see the image of that pretty river), but that the overzealous construction of the past two centuries needs to be re-evaluated for necessity and, where warranted, removed to allow nature to return to its original state.

I found it interesting because its contribution to its local community is so large that I found it upsetting that it was among the most polluted in the country. In my opinion, anything that important to a local society deserves to be kept in good shape for others to use and for animals in the environment to benefit from. Another reason I chose this river was because it’s polluted to such a high degree that I was curious to see what measure have or could be put in place to make it more sustainable and cleaner for all to use.