The San Luis Rey Watershed

6.The California Water Project takes water from northern California to the south through various means. The two sides have disagreements on how the water should be used. Northern Californians argue that if they sent more water to the south, they would waste it, resulting in the Sacramento River being degraded. However, southern Californians still want more water, because they feel that their growing populations and agricultural needs require the water.

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

The formation of San Diego region involved numerous activities which varied from volcano activities, the formation of Gulf, uplifting and tilting among others. These activities happened in a long span of time creating three distinct geomorphic regions: the west of peninsular rangers, peninsular ranges region, and the Salton Trough region. The geomorphic division reflects the basic difference amid geographic parts containing Mesozoic metavolcanic, metasedimentary, and plutonic rock material. The development of these features resulted to the occurrence of the current San Diego state. The integration of different rocks, volcanic activities, and subduction processes resulted to the development of peninsular region and Salton Trough.

“Only communities located downstream in a watershed need to be concerned about how the water resources are managed in the watershed.”

The almost total development of California was made possible only because of two main water sources: surface water, or water that gathers on the ground, such as rivers and streams; and the groundwater, which is pumped out from the ground. The area also ignites interest on producing a small amount of desalinated water, which is still too expensive to be widely applied.

The San Joaquin River is the backbone of the San Joaquin Valley. The valley is not only the nation's most agricultural area but it is also one of the entire worlds. Millions depend on the crops that come form this luscious valley. The river has gone through many drastic changes over its illustrious lifetime. Once it was a magnificent 350 miles long it is now one of the nation's ten most endangered rivers. The river once flowed with enough water to support steam ships and a salmon migration it now goes completely dry in some areas. The river does not have enough water to support itself any more and must take in water from various other places, such as the Pacific Ocean which

The Earth is a huge planet this is covered by 70 percent water. Astonishingly from this 70 percent the human population can only use 1 percent of the world’s water the rest of it is salt water, frozen, or in some way unattainable (Santa Clara Valley Water District, 2016). Humans have found many different ways to obtain this 1 percent of fresh water they need, but the techniques vary depending on location. In San Jose, California we obtain our water from 3 major sources: groundwater, imported surface water, and local mountain surface water. These 3 sources contribute different amounts of water to the San Jose community. Imported surface water composes about 50 percent of our water supply, while ground water composes roughly 40 percent, and local mountain surface water composes approximately 10 percent (Santa Jose Water Company, 2016). However, these percentages can change due to factors such as weather and global warming.

This unit was design with a main concept in mind, that concept is for students to understand what a region is so they can develop an understanding of California’s regions. The words I will emphasize throughout the unit are region, physical characteristics, natural features, natural resources, valley, desert, mountain, and coast. These words are important for students to understand and use in completing classroom tasks throughout the unit so they understand the content and make sense of what they are reading.

As a historically semi-arid environment, California has also suffered heavily from several environmental impacts as a result of the current drought conditions. The first of these is on its forests. The US Forest Service estimates that 12 million trees have died in the past year due to drought; this combined with the drying of forest floor material greatly increases the flammability of the landscape. The result of this is the numerous devastating wildfires that have swept through the state throughout 2015, costing not only wildlife and habitat but also human property (CBS News, 2015) (Lustgarten, et al., 2015) (Google, 2015). Aside from wildfires, the drought and associated loss of habitat is said to be having a negative effect on both flora and fauna due to their contribution to the spread of West Nile Virus, whilst also threatening populations of geese, ducks, salmon and Joshua trees (Lustgarten, et al., 2015) (Beaudry, 2015). Finally, with groundwater contributing up to 50% of stream flow in drought, there is a worry that over usage near the coast could result in irreversible salinization through the drawing in of salt water (USGS, 2016) (Kasler & Reese, 2015).

Flex your muscle on a rafting trip down the North Fork of the Stanislaus River, home to one of the best Class IV whitewater in California. When you raft the “Stan,” your adventure begins atop 4,000 feet and races six miles downward at 70-feet-per-mile to the Giant Sequoia groves that inhabit Calaveras Big Trees State Park. The roaring rapids will demand hard paddling along the route where you’ll encounter granite gorges, wild azalea meadows and Miwok Indian ruins. You can get your thrill on at several whitewater rafting outfits in the area including the highly rated OARS Whitewater Rafting.

Southern California perhaps has seen the most conflict over water than the rest of the United States. The area surrounding Los Angeles and San Diego has virtually no fresh water source naturally and requires irrigation from the north. These two cities have continually conflicted over water allocations from the Colorado

The Impact of Hydropower Dams on California's Populations of Anadromous Fish: What can be done to mitigate the Dams Effects and Restore California's Watersheds.

Central Coast is comprised of 6 counties. Ventura, Santa Barbara, San Benito, Monterrey, San Luis Obispo, and Santa Cruz. Santa Barbara is mainly mountainous or hilly. The highest peak point is the Junipero Peak at 5862 feet and is in the Santa Lucia Mountain Range. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife banned fishing in the central coast back in 2014 due to the drought. The cause for the banning of fishing is because the local fish such as the steelhead and the Coho were deemed to be endangered and in risk of possible extinction. This ban has not been lifted. The rivers that are affected by this ban are: Pescadero Creek, the San Lorenzo River and all its tributaries, Aptos and Soquel creeks, the Pajaro River, the Carmel River, the

An Average of 1.6 trillion gallons of water are extracted from the Delta for the Central Valley Project and State Water Project on an annual basis (Holyoke). With so much demand, the Delta’s ecological balance has been deeply affected. Furthermore, water supplies and local uses are considered to be in crisis due to crashing number of fish species and old weak levees (Lund, et al.) It is feared that during a strong regional earthquake, many of the levees would fail. Due to the increasing demand on water supplies, conservation efforts, and hundreds of interests, the Delta is also the jugular of California’s water

As explained here, “… working together on a project should benefit the environment, the fishing industry, and the local economy,” the economy may get better. Among other things, the economy may rise, positively, with the growth of fishing industries and the energies created by the river itself. Grossi iterates the results, “‘… not to mention billions of dollars to complete this project. Is that reasonable?”’(Grossi) With this, Grossi shows the reader how terribly the economy is, at this moment, because of the unnecessary amounts of money going into this project, when, all they have to do is open the river. [Like, bruh.] A flawed restoration plan, will never amount to all of the expectations of the people, but it is surely to do so for some, typically, those with money that get benefits from the San Joaquin.