The State Of Emergency And Urban Californians

In 1935 the Hoover Dam was completed forming Lake Mead, providing flood control, reservoir storage, power generation and regulates the downstream flow to the Lower Basin States. [footnoteRef:20] In 1963, the Glen Canyon Dam was completed forming Lake Powell, providing the Upper Basin States with enough reserve capacity to allow them to meet their annual obligation of 7.5 Million Acre Feet (MAF) to the Lower Basin States, allowing the Lower Basin States to use the allocation.[footnoteRef:21] As a consequence of the construction of the Hoover Dam and the Glen Canyon Dam, the Colorado?s flow often evaporated in Mexican sands close to the Delta.[footnoteRef:22] Around the 1970s, the Cienega de Santa Clara had shrunken by 500 acres. Nevertheless, due to the following wet decades, the Cienega was resuscitated to about 10% of its original acreage in the 80?s and 90?s.[footnoteRef:23] Currently, the Cienega is a 40,000 acre wetland that exists due to the return flows from the Mohawk Irrigation and Drainage District near Yuma, Arizona.[footnoteRef:24] This Cienega is the home of less than 100 members of the Cucapa tribe and is the habitat of several endangered fish and birds, including Desert Pupfish and Yuma Clapper Rail.[footnoteRef:25] [19: D.F.

Yet, Shaw concludes, “wild animals increasingly find suburban life in the United States to be attractive.” (Shaw) She explains the suburbs are ideal places for wildlife, citing there are 32 known breeding pairs of bald eagles in Virginia, a species once thought to be on the brink of extinction. She shows the deer population is at an all-time high, with a possible 25 million deer in the United States. She accredits two phenomena to the rise in wild animal populations; including natural reforestation and suburbanization, both of which create a haven for “edge” type wildlife (Shaw).

Approximately eleven years ago, an area of Alaska's southern coast known as Prince William Sound was a disaster area. A nauseating scent of rotting carcasses and oil filtered through the air. Sea birds screamed in anguish as they fought to survive with oil drenched feathers. Under the surface billions of organisms ceased to live due to the toxicity of the inescapable wrath of the blackened water. Prince William Sound had once been a place of beauty and grace, now it was home to an environmental deathbed. The media broadcast pictures of this nearly unbearable scene throughout the world. Most people, including myself, wondered if the ecological war zone would ever recover

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

After receiving many calls from the Audubon society, the police sent a squad car to the local park. There stood 13-year-old Gary Parsons. With a BB gun in his arms and lifeless pigeons dangling from his belt loop, he was guilty. The police escorted him home and banned him from the park for shooting birds. The very next night he took revenge on the Audubon society, blowing their brand new birdhouse to pieces with a homemade cannon. No one expected Gary to become the devoted environmental activist that he grew up to be. Without Gary Parsons, the Choctawhatchee Bay watershed would not be what it is today. At 72, Gary dedicates his time and energy, striving to better the environment.

In his book, Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water, Marc Reisner’s main thesis is to show the inefficiency, greed, and inherent difficulty in the American West’s never-ending struggle to turn its unwelcoming desert into a lush garden. One of his main sub-points is that the West is not meant to support millions of people. It has a wide range of geographic challenges throughout the entire region. Its inconsistency and diversity is a primary cause of its water problems. For example, Reisner notes that the West consists of “plains so arid that they could barely support bunchgrass; deserts that were fiercely hot and fiercely cold; streams that flooded a few weeks each year and went dry the rest; forests with trees so large it might take days to bring one down; . . . hail followed by drought followed by hail;” (23).

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).

While these events happened in our area more headline news caught the eye of South Dakota citizens. Senator Tom Daschle proposed a bill that had the potential to lead to the development of more wetlands in South Dakota. The bill offered tax credits to farmers who preserved wetlands not enrolled in the Conservation reserve program or wetland reserve program (Olson). With the Winter of 1997-1998 being so short schools, banks, city crews, and churches were able to catch up on their budgets. Schools didn 't have to call off any days, city crews

Texas, with its abundances of natural resources, is facing a new demon, one that doesn’t even seem possible, a shortage of water. Water, without it nothing can survive. Texas is the second largest state for landmass in the nation and ninth for water square miles. Within the borders of Texas are more than 100 lakes, 14 major rivers, and 23 aquifers, so why has water become such an important issue for the state? Politicians and conservationists all agree that without a new working water plan, the state could be facing one of the most damaging environmental disasters they have ever seen. The issues that shape the states positions are population growth, current drought conditions, and who actually owns the water.

The United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) is the primary agency that works to conserve, protect, and enhance the nation's fish and wildlife by providing sustainable healthy environments for future generations. It is through these three basic principles of ‘conserve, protect and enhance’ the USFWS is able to bring programs that both directly affect the health and well-being of migratory birds, fish and endangered species. In most cases it is through habitat protection that enables the USFWS to carry out these three principles. The Small Wetlands Program (SWP) is one such program that the USFWS utilizes to maintain the health of migratory birds in the United States.

The book, California Politics and Government: A practical Approach, helps students understand the government and politics. It describes the principles used in the state government and the relevance of these to the nowadays students and the future ones. The book has clear examples and explanations that help the students understand the California politics. It includes budgetary politics and policies, California law and court cases, government regulations, policymaking and elections in terms of political parties and interest groups. It addresses the economic, educational, immigration and social issues and theireffecton the politics. Students are able to familiarize with the public policy coverage; hence, make a connection between the effects and practical applications of legislation and the government.

In 2008 California was faced with a huge budget crisis and governing crisis as the state governing was not nearly as efficient enough to respond to changes and problems that were happening in the state. This was due to a lot of poor laws that related to taxation and to the way our state government worked. There is also unique differences with California than other states, like our direct democracy system, and many of our laws are compromises that don’t work well between liberal and conservative ideologies. Our politicians are also not well motivated to serve the people and would rather server their own special interests that benefit their own career. While there are still a lot of problems that California needs to deal with, we did make adjustments

Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), the crowned jewel of the nation’s 544 refuges is in danger of destruction (Lamar and Markey 12). ANWR has been in existence since 1960 and has slowly become one of the most controversial topics to hit Congress. ANWR is composed of 19 million acres on the northeast coast of Alaska. Although the government has been provided with this immense land they are fighting to gain more land. Why? ANWR is the second biggest oil field that is owned by the U.S. Now the government wants more land to construct oil reserves. The refuge is home to many endangered species such as migratory birds, polar bears, and wolves (Lynne and Roberts 1). Most of ANWR’s designated oil area is owned by indigenous Alaskan

Environmentalism has always been two sided. Nature versus urban. locals versus national. Frequently, large tracts of public and federal land are bought and developed by industry. Pristine wilderness turned to bustling epicenters of human activity, all in the name of progress and economic growth. This tale of preserving natural wilderness is one that begins with John Muir, an advocate against the taming of Yosemite national park and the Hetch-Hetchy reservoir, while the head of the US Forest Service, Gifford Pinchot, insisted on the reservoir to supply the city of San Francisco with water. This timeless epic of conservation or preservation brings us to the Jumbo Valley, a vast expanse of uninhabited, pristine wilderness home to diverse