If it works, west Valley farmers soon will send water to Southern California cities for use this summer and fall. In return, the farmers next summer would get some water usually reserved for 19 million people in Metropolitan Water District. The extra farm water this summer comes from Westlands Water District, where growers planned for less production this year in anticipation of cutbacks. Thanks to a wet year, growers got more water than they expected -- more than they can use. If they don't make the deal with Southern California, farmers could wind up losing the water under government rules for storage at San Luis Reservoir.
http://www.fresnobee.com/2010/07/26/2019652/valley-la-water-deal-may-be-in.html
Editorial: ACID overhaul's benefits reach beyond district [Redding Record Searchlight]
…The Anderson-Cottonwood Irrigation District is among that rarefied club of water tycoons, but waste is waste. And they’re just not making more water these days, even as our state’s demand seemingly increases without end. But investments in delivering water more efficiently, in ensuring that every precious drop possible makes it to the taps or the fields where it’s needed, can in effect create more water — as surely as a new reservoir, and quicker too. That makes a $2.8 million federal grant to overhaul the ACID’s laterals — the ditches that carry water from the main canal to users’ property — a win for the small farmers and ranchers in the district.
http://www.redding.com/news/2010/jul/27/acid-overhauls-benefits-reach-beyond-district/
Fresno Co. seeks 2nd attack on moths [Fresno Bee]
Fresno County agriculture officials are asking growers near the area where European grapevine moths have been found to treat their vineyards one more time. Farmers within the protective 96-square-mile quarantine zone in southeast Fresno County have been battling the moth since May with increased trapping and bug-killing chemicals. The zone is bounded roughly by Maple, Academy, Olive and Manning avenues. To make sure the destructive moth is controlled and ultimately eliminated, entomologists say now is an opportune time to knock the bug down. The moth is in its reproductive cycle and will lay as many as 35 eggs a day for up to six days.
http://www.fresnobee.com/2010/07/26/2019398/fresno-co-farmers-asked-to-treat.html#storylink=misearch
Heat breaking records across the globe -- but not in Sacramento [Sacramento Bee]
Worldwide, 2010 is on track to become the warmest year on record….Scientists at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies reported recently that the average global temperature was higher over the past 12 months than during any other 12-month period in history….The global trend, however, has eluded the Central Valley, where abnormally low temperatures through May have stunted agriculture but granted a few pleasant extra weeks of spring….Heat-loving tomatoes and melons fell behind schedule by several weeks in the early season, according to the Sacramento County Farm Bureau, but they are now on track for a full harvest.
http://www.sacbee.com/2010/07/27/2916593/heat-breaking-records-across-the.html
Climate change linked to possible mass Mexican migration to U.S. [Los Angeles Times]
…Between 1.4 million and 6.7 million Mexicans could migrate to the U.S. by 2080 as climate change reduces crop yields and agricultural production in Mexico, according to a study published online this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences….In the past, Oppenheimer said, Mexican farmers from rural areas fled to the United States when they could no longer grow their crops. If the rising temperatures dry out the land and reduce yield as expected, many more farmers could do the same. Philip Martin, an expert in agricultural economics at UC Davis, said that he hadn't read the study but that making estimates based solely on climate change was virtually impossible. "It is just awfully hard to separate climate change from the many, many other factors that affect people's decisions whether to stay in agriculture or move," he said.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-immig-climate-20100727,0,1362570.story
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