California's Water Crisis. Why?

[F8L]

Originally Posted by avocadoman1

as previously stated, i "stump" a section of trees in my grove. those trees then do not require any (or very little) water in the first 12 months.
the second 12 months requires the normal amount of water.
they grow back like normal trees.
they don't produce fruit until the end of the second 12 months.



above: an illegal stumping avo trees

I'm sorry, I should have been more specific. I meant who notified you about your water allocation limitation?

[Godiva]

I'll admit I don't know much about growing avocado trees. We always had citrus in the yard.

Why doesn't drip work? If they have a 20' diameter root structure, why can't you make a large drip loop around each tree and water them that way?


Or does the periodic stumping keep the trees healthy and provide more fruit the years they bear?

This seems to me to be on a large scale the same as what's going on with residents on a small scale. No one is looking at the efficiency of water use or what you've done in the past to years to reduce water. Just a one size fits all "reduce by this much". It almost pays to waste water, since then you have to cut back less to make your goal.

[hill]

California's Water Crisis: Why?

Maybe they'd believe there's a crisis, if the 100's of thousands of acrefeet of water weren't being thrown away on all the golf courses from the Imperial Valley through Vegas, and on up the I.15 Right? As long as a game is more important, forget about it ... it's not real ... yet. So the OP is presuming facts not yet proven.

[avocadoman1]

Originally Posted by F8L

I'm sorry, I should have been more specific. I meant who notified you about your water allocation limitation?

the local water district. i believe that most water district/municipalities in the state have reduced the water available to agriculture due to the Judge Wanger rulings (Delta fish). google Judge Wanger and you'll get a good read!

so each month i have an allocated amount based on the 06-07 year. i get to roll-over any saved amount to the next month. if i go over the allocated amount (whic i have not thus far), they'll install a flow restrictor.

the water officials went to agriculture first because we receive a volume discount on our water. in exchange for that discount, we're the first to get reduced/allocated.

presently, the residential customer is not under any type of allocation. however, the story goes that if residential is required to reduce by 10% in 2009, our reduction will increase further to 40%.

Originally Posted by Godiva

Why doesn't drip work? If they have a 20' diameter root structure, why can't you make a large drip loop around each tree and water them that way?

it's the nature of our soil. it's very sandy soil so the drip will not spread enough. however, if you know something that the avocado agricultural experts don't, i suggest you get involved and discuss your ideas.

i'm not here to argue with you about what's best, i just know what all the other avo farmers do throughout San Diego county.
i've heard that in central Calif, some groves are successful w/ drip. but not in san diego county.

bottom line, agriculture throughout the state will produce less in the next 12 months due to less available water. that will result in a price increase at your retail stores.

[F8L]

Originally Posted by avocadoman1

the local water district. i believe that most water district/municipalities in the state have reduced the water available to agriculture due to the Judge Wanger rulings (Delta fish). google Judge Wanger and you'll get a good read!

so each month i have an allocated amount based on the 06-07 year. i get to roll-over any saved amount to the next month. if i go over the allocated amount (whic i have not thus far), they'll install a flow restrictor.

the water officials went to agriculture first because we receive a volume discount on our water. in exchange for that discount, we're the first to get reduced/allocated.

presently, the residential customer is not under any type of allocation. however, the story goes that if residential is required to reduce by 10% in 2009, our reduction will increase further to 40%.

Thank you for taking the time to reply. I'm trying to learn more about the effects on family farms/ranches both locally with our Placer Grown members and further south. Obviously the environmental issues are what I study in school but in both my work and personal interests are how this effects the people that produce our food and try to maintain a dying heritage.

[Godiva]

I don't mean individual drippers. I mean make a circle of a soaker hose the optimum diameter for the roots.

[FL_Prius_Driver]

avocadoman1 - Thanks for joining and relating realities. I have said little but have followed closely since I'm the one getting educated. Any ideas on what the sustainable solution should be?

One little titbit of California history I found interesting. In 1913 the Bill Mulholland designed Los Angeles Aqueduct began taking water from the Owens River and began irrigating orchards in the San Fernando Valley. Now this flow is half a billion gallons a day. Unfortunately, all the orchards in the Owen River were killed off and the Owens Lake dried up. Sadly this resulted in dynamite attacks on the aqueduct. Nothing good came of this de-facto water war.

Let's hope we can do better.

[F8L]

Originally Posted by FL_Prius_Driver

One little titbit of California history I found interesting. In 1913 the Bill Mulholland designed Los Angeles Aqueduct began taking water from the Owens River and began irrigating orchards in the San Fernando Valley. Now this flow is half a billion gallons a day. Unfortunately, all the orchards in the Owen River were killed off and the Owens Lake dried up. Sadly this resulted in dynamite attacks on the aqueduct. Nothing good came of this de-facto water war.

Let's hope we can do better.

A good book on that subject is called Water Wars. I spend a lot of time in that area (from Mono Lake to Lone Pine) and will be there later this month. It is an interesting and IMO tragic story. Fortunately people are working together now and some aspects are improving. We had a meeting with an ecologist from LAWP who gave us a tour of the Owen's Valley area and all of the projects they are working on. It really helped seeing their side of things vs. only the environmental side. That doesn't change my opinion on people in SoCal wasting water though.

[FL_Prius_Driver]

Originally Posted by F8L

A good book on that subject is called Water Wars. I spend a lot of time in that area (from Mono Lake to Lone Pine) and will be there later this month. ....

Now I will be hoping for a first hand report of what is working and what is not. Real reports from real people just have more influence in a lot of cases.

[F8L]

Originally Posted by FL_Prius_Driver

Now I will be hoping for a first hand report of what is working and what is not. Real reports from real people just have more influence in a lot of cases.

I'll be sure to get some pictures of the current lake level (Mono Lake) and some of the stream restoration work that I observed last summer. If my friends allow me to go as far as Owen's Valley I'll see if I can talk to some of the locals again and get some quotes for ya. lol I'll also add my own observations and thoughts from when I was down there two summers ago when we met with the guy from LA Water & Power.