Advocacy News

Groundwater management law in California previously authorized certain local agencies to adopt and implement a groundwater management plan. Local agencies seeking state funds from the Department of Water Resources (DWR) for groundwater projects and groundwater quality projects were required to prepare and implement a groundwater management plan that included basin management objectives.

Adopted in 1906, federal law requires the U.S. Forest Service to provide counties and schools with 25 percent of the revenues generated on federal forest lands from a variety of activities including timber harvesting, mining, and recreational activities. In 2000, Congress enacted the Secure Rural Schools & Community Self-Determination Act (SRS) to provide funding for rural counties and school districts to replace revenue from dwindling forest receipts due to a national decline in timber harvesting.

The Federal Endangered Species Act (FESA) was passed by Congress in 1973 to protect and recover at risk species and the ecosystems upon which they depend. In 1984, California followed when the Legislature passed the California Endangered Species Act (CESA), the provisions of which were designed to mirror the FESA.

Both Federal and State ESAs offer special protections to wildlife and plants deemed in danger of extinction by both the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS) and the California Department of Fish & Wildlife (CDFW). At times, those protections can prevent the development of rural economies through restrictions on critical habitat that slow or halt recreational use and development. The USFWS has proposed several amendments to the FESA to reform the way species listings account for economic impacts and other important criteria.

RCRC actively engages in the rulemaking processes which list specific species as endangered when they impact RCRC member counties. RCRC also regularly works to ensure that proposed changes to critical habitat regulations will have minimal impact on development and tourism in rural communities.

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (DFW) and the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) are the two primary agencies responsible for fish and wildlife issues impacting rural counties and their citizens.

Nearly 75 percent of California’s available water originates in the northern one-third of the state (north of Sacramento), while more than 70 percent of the demand occurs in the southern two-thirds of the state and coastal areas. Much of the available runoff eventually flows into the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers, both of which flow through the Central Valley and meet in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Bay-Delta (Delta). The Delta is the heart of the state’s surface water delivery system. In any given hydrological year, the state’s water supply can be affected by circumstances from extreme drought to flooding. California’s unpredictable climate has led the state to invest in one of the most sophisticated water delivery and flood management systems in the world so this crucial resource can be made available to the communities, industries, habitats, and farms it supports.