The Drought's Effects

"Drought kills 12 million trees in California's national forests"

"Rangers in the San Bernardino National Forest call them 'red trees.'"

  • Dead and dying trees turn to brown amid healthier green trees in El Portal on the banks of the Merced River, a few miles south of Yosemite. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
  • Dead pine trees have turned brown in the Monterey Ranger District of the Los Padres National Forest. (U.S. Forest Service)
  • Dead pine trees dominate a hillside in the Los Padres National Forest, north of Frazier Park. (U.S. Forest Service)
  • A ridge on Laguna Mountain in the Cleveland National Forest is covered with dead Jeffrey pine trees, foreground. A recent fire scar can be seen in the background. (U.S. Forest Service)
  • Dead pine trees are scattered on a hillside in the San Bernardino National Forest, south of Idyllwild. (U.S. Forest Service)
  • Decreased snow melt limits water levels in one of the west’s most vital reservoirs - Lake Mead.
  • The white colored rock - apprx. 100 feet high - shows the drop in water level of Lake Mead as a result of the ongoing drought along the Colorado River (photo: USGS)
  • What was once the most abundant fish in the Delta, only one of the pinky-sized creatures has been found in the wild by state Fish and Wildlife scientists.
  • As the drought turns thousands of acres of grassland into desert, the Kangaroo Rats are left with nothing to eat, and their population decreases. And as it does, so do die many of the threatened creatures that depend on this keystone species for food
  • As the populations of rodents decline due to drought, Barn Owls are forced to travel much farther away in search of food
  • Last November (2014), a team of scientists rescued dozens of Southwestern Pond Turtles from the edge of the Mojave Desert. Their home, Lake Elizabeth, had shrunk so much that it left them starving and dehydrated on the shore
  • Bald Eagles have only started recovering their population numbers in California during recent years, but now as the low snowfall causes rivers to run low, the fish that they eat are decreasing in number

The Facts

from MIT’s Technology Review
from MIT’s Technology Review

Natalia Simone King

A passionate, responsible, and affable leader with many years of community involvement, Natalia has been an active participant in numerous science programs and collaborative activities. She is a tenacious and ambitious college student with an innate curiosity and strong desire to understand all that she can about the universe. Born and raised in California, Natalia moved from the San Francisco Bay Area in the fall of 2015 to the University of California, San Diego to complete work on her Bachelors of Science in Ecology, Behavior and Evolution. She is particularly interested in the involvement of the various conservation projects of the world and can think of no better place to start than by helping to save her home.

#DroughtConsciousCalifornia
#TritonsSaveH2O

What changes have you made in your life to help conserve water? What tips can you give others? Has making these changes been difficult? What changes do you intend to make? What water conservation groups have you pledged to, or do you support?

Comments: 4
  • #4

    Water Trading (Tuesday, 11 April 2017 03:00)

    Good blog post, Really i got too much information.

  • #3

    Joe Pementell (Tuesday, 29 December 2015 17:58)

    Our home was the first home in our neighborhood to embrace the brown and stop watering our lawn! This was an easy first step to make and will help us transition to a dry landscaped environment with native plant species.

  • #2

    Lisanne Bzoskie (Sunday, 06 December 2015 20:05)

    Hello Natalia, I believe your conservation efforts and plan of action for California is fantastic! Keep it up! Thanks to your advice my family has now switched to more vegetarian options instead of beef, and reduced our milk consumption greatly!

  • #1

    John King (Sunday, 06 December 2015 16:55)

    I've stopped watering the lawn, I take shorter showers, and I eat less red meat since it takes a huge amount of water to raise a cow. That's too great a price for a steak.

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