Program 2016

DAY ONE: RIVERS & STREAMS – Thursday, November 17, 2016
Registration: 8am 

  1. Science 9:10 a.m. to 11:05
    1. Fish
      1. How (not) to prevent extinction of winter run Chinook salmon, Greg Reis, The Bay Institute (35)
      2. Status and Ecology of the Southern Distinct Population Segment of the North American Green Sturgeon, Marc Beccio, California Dept. Fish & Wildlife (35)
    2. Terrestrial Species
      1. The Giant Garter Snake: A Tale of Persistence in an Uncertain Waterscape, Mike Casazza, U.S. Geological Survey (35)
  2. Storage, Exports, Tunnels (Part I) 11:10-11:50
    1. Shasta Dam and Fish
      1. Salmon Flows are Nature’s Choice, Caleen Sisk, Winnemem Wintu Tribe (40)
  3. Lunch
  4. Keynote Speaker 12:30 -1:15: Currents of our Water: Western Water and the Culture of Control, Dave Wegner, former Bureau of Reclamation scientists, Senior Science Advisor for Jacobs Engineering, Board Member for the Glen Canyon Institute, semi-retired. (45)
  5. Storage, Exports, Tunnels (Part II) 1:30 – 3:10
    1. Sites Reservoir Panel (60)
      1. Local Development of the Sites Reservoir Project: Investing for Public Benefits, Jim Watson, Sites Joint Powers Authority (15)
      2. Sites Reservoir Diversions May Harm The Sacramento River, Steve Evans, Friends of the River (15)
      3. Flexibility to Do What? Five Ways Sites Reservoir Could Worsen Conditions for Fish, Chris Shutes, California Sportfishing Protection Alliance (15)
    2. WaterFix Tunnels
      1. Environmental Justice Communities and the Delta Tunnels, Barbara Barrigan Parrilla, Restore the Delta (35)
  6. Climate & Drought 3:15 – 5:10
    1. Responsibility, Resilience, and Process, Don Hankins, Department of Geography and Planning, CSU Chico (35)
    2. Waiving Standards During Drought, Bill Jennings, California Sportfishing Protection Alliance (35)
    3. San Francisco Bay: The freshwater-starved estuary, Greg Reis, The Bay Institute (35)
  1. Reception and no host bar 5:15 – 7

DAY TWO: GROUNDWATER – Friday, November 18, 2016
Registration: 8:30am

  1. Science 9:10 – 10:50
    1. Survival and movement rates of wild Chinook salmon smolts from Mill Creek through the Sacramento River, Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta and San Francisco Bay, 2013-2016, Jeremy Notch, National Marine Fisheries Service (35)
    2. Hydrostratigraphy and Pump-test Analysis of the Lower Tuscan/Tehama Aquifer, Northern Sacramento Valley, CA, Todd Greene, and Karin Hoover, CSU Chico, Geological and Environmental Sciences Department (60). Click here to view video of talk.
  2. Keynote Speaker Any Team Can Have a Bad Century: Dams and Diversions in an Era of Climate Change, Roger Moore, Partner, Rossmann and Moore, LLP, Attorneys at Law
    10:55 – 11:55 (60)
  3. Lunch
  4. Present Conditions 12:50-3:35
    1. The Ground Keeps Collapsing: Review of NASA’s 2015 Subsidence Report, Barbara Vlamis, AquAlliance (20)
    2. They Stole It Fair and Square: Is There Hope for Owens Valley? Mark Lacey, cattleman; Sally Manning, botanist; Daniel Prichett, botanist. (60)
    3. Environmental and Long-Term Effects of Water Transfers, Bruce Herbold, retired from work as a fish Biologist for the US Environmental Protection Agency (35)
    4. The Paper Water That Will Never Die: Update On the Monterey Amendments Litigation, the Privatization of the Kern Water Bank, and the Proposed Extension of the State Water Project Long-Term Contracts, Adam Keats, Senior Attorney, Center for Food Safety (35)
  5. The Sustainable Groundwater Management Act 3:40 – 5:10
    1. Points of Interest on the Road to Sustainable Groundwater Management
      Kit Custis, geologist and hydrogeologist (~50)
    2. Not All Water Stored Underground Is Groundwater: Aquifer Privatization and California’s 2014 Groundwater Sustainable Management Act, Adam Keats, Senior Attorney, Center for Food Safety (35) Click here to view video of talk