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<title>RE: [env-trinity] Cotton versus salmon</title>
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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=purple face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:purple'>And most of those 38 million people, and
tens of millions more, rely on the milk, butter, cheese, meat, and other
products those forage crops sustain.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=purple face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:purple'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=purple face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:purple'>Be well,<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=purple face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:purple'> <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=purple face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:purple'>Ara Azhderian<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=purple face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:purple'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=2 face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Tahoma;font-weight:bold'>From:</span></font></b><font size=2
face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma'>
env-trinity-bounces@velocipede.dcn.davis.ca.us
[mailto:env-trinity-bounces@velocipede.dcn.davis.ca.us] <b><span
style='font-weight:bold'>On Behalf Of </span></b>Spreck Rosekrans<br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Sent:</span></b> Tuesday, June 10, 2008 5:35
PM<br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>To:</span></b> Tom Stokely; Trinity List<br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Subject:</span></b> Re: [env-trinity] Cotton
versus salmon</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><font size=2 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt'>Cotton has been in steep decline in CA for the last
few years due to foreign competition, but more water goes to alfalfa and
pasture alone than to our cities with 38 million people.<br>
<br>
Spreck Rosekrans<br>
<br>
-----Original Message-----<br>
From: Tom Stokely [<a href="mailto:tstokely@trinityalps.net">mailto:tstokely@trinityalps.net</a>]<br>
Sent: Tuesday, June 10, 2008 08:02 PM Eastern Standard Time<br>
To: Trinity List<br>
Subject: [env-trinity] Cotton versus
salmon<br>
<br>
<a
href="http://www.times-standard.com/ci_9527353?IADID=Search-www.times-standard.com-www.times-standard.com">http://www.times-standard.com/ci_9527353?IADID=Search-www.times-standard.com-www.times-standard.com</a><br>
Cotton versus salmon<br>
Aldaron Laird/My Word/The Times-Standard<br>
Article Launched: 06/09/2008 01:34:16 AM PDT<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
The governor has declared that California is in a drought. Generally, there are
two solutions: Build more dams to store water (one of the governor's proposals)
or reduce our use of water. But it takes a long time to build new dams, so that
plan will do nothing to help us during this drought. We need to prioritize
water use.<br>
<br>
Of all the usable water behind dams, urban water users consume 20 percent and
agricultural users 80 percent. The governor would like to see a 20 percent
reduction in urban water use; this would yield only a 4 percent savings in the
amount of water now being consumed.<br>
<br>
Much more water can be saved by achieving a similar 20 percent reduction in
agriculture water use. That saving would be 16 percent!<br>
<br>
California needs its agriculture, but farmers need to become much more
efficient water users. California can no longer afford the water demands of the
status quo. Our climate is changing, and how we use water must change, too.<br>
<br>
It is now popular to consider the carbon footprint generated by the energy
demands of our way of life and the goods we consume. We need to do the same for
water by accounting for how much water is used when we live wherever we choose,
and when we grow whatever and wherever we choose.<br>
<br>
The water we Californians consume also requires lots of energy to pump, filter,
clean and deliver. Depending on where and how we secure that energy, water use
has a significant carbon footprint. For example, it takes much more water and
energy to keep a 100-square-foot lawn green in Anaheim than it does in Arcata.<br>
<br>
Where you grow plants matters. Hotter and drier areas evaporate more water from
the soil, the irrigation system and the plant. Cotton, one our state's major
crops, needs a lot of water to grow, yet one of the largest cotton-growing
areas in California is located in the hot, dry, southern portion of the Central
Valley, an area called Westlands.<br>
<br>
The water imported to raise cotton in Westlands comes from the Trinity River,
which is a major tributary of the Klamath River. If water used to raise cotton
was instead allowed to remain in the Trinity, the recovery chances of the
threatened salmon fisheries of the Klamath would be much improved.<br>
<br>
In this age of climate change, we have our priorities wrong. Perhaps the water
in the Trinity should be used to recover and raise a bountiful crop of salmon
on the North Coast, not cotton in the Westlands desert.<br>
<br>
Raising cotton in a hot dry environment can waste as much as 41 percent of the
irrigation water due to evaporation (www.waterfootprint.org). How many salmon
could have been raised with that water?<br>
<br>
Reassessing our water use priorities will be difficult, but the status quo
cannot be maintained and with our climate changing right now, we have no
choice. We have no time or water to waste, and California needs leaders with
the vision to face the water crisis of the 21st century.<br>
<br>
<br>
Aldaron Laird is on the board of directors for the Humboldt Bay Municipal Water
District. He lives in Arcata.<br>
<br>
</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
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