Drought? This Is What Climate Change Looks like in the West
A personal take on 爆料公社鈥檚 work to make the arid West more livable for people and birds.
Living back East for a few years, I missed the expansive bright blue skies of the Rockies. Now that I鈥檝e returned to the West, I鈥檓 remembering the smoky haze that fills the sky. I鈥檓 remembering how the smell of summer has turned into the smell of smoke from wildfires. How the ash from fires hundreds of miles away sometimes coats your car and porch furniture. But it鈥檚 getting worse.
I鈥檓 used to the seasonality of streams鈥攖he spring runoff that slows to a trickle with hot summer days. My kids would wait for the monsoon storms to bring back the water flowing to our arroyo. But it was shocking to see how low the rivers and streams got so early this year. Recently, some southwestern states have seen abundant monsoonal rainfall, with some intense flooding. But in Utah, Nevada, California, and parts of the Northwest, the dryness and record-setting heat waves have intensified large wildfires. The combination of drought and heatwaves are pushing birds to their limits, leading to lethal dehydration.
Welcome drought.
There's a lot to unpack in that word. Decades of drought in the West seem to be hitting a tipping point, garnering national attention. More and more, people are recognizing this isn鈥檛 just a drought. This isn鈥檛 temporary.
It鈥檚 fires, it鈥檚 decreasing water supplies, it鈥檚 air quality issues, it鈥檚 high temperatures, and unpredictable weather. It鈥檚 an era of extremes.
This summer has turned into the worst water year for many farmers and ranchers, for wildlife managers, for businesses and communities concerned about their water supplies. We urgently need to adapt and better prepare for constant drought and for extremes to become more common. As my colleague said recently, 鈥淭his is climate change stealing your water.鈥
Climate change is increasingly impacting all of us鈥攖hreatening the health of millions of birds, our food supplies and economies, our air quality, and the water security for all of us. It鈥檚 starting to affect our way of life.
And this affects birds. The future of several bird species, including some protected by the Endangered Species Act, is tied to the health of rivers and lakes. We鈥檝e already lost too many wetlands and riparian habitats across the West and birds are pushed to congregate in high concentrations in the last places left with water. You might recall the death of 40,000 ducks from last year due to overcrowded conditions with limited water and habitat left at the Lower Klamath National Wildlife Refuge.
How bad is this drought? 2021 is shaping up to be the driest year in the last century.
Everywhere in the West we see signs of the ongoing megadrought. Here are a few indicators that we are concerned about at 爆料公社:
- Lake Mead, the largest reservoir on the Colorado River (and in the country), has officially reached its lowest water level in history鈥攁nd it鈥檚 expected to continue dropping.
- Great Salt Lake reached its lowest lake level ever recorded, and will continue to drop this year, maybe even by a foot more.
- Years of reduced inflows, along with drought and a warming climate, continue to shrink the Salton Sea in California, impacting the health of surrounding communities and the available habitat and food sources for migratory birds.
- Our last remaining wetlands in California鈥檚 Central Valley鈥攅ssential Pacific Flyway habitat for waterfowl鈥攁re expected to receive only about 57% of their water supply.
- In rural Arizona, unlimited groundwater pumping (80% of the state has no groundwater management!) is causing wells to go dry and further stressing flows in rivers and streams.
- The Klamath River Basin鈥檚 drought is testing everything: There's not enough water to meet all the demands from farmers, tribes, and wildlife, including endangered fish.
- The Southwest鈥檚 other major river basin鈥攖he Rio Grande鈥攊s also historically dry.
At Great Salt Lake, the 17 named islands that usually exist on the lake, where nesting birds are protected from predators, are now peninsulas. In this 鈥Year of the Shorebird鈥 as designated by Utah鈥檚 Governor, the decreased water coming into the shrinking lake is affecting the whole ecosystem with potentially hemispheric implications. Great Salt Lake and its surrounding wetlands create vital habitat in the Western Hemisphere for millions of breeding and migrating shorebirds including more than 56% of the global population of American Avocets and nearly 30% of the global population of Wilson鈥檚 Phalaropes. If nothing is done to reverse course, Great Salt Lake risks suffering the fate of other large, saline lakes around the world, the loss of which invariably triggers dramatic harm to communities, local business, and human health.
In the West, we are used to competing demands for scarce water for farms, cities and rural communities, hydropower, recreation, and the environment (typically last in consideration) which can lead to conflict. 爆料公社鈥檚 Western Water team continues to push for all of us to face these risks and plan for water shortages with a changing climate in mind.
I keep thinking of that folk song 鈥溾 from my childhood. My extended family lived through the Dust Bowl in Texas and Oklahoma and went into dryland ranching. This year doesn鈥檛 feel like business as usual鈥攊t feels like the cusp of another Dust Bowl.
New approaches are needed to adapt to, respond to, and mitigate the compounding and extreme risks of climate change to communities, economies, ecosystems, and the water resources that support them.
This is why 爆料公社 is working in state capitals and in Washington, D.C. to advocate for sensible policies and funding that benefit birds and communities alike. We have worked to ensure that the needs of birds and habitat aren鈥檛 carved out of policy decisions and water management.
爆料公社 is also working to secure water to enhance habitats where water is most needed. Working with partners, we continue to enable and secure water flows in rivers in places like Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, California, and Arizona. And through our science, we are improving our understanding of the long-term health of priority places for birds and how we might better manage the limited water availability into the future.
With drought conditions persisting now into a third decade and climate change increasingly impacting water supplies and habitat in the West, we urgently need inclusive and equitable long-lasting water solutions for climate resilience.
Please in advocating for policies, funding, and on-the-ground actions that result in sustainable change.