About this Event

The Regulatory Summit tour will be held on August 13th. Tour participants will meet in the Lobby of the Lake Tahoe Resort at 11:45 am. The bus will leave promptly at noon for Tahoe Paradise Resort where attendees will have lunch. After lunch, the bus will transport tour participants to the Angora Fire Area and then on to the Upper Truckee Wetlands Restoration area. At 4:00 pm the bus will return to the Lake Tahoe Resort.

The tour discussion will focus on how Forest Management relates to the Tahoe TMDL, which is the regulatory driver for Water Quality in Lake Tahoe Basin, and is focused on protecting the clarity of Lake Tahoe. As part of those discussions the speakers will address the restoration program, associated water quality and habitat improvement benefits, short and long term impacts of fuels reduction management on water quality, and post fire rehab impacts on water quality, related to protecting the clarity of Lake Tahoe.

Recently proposed regulations have the potential to dramatically alter the scope of the federal Clean Water Act. This panel will discuss the proposed changes and their potential impacts on water agencies that rely on California’s headwaters.

Local agencies are increasingly turning to forest management strategies and techniques to manage water quality in source watersheds. Panelists from agencies around the state will present examples of how they are working to simultaneously protect both forest health and water quality.

Nestled high in the Upper Tuolumne watershed within Yosemite National Park and Stanislaus National Forest is the Hetch Hetchy Project, the primary supply for San Francisco Public Utilities Commission. Along with supplying water and power to the City of San Francisco and surrounding Bay Area communities, the Hetch Hetchy Project also regulates stream flow in the Upper Tuolumne River, Cherry Creek, and Eleanor Creek. SFPUC actively works with stakeholders in the Upper Tuolumne Watershed to more efficiently manage its resources and more accurately forecast storage inflows. Come listen to experts discuss SFPUC’s collaborative programs that recognize the critical role headwaters play to the downstream water supply and how these efforts improve management of the entire water system.

This session qualifies for 1.0 contact hour of CDPH certification credit. To receive this credit you must sign in and out at this program on the ACWA sign-in sheet.

United States Forest Service Region 5 leadership will provide an update on the Forest Service’s latest activities along with an important discussion on the drought and its impacts on 2014 wildfire prevention and management efforts.

The cultivation of marijuana has significantly expanded in watersheds across California in recent years, with significant implications for both water quality and supply. This panel will explore the impacts of this increasing activity, and discuss current and proposed regulatory efforts to address this growing problem before California’s headwaters are left high and dry.

This session qualifies for 1.0 contact hour of CDPH certification credit. To receive this credit you must sign in and out at this program on the ACWA sign-in sheet.

According to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, forest pests (insects and diseases) annually destroy 10 times the volume of timber lost due to forest fires. For example, native bark beetles took hold in Southern California forests following severe drought years causing unprecedented tree mortality, and the introduced Pitch Canker Disease has attacked Monterey pine along the central coast. During this session, experts from CAL FIRE and the United States Forest Service will discuss their work to detect, notify, and manage forest pests that threaten the state’s headwaters including how the drought may be affecting their efforts.

In the closing session, leadership from ACWA’s Headwaters Framework Workgroup will provide an inside look at ACWA’s latest major policy document to advance sustainable management of California’s headwaters.