Category: Community_Land_Water_CN

Virginia doesn’t have a megadrought like some parts of the United States, but it has water problems all the same: Homes and businesses in the Hampton Roads region, in the southeastern corner of the state, are drawing groundwater faster than it can be replenished. The situation has gotten so bad that the earth is sinking in some places.

Last year, legislators in Washington state passed a law to bolster the urban forestry work of the Department of Natural Resources. The agency’s urban and community forestry program, which had just two staffers in 2020, will grow to nine positions once the department finalizes new hires.
Those new staffers, along with a new state-funded grant program, will supercharge the department’s efforts to inventory tree canopy in Washington’s communities, help cities maintain their trees and determine where to plant new ones.

The Klamath Irrigation District in Southern Oregon plans to defy a U.S. government order issued last week for a halt to water deliveries to farmers in the drought-stricken basin.
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation manages the Klamath Project, which includes Klamath Irrigation District and serves 266 square miles (689 square kilometers) of farmland around the Oregon-California border. A limited allocation of water was allowed for irrigators from Upper Klamath Lake this year because of extreme drought.

States in the Colorado River basin are scrambling to propose steep cuts in the water they’ll use from the river next year, in response to a call by the federal government for immediate, drastic efforts to keep the river’s main storage reservoirs from reaching critically low levels.

When Don and Lynn Ireland moved to Cherry Creek 3, they were a bit frustrated by the fact that the entire community shared one single water meter. This meant everyone was responsible for the community’s full bill. The two began to look into why so much water was being used and sought to encourage water conservation within their community. Their chief aim was to replace the turf lawns and juniper plants that covered the landscape with native plants. They also planned to build a community garden, replacing a large amount of turfgrass.

Nauru, lying about halfway across the vast expanse of the Pacific Ocean between Australia and Hawaii, is the world’s smallest island nation. But in the emerging industry of deep-sea mining, it punches far above its weight.

Climate scientists and marine advocates are calling on governments worldwide to look beyond green policymaking when it comes to climate change. They say a critical shade is missing in the fight against global warming.

Earth’s ongoing climate crisis has put a trio of critical stony coral species on a path towards an uncertain future that could have dire ramifications for their underwater biodomes, according to new research released Monday.

To help limit climate change, the city of Pittsburgh intends to plant 100,000 new trees by 2030. The effort will focus on bringing more shade to low-income neighborhoods that lack green space. But some residents are hesitant about new trees because of past problems.

You may have noticed that it’s been a tad bit zesty outside this week—New York City has been under a heat advisory since Monday as record-breaking temperatures have made the city feel like the gooey, trash-filled center of a hot pocket (and it’s even worse in other parts of the country). If you have access to air conditioning or one of the city’s cooling centers, then you’ve likely planted your sweat-stained butt there. But the city has its own “natural air conditioning units” as well—and all you have to do is spend some time in nature to access them.