CNAS

Highway through the Mojave Desert, Southern California

 

Agronomy - Agricultural Crops

Robert B. Hutmacher, Cooperative Extension and Plant Sciences Department, University of California, Davis

Robert Hutmacher is a Cooperative Extension Specialist and Agronomist with the Plant Sciences Department at the University of California, Davis, and Director at the University of California West Side Research and Extension Center in western Fresno County, California. He has a background in both soil physics and plant physiology, and since the early 1980s has been involved in USDA-ARS and University of California research on plant and soil factors impacting crop responses to irrigation management and limiting water. His research activities include: (1) crop management options, host-plant disease resistance evaluations, and varietal differences in production potential and fiber quality in western, irrigated cotton; (2) management of subsurface drip and other microirrigation systems in cotton, forage, and horticultural crops; (3) irrigation systems as an alternative delivery system for soil fumigants for pathogen control; and (4) shallow groundwater utilization by crops as a function of groundwater salinity. (See abstracts)

Ecology

Darrell Jenerette, Department of Botany and Plant Sciences, University of California, Riverside

Darrel Jenerette is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Botany and Plant Sciences at the University of California, Riverside. Dr. Jenerette is a broadly trained ecologist with expertise at the interface between ecosystem and landscape ecologists. His research examines interactions between climate change and land cover change to address questions related to the interactive effects of multiple global change factors. This work includes analyses of dynamics of urban watersheds, production of ecosystem services associated with water availability, and responses of terrestrial greenhouse gas fluxes associated with precipitation variability. (See abstracts)

Economics

Richard Howitt, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, University of California, Davis

Richard Howitt is currently a Professor of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Department Chair at the University of California, Davis. He has been a faculty member at UC Davis since 1975. His current research interests are in the following areas: disaggregated economic modeling methods, testing market mechanisms for the allocation of water resources using experimental economics, and implementing empirical dynamic stochastic methods. Current applications include the optimal management of reservoirs, alternative configurations for the Sacramento Delta, a futures market for California water, and the economic impacts of drought in the California. (See abstracts)

Hydrology

James Sickman, Department of Soil and Water Sciences, University of California, Riverside

James Sickman is a watershed biogeochemist who investigates cycles of carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus in lakes, rivers and wetlands. Sickman specializes in the application of environmental isotopes to the study of how disturbed and undisturbed ecosystems are affected by major environmental problems such as acid rain, eutrophication, climate-change and surface-water pollution. His major research foci are montane, chaparral, arctic and subtropical ecosystems of North America. He is a consultant to the California Department of Water Resources, National Park Service and United States Forest Service on issues related to the ecosystem restoration and management projects in the Bay-Delta of California and western montane ecosystems.  (See abstracts)

Policy

Wendy Martin, California Department of Water Resources

Wendy Martin has nearly 30 years' experience working on a wide range of water policy issues in California. Currently, she is an Executive Project Manager with the California Department of Water Resources working at the executive policy level on complex and controversial Delta water resources issues. In June 2008 she was also asked to serve as the department’s Statewide Drought Coordinator, overseeing all of DWR’s drought activities and leading the department’s efforts in preparing for the possibility of a fourth dry year.

Prior to returning to DWR in March 2008, Wendy served as the Chief Deputy Director of the CALFED Bay-Delta Program for more than 10 years, overseeing the implementation of water management and ecosystem restoration programs in the California Delta and its watershed. (See abstracts)

 Lake Shasta at low level

Technology - Irrigation

James E. Ayars, USDA-ARS, Water Management Research Laboratory

 

James E. Ayars is an agricultural engineer working at the USDA-ARS, Water Management Research Laboratory in Parlier, CA. He has 30 years of research experience related to managing irrigation and drainage systems in arid areas. Research activities include: (1) field studies of irrigation and drainage water management to reduce drain flow; (2) reuse of saline drainage water for supplemental irrigation; (3) water management studies of irrigation districts; (4) studies of the effects of irrigation management on drainage water quality, (5) integrated management of irrigation and drainage systems in arid areas, and (6) managing subsurface drip irrigation systems. Recent work includes the determination of water requirements for vegetable crops grown on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley. His degrees are from Cornell University (B of Agr Eng) and Colorado State University ( MS, Ph.D). He has over 200 publications in both popular and refereed journals. (See abstracts)

 

Water Management

John Rossi, Western Municipal Water District

As the general manager of the Western Municipal Water District (Western), John Rossi manages the 527-square mile water district. His duties include responsibility for the planning, direction, and management of the water, wastewater, and nonpotable water activities and operations of the District. Mr. Rossi is a court-appointed watermaster for the Santa Ana River and Western judgments. Western is a member agency of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California and is a member of the Santa Ana Watershed Project Authority (SAWPA). He is a director on the national WateReuse Association's and the American Ground Water Trust's Boards of Directors. He is the current Vice Chair of the Association of California Water Agencies Ground Water Committee and is a member of the state's Public Advisory Committee for the statewide comprehensive groundwater monitoring program, where he currently represents the Association of California Water Agencies. (See abstracts)

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