UC summit: Learning to live with drought

Dateline, UC Davis (April 29, 2014) — Organizers of the UC Drought Summit sought to create thoughtful discussion and inform decisions about managing for this year’s drought and future droughts at a time when the state’s — and nation’s — attention is focused on California’s water shortage. “Droughts are a catalyst to make change,” said one of the summit panelists, Stanford University’s David Hayes, a former deputy Interior secretary. “One reason this conference is so well-timed is we’re in a crisis, so we have some opportunities to make a change.” A recurring theme among speakers was that there is no “silver bullet” to dealing with the drought, and that a “portfolio” approach is best. Also quoted: Glen MacDonald, director of UCLA's Institute of the the Environment and Sustainability; Frank Loge, director of the UC Davis Center for Water-Energy Efficiency; Samuel Sandoval Solis, UC Davis assistant professor and Cooperative Extension specialist; Steve Macaulay, former chief deputy director of the state Department of Water Resources; UC Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi; and Jay Lund, director of the Center for Watershed Sciences, organizer of the summit.