SACRAMENTO-
State and agricultural leaders from cross the western U.S. gathered at the Capitol Thursday to kick off a two-day drought forum.
The drought has become the “new normal” in California, but water shortage stretches beyond our state.
That’s why state and agricultural leaders from across the west are joining forces.
“What I want is a dream team of water experts,” Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval said.
Sandoval is the chairman of the western governors association. The group’s forum at the Capitol focused on reducing the droughts impact on agriculture.
“We need to share best practices for drought management so that the Western states can learn from one another.” Sandoval said.
Both governors say finding innovative drought solutions is a bipartisan challenge.
Step number one is putting into action California’s water bond.
“Shortages are unprecedented, at least in modern historical memory, and so we have a lot to do,” Gov. Brown said. “We have our water action plan also we have the $7.5B water bond passed that the voters passed.”
Agricultural leaders say the drought has not only Changed the type of crops produced, it’s cut jobs especially on family owned farms.
“There’s been a lot of shifts in the kind of crop that people are planting some crops that we used to have a lot more acres of we simply don’t have right now,” Karen Ross, secretary of California’s Department of Food and Agriculture, said.
“They’re Faced with the same issue very high value prop and without the water they’re not able to produce and they lose literally millions of dollars,” said Sam Routson of winnemuca farms.
The forum at the Capitol ends Friday. It’s part of a series of forms organized by the Western Governors’ Association. At the end all of their findings will be posted online.
