Water: Where does it come from? Who gets it? How is global warming affecting our water supply?

Last night I attended a forum on water, sponsored by the Raven Performing Arts Theatre here in my hometown, Healdsburg. The panelists addressed the problems of the likelihood of a diminishing water supply due to global warming and the need for even more water as the population in Northern California increases.

As I left, I picked up a citizens guide to protecting and restoring our watersheds, Basins of Relations, recently published by the Water Institute. The author, Brock Dorman, was one of the forum panelists. He spoke eloquently and poetically about treating our watersheds with respect.

Basins of Relations contains numerous links to websites that will help us choose not to use so much water. The 20 page guide is well worth the $7 purchase price. You can order it here.

This evening, I finished reading the "Drying of the West-The American West was won by water management. What happens when there's no more water to manage?" in the February issue of National Geographic. Recommended reading.

Hopefully, those of us who live where increased severe and sustained droughts are likely to occur will start paying attention to this issue and what we can do to decrease the impact of too little water and too many people. And let’s not forget the flora and fauna that are also going to suffer.

(photo: The main source of our water, the Russian River - Russian River Watershed)