Page 22 - Watershed Sciences News Today

Climate change induced drought has caused ski resorts to use snowmaking techniques to sustain their business and ski-town economies. But manmade snow uses a lot of energy and water, so resorts are now trying new, environmentally friendly technology.

The sight can be jarring during extreme drought: snowmaking guns lined up on a mountainside, blasting precious crystal flakes on a ski run while the rest of the land goes thirsty.

Some resorts have dug storage ponds to collect water in the spring when it's abundant, while a few are eyeing the use of reclaimed wastewater.

The White River is one of the few remaining streams with natural flows in the Colorado River Basin. Researchers say the thriving fish habitat there shows the need to protect the region’s streams.

Rep. Brad Wilson, Speaker of the Utah House of Representatives, is convening a Great Salt Lake Summit, and ahead of that summit we’ll be talking to Lynne De Freitas, Executive Director of Friends of the Great Salt Lake; Wayne Wurtsbaugh, USU Emeritus Professor of Watershed Sciences; and Marcelle Shoop, Director of the National Audubon Society’s Saline Lakes Program.

As it endures a historic drought, the state is considering imposing $500-a-day fines for wasting water.

Today on Insight, were looking at the resentencing of Scott Peterson, a possible future without the Sierra snowpack, how climate change is taught in schools, and alternative music picks for the holidays.

Global warming creates drier air and helps parch vegetation that fuels horrific wildfires. But California's forests have been mismanaged for more than a century.

Summary: OK, so what do these two disasters have to do with anything today? There's one common thread between them that's relevant: No one blamed the freak storms on climate change.

It rained so hard in California in 1862 that a 300-mile-long lake was created in the Central Valley, stretching from Bakersfield to Red Bluff.