By Jared Lewis
On a chilly fall afternoon this month, The Santa Cruz Mountain Stewardship Network enjoyed a guided adventure through the Santa Cruz Mountains Watershed with San Jose Water to discuss environmental, social, and governance (ESG) objectives for the area. The conversation covered the importance of public utilities taking accountability for environmental stewardship of the areas they serve because employing a science-based approach is key to mitigating climate impacts while building resilience to emerging climate realities, especially in California.
Cyclical drought is a fundamental component of California’s Mediterranean climate, yet the past two decades have been the driest in over 1,000 years. Decreased precipitation and rising temperatures, coupled with environmental and social impacts, have resulted in what we now understand as a megadrought. The magnitude of this drought demands evolution to keep pace with population needs.
• Wildfire mitigation
Increasingly devastating wildfires are an urgent concern. 2020 was California’s worst wildfire year to date with 4.2 million acres burned and hundreds of millions of dollars spent on firefighting resources. This year’s fire season will extend to late fall and bring increased burn potential during the hotter, drier months.
While fire is a necessary phenomenon in healthy ecosystems, we want to ward off high-intensity, catastrophic wildfires such as the August Complex Fire in August 2020 that burned more than 1 million acres — the state’s first gigafire. An increase in dry, flammable vegetation creates conditions that can quickly drive wildfire risk to homes, communities, and water supply.
Local watershed land is part of the solution for source water protection, forest health, and resilience to wildfire. Healthy watersheds provide a suite of ecosystem services including managing nutrient cycling, carbon storage, erosion, increased biodiversity, water storage and filtration, flood control, and increased resilience to climate change threats and invasive species across the state, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Water utilities are conducting forest health and wildfire mitigation treatments covering hundreds of acres of watershed land. These treatments will improve watershed resiliency to wildfire while supporting water quality, source water protection, and ecosystem health, as noted in San Jose Water’s 2021 Sustainability Report. For example, the Los Gatos Creek Watershed Collaborative effort, a coalition of regional land management agencies, is one of the largest regional forest health programs to date. Cal Fire awarded a $7.5 million Forest Health Grant to the collaborative. This will fund a mosaic of connected forest health treatments in the Santa Cruz Mountains. The watershed repairs will prevent catastrophic wildfires, protect communities, and restore forests to healthy, functioning ecosystems while also sequestering carbon and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. This effort is representative of the cooperative multi-stakeholder action required of public utilities working at the forefront of climate change and sustainability leadership.
• Reducing carbon emissions
Water utilities must also commit to cutting greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in alignment with the Paris Agreement. To reduce carbon emissions, utilities can evaluate their energy providers and transition to renewable biofuels for their fleets of vehicles and construction equipment. By continually setting ambitious yet achievable greenhouse gas reduction goals, adopting cleaner and more sustainable technologies, water utilities can safeguard a sustainable and reliable water supply for customers.
California’s climate is drier, but that doesn’t mean we can’t adapt and preserve our way of life through responsible stewardship. Everyone has to conserve water, but public utilities must take a leading role in forging sustainable community practices and partnerships, like the one between SJW and the Santa Cruz Mountain Stewardship Network.
Jared Lewis is the San Jose Water Manager, Environmental Planning and Natural Resources.