Relics exposed in Lake Shasta

Hwy. 99 bridges, train trestles, town ruins emerge as water level drops

There's more than just muddy flip-flops and busted lawn chairs emerging from the depths of Lake Shasta as the reservoir drops to its lowest levels in 16 years. Old bridges, train trestles, tunnels and the foundations from towns long-drowned have begun to pop out of the lake's muddy depths. (Redding Record Searchlight - 10/07/2008)

On California’s Coast, Farewell to the King Salmon

For the first time there's no fishing for chinook salmon on the California coast. The search is on for why the prize catch is so scarce.

Thirty years ago there were several thousand salmon boats in California. More recently, as the fish became scarce, only a few hundred worked the coast. Then salmon populations crashed, and this year for the first time U.S. officials canceled all ocean salmon fishing off California and most of Oregon, and curtailed it off Washington, a $300 million loss. (Smithsonian Magazine - 09/29/2008)

A Strategy for Coping with Climate Change

Amid rising seas, a California modeling effort recommends abandoning land tracts in the Sacramento Delta

A new multidisciplinary modeling effort concludes that certain tracts of land in California's Sacramento Delta should be abandoned the next time they flood, and that major California water-supply inlets in the area should be rerouted. (MIT Technology Review - 09/11/2008)

Boaters, beware: Hunt is on for mussel invaders

Authorities are on the lookout for quagga and zebra mussels, invasive species known to hitchhike from one body of water to another by attaching themselves to boat trailers, hulls, engines and steering components. (Sacramento Bee - 07/03/2008)