The Legislature passed a bill that will require the California Department of Water Resources to annually inspect the vast majority of the 1,249 dams it oversees. Dams with low hazard potential would need to evaluated at least every other year under AB 1270, introduced by Assemblyman James Gallagher, R-Yuba City, last February after the evacuation of 188,000 downstream residents. Inspections would need to study major structural dam features, and inspection reports would need to be available to the public. DWR would also need to consult with independent experts and update its safety protocols every 10 years. The bill also requires the testing of critical spillway control features each year. ( Sac Bee )

The constant threat of wildfire calls for a radical shift in attitudes toward forest management, concluded the Little Hoover Commission in its report "Fire on the Mountain: Rethinking Forest Management in the Sierra Nevada." The report recommends the use of mechanical thinning, prescribed burns, and managed fires to maintain forest health, but these last two practices have been challenging for their potential impacts on air quality and property. Reducing the likelihood of a future inferno would save money, protect forests, and reduce emissions of greenhouse gas emissions and air pollutants. The commission found that healthy conifer forests - those carefully managed as they grew - produced about half as much greenhouse gas emissions when burned as unhealthy drought-impacted forests. The commission recommended better coordination and increased resources to support state and local agencies to meet the recommended goal of treating over 1 million acres of land annually. ( Link)

Letting some fires burn today can prevent catastrophic fires in the future, while helping to increase streamflow, snowpack, and drought resistance, and prevent erosion. Research in Yosemite and other areas shows that allowing natural fires to burn can increase the amount of water stored in the soil or flowing downstream. In the winter, forest clearings opened up by fires often store deeper snow that melts later than in densely forested areas, meaning more water is released slowly in the spring and summer rather than all rushing out as floods in the winter. Fires can also restore meadows, which help to store water and reduce floods by absorbing water like a sponge and slowly releasing it. ( Link)

Photo: G. Boisrame

While global warming is often discussed in terms of planetary averages, there has been an alarming jump in the severity of the hottest days of the year, with the most lethal effects in the world's largest cities. According to a new UC Irvine study, urban centers with more than 5 million inhabitants, as well as parts of Eurasia and Australia, have been hardest hit by a sharp increase in short-term extreme heat events, resulting in lost lives, reduced agricultural productivity and damage to infrastructure. Focusing on the past 30- and 50-year periods, the study found that the hottest temperature of the year in megacities has grown over 3 times as fast as the global average annual temperature over the same period. Hottest-day-of-the-year measurements for major cities such as Paris, Moscow and Tokyo climbed by as much as 0.60 degrees per decade. More than just temperature readings on a map, these events have taken a severe human toll: A heat wave in Europe in 2003 caused roughly 70,000 deaths, and another in Russia in 2010 killed nearly 55,000 people. In the United States, an average of 658 deaths due to excessive heat were reported per year between 1999 and 2009. ( Link )

Photo: Alamy Stock Photo

Copenhagen is a model for how healthy cities might be created across the world by making it easier and more enjoyable to make healthy choices. An extraordinary 62% of residents cycle to work every day and the vast majority keep it up through cold and wet weather. "It's not because it's the healthy choice. It's because it's the easiest choice," says Katja Schjønning, Copenhagen's head of public health. "The city is designed for bikes and not cars." As part of its determination to become carbon-neutral by 2025, Copenhagen requires all new flat roofs to be planted with vegetation. ( Guardian)

Caltrans is making available $40.8 million for transportation planning projects statewide, including $29.5 million in Sustainable Communities Grants, $4.3 million in Strategic Partnership Grants, and $7 million for adaptation planning grants to reduce climate impacts on the transportation system. Visit the Caltrans site to find the 2018-19 Grant Application Guides, application forms, required templates, and presentations and events. Deadline: February 23, 2018, at 5pm. ( Link)

This presentation on the future of the transportation system by Chris Schmidt (Caltrans, Transportation Planning) will cover a number of innovations and initiatives ongoing or already implemented by Caltrans to support, maintain, or improve the system. More importantly, the presentation will discuss the importance of psychology and social sciences to achieve the goals of a sustainable transportation system. ( Link)

The Planning and Conservation League will bring together diverse advocates, business and government leaders, and academics in a work-session focused agenda to develop and commit to specific strategies to protect and advance California's progress in environmental sustainability and social equity. Plenary and breakout sessions will focus on building and maintaining winning coalitions, deepening commitments to shared values, and seeking ways to address housing, transportation, and climate change challenges. ( Link)

Forest restoration, biomass utilization and innovative economic development strategies are only a few of the incredible ways Sierra Nevada communities have found to adapt to and mitigate climate perils. By learning from these innovative projects we can increase the pace and scale at which we need to operate, identify collaboration opportunities, and adopt best practices. This webinar will feature four ground-breaking case studies of organizations and individuals doing critical climate action work in the Sierra Nevada. ( Register)