Telling that will encompass finally 6 books about California's natural world the preciousness of it and the conservation of it and the geography of it so this one between California Field outlets as you mentioned my 1st book and the next book which will be coming out a year from now so hopefully I'll be back in this room talking to you again a year from now will be called the force of California and now I'll begin to say California lands trilogy where I will go from forests to coasts to deserts and then finally bookending the state of water with a book on fire called the state of fire how where and why Ella for your parents so I'm telling this whole narrative really of what character of California has always been continues to be and will always remain despite or so successfully in those urban veneer over the past 170 years or so yeah well maybe we should start with that time people are awesome so what what is California's natural plumbing look like without dams or diversions or cities or European settlers that is exactly one of the 9 examples I get to in this book this very concise little horse hell of a book really it's only 150 pages is really just an analysis One Man's Journey mine into how this system works as you say the plumbing of California these arteries of life as they know all of our ecosystems. And it is a there's nothing straightforward about it my goodness you were talking about California policy before. Water Policy has as as defining our society and it always has in it probably always well and in fact I would like to posit that my book doesn't touch that at all this is not a policy book I am not a policy maker I'm not here to tell people how we can solve the problem I'm here to share it out and that's what I do and this book this is an analysis of. That's how we as a war convey and use water I think though and I know this this comes from my my posture of of. My voice is in this conversation as an artist and a naturalist I want to examine the story that are telling and the story that we're tying is a long story and are only just beginning. Let me explain what we have done to California as water scape over the past 170 years is a fascinating thing a brand huge effort that I believe will be matched by how it is again transformed over the next 170 years as our values change as we are realizing that maybe it's not about using water as a resource but rather there might be some intrinsic value to the way life and the natural world within California moves that. And that gets to the more. I believe this book is about that California's most precious resource and this is sort of the mystic secret behind the book isn't water at all. It's sort of sort of the secret of the book Inside the title of the book the state of water understanding California's most precious resource their precious resource is the human ability to understand its own context and history. In the narrative confines of a story and if we can change that story might we then be able to avoid the collapse that seems predicted on all sorts of you know world media and experts stages might we then if we were a tour. Roache a new attitude towards California life living systems across our natural landscape our birthright as Californians might then encounter a new dawn for sustainable community and I think that if I were to emerge from this whole process with some sort of new revelation that would be it and I would hope that it is at its core unifying So I'd like to what I like to do is tell some of the stories that touch on those themes that are to take to buy the ark in your book. And I was thinking maybe we could start with one of the craziest water infrastructure just asters in the history of the world which is the story of how much California not a terribly white state accidently created a see you. Right where there was one earlier you're talking about the solvency of course the Salton think so yes that happened. 11112 years ago you know we led to we broke the levee and created the Salton Sea which I call in the book our state's number one mass and this just comes again from me looking at the numbers and presenting the information to go back what I said before I'm not here to change minds about that I'm not here to influence opinions I'm not here to challenge experts that's kind of funny as I tour around you know I realize that in the audience there are people who know way more about California that I do I'm not here to like argue with them what I would like to do is just present the numbers I would like to present the numbers I would like to figure it out for myself and a context for those numbers more importantly a context for there's those numbers inside of the larger system that is California So yeah we've got this. Big mess and southern California called the Salton Sea So it's it's Ok so we broke the aqueduct all the water flooded in for months and months we made this enormous like in the desert and this was an outgrowth of the hubris of trying to move the flows of the Colorado River into a place where they would never go we're all about the hubris or even rivers around that's what we do here this state and there are over 1400 named dams in California we have bought and sold every drop of water that comes out of every piece of this state it's amazing it's all pervasive and it's it is absolutely it takes its place with the great achievements of humanity in the history of the world what we have done to California in that regard and now in the 1st half of the 21st century we're asking what is the value of what and the Salton Sea is a very good example of that it's going to be a very expensive problem to fix let's back up a 2nd because 1st the levee breach Ok for you get. Millions and millions of acres feet of water go flowing out to the desert right to people who have plans to move to Colorado River a substantial portion of explosive Southern California would have considered that water wasted but it turns out when it is sitting in a basin in the middle of the desert it does not actually go to waste or causes the desert to bloom. Yes you would think that the history of the song see over the past 100 years as as is is a. History of opportunities wasted and and entrepreneurs looking for. To strike it big with the resorts in the era of Frank Sinatra coming to the desert in the fifty's that kind of think. He has never been a very. Kind place for anything other than migrating birds along the Pacific flyway which is still it's a remarkable site for that but there are. Our very important wetlands in the north and the south. That it looks like are under the state's current plan going to continue to be. On life support. Because to understand what's happening the scene now you have to get a little bit into. The transfer of water rights between Imperial Valley which is an extremely. Productive agricultural center right there at the base of the southern end of the song and San Diego San Diego a lot of the water rights from the Colorado River that the Imperial Valley has been using to irrigate that land. Recently in the past 20 years or so and now it was actually the largest transfer of water rights in American history and because of that the Imperial Valley is flush with money and they have upgraded all their Or they're in the process of upgrading all their irrigation systems towards conservation conservation conservation and because of it there's less and less runoff to the sea and now because of that the sea is is. It's evaporating or it's actually rather quickly evaporating and what's left is a century work century worth of. Agricultural runoff nutrients that are just slowly becoming just. Oxic wind that is blowing up the valley towards tell about it towards homes Frank so when I said before it's going to be a very expensive problem to fix it's going to be a more expensive problem not so we're talking residues from fertilizers exactly 100 years of you know many salts that have been flushed down the land so that's why I mean you could you go down to the scene now and it is just. Exercising sort of this witnessing this apocalyptic landscape. Sort of gasping what have we done or do we have to do. So there are many solutions. To regulating the keeping those the water level and monitoring its salinity and stocks yesterday. But including like I think the most notable the most viable solution would be like a sea to sea which is what the what is called the sea to sea so the more you have or you're pumping sea. Water from either the Sea of Cortez or all the way across the Pacific Ocean and San Diego. So you're actually we have to. We are we are obliged as stewards of this place to invest in that. Because as I say looking to the few $1000000000.00 It will cost several more tens of billions of dollars if this is left to dry. It's such an interesting ls it's a mess because you can think if you think of water as a commodity and breach the spill that formed the salty sea it was an immense waste actually created this incredible waste is for migratory waterfowl sure. And the conservation efforts that are drying up the sea are in demand savings have stepped towards patients but they're creating an ecological catastrophe. Now now you're getting to the crux of the book there Brian because. This what I what I have realized is that by digging into this whole system when what I'm digging into is basically an ethical argument and it has to do with rights versus responsibilities I open the book with a whole list of the rights that we enjoy as Californians as Americans as inheritors of this great liberal humanist revolution from the 18th century there were we continue to to enjoy but every one of those rights has an accompanying responsibility and that responsibility is perhaps even more important because. Again getting back to that idea of understanding California's most precious resource What if we can remove water itself from being as you say a commodity I would call it a resource of course it's something that we need. What if we placed upon it intrinsic value what if water systems themselves had a right to be cleaned to be healthy. To not be used in such a way that it is only for our consumption. That is the voice of Kaufman naturalist artist author his brand new book just out from a treasured local nonprofit publisher hate books is the state of water understanding California's most precious resource and as luck would have it that book is also our featured thank you care for this. What it is is small hardcover book $160.00 pages total. Splashed with incredibly meticulous light filled our work. His medium is water color but he backs up the water color with this intense level of research so think of this like an Atlas had less like a book of pictures and he also would keep this incredible level of precision in his art so that he can render a map of all that tributaries prefer system and the kind of detail that you would never expect and that media. And what the book is is its new ways of thinking about the water systems that we all rely on here in the Golden State. It has maps of all of the north coast river systems and all of the sea or river systems it has maps of all the locations of the Colorado River across southern and central California and has maps of all of California's water projects to impound diverge convey and retain water and has maps of California's water flows in previous Arabs' how California's water system works today how of might work tomorrow on during ecological restoration just regime. The book contains the incredible story for us all to see how an extraordinarily tri state accidentally created him in linseed and the story in maps form of the San Joaquin River restoration a project that is just starting with every tearing down of a dam or a levee or restoration of the natural banks of the river called out piece by piece on a map and annotated in the side notes pictures of the critters that rely on California's water for their own habitat from the southwest Willow fly catcher to the California river the Chinook salmon to the northern Siskiyou mountain salamander It is incredible gorgeous book beautifully bound and printed the kind of thing that's just a pleasure to hold in your hands and it's yours for a pledge of $10.00 a month by the. To face a stater or 100 all at once at 180-439-5732 extension 1800 . Line at w w w k p.f.a. Dot org. And here is one reason to make that pledge right now. Just moments ago Rachel on the phone or handed me a note that said we have one listener Keith insanity. And was prepared to double $1000.00 if we can raise enough to match it. Is a lot of money to raise the time of day it was also a tremendous opportunity for k.p. At a time when we could desperately use it and the good news is we have one listener who has a not that he put up this challenge $1000.00 the bad news is that as of this moment . We don't have a single color blind and we could be in trouble so it's up to you our fate is in your hands the phone number 180-439-5732 you need to remember it 1800 Hey Kate b.f.a. If you want to shop around for other thank you gifts k. P.f.a. Dot org 1000 dollar countdown starts now Ok Kaufman's brand new this state of water understanding California's most precious resource here is for a pledge of 100 dollars 180-439-5732 back to the interview. So the intrinsic value concept I was getting is that your art is pretty much divided 5050 between maps of sites that are significant to the state's water system . And depictions of life that depend on water in its natural state Yeah that's correct I think that there's a there's an aesthetic ethic there and they kind of quibble and see between. Between sort of Tauriel value and informational value there's almost like this. Silly and really a unity of all knowledge as if as if. My meditation on the beauty of. Nature and the natural world manifested through my painting my discipline is. My own. Discipline and towards the better understanding of my subject and my area of study you know it's it's about it's almost as if they see is is between Fortunately executed and examined and a map of the San Joaquin River are somehow. Conveying to my human mind a a sense of knowledge that that gets beyond simple conveyance it gets to action almost Atonement if you will if you just think I mean maps as a medium and you do them very well but they are at the medium of generally people who would control the thing and they're right there are the product of exploration and there's a prerequisite for colonisation and control and subdividing land developer plots and deciding where to put the dams and reservoirs and diversions and so forth. But you would start your max to a sufficient level of. Imprecision with your water. Colors that they would not actually have a utility value. Definitely sensitive to the historical power the narrative power itself maps and I do approach each map like a painting as if it is about one thing I think the easiest way to destroy a map of this especially painting map would be to put too much and whenever I make a map it's all of always about one subject. And if I needed to be about more I stretch it out over a series of maps to tell that story. I think that the point that you might be getting at is how I begin the California Field outlets when I say that this book has 2 agendas one is artistic and one of the same to fake one of those agendas is political and the other is not so this playing with that idea of what the story is. Is certainly a power that I am sensitive to be as. I am directing your attention I am feeding you. What I believe is important so there is a important subjectivity to watch out for when reading my book and also I am asking you every time you pick up my book to trust me as a story like to move up the state one of the river systems here so this is the San Joaquin River. It's a wild story because it's a river that so diverted its rise up for much of its length and then actually has its flows replaced by water from another river before it gets to the bay. But that very succinctly Yeah from. The big dam there the San Joaquin. The free and damn. And and back to the state is now talking about putting another dam. To the east of France called Temperence flat which does not sound like a good water project to me at all that that that river is so impounded so the San Joaquin River is is 80 years ago we made the dam we understood implicitly and look at the records that that would be the end of salmon. In the San Joaquin and we're not talking about a few Sam I mean a lot we're talking about people size Sam We're talking about a healthy run that has lasted for millions of years. And has largely been extricated from that river in fact so much so that was only recently through a very expensive project called the sand one river restoration project where tin of salmon have successfully south of the dam for the 1st time in 70 years and that happened in 2017 so we are showing that we can do it again but it's very expensive I think they get back to the policy they have my book is a go to policy very much because they don't talk about money very much and water only flows word the money goes so it's amazing story of what's possible and that's why he's there for you know it involved trucking in as I understand it juvenile salmon from another river and then tightly controlling releases of water from behind the dam that's exactly it so that there would be water and never ever when there's a returning salmon native there to the right right right yeah yeah funny that would be you know what you're talking about is the cow for next in the pool where water from the delta from another river from the Feather River is down and how many California have we have made rivers run backwards and are feeding them. The reverse it's an entirely convoluted system. That's to feed that's to help some of the farmers on the west side of the valley and to. Every sportsman. But the story of the San Joaquin has I guess that's And these stories are very long and we have only begun to tell them our aging water infrastructure across the state is in dire need of an. Ems are. There they're old at this point and dams and reservoirs and and dams begin to fall apart reimagining our water infrastructure and our relationship to water is changing before our eyes. It's the voice of Opie Kaufman his brand new book The state of water understanding California's most precious resource very much in the style of his last book California Field doubtless what it is is his luminous remarkably precise artwork his media is watercolor but somehow he manages to do it to precisely render maps and. Well pictures of animals of all times. And it tainted with meticulously researched information about the history of the present the future of California's natural and unnatural water system and it is available in our phone right this moment for a pledge of $100.00 or more at 180-439-5732 that's 1800. K. P.f.a. And if you make that pledge right now it will count towards the $1000.00 challenge that Keith in sand and Selma has put up. With a running the interview for the last 7 minutes in that 7 minutes we have raised a grand total of $60.00 towards the challenge thank you to d.d. And San Francisco our 1st donor who will count towards the challenge we're asking you to join and the 2 people who are on the line right now and Brian who just pledged from Sebastopol 180-439-5732 extension 1800. Or minded w w w k d of a dot or this book is a real treat it's just out from a press kit raise your local nonprofit publisher that puts out immense amounts of books that might not otherwise be commercially viable about the history of the natural systems of the bio region that we all David here in the Bay Area. This book the state of water is just beautifully found and printed I mean from that stitching on the binding to the quality of the paper it's one of these things