The Kern Island, Carrier, and Beardsley Canals all take water out of the Kern River at Panorama Vista Preserve.
Watching the other companies on the river confirmed that we made the right choice to go - Jason Bradley on Google. The Kern River is a poster child, Keats said, and there are many other rivers and streams throughout California in the same situation. He and John Sweetser, a former classmate, set out kayaking on the Kern River and just kept going. He said he thinks its wrong that the water has long been treated as a commodity and taken away, choking off the river. Theres not enough water to go around, said David Hampton, general manager of the North Kern Water Storage District. They really loved having the water there, said Parada, an associate professor of Spanish linguistics at Cal State Bakersfield. That river has always fed so much. Rodriguez, a video game designer, grew up in Bakersfield but gained a new appreciation for the Kern this year, when he began exploring hot springs along the river in the mountainous canyon. Cooper said they paddled through barns. The Kern River cascades from the Sierra Nevada in a steep-sided canyon, coursing through granite boulders, and flows to the northeast side of Bakersfield. Dominguez holds a clapper stick made from an elderberry tree.
A year and a half ago, Cooper started talking with young environmentalists who were forming Bring Back the Kern, and their group became a subcommittee of the foundation.
Adam Keats, a water lawyer representing environmental groups, said people who want water in the river have the law on their side, specifically through the public trust doctrine, the principle that certain natural resources must be preserved for the public. Our guide, Brandon, had amazing skill and knowledge about the river, park, environment Read more , Great fun for entire family! Her people, the Yowlumne, were named after the white wolves that once roamed the southern end of the valley. Sierra South is an equal opportunity recreation service provider. To the west of town were marshes, and Cooper remembers standing at his house watching millions of ducks and geese filling the sky as they flew south. In the 20th century, as more water flowed to expanding farms, Buena Vista Lake and Kern Lake dried up and were transformed into farmland. But so much water has been appropriated and diverted in canals to farmland that the river has vanished in the city, leaving miles of dry riverbed. Still the best on the river. The site of an adjacent Indigenous village, Dominguez said, is now fenced off in an olive orchard. Now 70 and retired, she focuses on environmental activism, and she has spoken to the state water board urging it to put water back in the Kern. Its very devastating, not only for us as people, but two lakes have been destroyed, including all the tributaries.. As a girl in the 1950s and early 60s, she often went to the river in Bakersfield with her family. In 2007, an appeals court ruled that Kern Delta Water District had forfeited some water rights by not having used the water. She is a leader of the Yowlumne Yokuts tribe, and her ancestors lived along the Kern River and its tributaries centuries ago. They held signs reading Bring Back the Kern and posed for photos in an inflatable boat in the riverbed. You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times. He learned about a newly formed group called Bring Back the Kern and decided to join. The children also climbed in a makeshift treehouse in a gnarled cottonwood by the river, playing on a rope swing. The guides were awesome and professional. Maryann Parada lives nearby and often runs along the river. She learned about her great-great-grandfather Jose Maria Joe Chololo from a 1907 published account in which the anthropologist A.L.
All we want is the water to come through town to rejuvenate the river, Cooper said. One morning last week, Rodriguez walked to a forested nature preserve beside oil fields, where the river pushes against a weir and much of the water is diverted into a wide canal. Then the river dies, disappearing into the sand. It just kind of like loosens everything in you.. Other materials needed for weaving baskets, such as juncus and deer grass, grow along streams. More than 11 days after setting out from Beach Park in Bakersfield, they landed at Richmond Marina in San Francisco Bay, sunburned and exhausted. Mill Creek is an example of how water flows through canals in Bakersfield. Now, a group of residents is campaigning to bring back a flowing river in Bakersfield. Having a flowing river in the city would provide habitat for animals and a shady pathway to cool the city, she said, and would transform Bakersfield into really a beautiful landscape.. Its an injustice to the natural process of how water works with the land and with the environment, Rodriguez said. He previously worked for the Associated Press as a correspondent in the Caribbean and as bureau chief in Venezuela.
Some supporters have read poetry about the river during state water board meetings. Its available water. Those oaks were removed years ago for road construction. When she moved to Bakersfield with her family in 2019, the wet winter had sent water flowing across town. They say restoring continual flows would nourish a green corridor in the heart of the city, enabling people to wade, kayak and picnic on the banks. Now when she goes to Beach Park, she walks down onto bare sand. Ian James is a reporter who focuses on water in California and the West.
After walking about nine miles, the group reached their endpoint at a bridge. In unison, they poured the water onto the riverbed and cheered. Theyre cutting off the main lifeline to that watershed.. Last month, Parada joined the march for the river organized by Bring Back the Kern.
Decades ago, the Kern flowed all the way through Bakersfield. Hopefully, it inspires us to return to that again. Dominguez often visits a flowing stretch of the river. The activists say its an issue of environmental justice. Great white water rafting, delicious lunch by the river & relaxing hot - Michael Fong on Google, Always have a fun day on the river with Sierra South. If they can secure water for a flowing river here, it could strengthen other fights to restore flows in rivers across California, they say. Delia Dee Dominguez, wearing a basket cap she weaved from deer grass and juncus reeds, stands along the Kern River at the Lower Richbar Picnic Site in Sequoia National Forest. They saw trees that looked water-starved and dying. 2022 Kern River Rafting | Sierra South Mountain Sports. With climate change pushing temperatures higher and intensifying droughts, the river advocates say, restoring the river takes on even greater importance. The Sustainable Kern River Coalition a messaging group created by water managers and some local officials and business leaders argues that extending the river through Bakersfield would carry consequences for Kern Countys $7.6-billion agricultural industry and a tourism sector that employs more than 23,000 workers. Bakersfield resident discusses her connection to the Kern River, where her Indigenous ancestors lived. She carried the bottle in her backpack as she set out on the riverbed. For my kids and the other kids growing up in the neighborhood, I want them to see trees in relation to water, side by side.. All of that water is taken out, Dominguez said. Without water in the Kern, Dominguez searches for these materials along creeks elsewhere in Southern California. Kroeber documented a story Chololo told about Coyote, who went up the Kern River past Bakersfield to Gonoilkin, a waterfall.. Wonderful staff & knowledgeable guides made it an amazing experience.
An environmental activist explains why he wants to bring back a flowing Kern River in Bakersfield. She said she plans to use them to make shell beads for the traditional basket caps that she weaves. To honor her ancestors, Dominguez tied a pouch of tobacco to a bush with a ribbon. Dominguez used to work for the U.S. Treasury in Los Angeles as an investigator. Dominguez is a leader of the Yowlumne Yokuts tribe, and her ancestors lived along the Kern River and its tributaries centuries ago. Water was pouring into long-dry Tulare Lake, and they continued north, using man-made channels and canals.
I think its a model of what should be, all through the river, all the way through town, Belli said. He and other kids rode horses along the river. Cooper and others started speaking at virtual meetings of the state water board. But in 1983, California was overflowing with so much water that Cooper decided to try something daring. Parada said she noticed the parched vegetation and thought about the loss of the ecosystem, and how important it is for the ecosystem to protect what we do have.. It really hurts me when I see a dry riverbed, Dominguez said. I want this city to be healthy again, said Miguel Rodriguez, a 29-year-old activist, as he stood looking across the riverbed. From left; Bill Cooper, co-founder of the Kern River Parkway, Carolyn Belli, president of Kern River Corridor Endowment, with husband, right, Joe Belli, operations manager of the Panorama Vista Preserve, along the Kern River at the Panorama Vista Preserve in Bakersfield. We need our water back.. It belongs in the river.. In the 1950s and 60s, there was always water in the river in Bakersfield, even during peak irrigation season in the fall. On the west side of Bakersfield, the river sits dry next to the lawns and bike path at River Walk Park. The river and the forest in the preserve attract animals such as bobcats and deer. She and others filled bottles with water from the rivers last pond. Dominguez said her great-great-grandfather journeyed in a tule boat on the Kern River and its tributaries. Beavers have been gnawing on trees and building dams. 
Looking out over the river, Dominguez began to sing a gathering song, using a clapper stick made from an elderberry branch. largest freshwater lake west of the Mississippi, Florida manatees face starvation, though fewer have died this year, Brazil authorities pay no mind to deforestation, report says, Biden announces executive action on climate amid pressure to declare emergency, California fires are so severe some forests might vanish forever. I want this river back. It has always created so much life.. Now that goal finally seems attainable, he said. Within sight of the empty riverbed in Bakersfield, the irrigation canals flow full, carrying water to farming operations that produce a bounty of almonds, pistachios, grapes, oranges and other crops. Her three kids would bring their body-surfing boards and slide into the water. The guides were great. The dispute pits North Kern Water Storage District, which says its entitled to the water, against the city of Bakersfield, which is seeking to put the water into the river on average about 50,000 acre-feet per year, which would partly restore flows through the city. Because it brings life, Rodriguez said. Return trip after many years. 
Miguel Rodriguez, organizer of Bring Back the Kern, at the Rocky Point weir, the second point where water is taken from the Kern River and diverted into the Kern Island Canal and the Carrier Canal at the Panorama Vista Preserve in Bakersfield. For decades, the 74-year-old has advocated for putting water back into the river. A crowd gathered and people formed a drum circle. A hearing on Thursday focused on whether the forfeited water rights resulted in unappropriated water. Local activists are supporting the citys stance. Its sad to think that were allowing our natural resources to be taken away to that degree where its killing the environment, its killing the natural process of our land, the watershed.. The rivers legs have been cut off, and we need to heal it, Dominguez said. I come here when I want to clear my head, Dominguez said.
Activists with Bring Back the Kern and other environmental groups see an opportunity to secure water for the river as the State Water Resources Control Board considers a long-standing dispute over water rights.
But the court left it up to the state board to settle where the water should go. Then the marchers took out their bottles of Kern River water. Alongside black-and-white images from the 1940s and 50s, he included color photos of people floating and paddling in recent wet years, when pulses of Sierra snowmelt have occasionally revived the river. They ran through oak trees to the water, where they waded and played. Wearing sandals, Rodriguez plodded through the sand. He is originally from California. There is value in just letting nature be what it is, Rodriguez said. Get Boiling Point, our newsletter exploring climate change, energy and the environment, and become part of the conversation and the solution. Cooper co-founded the Kern River Parkway Foundation and helped establish the bike path along the river. If we can put water down through the city of Bakersfield, Keats said, we can do it anywhere.. After Isabella Dam was built on the Kern River in 1954, the flows in Bakersfield gradually decreased. When settlers arrived, the river flowed into lakes and vast wetlands in the southern San Joaquin Valley, forming a green oasis where tule elk grazed and millions of migrating birds clouded the sky. 
Since the river dried up, Parada said, they havent been back much to play. He spoke about his hopes for the river while visiting the Panorama Vista Preserve with Carolyn Belli, who led the effort to purchase the 951-acre preserve in 1998 and replant the riparian forest along the river next to oil fields.
We need this throughout Bakersfield., Delia Dee Dominguez stood on a bluff overlooking the Kern River canyon, a spot where her great-great-grandfather once fished. A sandy riverbed is all that remains as water no longer flows through the Kern River at Beach Park in downtown Bakersfield. To the north, Tulare Lake which was once the largest freshwater lake west of the Mississippi dried up in the 1930s as rivers were diverted to serve agriculture. They recently collected 7,800 signatures on a petition demanding state officials restore water to the river. In the 1970s, as demands for agricultural water grew, the flows in the river shrank.
Rodriguez helped organize an online exhibition called A River Remembered, collecting photos of people wading and tubing in the river decades ago. That waterfall, which once poured into the river from a side creek, was obliterated during road construction long ago. Pumpjacks in the Kern River Oil Field stand near the Rocky Point weir, the second point where water is taken from the Kern River and diverted into the Kern Island Canal and the Carrier Canal at the Panorama Vista Preserve in Bakersfield.
They say the Kern River is already over-tapped and its water supply will only become more limited in an age of recurring drought. And a big reason, he said, is that people are done with the impossibility of it all, the impossibility of putting water back in the river., Keats said the water is going to cash crops that benefit a select few, based on water rights that are legacies from a period long ago that was founded upon theft, oppression and ripoff.. Kingfishers and white-crowned sparrows flitted over the water. In the 1800s, the Yowlumne Yokuts used ditches to irrigate crops in their villages, and gathered wild seeds and acorns. Driving about two miles downriver, Rodriguez continued on foot into the Panorama Vista Preserves habitat restoration area, where he strode through planted trees sycamores, cottonwoods, willows and ash trees until he emerged on the dry riverbed and headed upstream. Sierra South operates under permits issued by: Sequoia National Forest, Klamath National Forest, and the National Park Service/Lake Mead National Recreation Area. But not everyone is thrilled by the idea of a river flowing through Bakersfield again. Others have pointed to the lyrics from Kern River Blues, the final song by the late, locally raised country singer Merle Haggard, who sang: Well, they used to have Kern RiverRunnin deep and wideThen somebody stole the waterAnother politician lied. Searching the sand, she bent down and picked up several clamshells.
After years without a decision, the state board appointed a hearing officer to determine what should be done. Things are going to change, Keats said. Very well organized. There, beside cottonwoods and willows, the last of the river collects in a pool where dragonflies hover and reeds sway in the breeze. Their guides are excellent, knowledgeable and informative about the area which adds to the enjoyment., We had a great time with Sierra South. She said she finds peace sitting on a boulder, surrounded by rushing water. Delia Dee Dominguez, 70, of Bakersfield, at the mouth of the Kern River leading to the entrance of Sequoia National Forest. They passed areas where homeless people are living in tents. 500cfs or less, Lower Kern River FlowHigh Water Protocols on the Lower Kern go into effect at 3,000CFSTubing is not advised on the Lower Kern River, Great adventure. At the pond where the river ends, he stepped into the water and took in the smells of wet vegetation and the sounds of birdsong. Theyve spoken at meetings of the state water board, collected photos of the water-filled Kern years ago, and organized a march along the riverbed, trudging nine miles on dry sand to drive home their message that water belongs in the river. Bill Cooper grew up knowing a very different Kern River.
Before joining the Los Angeles Times in 2021, he was an environment reporter at the Arizona Republic and the Desert Sun. Upper Kern River FlowHigh Water Protocols on the Upper Kern go into effect at 4,000CFS.What level do I want for Kern River Tubing?
