Tom Stokely Talks Almonds and Water on KNX Radio
C-WIN Board Member Tom Stokely sheds sheds some light on almond growing in California during a drought
This interview aired on August 17, 2021
Tom Stokely, Salmon and Water Policy Analyst, retired in 2008 after serving 23 years as a Planner with the Natural Resources Division of Trinity County, where he focused on Trinity River and Central Valley Project salmon and steelhead restoration. He was appointed by the Interior Secretary to represent the commercial salmon fishermen on a federal advisory committee for the Trinity River Restoration Program and served as vice-chairman and Chairman until the Trump administration disbanded it in 2017. He has been on the board of directors of the California Water Impact Network (www.c-win.org) for 15 years, and served as its media contact for 5 years. He is a co-director of Save California salmon. He specializes in Central Valley Project operations, the Trinity River, and San Joaquin Valley selenium and agricultural drainage issues. He was a member of the California Salmon and Steelhead Advisory Committee from 1991 to 2018. He is a recipient of California Trout’s Roderick Haig Brown Award and the Salmonid Restoration Federation’s Lifetime Achievement Award. He is a former member of the California Department of Water Resources AB 303 Groundwater Advisory Committee. He has a bachelor’s degree in environmental studies and biology from UC Santa Cruz.
Transcript
Transcript:
KNX: This is KNX In-Depth with Mike Simpson, I’m Charles Feldman. In 1995, California farmers turned out 370 million pounds of almonds and these days it’s over 3 billion pounds. The problem in that number—the almond trees making all those almonds—they are very very thirsty. So increasingly, almond farmers are being blamed by fishermen and urban water managers, for using up a disproportionate amount of the state’s water supplies. This at a time when we are all going to be asked to sacrifice more. Tom Stokely is water policy director for the California Water Impact Network, before that he was principle planner for the Trinity County Natural Resources Division. Tom, thanks for being with us.
Tom Stokely: Thank you for having me.
KNX: So, uh, almonds, I know I’ve been reading for years how thirsty almond trees are and they do use up a lot of water, but of course almonds are very much in demand nowadays. So, how big of a problem is it really?
Tom Stokely: Well, the problem isn’t almonds per se, the problem is planting almonds and other permanent crops in areas where it’s unsustainable. That would be areas that don’t have reliable surface water supplies, areas that have drainage issues with salt and selenium, and also areas that don’t have adequate groundwater or where the groundwater is already over-drafted. So, we’re concerned about the planting of almonds when the rest of California is asked to conserve water, the almond plantings have continued, and at this point almonds use approximately as much water as all the indoor urban water use in California.
KNX: Yeah, so we got a couple things going on. Right after the last drought, planting continued, because almonds are a huge cash crop. It’s like a giant industry when it comes to ag. So, a lot of those trees were planted in areas that you’re talking about, right, lacking reliable water supplies. But now we’ve gotten to a place to where there is just not a lot of water to go around. Some farmers can’t get it. So guys who planted their trees in areas where, you know, they were quote/unquote “good”, maybe they’ve been doing this a while, they sometimes don’t have enough to even water theirs and they’re pulling them up. So, we’re losing on both ends.
Tom Stokely: Yes, that’s correct. But there are areas where, uh, almonds and walnuts and pistachios can be grown sustainably. And that would be primarily in the Sacramento Valley, north of the Delta, they take less water up there because there’s more rain, they have adequate groundwater, as well as surface water supplies. So we just like to see any new plantings of almonds limited to areas where it can actually be sustained, so we don’t have to see the horror stories about orchards being torn out because people don’t have enough water, because they basically made a bet and lost.
KNX: Right, but do you see that happening?
Tom Stokely: Oh yes, well, at least we see it in the news. The, um, reporters showing almond orchards being torn up. Primarily, again, in the western San Joaquin Valley in the Westlands Water District, other areas that don’t have good groundwater, and basically have zero surface water this year. So I’m sure there are some orchards that are being pulled up. Some of those orchards may be getting kind of old anyway, but certainly there must be some farmers out there who can’t afford to keep watering their almonds since they just can’t get the water.
KNX: Yeah. And then if you did plant in a bad spot, and you’re trying to hang on, maybe you can squeeze by this year. But if this is gonna be an ongoing thing, then we get in a situation that you were talking about earlier. You’re at a loss now because you’re telling everyone to conserve their water in cities so I can grow my almonds, when I planted my almonds in a spot that I shouldn’t have put them.
Tom Stokely: Correct, correct. And the real problem in California is that our water supplies are over-allocated. There’s about 5 times more water—consumptive water rights claimed—than actually exists, and most of the time that works pretty well. But when we get into a drought year like this, that’s where the rubber hits the road, and you can really see, uh, who has water and who doesn’t.
KNX: After almonds, what the next most water thirsty crop?
Tom Stokely: You know, I’m not an expert on that. You probably want to talk to the Pacific Institute—Peter Glick. But I do understand that alfalfa uses quite a bit of water. I think rice does, although what we’re seeing in the Sacramento Valley is that, uh, I think in the long term, rice acreage is being reduced, and probably more nuts are being put in because they do have the water there. But by reducing rice acreage, it also reduces the food supply for the Pacific Flyway, because a lot of those rice fields in the Sacramento Valley do provide feed to ducks and geese and swans and other migratory waterfowl.
KNX: If you ever fly into Sacramento, at least in the before-times, rice, all the way through when you’re heading into the airport. Tom Stokely is water policy director for the California Water Impact Network.