After two of the driest years in decades, many of California’s reservoirs are expected to reach record-setting lows this summer, four years after exiting the state’s most recent drought emergency. Lake Oroville, the second-largest reservoir in California, stands at about 37 percent of its capacity. Governor Gavin Newsom has declared a drought emergency for most of the state, while farmers are working to cope with the lack of irrigation water, and fire crews are preparing for a potentially disastrous fire season.
Photos: California’s Growing Drought Disaster
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In an aerial view, a truck drives on the Enterprise Bridge over a section of Lake Oroville on April 27, 2021, in Oroville, California. As of June 7, 2021, water levels at Lake Oroville had dropped to 37 percent of its capacity. #
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John Yarbrough, assistant deputy director with the California State Water Project, holds dry heath that would normally be underwater as he speaks at the Lake Oroville reservoir amid low water levels during the California drought emergency on May 24, 2021. #
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Cattle graze on dried grass at a ranch on June 8, 2021, in Tomales, California. As the drought emergency continues in California, Marin County ranchers and farmers are beginning to see their wells and ponds dry up and are having to make modifications to their existing water resources or have water trucked in for their livestock. #
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Ranchers Jim Jensen (right) and Bill Jensen move a concrete junction box as they work on a water project to try and get more water to their ranch from a well on June 8, 2021, in Tomales, California. #
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In an aerial image, water is seen flowing over the Feather River fish barrier dam as it diverts Chinook salmon up a fish ladder to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife Feather River Hatchery below the Lake Oroville dam on May 27, 2021. The fish hatchery produces and releases juvenile fall and spring Chinook salmon and steelhead trout to mitigate lost habitat due to the Oroville Dam. #
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Young fingerling Chinook salmon jump out of the water in a raceway at Nimbus Hatchery on May 11, 2021, in Gold River, California. During the current extreme drought, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife is trucking millions of young hatchery-raised Chinook salmon closer to the Pacific Ocean to assist the fish with migration. The state is taking the action due to the drought and the projected low water levels in Central Valley rivers which could decrease the chance of survival for the young migrating fish. #
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In an aerial view, a worker with Fowler Brothers Farming uses a wheel loader to move a pile of almond trees during an orchard removal project on May 27, 2021, in Snelling, California. As the drought emergency takes hold in California, some farmers are having to remove crops that require excessive watering due to a shortage of water in the Central Valley. #
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In an aerial view, rows of toppled almond trees are seen on the ground during an orchard removal project on May 27, 2021, in Snelling, California. The farmer had 600 acres of his almond orchard removed and shredded and now plans to replace the almonds with a crop that requires less water. #
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A California Conservation Corps firefighter carries a branch, a potential fuel source for a fire, towards a wood chipper during a fuel-reduction operation with the Cal Fire/Butte County Fire Department and firefighters from the California Conservation Corps near Lake Oroville on May 26, 2021. #
Patrick T. Fallon / AFP / Getty -
Snow along Hot Creek has melted, partly due to the active geothermal field found underneath this unusual geological site, as seen on April 18, 2021, near Mammoth Lakes, California. With the annual Sierra snowpack at less than 60 percent of normal, much of California and Nevada is now back in a "severe" or "extreme" drought situation, leading to water restrictions in many parts of California. #
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Carlos Soto positions a hose into his water tank as he prepares to fill it with recycled water at the Ironhouse Sanitary District residential recycled-water fill station on May 20, 2021, in Oakley, California. #
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Kayakers navigate a narrow section of water near boat docks that rest on dry land at the Browns Ravine Cove area of drought-stricken Folsom Lake, currently at 37 percent of its normal capacity, in Folsom, California, on May 22, 2021. #
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