He notes that farmers can adjust by planting less acreage and selecting crops with shorter growing seasons. As in previous droughts, many growers would resort to pumping groundwater when irrigation water becomes unavailable from the state's reservoirs. With a little foresight and creative landscape design, home gardeners can help conserve water even when rainfall is plentiful. Freshwater fish expert Peter Moyle , a UC Davis biology professor and longtime fish conservation advocate, can speak to the consequences of a short-water year on fish populations including salmon. Moyle is an expert in the ecology and conservation of freshwater fishes, protection of aquatic diversity in California, fishes of the Bay-Delta Estuary and Sierra Nevada aquatic ecosystems.
Butterflies usually benefit from one dry year.
Since 1999 was the worst year in the past 28 for butterflies in the Sacramento Valley, the numbers of over-wintering butterflies are believed to be very low, so a dry season would be a godsend, says Arthur Shapiro, UC Davis professor of evolution and ecology. A second successive dry year in 2000-01 would create problems, however. In California estuaries, such as San Francisco Bay, both of these factors could mean some respite from the spread of invasive cordgrasses, said Donald Strong , UC Davis professor of evolution and ecology. For coastal grasslands, a dry winter would allow some native plants a window of opportunity to outgrow the taller European weedy grasses. Wildlife, fish and conservation biology professor John Eadie can address these questions and others.