I planned to write this back then but I went back to my urban area and completely forgot all about it.
What I noticed first was the land between the divided road had no trees on it nor did either side of the road.
The first law of drought prone land is to grow trees. Growing trees cuts down on soil erosion and has the added benefit of attracting rain. Strangely enough it rains over trees more than other places. Hmm. The added benefit of trees growing in the area in the center of the divided road is that it cuts down on glare from on-coming traffic for those who drive at night.
This is something people could do themselves rather than wait for government to do it and I was shocked the farmers weren't doing that themselves since it is in their own best interests to cut down on soil erosion. No doubt you'd need lawyers running interference on planting the trees because the police would sooner or later turn up and ask why people are planting trees. It may be necessary to get government approval but the land belongs to US citizens after all and citizens and legal residents should be allowed to plant plants if they want.
However this time the trees were being bulldozed and the drought was much worse. The trees were bulldozed out by the roots to maximize the harm to the earth and definitely kills the tree. I can only assume this is the scorched earth approach to corporate farming. And it seems also to have a note of petulance. My husband quipped, they want water served up to them at the tax payers expense.
Nevertheless we need water in California and there are no water restrictions on people living in the big urban areas. Surely we should be building solar powered desalination plants however we have a problem with all the water used for fracking is being dumped off the coast. Will that water be useful for drinking? Do you want to fill your swimming pool with water that has been used for fracking?
I can't believe Gov Jerry Brown allowed fracking in California when there is a drought. I can't even begin to understand this. We can't drink oil and plants will die if watered with it, it is time we cut our dependency on oil. It is time that a ban was placed on selling non-hybrid or electric cars. When I was in Yosemite they had hybrid buses. It is clear the technology has come of age.
Water is our priority, not oil.