Robin Meadows

NOTEBOOK FEATURE: Giving everyone a say in the Delta’s future: a conversation with adaptation planner and landscape architect Brett Milligan by Robin Meadows It seems like just about everyone has a plan for the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. Governor Newsom wants a tunnel under the Delta to pipe water south. Environmental advocates want mor...

California's Delta, where water is pumped from north to south, is a flashpoint in the state’s contentious water supply system. “There’s a lot of distrust.” A new effort aims to make planning for the region more equitable by inviting everyone to have a voice. My story for @mavensnotebook.com

NOTEBOOK FEATURE: Risk-taking is key to saving California’s freshwater species: A conversation with water lawyer Jennifer Harder by Robin Meadows California’s freshwater species are threatened by habitat loss and degradation, and are pushed to the brink of extinction by climate change. Many could be gone by the end of the centu...

Fear of taking risks may be among the biggest threats to imperiled species and ecosystems. “We’re prone to information paralysis—we’re never going to have complete data and to aim for that just stalls decision making.” My✍️for @MavensNotebook #cawater mavensnotebook.com/2025/09/29/n...

NOTEBOOK FEATURE: How Karuk ceremonial leader Ron Reed used Western science to take down the Klamath dams by Robin Meadows The Karuk people have lived in the thickly forested mountains along the Klamath River in Northern California for so long that they simply say since time immemorial. Chinook salmon wer...

How Karuk ceremonial leader Ron Reed blended his knowledge of Indigenous and Western science to take down the Klamath dams, a 20-year struggle that finally freed the river a year ago this week. “It’s been a lifetime of work—it’s very emotional.” My✍️for @mavensnotebook.com

NOTEBOOK FEATURE: Keeping microplastics out of the San Francisco Bay: A conversation with environmental toxicologist Ezra Miller by Robin Meadows In 2019, the San Francisco Estuary Institute (SFEI) published a three-year study of microplastics in the San Francisco Bay that was―and still is―among the most thorough assessments of...

Microplastics are already everywhere—the air we breathe, the water we drink, and our own bodies—and we put more into the environment each year. What can we do to keep these tiny contaminants from harming wildlife and ourselves? My✍️for @MavensNotebook #cawater

NOTEBOOK FEATURE: Partnering with tribes to restore a Delta wetland: Benefits go both ways By Robin Meadows Five years ago, Plains Miwok cultural practitioner Don Hankins got a surprising invitation from Russ Ryan, a project manager at the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California....

Giving Indigenous people a voice in a wetland restoration paid off all around: tribes will be able to harvest culturally important plants & their input led to an engineering redesign that saved the project lots of money! My✍️for @MavensNotebook #cawater

NOTEBOOK FEATURE: How a new wetland restoration could expedite transforming the Delta from a carbon source to a carbon sink By Robin Meadows Staten Island lies in the heart of California’s Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, and exemplifies the woes of this troubled region. More than one quarter of the Delta―about 200,000 ...

Farming has caused extreme soil loss in CA's Delta, leaving its islands far below sea level and spewing carbon into the air. A new restoration will show if wetlands can reverse this subsidence and curb the region’s emissions. My ✍️ for @MavensNotebook #cawater

NOTEBOOK FEATURE: New hope for saving salmon: Weaving together Indigenous and Western sciences to restore California’s winter-run chinook By Robin Meadows Jamie Ward grew up hearing the stories his people have told for countless generations on the slopes of Mount Shasta, a glacier-capped peak in Northern California. Many of these storie...

Government agencies have long shut tribes out but are now opening their minds to Indigenous knowledge on salmon restoration―for the good of fish, tribes & Western scientists. “I feel like my blind spots are so blind,” says one researcher, a sentiment echoed by many. My✍️for @MavensNotebook #cawater

NOTEBOOK FEATURE: Fire and water: How cultural burns boost streamflows By Robin Meadows On a mild November day in California’s Sacramento Valley, Diana Almendariz ignites a clump of dry grass in a grove of cottonwoods. Landin Noland, wearing a thick, protective shirt wit...

Indigenous people have known for millennia―and Western science is beginning to recognize―that, done right, fire can boost streamflows. “The more you burn, the more water you’ll have.” My story for @MavensNotebook. #cawater

NOTEBOOK FEATURE: Seizing a rare chance to keep tidal marsh ahead of sea level rise in the San Francisco Bay By Robin Meadows The San Pablo Bay National Wildlife Refuge, which hugs the northern arc of the San Francisco Bay, was established half a century ago to

In a race against rising seas, the SF Bay Area is restoring tidal marsh to buffer the shoreline from storm surges. The North Bay’s diked hay fields are the only spot with room for marshes to move inland―and a new refuge expansion would give them that room. My story for Maven's Notebook. #cawater

I’m in the dictionary!! A sentence I wrote is one of the usage examples for “jet stream”:
The storm track is a wind current, like the jet stream, that carries the river of moisture from west to east.
— Robin Meadows, Scientific American, 11 Jan. 2023

NOTEBOOK FEATURE: How AI can help protect California streams and fish by Robin Meadows  Rivers in California once swelled and ebbed as the seasons changed and as wet years gave way to dry ones. Salmon and other now-imperiled aquatic species depended on these historic p...

My first story of 2024! How AI can help California push back against water users and justify letting streams flow more naturally for fish (hard to believe that it's not the other way around - why don't water users have to show they're not harming fish??).

NOTEBOOK FEATURE: Heat waves strike rivers too—can prescribed burns and beavers cool streams for s... By Robin Meadows While marine heat waves are well known, a 2022 study was the first to document aquatic temperature spikes in rivers nationwide. Even river experts were surprised. “I’d never thoug...

River heat waves threaten salmon and other aquatic life. Can beaver dams and prescribed burn smoke help cool streams? “If wildfire smoke lessens heat waves in the water, we could save more water in reservoirs.” My story for Maven's Notebook.