About 80 people gathered March 10 in the Aromas Community Grange after the California Department of Water Resources selected the Pajaro River Watershed as one of five watersheds to pilot the Watershed Resilience Program.
The initiative, which is supported by a $2 million grant from DWR and administered by Pajaro Valley Water Management Agency, will help the watershed prepare for the ongoing effects of climate change.
“We want to hear from people in multiple areas of the watershed to get their perspective of what they want our modelers to focus on, what they want to see out of a resilience plan and how do they define resilience,” said Marcus Mendiola, water conservation and outreach specialist with the PVWMA. “And what will this thing look like in 20 to 50 years.”
Goals of the three-hour meeting aimed to include as many people, groups and organizations as possible, PVWMA said.
Representatives from Watsonville, San Juan Bautista, Gilroy, Hollister, Morgan Hill, Santa Clara Valley Water, San Benito County Water and the Pajaro Regional Flood Management Agency joined members of the Nature Conservancy, Green Foothills and native peoples or reps from the Amah Mutsun Land Trust and Indian Canyon Nation at the event.
“We recognize that our watershed has many unique traditions and history with diverse populations that make our watershed unique,” PVWMA said. “The Pajaro River Watershed is home to Native American Tribes, and more than 35 vital underrepresented communities that call the Pajaro River home.”
At one point, the crowd broke into subgroups and rotated between them to brainstorm at seven stations set up about the hall. Those stations were labeled as Water Supply, Groundwater, Flood Management, Cultural Resources, Water Quality, Ecosystems, and Recreational Uses.
In the “Potential Climate Change” portion of the meeting, speakers addressed adverse health issues from degraded water quality levee failures, increased maintenance of operations, post-fire debris impacts on water, and extended power shutoffs. In the land use chapter, they spoke of damage and permanent loss to cultural resources, agricultural pests and diseases, recreational loss and disruptions and permanent habitat loss.
Future workshops in 2025 are slated for June 10, Aug. 20 and Oct. 23, with the final meeting on March 3, 2026.
“This is the first of five workshops,” Mediola said. “We want people to understand what a watershed is and understand the scale of a watershed. This is an opportunity to meet each other in these cities, and counties, water agencies, farmers, ranchers, land owners and hopefully see that we are all interconnected.”
The event concluded with a visioning exercise imaging what the watershed should aim to achieve, and how each attendee defined resilience.
“The next workshop, on June 10 from 9am till noon, will focus on the vulnerabilities of the watershed and will be fully remote to allow access to more members of the public,” Mendiola said. “The third workshop will be in person, focusing on how public agencies should plan to adapt to the previously defined areas of concern that are most vulnerable to climate extremes.”
For information, visit pvwater.org/prwrp.
