California Natural Resources, Water and Environment

California has an abundance of natural resources for which our stewardship is paramount. Our natural resources are not to be preserved, but to be utilized with great care. We need a common sense approach to forest lands, water, mining rights and other natural resources. We must accept that our present day natural resources will never meet our expectations of what we had in the past, it is impractical and unattainable to achieve such.

The Sierra Nevada Mountains are California’s largest fresh water source and one of the world’s largest reservoirs. Snow melt and precipitation runoff flow each year provides 75% of the state’s agricultural and urban water needs. Roughly 1400 reservoirs with the capacity of 42 million acre feet are the direct beneficiaries of this “Sierra water reservoir”. I will support legislation that continues to preserve California’s Sierra reservoir for the purposes of industrial, agricultural and urban development. I will further support legislation that allows for greater storage of California’s precious water resource.

As a trained scientist, specifically in environmental health effects on the human body, I am keenly aware of the purity of our water, air and soil. A common sense approach should be maintained in regulating our life giving resources.

Surprisingly, Mother Nature does have the ability to correct many adverse effects man has made on the environment. We depend upon Mother Nature every day to convert carbon dioxide to oxygen, to decompose waste products and to filter water through ground absorption and aquifer generation.

I will support legislation that balances the needs of California’s natural resources for our use with the interest of our environment.