From golden mussels to land conservation, Ag Expo seminars offer plenty of water-related information

In less than a month, more than 100,000 people will descend on the Tulare International Agri-Center to stroll through rows of imposing tractors while smoke from grilled rib eye steaks and hamburgers wafts through the air at the 59th annual World Ag Expo. 

The show, being called “Grounds for Innovation,” is Feb. 10-12 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day, except the final day when it closes at 4 p.m. Tickets are $20 per person.

World Ag Expo regularly attracts visitors from more than 80 countries and nearly every state in the nation. This year, more than 1,100 exhibitors will be spread over 2.6 million feet of exhibit space. 

This year there will be 12 seminars devoted to water-related issues, including invasive golden mussels, groundwater recharge, irrigation technology and land and water conservation. 

Water seminars will take place each day of the show with just a few highlighted below.

Leading off the series, on Feb. 10 at 10:30 a.m. is a panel of local farmers and water managers who hope to spread the mission of the Great Valley Farm Water Partnership, which aims to foster a productive relationship between the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and San Joaquin Valley regions in the pursuit of long-term, viable water management.

Tulare County citrus grower and Friant Water Authority board member Cliff Loeffler said the two-year old organization is seeing increased interest in its mission and knew presenting a seminar at the Ag Expo would further that. 

“It’s a chance to expand the dialogue,” Loeffler said. “Within each of our own regions, it’s easy to get a skewed perspective, and there are a lot of people who don’t see the bigger picture of water in California.”

Loeffler will present alongside  Arvin-Edison Water Storage district president Edwin Camp, Metropolitan Water District of Southern California program manager Ryan Russell, Great Valley facilitator Amy Wolfe, and fourth-generation Delta farmer Russel van Loben Sels.  

Also on Feb. 10 starting at 11:30 a.m. will be a seminar called “Demystifying conservation easements: everything you wanted to know but haven’t had the chance to ask.” 

Panelists will include Nick Reed-Krase, executive director of the Tule Basin Land & Water Conservation Trust, Logan Robertson-Huecker, executive director at Sequoia Riverlands Trust in Visalia, and Abby Hart, project director at The Nature Conservancy. 

The seminar will answer common questions about how conservation easements protect land, water and working farms while offering financial incentives. 

On Feb. 11 at 10 a.m. and then 2 p.m., California Water Institute director Laura Ramos will present “Turning Floods into Future Water.” 

She said in an email that her goal is to help attendees think of floodwater not as a liability but as a resource. The seminar is a broader effort underway at the institute, located at Fresno State University, and grew out of the 2023 flood events and ongoing work with researchers, agencies, and landowners. 

“The topic is important because flood management and water supply reliability can no longer be treated as separate issues—especially for agriculture and groundwater-dependent regions,” she wrote. 

Also on Feb. 11, starting at 11 a.m., David Hammond, a senior scientist at Earth Science Labs, Inc., will present “Golden mussel – latest invasive species in California, and how to control it.” 

The invasive mussel is clogging infrastructure up and down the state and Friant Water Authority water managers are desperately trying to keep it out of the upper watershed of the San Joaquin River.