VIDEO: The uncertain future of valley farmland
Daniel Hartwig manages farmland in the Westlands Water District in Fresno County. With groundwater restrictions coming, his company, Woolf Farming, is looking for new uses for its land. CREDIT: Jesse Vad
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Valley farmers have relied on groundwater for generations.
That is changing under the state’s new Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, SGMA, that mandates aquifers be brought into balance by 2040. That means more water can’t be pumped out than is recharged into the aquifer.
Pumping restrictions could mean significant portions of the valley’s farmland will have to be fallowed, or taken out of production.
Farmers are now trying to find new uses for land that may no longer be used for food production.
