Reporter

Alastair Bland

Alastair Bland is a journalist in San Francisco, California. He writes about water, fisheries, agriculture, and the environment, and his work appears regularly at NPR.org, SmithsonianMag.com, and Water Deeply.

Tony Anello, left, and Carol Anello, owners of Spud Point Crab Co., shown at the family restaurant in Bodega Bay. “There are guys dropping out of (the fishing) industry like flies, and I’m one of them,” Tony Anello said. Photo by Florence Middleton for CalMatters.

Bodega Bay isn’t what it used to be. How an ailing industry has transformed this fishing village

April 30, 2025 at 1:09 p.m.

“I had a premonition that the fishing industry was going down,” said Tony Anello, who fished commercially for salmon, crab and herring for 54 years before selling his boat Anabelle last...

Roughly 500,000 salmon were recently released into the Klamath River by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife in an attempt to bolster river health this season. (CDFW/Contributed, courtesy photo.)

California has a plan for new water rules, will it save salmon from extinction?

December 18, 2024 at 6:03 a.m.

The Newsom administration is refining a contentious set of proposed rules, years in the making, that would reshape how farms and cities draw water from the Central Valley’s Delta and its...

State asked to stop diverting iconic Mono Lake’s water to Los Angeles

May 30, 2023 at 7:59 a.m.

Environmentalists say it's past time for California water officials to halt Los Angeles' diversion of Mono Lake's tributaries. But L.A. officials insist that water is a tiny but vital part...

White "bathtub" rings, indicating the height that water once reached, are seen on the rock walls of Lake Powell near the Colorado River Glen Canyon Dam in Page, Arizona, on September 2, 2022.

Colorado River deal: What does it mean for California?

May 23, 2023 at 10:51 a.m.

Southern California growers agreed to use less water through 2026 and receive federal funds in return. But it's not a long-term solution to the Colorado River's water woes.

Floodplains in the Yolo Bypass wilderness area near Sacramento on March 27, 2023.

Newsom restores floodplain funds, adds $290 million to flood control budget

May 12, 2023 at 1:18 p.m.

After widespread, bipartisan criticism, the governor revised his budget proposal to bring back $40 million to restore San Joaquin Valley floodplains.

Gary Gragg examines buds on one of the mango plants he's growing in the Sacramento Valley.

Mangoes and agave in the Central Valley? California farmers try new crops to cope with climate change

May 9, 2023 at 12:58 p.m.

The future of farming in California is changing as the planet warms, altering the rain and heat patterns that guide which crops are grown where.

Orchards flooded in Madera County in January 2023 after storms. Rain flushes nitrates from nitrogen fertilizer into groundwater, contaminating drinking water wells.

After the deluge: Floods may taint more drinking water in California

April 19, 2023 at 11:25 a.m.

Nitrate contamination of well water has been a decades-long problem in the San Joaquin and Salinas valleys, and now stormwater has flushed more fertilizer and manure into aquifers.

Walker Slough and the East San Joaquin River Levee in Stockton

As floods endanger the San Joaquin Valley, Newsom cuts funding for floodplains

March 29, 2023 at 10:34 a.m.

The governor eliminated $40 million for restoring floodplains, halting projects that help protect vulnerable, disadvantaged communities like Stockton. San Joaquin Valley legislators are pushing back.

Jared Davis stands beside his charter fishing boat, Salty Lady, as it sits in dry dock in Richmond on March 8, 2023.

No California salmon: Fishery to be shut down this year

March 15, 2023 at 9:04 a.m.

The salmon industry, worth about half a billion dollars, is devastated. The culprits: Drought and decades of water diversions and development.

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