Tag: Drought

Key Solutions to Texas’ Water Woes Are Simpler Than We Think

Director, Texas Coast and Water Program at National Wildlife Federation
Jennifer Walker is the Director of the Texas Coast and Water Program at the National Wildlife Federation. She focuses on statewide water policy issues with an emphasis on water planning, infrastructure funding, urban water management, and bay and estuary protection. Jennifer is a water resources expert with twenty years of experience helping city, utility, and state agencies achieve ambitious water supply management and conservation goals. She has helped develop and inform strategic action by utilizing scientific and technical expertise, engaging stakeholders, and approaching resource management challenges with a solutions-oriented perspective. Jennifer is Chair of Austin's Water Forward Task Force, a team working to implement Austin’s groundbreaking 100-year water plan that is focused on deploying One Water solutions to meet future water needs. In 2021, she was appointed by the Texas Water Development Board to represent Environmental Interests on the Texas Water Conservation Advisory Council. Jennifer has a BS in Ecology, Evolution and Conservation Biology from the University of Texas at Austin.
Jennifer Walker

The National Wildlife Federation was recently invited to give testimony to the Texas Legislature on the condition of Texas’ water and flood infrastructure and cost-effective ways to improve it. Jennifer

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The Window to Save the Hill Country is Closing

The Texas Living Waters Project works to ensure that Texas has the water it needs for thriving communities and abundant fish and wildlife.
Texas Living Waters

Booming population growth and sprawling development, groundwater depletion, changing climate patterns, extreme droughts and floods, and a unique set of policy challenges threaten the natural resources that define the Hill

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Austin is forging a path to a reliable water future

Director, Texas Coast and Water Program at National Wildlife Federation
Jennifer Walker is the Director of the Texas Coast and Water Program at the National Wildlife Federation. She focuses on statewide water policy issues with an emphasis on water planning, infrastructure funding, urban water management, and bay and estuary protection. Jennifer is a water resources expert with twenty years of experience helping city, utility, and state agencies achieve ambitious water supply management and conservation goals. She has helped develop and inform strategic action by utilizing scientific and technical expertise, engaging stakeholders, and approaching resource management challenges with a solutions-oriented perspective. Jennifer is Chair of Austin's Water Forward Task Force, a team working to implement Austin’s groundbreaking 100-year water plan that is focused on deploying One Water solutions to meet future water needs. In 2021, she was appointed by the Texas Water Development Board to represent Environmental Interests on the Texas Water Conservation Advisory Council. Jennifer has a BS in Ecology, Evolution and Conservation Biology from the University of Texas at Austin.
Jennifer Walker

Six short years ago, Austin confronted a grim water future. The long dry tail of the 2011 drought combined with record population growth and increasingly concerning climate projections to paint

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Water Utilities Are Helping Each Other Prepare for Climate Change

Climate Protection Consultant at City of Austin
Heather Dalrymple has been Austin Water’s Climate Protection Consultant since December 2019. Prior to that, she spent ten years in AW’s Conservation Division where she focused on water use management and drought planning. In early 2019, Heather began representing AW in the Water Utility Climate Alliance and her focus expanded to understanding and responding to climate impacts on both the utility and the Austin community. Heather has an interdisciplinary BGS from the University of New Orleans and an MS in Community and Regional Planning with a specialization in environmental and natural resource planning from the University of Texas at Austin.
Heather Dalrymple
Latest posts by Heather Dalrymple (see all)

As part of our effort to help water utilities build resilience in the face of increasing climate and population pressures, the Texas Living Waters Project is featuring the Water Utility

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As Record Demand and Heat-Waves Loom, Texans Must Stop Over-Irrigating

As Texas emerges from a winter of deep-frozen quarantine and our western neighbors descend into a cauldron of drought and heat, the prospect of a green lawn outside our window

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Drought conditions need to be taken into account for drought response plans

For proactive drought response, we need to stop ignoring actual drought

Director, Texas Coast and Water Program at National Wildlife Federation
Jennifer Walker is the Director of the Texas Coast and Water Program at the National Wildlife Federation. She focuses on statewide water policy issues with an emphasis on water planning, infrastructure funding, urban water management, and bay and estuary protection. Jennifer is a water resources expert with twenty years of experience helping city, utility, and state agencies achieve ambitious water supply management and conservation goals. She has helped develop and inform strategic action by utilizing scientific and technical expertise, engaging stakeholders, and approaching resource management challenges with a solutions-oriented perspective. Jennifer is Chair of Austin's Water Forward Task Force, a team working to implement Austin’s groundbreaking 100-year water plan that is focused on deploying One Water solutions to meet future water needs. In 2021, she was appointed by the Texas Water Development Board to represent Environmental Interests on the Texas Water Conservation Advisory Council. Jennifer has a BS in Ecology, Evolution and Conservation Biology from the University of Texas at Austin.
Jennifer Walker

High temperatures and high pressure cells are returning to many parts of Texas, where they are projected to stay around for a while. As these weather conditions quash any chance

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Off-Channel Reservoir at South Texas Nuclear Power Plant

Are off-channel reservoirs the environmentally-friendly water storage solution we’ve been searching for?

Director, Texas Coast and Water Program at National Wildlife Federation
Jennifer Walker is the Director of the Texas Coast and Water Program at the National Wildlife Federation. She focuses on statewide water policy issues with an emphasis on water planning, infrastructure funding, urban water management, and bay and estuary protection. Jennifer is a water resources expert with twenty years of experience helping city, utility, and state agencies achieve ambitious water supply management and conservation goals. She has helped develop and inform strategic action by utilizing scientific and technical expertise, engaging stakeholders, and approaching resource management challenges with a solutions-oriented perspective. Jennifer is Chair of Austin's Water Forward Task Force, a team working to implement Austin’s groundbreaking 100-year water plan that is focused on deploying One Water solutions to meet future water needs. In 2021, she was appointed by the Texas Water Development Board to represent Environmental Interests on the Texas Water Conservation Advisory Council. Jennifer has a BS in Ecology, Evolution and Conservation Biology from the University of Texas at Austin.
Jennifer Walker

Many of us have fond memories of spending time swimming, boating and fishing in Texas’ lakes. From Lake Livingston in East Texas, to Lake Travis in the Hill Country or

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Getting desalination right in Texas

Director, Texas Coast and Water Program at National Wildlife Federation
Jennifer Walker is the Director of the Texas Coast and Water Program at the National Wildlife Federation. She focuses on statewide water policy issues with an emphasis on water planning, infrastructure funding, urban water management, and bay and estuary protection. Jennifer is a water resources expert with twenty years of experience helping city, utility, and state agencies achieve ambitious water supply management and conservation goals. She has helped develop and inform strategic action by utilizing scientific and technical expertise, engaging stakeholders, and approaching resource management challenges with a solutions-oriented perspective. Jennifer is Chair of Austin's Water Forward Task Force, a team working to implement Austin’s groundbreaking 100-year water plan that is focused on deploying One Water solutions to meet future water needs. In 2021, she was appointed by the Texas Water Development Board to represent Environmental Interests on the Texas Water Conservation Advisory Council. Jennifer has a BS in Ecology, Evolution and Conservation Biology from the University of Texas at Austin.
Jennifer Walker

By Tom Spencer and Myron Hess The intense drought that had Texas in its grip from 2010 – 2015 still haunts the state – reservoirs shrank to alarming levels, homeowners

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Water Efficiency Networks: Regional Cooperation and Success on Water Conservation

Director, Texas Coast and Water Program at National Wildlife Federation
Jennifer Walker is the Director of the Texas Coast and Water Program at the National Wildlife Federation. She focuses on statewide water policy issues with an emphasis on water planning, infrastructure funding, urban water management, and bay and estuary protection. Jennifer is a water resources expert with twenty years of experience helping city, utility, and state agencies achieve ambitious water supply management and conservation goals. She has helped develop and inform strategic action by utilizing scientific and technical expertise, engaging stakeholders, and approaching resource management challenges with a solutions-oriented perspective. Jennifer is Chair of Austin's Water Forward Task Force, a team working to implement Austin’s groundbreaking 100-year water plan that is focused on deploying One Water solutions to meet future water needs. In 2021, she was appointed by the Texas Water Development Board to represent Environmental Interests on the Texas Water Conservation Advisory Council. Jennifer has a BS in Ecology, Evolution and Conservation Biology from the University of Texas at Austin.
Jennifer Walker

Effective water conservation measures shouldn’t stop at jurisdictional boundaries such as city or county lines and knowledge shouldn’t either. This is the foundation of the Water Efficiency Networks in Central

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The best time to plan for drought is when we aren’t in one

Director, Texas Coast and Water Program at National Wildlife Federation
Jennifer Walker is the Director of the Texas Coast and Water Program at the National Wildlife Federation. She focuses on statewide water policy issues with an emphasis on water planning, infrastructure funding, urban water management, and bay and estuary protection. Jennifer is a water resources expert with twenty years of experience helping city, utility, and state agencies achieve ambitious water supply management and conservation goals. She has helped develop and inform strategic action by utilizing scientific and technical expertise, engaging stakeholders, and approaching resource management challenges with a solutions-oriented perspective. Jennifer is Chair of Austin's Water Forward Task Force, a team working to implement Austin’s groundbreaking 100-year water plan that is focused on deploying One Water solutions to meet future water needs. In 2021, she was appointed by the Texas Water Development Board to represent Environmental Interests on the Texas Water Conservation Advisory Council. Jennifer has a BS in Ecology, Evolution and Conservation Biology from the University of Texas at Austin.
Jennifer Walker

Drought is nothing new to Texans; it is frequent and inevitable. Across much of Texas the end of the current drought is being declared—soil moisture levels are nearing normal and

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Looking into the crystal ball: 2014-15 Galveston Bay oyster season

Director, Texas Coast and Water Program at National Wildlife Federation
Jennifer Walker is the Director of the Texas Coast and Water Program at the National Wildlife Federation. She focuses on statewide water policy issues with an emphasis on water planning, infrastructure funding, urban water management, and bay and estuary protection. Jennifer is a water resources expert with twenty years of experience helping city, utility, and state agencies achieve ambitious water supply management and conservation goals. She has helped develop and inform strategic action by utilizing scientific and technical expertise, engaging stakeholders, and approaching resource management challenges with a solutions-oriented perspective. Jennifer is Chair of Austin's Water Forward Task Force, a team working to implement Austin’s groundbreaking 100-year water plan that is focused on deploying One Water solutions to meet future water needs. In 2021, she was appointed by the Texas Water Development Board to represent Environmental Interests on the Texas Water Conservation Advisory Council. Jennifer has a BS in Ecology, Evolution and Conservation Biology from the University of Texas at Austin.
Jennifer Walker

Texas’ commercial oyster season began November 1, 2014 and runs until April 30, 2015. Last year’s harvest was marked by drought, an oil spill, and a toxic algal bloom. Historically,

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