Robin Meadows
@robinmeadows.bsky.social
180 followers 130 following 11 posts
Water reporter for Maven's Notebook | bioGraphic, C&EN, High Country News, Scientific American | Pulitzer Center grantee | The Open Notebook mentor | IJNR alum | UCSC SciComm alum Stories: https://robinmeadows.tumblr
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How Karuk ceremonial leader Ron Reed blended his knowledge of Indigenous and Western science to take down the Klamath dams, a 20-year struggle that finally freed the river a year ago this week. “It’s been a lifetime of work—it’s very emotional.” My✍️for @mavensnotebook.com
NOTEBOOK FEATURE: How Karuk ceremonial leader Ron Reed used Western science to take down the Klamath dams
by Robin Meadows The Karuk people have lived in the thickly forested mountains along the Klamath River in Northern California for so long that they simply say since time immemorial. Chinook salmon wer...
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Microplastics are already everywhere—the air we breathe, the water we drink, and our own bodies—and we put more into the environment each year. What can we do to keep these tiny contaminants from harming wildlife and ourselves? My✍️for @MavensNotebook #cawater
NOTEBOOK FEATURE: Keeping microplastics out of the San Francisco Bay: A conversation with environmental toxicologist Ezra Miller
by Robin Meadows In 2019, the San Francisco Estuary Institute (SFEI) published a three-year study of microplastics in the San Francisco Bay that was―and still is―among the most thorough assessments of...
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Giving Indigenous people a voice in a wetland restoration paid off all around: tribes will be able to harvest culturally important plants & their input led to an engineering redesign that saved the project lots of money! My✍️for @MavensNotebook #cawater
NOTEBOOK FEATURE: Partnering with tribes to restore a Delta wetland: Benefits go both ways
By Robin Meadows Five years ago, Plains Miwok cultural practitioner Don Hankins got a surprising invitation from Russ Ryan, a project manager at the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California....
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Farming has caused extreme soil loss in CA's Delta, leaving its islands far below sea level and spewing carbon into the air. A new restoration will show if wetlands can reverse this subsidence and curb the region’s emissions. My ✍️ for @MavensNotebook #cawater
NOTEBOOK FEATURE: How a new wetland restoration could expedite transforming the Delta from a carbon source to a carbon sink
By Robin Meadows Staten Island lies in the heart of California’s Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, and exemplifies the woes of this troubled region. More than one quarter of the Delta―about 200,000 ...
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Government agencies have long shut tribes out but are now opening their minds to Indigenous knowledge on salmon restoration―for the good of fish, tribes & Western scientists. “I feel like my blind spots are so blind,” says one researcher, a sentiment echoed by many. My✍️for @MavensNotebook #cawater
NOTEBOOK FEATURE: New hope for saving salmon: Weaving together Indigenous and Western sciences to restore California’s winter-run chinook
By Robin Meadows Jamie Ward grew up hearing the stories his people have told for countless generations on the slopes of Mount Shasta, a glacier-capped peak in Northern California. Many of these storie...
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Indigenous people have known for millennia―and Western science is beginning to recognize―that, done right, fire can boost streamflows. “The more you burn, the more water you’ll have.” My story for @MavensNotebook. #cawater
NOTEBOOK FEATURE: Fire and water: How cultural burns boost streamflows
By Robin Meadows On a mild November day in California’s Sacramento Valley, Diana Almendariz ignites a clump of dry grass in a grove of cottonwoods. Landin Noland, wearing a thick, protective shirt wit...
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In a race against rising seas, the SF Bay Area is restoring tidal marsh to buffer the shoreline from storm surges. The North Bay’s diked hay fields are the only spot with room for marshes to move inland―and a new refuge expansion would give them that room. My story for Maven's Notebook. #cawater
NOTEBOOK FEATURE: Seizing a rare chance to keep tidal marsh ahead of sea level rise in the San Francisco Bay
By Robin Meadows The San Pablo Bay National Wildlife Refuge, which hugs the northern arc of the San Francisco Bay, was established half a century ago to
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I’m in the dictionary!! A sentence I wrote is one of the usage examples for “jet stream”:
The storm track is a wind current, like the jet stream, that carries the river of moisture from west to east.
— Robin Meadows, Scientific American, 11 Jan. 2023
Examples of 'Jet stream' in a Sentence | Merriam-Webster
'Jet stream' in a sentence: The jet stream is more orderly in the winter months, when cold air prevents its winds from wandering off track.
www.merriam-webster.com
robinmeadows.bsky.social
My first story of 2024! How AI can help California push back against water users and justify letting streams flow more naturally for fish (hard to believe that it's not the other way around - why don't water users have to show they're not harming fish??).
NOTEBOOK FEATURE: How AI can help protect California streams and fish
by Robin Meadows  Rivers in California once swelled and ebbed as the seasons changed and as wet years gave way to dry ones. Salmon and other now-imperiled aquatic species depended on these historic p...
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River heat waves threaten salmon and other aquatic life. Can beaver dams and prescribed burn smoke help cool streams? “If wildfire smoke lessens heat waves in the water, we could save more water in reservoirs.” My story for Maven's Notebook.
NOTEBOOK FEATURE: Heat waves strike rivers too—can prescribed burns and beavers cool streams for s...
By Robin Meadows While marine heat waves are well known, a 2022 study was the first to document aquatic temperature spikes in rivers nationwide. Even river experts were surprised. “I’d never thoug...
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