On November 5-6, 2025, over 120 water professionals, researchers, farmers, and agency representatives gathered for the Flood-MAR Network’s biennial forum. The energy in the room told a story years in the making: flood-managed aquifer recharge (Flood-MAR) is gaining widespread adoption across California.
Mike Antos (Stantec) opened the forum with a quote that captured the network’s essence: “If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange these apples, then you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas.” This exchange of ideas—across disciplines, agencies, and watersheds—is precisely what’s driving Flood-MAR forward.
From Scott Valley to Orange County, Flood-MAR is becoming woven into California’s water management fabric. This progress didn’t happen overnight. It emerged from sustained collaboration, strategic patience, and a willingness to learn by doing. Across every conversation, one theme surfaced again and again: recharge projects must deliver multiple benefits—from groundwater replenishment and flood reduction to habitat restoration and community resilience.
Day One: Honoring the Journey
Trailblazer panel, featuring above (left to right) Ellen Hanak (PPIC), Kamyar Guivetchi (DWR), Richael Young (SC), and below, Graham Fogg (UCD), Daniel Mountjoy (SC)
My greatest accomplishment? I think it’s this room. No one of us can solve this issue. What I’m most proud of is that it’s a bottom-up approach. By putting people together, we are so much richer for it.
Daniel Mountjoy, Sustainable Conservation
The forum opened with reflections from the people who’ve shaped Flood-MAR from concept to practice. The Trailblazers panel, moderated by Sustainable Conservation’s Richael Young and featuring Kamyar Guivetchi (DWR), Ellen Hanak (PPIC), Daniel Mountjoy (SC), and Graham Fogg (UC Davis), captured both how far we’ve come and how much work remains.
Each speaker noted the same inflection point: “And then SGMA came…” The Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) fundamentally changed California’s relationship with groundwater, creating urgent focus on problems—from declining groundwater levels to land subsidence—that had been building for decades. But the real transformation, panelists agreed, has been social and institutional, not just technical.
The data tells part of the story: over 1,500 local recharge projects are now planned in groundwater sustainability plans, adding approximately 1.1 million acre-feet per year. Twenty years ago, California had minimal water data and no groundwater regulation. Today, the state is a model for others to study. But numbers alone don’t capture the cultural shift from passive groundwater mining to active aquifer stewardship.
Sessions throughout Day One showcased this balance in action. Implementers from Orange County Water District, where MAR began in the 1930s, shared lessons alongside newer and much smaller adopters like Scott Valley, who after years of permit challenges successfully recharged 2,500 acre-feet in 2024—almost a tenth of their pumping demand. Don Cameron reminded attendees that floodwater isn’t free, but the expected and unexpected benefits, from improved soil health to reduced pests, make the investment worthwhile.
Sessions later in the day highlighted the policy, data, and social advances enabling that work. From gubernatorial executive orders incentivizing Flood-MAR to new aquifer recharge potential maps, practitioners now have resources that simply didn’t exist a decade ago. Mike Conway (SWRCB) discussed moving from 180-day to 5-year permits, a shift that enables more long-term planning. Katherine Dlubac from DWR and Meredith Goebel from Stanford presented new tools using imaging of subsurface geology to determine the best locations for recharge, while sessions on Groundwater Sustainability Plan (GSP) implementation explored the community engagement and regional coordination essential for moving from plans to projects.
The growing adoption of Flood-MAR shows that the soft stuff is the hard stuff. We need to work to better align the social institutions we’ve built with our water cycle.
Kamyar Guivetchi, DWR (retired)
Above (left to right): Bill Stretch (Fresno Irrigation District), Don Cameron (Terranova Ranch), Dr. Laura Foglia (Scott Valley Water District/OHWD); Bottom (left): Katherine Dlubac (DWR), Bottom (right): Meredith Goebel (Stanford) presents new data tools
Day Two: Tackling the Technical and Strategic Frontier
If Day One honored the journey, Day Two focused squarely on what is actually required to scale Flood-MAR. The sessions dove into the technical and strategic questions that determine whether California can capture enough floodwater fast enough.
Water quality merged as a critical factor to consider when recharging. Water quality experts Sarah Reuter (SC), Kija Rivers (CWC), Emily Haugen (SWRCB), and Peter Nico (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory) discussed how to tackle water quality concerns, opportunities, and unknowns with Flood-MAR. These details can make or break landowner participation, regulatory approval, and community support. Getting water quality right isn’t just technical; it’s essential to build trust and ensure communities have access to safe drinking water.
Harnessing extremes explored the practical challenges of capturing water during actual flood events, when timing and logistics are most demanding. Mike Mierzwa (DWR), Mike Anderson (DWR), Mark Strudley (Pajaro Regional Flood Management Agency), and Christine Gutierrez (GEI) examined how to maximize high-flow capture, precisely the “wedge of floodwater” that early studies identified but that remains underutilized.
The forum also explored how to integrate ecological benefits into recharge projects. Janice Weldon (Verdantas), Dr. Jason Weiner (ESA), and Xeronimo Castaneda (Audobon) discussed designing diversions that protect river function while supporting dry-season baseflows and groundwater-dependent ecosystems. This multi-benefit approach—recharge that also creates wildlife habitat and reconnects floodplains—represents a more holistic vision for water management. As several speakers noted, embedding multiple benefits into every project isn’t an extra; it’s the standard that Flood-MAR should strive for.
Thinking big meant confronting what district- and watershed-scale implementation actually requires. Eric Tsai (DWR), Aaron Fukuda (Tulare Irrigation District), David Guy (NCWA), Katarina Campbell (Westlands Water District), and Karandev Singh (DWR) explored the infrastructure, coordination, and funding needed to move beyond demonstration projects.
Singh also shared updates on DWR’s upcoming watershed studies, which examine the potential to target recharge to address the growing climate impacts of droughts and floods across the San Joaquin River watershed. These studies—releasing next month and to be featured in December’s Lunch-MAR webinar—represent essential groundwork for understanding where and how California can capture more floodwater through existing and expanded infrastructure and strategic management approaches.
And in the unlocking incentives session, Laura Ramos (CWI), Richael Young (SC), Marie Grimm (Center for Law, Energy, and the Environment), and Spencer Cole (PPIC) examined how to make recharge economically viable for more participants—critical when costs can range from $20 to $48 per acre-foot depending on infrastructure and water sources.
I thought if I research this and talk about it, people will do it. That was naive. We’re still recharging much less than we could. And that’s why we’re here.
Graham Fogg, UC Davis
The Network Effect
Throughout both days, one insight resonated: the Flood-MAR Network itself has become essential infrastructure. What began as scattered practitioners has evolved into a statewide community of practice with monthly “Lunch-MAR” webinars, action teams tackling specific barriers, and a volunteer coordinating team guiding regional priorities.
This sustained collaboration—over years, not months—has created the relationships, trust, and shared knowledge that enable progress. When challenges arise, practitioners know who to call. When successes emerge, they have platforms to share lessons. Regional groups are organically coordinating across basins, pooling resources, and learning from each other’s experiments. As one speaker noted, we’re developing a true “community of practice” where grassroots innovation meets technical expertise meets policy development.
Ashley Boren, CEO of Sustainable Conservation, closed the forum by reflecting on this collaborative spirit and the journey ahead. Implementation challenges loom large: billions spent annually on subsidence mitigation, a hotter, drier future that consumes water before it can precipitate, and institutions built for a hydrology that no longer exists.
Sustainable Conservation staff (above, left to right): Rogell Rogers, Aysha Massel, Daniel Mountjoy, Wendy Rash, Roshni Katrak-Adefowora, Ryan Wakefield, Sarah Reuter, Ashley Boren; Below: Ashley Boren (Sustainable Conservation)
The Question Ahead
The forum made one thing clear: the question now isn’t whether Flood-MAR works. The data and projects prove it does. The question is whether California can scale these practices fast enough to meet the moment.
Based on the energy and commitment at the forum, the network is ready for what comes next. The soft stuff may be the hard stuff, but California’s water future depends on exactly this kind of sustained, collaborative work.
And as the Trailblazers reminded us: persistence pays off. Keep trying. Build relationships. Follow your passion. And when someone says no, find someone who says yes.
The Flood-MAR Network welcomes state, federal, tribal, regional, and local entities; nonprofits; researchers; landowners; and interested community members. Join monthly Lunch-MAR webinars, workshops, and action teams addressing water quality monitoring, policy assessment, and recharge estimation. Learn more at https://floodmar.org.
