Plus: One of the most scenic rail routes in the world; a revival for hula dance; partying like it's 1882
|  | Friday, March 25, 2022 | | | | |
 | | PHOTOGRAPH BY PATRICIA E. THOMAS, ALAMY | | For two decades, an ongoing drought has left California, the state that supplies some 40 percent of all the fresh produce grown in the U.S., desperately thirsting for water. (Above, California’s Central Valley, a major producer of fruit, nuts, and produce.) To compensate for the shortfall from rain and snow, farmers relied on pumping groundwater from underground aquifers to the point of overuse.
Alarmed that the amount of water sucked from the ground vastly exceeds what nature can replace, state lawmakers put limits on groundwater use in 2014. In the seven years since, growers and communities in need of water have been scrambling for solutions to replenish their aquifers. One idea: peeling off floodwaters to intentionally flood depleted farmlands and wetlands. Proponents say this is a cheaper, more sustainable solution than building more dams and reservoirs, Alejandra Borunda reports.
“We all know we’ve either got to shrink the demand or increase the supply… and groundwater recharge is becoming the go-to solution,” an irrigation manager in San Joaquin Valley tells Nat Geo.
Read the full story here.
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 | | PHOTOGRAPH BY AVA PETERSON, ALAMY | | (Pictured above, a vast network of canals and ditches brings irrigation water to farms across the San Joaquin Valley, one of the most overdrawn areas of the state. They could also be used to carry water for refilling aquifers.)
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| Green travel: With the arrival of spring, places around the world are going green—with plants. At Singapore’s Jewel Changi Airport, the world’s tallest indoor waterfall (pictured above) is surrounded by a terraced forest. There are the usual shops and restaurants, but you might be tempted to spend more time in the terrarium-like dome that contains more than 2,000 trees and 100,000 shrubs. Subscribers can learn about other surprising ways to celebrate gardens here.
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 | PHOTOGRAPH BY PHOTO RESOURCE HAWAII, ALAMY
| | Reclaiming and reviving: Hawaiian tourism has long been synonymous with Hollywood-type hula shows, which have fallen prey to misappropriation. More than just a form of entertainment, hula's turn of the arms or the gentle sway of the hips have cultural significance. As Rachel Ng reports, cultural organizations these days are embracing a more authentic version of hula, which is being celebrated at museums, luau, and resorts around Hawaii. “Hula is our highest expression of who we are. It’s our language put into motion,” says Māpuana de Silva, a kumu hula who has been teaching the dance on Oahu since 1976. (Pictured above, hula dancers appear in the Merrie Monarch festival, an annual competition and cultural showcase on the island of Hawaii.)
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PAID CONTENT FOR TRAVEL TEXAS | |
 | | PHOTOGRAPH BY SOFIA JARAMILLO | | | Bike your way through an urban Texas adventure | | Houston’s Buffalo Bayou Park is a trove of fascinating stories, discoverable by miles of cycling paths. Rent a bike for the day to discover some of the park’s most celebrated landmarks, from an underground water reservoir turned public art space to a lake that once disappeared and an impressive bat colony that emerges in the evenings. | | | |
 | PHOTOGRAPH BY CAITLIN O’HARA
| | | Partying like it’s 1882: Visitors and locals alike in Tombstone, Arizona, dress in Victorian-style dresses, crinolines, and marshal’s outfits. No, it’s not cosplay. A reconstruction of the O.K. Corral hosts three mock gunfights a day. Tourists stop in to see the circa-1878 Goodenough Silver Mine and the Boothill Graveyard. Every day is a wild, Wild West party, and everyone’s invited. (Pictured above, costumed reenactors in Tombstone.) | | | |
| This newsletter has been curated and edited by Monica Williams, Jen Tse, and David Beard. Have feedback for us? We’d love to hear from you. | | | |
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