California farmers need to find greener pastures in the Pacific Northwest as they are experiencing a drought-parched California.
According to a report by the CNBC, John Knipe, president of Knipe Land Co. in Boise, Idaho, claimed that water availability is seen as a very big factor for potential investors when looking at farmlands.
"We're getting a lot of interest where they want to move out of California into Washington, Oregon and Idaho," Knipe stated. "Often they have to sell the California property to do that," Knipe continued in a report by the CNBC.
However, some parts of Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana are suffering from severe or extreme drought conditions. The Drought Monitor released Thursday stated that, "The lack of mountain snowpack has contributed to record and near-record low-stream flows across much of the Pacific Northwest, with tinder-dry conditions resulting in the closing of the forests in northern Idaho."
CNBC also elaborated that the signs of California's historic drought has been obvious. The indications were based from the half-million acres of parched and idle farmland, to the swaths of receding reservoirs.
To analyze the event, a CNBC analysis of the annual Palmer Drought Severity Index, which was used by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration as its main drought index, was made.
The Index was founded by meteorologist Wayne Palmer. The result of the analysis showed that the nearly four-year drought is in fact the worst in over a century.
An average of -3.67 is the current drought over the last three years. It is reportedly twice as bad as the second-driest stretch since 1900, which occurred in 1959.
The good thing was that ex-Governor Pat Brown approved the California Water Project which solved the problem back in the year 1959. It was a $1.8 billion initiative that directed water to Southern California and contributed to a boom in agriculture and population, CNBC news added.
The problem was passed to his son Governor Jerry Brown. But today, the problem has become even more serious.
