Interview Questions: (We have listed the 6 most important questions on our site)

1. How do animals adapt and counter drought?

"Land management prepares water trucks for animals that they can use to drink water. Our volunteers, like you, help distribute water using horses. Many animals adapt their diet to eat water rich food, such as cactus. There are two year-round water sources in Limestone Canyon known as Dripping Springs and Box Springs."

2. How have you [and the IRC] preserved and restored natural habitats despite current environmental concerns such as drought and the fire season?

"We have a lot of projects, mainly restoration, occurring in land management. There are teams and volunteers who have dedicated stewardships to bring water. It is very challenging, especially in places where we lack natural water sources. We have to load trucks very early and get them going, which is tiring for our volunteers and stewards, of course. One of the big topics right now is the fire season, which has started to kick in."

"Invasive species contribute to the severity of the fires. We could say that the culprit is Black Mustard. When we tamper with these invasive species, weeds run rampant and there is a difference in severity, even though these aforementioned fires are prevalent in California ecology."

3. How does drought affect the conservancy on a day-to-day basis?

"There are several projects impacted by drought. When these plants dry up, they get sick and die. If it's hot, then we need to go out more to give them [the plants] the nutrients they need. We can't have the sun blasting and them being stressed out. Increased stressors can cause complications for plants"

"I manage two nurseries and I have to schedule more volunteers to establish native plants, then we could develop and potentially taper our water schedule to adapt to drought complications. Now that the planting season is coming to a close, we need to monitor these plants more carefully."

4. What efforts is the conservancy taking to combat drought and what are the challenges you encountered?

"It impacts our management, so we have to be adaptive on how severe the drought is. We may need more staff in drought intensive years. Some projects are higher or lower risk. Many mitigation projects and trail projects are high risk as these are essential either for the conservancy, or a third-party company."

5. What are the most severe climate incidences to ever occur in the IRC and what lessons can you and I learn from it?

"There are lots of events happening right now. It's bizarre that this week, we went from being super-hot, to having a rainstorm, so there is a lot we need to understand about current weather patterns. The OCFA (Orange County Fire Authority) said that it's a fire year, not a fire season! So, we need to know that these invasive species cause and assist these fires. We had lost so many projects due to the recent Silverado Fire. It is vital to understand that like drought, fires also shape California's ecology. We need to adapt our projects to withstand the fires and understand red flags."

6. Our device generates water from humid, ambient water vapor from the atmosphere through a series of copper coils. How can our device, if implemented on a larger scale, help abate the drought problems in the conservancy?

"The only requirement for our water is for it to be potable. For example, it should not smell of sulfur, especially in places like Quail Hill. We get a lot of our water from the City of Irvine, Irvine Ranch Water District, Orange County Water District, and the Metropolitan Water District."

"Your project was also an idea I was thinking of! We should be able to situate a place for native wildlife to access clean, accessible drinking water. Your project is really amazing and adaptable! That's really cool!"

Interview Questions: (We have listed the 6 most important questions on our site)

1. How has the community food distribution been impacted by the CA droughts?

"It is really impressive that during the height of COVID, the people who helped us the most were the volunteers! During COVID, more people lost their jobs and their money to buy food. Relating to drought, we know that other food banks in California have had to shut down due to extreme complications from drought. However, we are fortunate that we are not impacted by this drought very severely, in the case of aridification and severe crop shortages. For us, at this point, we are only impacted by intensive weather conditions and rising water prices."

2. We know that farmers are the worst hit because of the drought. Have you needed to adapt your agricultural practices due to drought and how do you adapt to it on a day-to-day basis?

"One thing we needed to do for sure is to taper the watering schedule. Our team works to water and monitor the plants constantly. Irrigation is another thing we could improve on. We have begun to plant less water-intensive crops such as cabbage and celery. These crops are nutritious, yet they don't guzzle our water supplies. We want to keep as much of our farm practices as organic and original as possible, while still meeting the demands of drought."

"Our Harvest Solutions farm is located right next to the UCI (University of California, Irvine) South Coast Research Center. We're fortunate they can find new solutions for farming and irrigation that we can apply on our farms. This makes our job of providing clean, dignified food to the community much, much easier!"

3. What type of water do you use for irrigating your crops? Has that been impacted by water supply shortages?

"We use recycled water, which is generally municipal wastewater reused for non-potable purposes, such as agriculture. We are trying to conserve as much water as possible due to the recent droughts. In addition, the price of water has also been going up for a while, and recycled water is much cheaper and more efficient to use than drinking water. I am pretty sure you are aware of the Colorado River, which supplies much of our state's water. The State Water Project distributes our water. Our water is typically sourced from the City of Irvine, through the State Water Project. The Irvine Ranch Water District is primarily focused on potable water, which we, the Second Harvest Food Bank, don't apply in our irrigation systems and farms."

4. On your farm, we noticed that the soil was arid and powdery. There were also cracks in it. What causes this? Is it healthy for the crops?

"Those cracks in the farm can be partially sourced from the drought and the heat waves. However, this is due to our farm is situated on clay soil. Cracks in the soil can arise, predominantly in clay soil. Speaking of the soil being extremely dry and powdery, that is a common feature of clay soil. It is healthy for the crops as we chose to grow produce that adapts well to the clay soil. Cabbage, celery, and broccoli are crops we have implemented, and they work well on this soil. We need to maintain our watering schedule, and these plants are healthy!"

5. If our project were to be implemented on a large commercial scale, how would our device improve farming and food distribution?

"I can see your project applied in so many ways, and this is just... So exciting to me! We could use your idea to generate water for the crops and agricultural purposes related to this farm. This could definitely help in terms of supplying our water. Right now, even recycled water is very expensive, and your device could generate clean, potable water that can be used by everyone and everything."