News broke last week that the State Water Resources Control Board will at last, after over 11 years of delaying, hold a hearing to resolve outstanding issues on the Kern River. It's not exactly a court case, but there are some parallels.

After a thorough investigation of all of the water rights claims on the river, the Water Board will determe how much water is "unappropriated," meaning not allocated to water rights users, and then determine who to award the water rights to.

The end to our painfully long period of waiting was brought about in large part by direct advocacy from members of our community through public comments to the Water Board and by this petition. Rather than this being a time to sit back and celebrate, we need to be more focused than ever on the task of advocating on behalf of the river, as we are not guaranteed any outcome that is favorable to the river.

To find out how you can do more, go to www.bringbackthekern.org and sign up for our email updates. You can also follow us on instagram at @BringBack_TheKern. We would love to connect with you and to plug you in to what we are already doing to restore our river.