‘The lawn was sacrificed as we could no longer allocate the water for it’

I was born at home in Bohermore in Galway. My parents and I migrated to San Francisco in the 1950s when I was quite young. I have had a wonderful life in the United States and am now retired from a career in the national parks, along with my husband.

I feel truly fortunate to have worked and lived in nature, including eight years at Yosemite National Park, 11 as park superintendent at Mojave National Preserve, and as park superintendent at Lassen Volcanic National Park, where I retired. Our job transfers took us from Alaska to the California desert and included a detour to Washington DC.

Having managed national parks, committed to protecting the natural and cultural resources contained therein, climate change has been at the forefront of issues which concern me.

I now live about 300km north of San Francisco, in the central valley where the Cascade and Sierra mountain ranges meet, an area that supplies food – in particular nuts– to much of the world.

My husband and I love to ski and recreate in the wilderness areas surrounding our house. This was a worrisome year, impacted significantly by climate change. The year began with California facing a devastating drought. Our local ski area did not have enough snow to open. The winter resorts around Tahoe barely had enough snow and their season was cut short.

We live very close to Shasta Lake, an impoundment on the Sacramento river, and we have watched the water levels falling steadily. Today, Shasta Lake is at 31 per cent capacity. Other lakes including Folsom and Oroville are even lower.

Wildland fire is always a concern in our area. This year California lost more homes to wildfire than in years past. We have 8½ acres, most natural oak land. The dry grasses became such a concern for us that we had our neighbour graze his cattle on our property to reduce the amount of it.

We have been on water rationing for some time. In order to ensure our vegetable garden and olives have water, we conserve our domestic water use. We have “navy showers”, where the water is only on for the period of time needed for rinsing. Our lawn was sacrificed as we could no longer allocate the water to irrigate.

To reduce our carbon footprint, we attempt to minimise our impact on the environment. We have installed photovoltaic (solar) panels, a hybrid water heater. My husband drives a Prius and we recycle whenever possible. We feed our cows appropriate leftover scraps. With these changes, we not only feel we are helping the environment, but we have also fully eliminated our electric bills, which is a significant personal incentive.

Mary Martin is a former park superintendent at Yosemite National Park in California