Wili, The cattle ranchers are feeding hay right through winter months because there hasn't been enough rain to get any grass up. The deer are feeding along the roads where the little rain we did get concentrated. The beaver will have to deal with a dry riverbed this summer, the steelhead run is listed endangered and the one creek that still has fish is maintained with water supplies pumped from a nearby reservoir that's not looking good. We now have 1,250,000 people living in an area that had 7,700 people when my relatives arrived in 1870. Most of them won't notice what happens to the beaver, steelhead or deer.
Drought is more common during the cold phase of the PDO cycle and we have been fairly lucky for the last 14 years IMO. Although we may get an El Nino next rain season we may also have ten or fifteen years left before the PDO turns back warm phase. The last couple rain seasons haven't been
that dry and rain has been good enough to get a good cover crop in. This year it's up but irrigating it seems kinda wasteful. I have given up on pasture. To tell you the truth I am wondering what the big El Nino's will do when they come back around. Drought, fire, floods, earthquakes, but then yesterday it was 90 degrees . I am putting tomatoes in the greenhouse. We have been setting records this week.
So no , not leaving.