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ByScottSmith TheAssociatedPress FRESNO Dozens of farm- ers in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta sub- mitted plans Monday to the state saying they intend to plant less thirsty crops and leave some fields un- planted to meet voluntary water conservation targets amid the relentless Califor- nia drought, officials said. The farmers — with the strongest water rights in the state — devised the plans as part of a deal struck last month that would spare them deeper mandatory cuts by the state in the future. Under the agreement, they must submit plans for using 25 percent less wa- ter, fallowing 25 percent of their land, or other strate- gies to achieve the neces- sary water savings. Officials hope the deal can become a model for other farmers around the state. At least 120 farmers in the delta east of San Fran- cisco had filed plans and more were expected to sub- mit proposals before the midnight deadline, said Mi- chael George, delta water- master for the State Water Resources Control Board. Further details involv- ing particular crop changes were not immediately dis- closed. "These are serious well- conceived plans that will result in some significant conservation," said George, who is tasked with calcu- lating how much water the changes will save. California grows nearly half of the fruits, nuts and vegetables consumed in the U.S. However, agricul- ture experts say the Cali- fornia drought hasn't had a significant impact on food prices because other re- gions are making up the difference. Delta farmers who pro- posed the voluntary cut- backs have never had their water use restricted. John Herrick, an attor- ney and manager of the South Delta Water Agency, said he was busy Mon- day answering last-minute questions from farmers try- ing to meet the deadline. He had no hard figures but be- lieved as many as 90 per- cent of the farmers eligible for the program would ap- ply. The delta accounts for less than 10 percent of the 6.9 million acres of irrigated farmland in California, but it is the hub of the state's water system. About 25 per- cent of California river wa- ter runs through the delta, supplying communities and farms throughout the state. John Kisst, who farms 900 acres in the delta, said he will irrigate some of his alfalfa once a month rather than twice and will leave some fields unplanted. Some farmers may turn to growing safflower, which needs to be watered just once, or to some types of corn and beans that grow in three months rather than four, reducing the need for irrigation. "This is not a science," Kisst said. "But we're ex- pected to make our best ef- fort." State officials this year have already ordered wa- ter curtailments for thou- sands of farmers and other water users with lesser rights, but the state has not yet forced cuts on farmers with rights predating 1914 or who have land along riv- ers or streams. California cities and businesses have also been ordered to reduce water use by 25 percent. State Water Resources Control Board on Tuesday is expected to release its report for how communities met the goal in April. DROUGHT Fa rm er s su bm it ti ng p la ns t o sa ve w at er u nd er d ea l MICHAELMACOR—SANFRANCISCOCHRONICLEVIAAP Emily Burns, the director of Science with Save the Redwoods League, sits near a cluster of Redwoods at the Muir Woods National Monument, in Mill Valley. The Associated Press SAN FRANCISCO An anal- ysis found that the tall- est redwood tree in Muir Woods in California is 777 years old — not the 1,500 years once assumed. The study out of Hum- boldt State University is the first determination of the age of trees in Muir Woods, north of San Francisco, the San Francisco Chronicle re- ported Sunday. The findings mean the 249-foot-tall coast redwood named Tree 76 was born seven centuries later than initially believed and dates back to the start of the In- quisition in the early 13th century. It also means the oldest and biggest tree found in Muir Woods is just a baby compared with the huge old-growth trees farther north. San Francisco's Save the Redwoods League is docu- menting the age, size and tree-ring history of Califor- nia's old-growth redwood groves as part a statewide project. The plan is to iden- tify tree-ring patterns and figure out how trees react to climate change. Tree rings are larger dur- ing wet years and smaller during dry years. Tree-ring science was used to document a coast redwood near Crescent City that is 2,520 years old. The oldest giant sequoia, a red- wood species that grows in the Sierra Nevada, is 3,240 years old. Scientists have suggested that the tallest trees in Muir Woods were between 1,200 and 1,500 years old, but the Humboldt study compared the ring size of Tree 76 to a state database and con- cluded it is 777 years old. Emily Burns, science di- rector for Save the Red- woods League, told the newspaper the relative youth of the tree and the newly documented ages of two other tall trees mean the grove is probably younger than was believed. She suggested a flood, fire or some other catastro- phe might have struck the area, forcing the entire for- est to regenerate. Study: Tallest tree in Muir Woods is mere 777 years old REDWOOD By Gillian Flaccus The Associated Press ORANGE Leigh Mc- Donough stood in her back- yard on a hot spring day and listened to the steady shush-shush-shush of two garden hoses filling her new pool and hot tub with water. Her family installed the 21,000-gallon pool de- spite a state mandate to cut overall water consumption by 25 percent amid a crush- ing, four-year drought. McDonough, however, wasn't worried: She was told her pool would actu- ally help save water that would otherwise go to her lawn. It's a mantra being pushed by the California pool and spa industry in re- cent months, as water con- servation campaigns have placed residential pools and other conspicuous wa- ter users in the crosshairs. As residents struggle to cut waste at the tap, the California Pool and Spa As- sociation is lobbying water districts to quash proposed bans on filling pools and spas. The industry cites an in-house study that found that a standard-sized pool, plus decking, uses one- third the amount of water as an irrigated lawn after an initial fill. "We're not saying, 'Solve the drought, put in a pool,' but the bottom line is peo- ple who put in a pool are making a decision to do something more water ef- ficient with their backyard. They're saving water," said John Norwood, the Califor- nia Pool and Spa Associa- tion's president. "Pools are landscaping." Some water conser- vation experts question the pool industry's math and say, at best, residen- tial pools and lawns use roughly the same amount of water after an initial fill. There are 1.18 million resi- dential pools in California, according to Metrostudy, which tracks housing in- formation. And at least a dozen cit- ies and water districts in the hardest-hit areas of the state have passed bans on new swimming pool per- mits, filling new swimming pools and draining and re- filling existing pools. The South Coast Wa- ter District, in one of the poshest areas of Orange County, approved a ban on filling or refilling residen- tial pools and the city of San Jose, which is trying to cut water use by 30 per- cent, did the same in April. That city also prohibits top- ping off existing pools with more than one foot of wa- ter, although the mayor did remark that unfilled pools would make excellent skate parks. The bans generally do not include community pools. "We're in a very signif- icant drought. We're ask- ing people not to water their lawns," said Kerrie Romanow, director of San Jose's environmental ser- vices department. "That does require some level of sacrifice." Even as cities and agen- cies crack down, contrac- tors in some parts of the state are seeing a small up- tick in demand as the re- cession ends. Applications for new pool permits de- clined steeply during the recession, but pool contrac- tors in some areas without pool-related water restric- tions say business is up this spring. The rebound is slower in California than other warm-weather states like Florida, Texas and the Carolinas that aren't expe- riencing intense drought, said Toby Morrison, Me- trostudy's national sales manager. "Our sales are up fairly significantly, but we have no idea how many people are influenced by reading in the newspaper and say- ing, 'Gee, I might not ever be able to fill it or will the neighbors throw rocks at me if I build one,'" said Ce- cil Fraser, owner of Swan Pools in Lake Forest, Cal- ifornia. McDonough's water dis- trict has not yet imple- mented restrictions and a pool seemed right for her two young children. "For us, it was sort of a must-have when we bought this place," said Mc- Donough. "So, I'm happy that it's getting done now and that we were able to fill it." Experts caution that the pool-versus-lawn calcula- tions depend on too many variables to be reliable, including how much wa- ter splashes out, whether there's a pool cover to pre- vent evaporation and how often the lawn was watered before it was ripped out. SWIMMING IN CALIFORNIA Pool industry touting water savings CHRIS CARLSON — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Jake Hall, 10, dives into a backyard pool in Long Beach. By Don Thompson The Associated Press SACRAMENTO Contract prisons in California pro- vide such poor health care that a federal official on Monday questioned Gov. Jerry Brown's plans to bring additional inmates back from private prisons in other states. While care in the 34 state-operated prisons has generally been improv- ing, there has been little progress for the more than 4,000 patients housed at seven publicly and privately operated prisons, J. Clark Kelso, the federal receiver who controls the state's prison health care system, said in a report. A big problem is the facil- ities' failure to hire enough doctors to provide care five days a week, as required by their state contract. About 230 inmates at one contract prison — the Female Community Reen- try Facility in McFarland — did not have a doctor for more than a month. If the inmates can't be treated ad- equately at the contract fa- cilities, they must be trans- ferred to state-operated prisons. Inspections "have con- sistently and repeatedly highlighted poor clinical performance ... and a lack of accountability," the re- port said of the seven pris- ons. The poor report comes as Brown plans to bring back about half the nearly 8,000 inmates housed out- of-state. Kelso said that will likely increase use of the in-state contract beds "at a time when the quality and access to care at these facilities continues to de- cline." Department of Correc- tions and Rehabilitation spokeswoman Deborah Hoffman said in an email that the officials will keep working with the receiv- er's office to provide qual- ity health care in all state and contract prisons. For instance, a spokes- woman for Kelso, Joyce Hayhoe, said the state's contract called for the fa- cilities to provide part- time nursing care, but the Legislature provided enough money to add 24- hour nursing coverage starting next month. The receiver's office rec- ommended other contract and staffing changes last month, though Hayhoe said some of the seven con- tract prisons are doing bet- ter than others. 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