California has a long history of expanding access to water, Earth’s most precious resource.

Wildfires last year destroyed thousands of homes and cost dozens of lives, and California’s environmental policies bear some of the responsibility. The Golden State needs less red tape and smarter land management.

Climate change is a formidable enemy. It has burned our forests, stormed our coastal communities and dropped “rain bombs” across the nation. Just this past month, inland flooding deluged a key U.S. military base in Nebraska that serves as headquarters for the nation’s nuclear deterrent forces.

Ellicott City, a historic patch of Maryland nestled between the Tiber and Patapsco rivers, regularly endures catastrophic flooding. Since the city’s official founding in 1772, severe floods have struck fifteen times, disrupting daily life and posing a constant challenge. One flood in 1768 even destroyed a grist mill built by one of the area’s first settlers along the banks of the Patapsco (Preservation Maryland 2016 Preservation Maryland. August 4, 2016.