As the climate warms up, critics of river restoration projects -- such as the San Joaquin River -- sometimes ask: "Why bother? Isn't everything going to change in the future anyway?"

It's a good question that seven science and conservation groups assessed in a study published this month. Their answer is that river restoration is important in at least two major ways.

One is connecting parts of nature so plants and animals can migrate as their homes change. The other is to offer a cooler refuge to creatures as the landscape warms up.

The Bee will publish a special section on Sunday, discussing the Oct. 1 kickoff of the long-awaited restoration of the San Joaquin. The blog photo is an irrigation canal near the river, which shows some of the alteration in the landscape over the last 60 years. The photo was taken this week by Bee photographer Eric Zamora.

For further information about rivers and restoration in general, check out the study , which was published in the September issue of Ecological Restoration. The University of Wisconsin Press publishes the journal.