THE FUTURE OF THE RIVERSIDES
Rex Burress
A recent news item featured the effectiveness of a redesigned levee system where more flood plain was provided to allow for water to spread through a series of small levees. Good idea!
What happened to the original flood plain that also acted as wildlife habitat? The short answer is that people have occupied the riversides wherever possible with their projects without allowing the flood plain setback to absorb floods— building and farming right up to the edge in many cases!
A river can appear so placid, pretty, and peaceful most of the time, and people rather forget that it can become a raging monster during extreme rainstorms, occupying the riverside space with eroding forces and creating havoc for communities...and river bend parks! Agricultural land is torn apart by powerful flood flow when shrubby buffer zones are not present, and crops, structures...and people in some instances... are “gone with the wind” and water.
The common human tendency is to take what you can, probably a trait trailing down from prehistoric times when storing surpluses for survival was the norm, and little thought was given to conservation in a land of plenty. The word growth has evolved into greed, quite apparent in pushing crops and houses up to the edge in a land grab, and then seeking federal aid when flooded. A river needs its breathing room or it will destroy interference.
There's been some greed shown in taking buffalo, passenger pigeons, trees, deer, waterfowl, and a host of once abundant species until fish and wildlife regulations kicked in. Some might say greed was involved in the gold rush, too. In fact, any natural resource can be plundered if not regulated. Thankfully, a host of concerned people stressing conservation has helped save our nature-ship.
To some extent, real estate tendencies and lack of zoning laws have contributed to flood- destruction, allowing reduction of marshes, and leading to industrial occupation in ill-advised areas. The marsh absorption areas have been over 90% filled-in along Californian streams and converted into farm and residence land.
The land-lust tillage has become “fence to fence” or “field to flow” in much of California's valley system...and fences are few in the big fields, and oaks are out. The environment was richer when Spanish explorers traveled in full armor from Sacramento River to the Chico settlement in 1820, marching in the shade of oaks most of the way! Fence-row habitats and woodlots help wildlife.
The stories of vast flocks of birds along Bay Area marshes, and grizzly bears at that time, are legendary. Of course, you can't expect a marsh to stand in the way of a metropolis...can you? Or a park or refuge to stand in the way of a S.F. Reservoir or oil wells...can you? The political aroma in this year 2017 to devour natural resources and decrease open space smells strongly of greed.
Quite interwoven in the riverside flood threat is the city of Oroville, CA. In the 1849 passion of striking gold, forests along the river were cut, streams altered, even mountains hacked, and, the settlement of Ophir was plopped beside the Feather River. Thus was born Oroville, without due regard to flood, and thus was plopped Oroville Dam later, without due regard to the town within its shadow. History reveals the rest of the story, and today's wisdom determines the future.
“What would the world be, once bereft/ Of wet and of wilderness? Let them be left,/
Oh let them be left, wildness and wet;/Long live the weeds and the wilderness yet.”
--Gerald Hopkins (1844-1889)
“All the rivers run into the sea, yet the sea is not full”--Ecclesiastes 1:7
(It might be added that the sea might rise if all the glaciers melt)