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Post by spacecowboy2006 on Feb 13, 2017 2:42:38 GMT
John Muir observed the natural floodplain ecology of the Central Valley in January 1875, from the heights of a mountain in the Sierra. After exploring the geology and topography of the basin of the Feather River, he came to the edge of the main forest belt, where revealed before him was, as he notes in The Mountains of California: ... a beautiful section of the Sacramento Valley some twenty miles away, brilliantly sun-lighted and glistening with rain sheets as if paved with silver... The blue Coast Range was seen stretching along the sky like a beveled wall, and the somber Marysville Buttes [Sutter Buttes] rose impressively out of the floodplain like islands out of the sea. |
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Post by spacecowboy2006 on Feb 13, 2017 22:23:37 GMT
The Sacramento River in its natural state (before dams and artificial levees) flooded annually, and massively about every five years. Sediments deposited during millennia of flood stages produced a natural levee about 10 to 20 feet high and out to a mile from each bank. During winter and spring rains the river would overflow its banks, supplying rich silt and nutrients to adjacent floodplains up to 25 miles wide on either side of the banks of the river. Floodwater from several prominent floodplains could not drain back to the river and would remain throughout the summer, or all year. The floodwaters created seasonal freshwater wetlands occupied by water-adapted plants and attracting huge flocks of migratory waterfowl.
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As I've said before, the problem is not climate, the problem is people. People built these dams and then when they flood, people whine about it.
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