Overgrown Sierra forests gulping water
By J.N. Sbranti, Modesto Bee
Numerous billion-dollar proposals to create more water storage in California are competing for attention and funding during this third year of drought.
But there may be a less-expensive way to increase water flows: Start thinning out the overgrown Sierra Nevada forests.
Cutting down trees may not sound environmentally friendly, but researchers from UC Merced and elsewhere think that may be just what’s needed to restore forest health and increase water runoff.
“It’s one of the lower-cost options (to increase California’s water supply) … and it also would reduce the probability of big destructive fires,” said Roger Bales, a UC Merced engineering professor who specializes in mountain hydrology. “There could be measurable and significant gains” – a hypothesized 9 percent increase in snowmelt runoff – if the forests are properly thinned.
Even if this would work, and I have no opinion on that due to lack of background, the hearings and permits necessary to get it done will take longer to accomplish than the drought cycle will probably last.
Our system cannot act quickly until something is actually already a disaster, not just a looming disaster.
Once again, lets alter nature to meet the demands of over-population. Sounds like a good idea now, but what will the future outcome really be?
I don’t buy this article. Written from the Modesto Bee with UC Merced as the “authority” on water use and trees?
This article is absolutly bogus. How about conservation as a step to take. How about not irrigating golf courses, or desert lawns, or washing cars. Cutting the forest to create more water sounds like a loggers wet dream and a tea party platform.
‘Roger Bales, a UC Merced engineering professor who specializes in mountain hydrology. ‘
I would listen to what someone like that has to say. I asked a question to a hydrologist years ago about the relationship between over grown forests and the impact on the water table. Specifically meadows in the Tahoe Basin and lodgepole pine encroachment due to a disrupted fire regime. I also wonder about the forests at the top of the watershed.
I am excited to find research on this. I have always wondered if larger trees are more efficient than smaller, crowded trees. In animals, there is no change in efficiency with energy per kilogram. What about conifers and water? This is one of those cool biology meets physical science projects.