Redwood Reader

78. Hispanola Revisited
Redwood Reader article 19 from May 28, 2004 clearly stated the danger from hurricanes to the people of the Dominican Republic as a result of government policies in defiance of nature. We warned deforestation was a vital concern and especially in conjunction with the fact that all the people live in the valleys, which would be the site of inevitable catastrophic flooding and landslide events.
Now the situation turns grimmer as the extent of the damage hinders relief and chaos is taking hold in relief distribution centers. Sewage, dead animals and blood contaminate the flood waters which reached seven feet in Golveides.
It is extremely frustrating to be able to predict a catastrophe based on sound knowledge and not have anyone notice. Clearly this is an example of the very chain of events outlined in Our Shrinking Watersheds, Redwood Reader No.3. The unprotected soil first lost its canopy and rain interception devices, no trees fed the fungi so the ground absorbed very little of the precipitation, the root and glomalin soil stabilization scheme had been obliterated and all regrowth was being removed as fast as it grew. As I wrote, in this condition the mountain is a time bomb.
To further complicate the matter, the people live along the rivers that flow at the base of the mountain. As is often the case, several elements combined to create this tragedy. First, heavy rain quickly out paced the grounds ability to absorb it. Loose soils on the mountain became liquefied and large amounts of sediment ran into the rivers, filling the pools and reducing the rivers carrying capacity. It is likely high seas from the hurricane would impede the rivers drainage, backing the rivers up, raising the level of bank scouring until the river channel is completely lost and the entire region flooded.
Whether or not glomalin might have saved the day, it is clear that understanding the nature of the vegetative climate interface must be taken into account. Examples abound of third world mudslide catastrophes due to excessive land use above heavily populated neighborhoods from Venezuela, the Philippines, Nicaragua, and the Dominican Republic earlier this year. We see the same thing without the population locally, although the flood of 1964 seems to have been on this scale of devastation. And whatever happens to rectify these situations, protected areas where glomalin is produced will be part of the solution. It is completely inevitable, unless we remove the environment by mining it, or paving it, because glomalin is part of the natural vegetative process. If we recognize this fact it becomes much clearer why and how to defend against major storms.
In this regard it is encouraging to see working ranches in Humboldt be protected against development in an agreement with the federal government. It is also good to see the county general plan emphasize infilling, almost as though they know they need a little more information regarding the impacts of rural development from land user to water to fire threat and habitat protection. Here we are able to see the direct impacts of development, logging and roads, without really having come up with satisfactory answers for these problems.
In general, lots of land use activities have been changed since 1964. Far fewer people live directly on the rivers. Prohibitive costs and regulation have made it difficult for many smaller timber owners to cut their trees down, giving parts of the forest time to recover. Some at risk land has been protected through purchase. The logging slowdown on National Forest lands also is a healing step. The flip side of this is obviously fuel loading in a vast landscape. Managing vegetation on that scale should provide full time work for lots of people, create habitat, retain water, improve forest stand conditions, sequester carbon and some new and old ideas.
It is time to step up our understanding of natural conditions. Vegetation is vital to our very existence in many ways, from oxygen to food. Lack of vegetation in a wet area is going to mean trouble no matter what. What happened in the Dominican Republic was predictable and ultimately preventable. We call on our leaders to get this understanding into the worlds bank of knowledge so steps can be taken to protect the people from these kinds of catastrophies.