Redwood Reader

An unusual winter has led to more water being released into the Trinity River than at anytime in the last thirty years. The high cold water should be great for salmonids and clearing sediment from the lower reaches and keep the Klamath in good shape fro this year. Snowpack was reported as high as eleven feet just a few days ago. Rafters and recreation managers in the National Forests are warning of safety concerns all summer due to high water and strong flows, and rafting outfits are changing their runs for safety.
http://www.times-standard.com/ci_3859266
A shortened salmon season also may have fishermen taking extra risks, especially in small boats. Bad weather as well as rogue waves take a toll on sports fishermen regularly, the latest earlier this year when a small boat capsized in the surf zone and a rescue helicopter went down in the rescue effort. Two people on the boat died, the chopper crew all survived. The article is titled For Sake Of the Salmon, and it is obvious the writer was unfamiliar with the long established salmonid restoration group of the same name.
http://www.times-standard.com/driscollscolumn/ci_3824802
PL has appealed to the NCRWQCB for its permits so they can get to work, worried they will miss interest payments again. Apparently there is some concern over the submitting of applications because of reworking needed by earlier decisions. It was reported their logging season is now reduced to May to September in these watersheds, and they are wondering what is taking so long. Meanwhile it will be interesting to see how much business pressure the science can restrain over methods such as clearcuts, now that the culprit behind sedimentation has been identified.
http://www.times-standard.com/fastsearchresults/ci_3836826
Yahoo reported a new study indicating wastewater pollutants at the waters edge are often lingering in the sand longer than in the ocean waters. This was a surprise finding as beach closures have been based on water contamination. The study also found 1000 times the contamination in sheltered beached compared to beaches facing the open ocean after spills. All of this calls for better reporting and safety measures to protect the population from infectious disease.

Another article in the L.A. Times (On a Clear Day, You Can't See the Pollution) repeated earlier findings that reduced particulates do not necessarily mean cleaner air. As mentioned earlier, reduced particulate size is having an unexpected effect on rainfall patterns. The National Park Service says most of the problem is drifting into the parks, although traffic has some part. It says that massive increases in drilling for oil and gas in the West are primarily to blame, and in some areas are hurting native plants as well as humans.
http://www.latimes.com/news/science/environment/la-na-parksmog23may23,1,6864392.story?coll=la-news-environment
Finally, a massive refiguring of public land use has been put on the table by Congress to allow pipe and powerline corridors throughout sensitive public lands including many of the same places listed in the previous ozone article. This measure will allow energy development at the expense of many protected lands, which is why the government owns them in the first place. Use your power of public comment to be heard on this critical issue for the future of our nation and its resources. There are better ways than despoiling pristine areas. (Power Lines and Pipelines Draw Closer to Parklands)
http://www.latimes.com/news/science/environment/la-me-pipeline23may23,1,1752573.story?coll=la-news-environment
Most of our reporting so far has centered on mans impacts on natural systems or impacts of weather on mans constructions. However, ecosystems have their own problems and it is interesting to see some of these up close. High in the mountains one can see the results of avalanche, lightning strike, heavy runoff and a shortened growing season. The slopes are in various stages of regrowth that will continue indefinitely. The effects of various burrowing mammals are apparent everywhere. The locals have a list of edible fungi. The local university is just beginning a survey of glomalin in forestry but it will be several years before results are in. The school was involved in early glomalin studies and like many others is taking on the subject in earnest.
We note the many readers in Japan and the high number of European searches for glomalin, often with date attached (glomalin 2006). These are coming from Poland, France, Italy, Portugal and Sweden among others off the top of my head. Australia and India have also showed uo regularly as I check my site hits. Most U. S. hits are for topics in the blog but not the main idea- fungal modification of the biosphere for improving growing conditions for its partner plants. As we note, this is the heart of sustainability, the cause of erosion and declining habitats and the main reason development is so deadly to ecosystems. It gives us parameters to work within and methods of healing past mistakes, and will become a well known factor in elementary schools by the time mainstream researchers are finished. We only wish they would hurry up, and that this new science will not have to fight its way through business as usual to become implemented.
A hard copy of numbers 1-200 of The Redwood Reader will be available inthe near future. It is intended to stimulate interest and study in regional settings of natural biological activity.