Raising the River by Razing the Trees, logging...idea has critics cringing

[Rose Siding]

Still struggling with drought on the Colorado River despite a winter of bountiful storms in the Southwest, water managers are dusting off provocative ideas for filling the river — among them, logging mountainsides to wring more runoff out of national forests and seeding clouds to pull more snow out of the sky.
.....
About 25 million people from Colorado to Southern California depend on the river for at least some of their water, and although a slew of winter storms loosened the grip of a historic drought this year, the basin's epic dry spell is far from over. Even without a drought, the time is approaching when use along the 1,400-mile river system will exceed the Colorado's average annual flow.

Environmentalists say the answer to growing demand is more conservation and more efficient allocation of existing supplies, not efforts to squeeze more water out of the ecosystem.

"Those are ludicrous," said Jennifer Pitt of Environmental Defense's Colorado office. "We're going to cut down our national forests so we can water our lawns on the front range? Give me a break. There's no way people are going to accept that."

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-drought17apr17,0,4173626.story?coll=la-home-headlines

[truthisfreedom]

1. sure they will, just put rove on it, and he'll figure out a way to sell it

to everyone. use terra'lerts. that'll work, right?

[mike_c]

2. on the contrary....

""We're going to cut down our national forests so we can water our lawns on the front range? Give me a break. There's no way people are going to accept that."

Quite the opposite, I would expect-- just as soon as the pinch starts to cut into people's discretionary water use to any significant degree, many folks will begin to talk about all that water "wasted" by transpiring forests. Count on it. Human self interest is an implacable force.

'Scuse me while I get in touch with my inner cynic.

[RC]

3. So they turn the forests into a dessert.

Then where will the water come from? There won't be much rain if the water can't get into the atmosphere.

[NYC]

4. Removing trees to alleviate drought sounds ridiculous,

doesn't it? Talk about doing something today at the expense of tomorrow!

They should stop building houses in drought areas. I think there ought to be a law that when a person shops for a house in a neighborhood, the real estate agent (or whoever) is required to tell the local problems, such as: drought, hurricane, earthquakes, flooding. I'm sure many people don't do research, and don't know before they move to a new area. They see a house, a neighborhood, it looks nice, they can afford it, they buy.

If you knew you were buying a house in a drought area, you would know that if nothing else, the price of water would go up.

[Nevernose]

5. 2/3 of Las Vegas' water use is for GOLF COURSES

No shit. A city of 1.7 million people, with lawns and fountains and palm trees and even farms, and still TWO THIRDS of the water used is for golf courses.

[enlightenment]

7. Not really.

Golf courses in Las Vegas use about 8% of "new" water. Like the casinos (who use 6.7%), the golf courses recycle a huge amount of water. The biggest abuser in LV is residential -- 58%. Most of that is used outdoors (70%) and 23% of that amount is wasted.
Las Vegas has virtually no industry (no heavy industry at all), so that doesn't use up much.

I'm not trying to defend Las Vegas, or its golf courses -- I think its nuts to have golf courses in the desert -- but I do think the blame should go where its deserved. Since I live in Las Vegas, I'm part of the problem, though I try my best to conserve.

I disagree totally with this bizarre "kill the forest to save the suburbs" idea -- but I do think its high time the west reevaluated the Colorado River Compact.

Oh -- the numbers are from the Southern Nevada Water Authority website. I don't know how to post a link, sorry.

[Igel]

6. You go around LA and Phoenix, you realize people really

don't care. Water's abundant. Lawns are green.

My parents moved from Baltimore, we fought: they wanted a green yard. I wanted them to put in gravel. We compromised: front's gravel, back's grass (and a pool that they never use). Every year when I visit I get them a new cactus or other xerophyte for their yard.

It's insane. Without wasting all that water, the rivers would be healthier, the aquifer would be in far better shape, and the cities there could still support a larger population.

[sam sarrha]

8. we got flooded out when they clear cut the mountain and the water washed

gravel in to the river bed and raised the bed 22 feet to the level of streets. It cut the town in half and washed out a bridge so half the town had to drive 22 miles around to get 50 yards across a wash out.. that never quit washing out when it rained..and it rains a lot in Washington.