Re: Soil Erosion
K1MIZE@aol.com wrote:
> Most of the agricultural islands in the Sacramento/San Joaquin Delta region
> are actually reclaimed freshwater swamplands, protected by high levees. Due
> to wind erosion and subsidence, many of them are now well below sea level
> (Stockton, where I live, is only 12 feet above sea level), and it's rather
> disorienting to be driving along a levee road with a river on one side
> perhaps five feet below the level of the road, and a vast stretch of
> agricultural land on the other side that is clearly 20 feet below the level
> of the river! We have had a number of disastrous levee breaks in recent
> years that have flooded large tracts of land. One interesting proposal I've
> heard recently is the idea of purposely flooding some of the low-lying
> islands for use as reservoirs. It is still a controversial idea, and it
> remains to be seen if anything will come of it.
There was a big move in NZ some years ago to drain "useless" wetlands
for farming. Now they are beginning to realize, though pretty late, how
important these are ecologically, and legislation is now in place to
protect the remainder. One of the biggest mistakes was the filling in of
some estuaries and tidal lagoons and the removal of mangroves, which
greatly reduced to breeding grounds for some important fish stocks.
Moira
--
Tony & Moira Ryan <theryans@xtra.co.nz>
Wainuiomata,
New Zealand (astride the "Ring of Fire" in the SW Pacific).
