After Hurricane Katrina you would think that the ONE lesson everyone could agree on was that degradation of a wetland’s natural flora ecosystem (ie: removal of trees and shrubs that clean water and hold soil) is a bad thing. Not for the Army Corps of Engineers! They treat trees as a potential hazard that get in the way of the engineered solutions the Corps has developed.
In the California Bay Delta, which in many ways is comparable to the Mississippi Delta, the added risk of earthquakes makes the Corps even more nervous about the fragile system of levees utilized to control floods. So what is the answer to shoring up the Bay Delta? Why remove the trees on the levees, of course? WHAT? That’s right! Since Hurricane Katrina, the Corps has been enforcing a zero-tolerance of trees (ie: cutting down and removing trees) on levees, according to a report by the Sacramento Bee.
Uh, guys, take off the engineer’s myopic-focals and take a look at the big picture. Could it be that trees in the Bay Delta ecosystem actually contribute to stability and enhanced natural flood control? Is it possible that a Corps policy benefiting the short term might have severe negative consequences in the longer term? Has that ever happened before? Well, as we all know, the answer to all these questions is YES. History has shown that the Corps has had its fair share of “Duh” moments. We Californians should not allow history to repeat itself, and the Corps should be encouraged, as this Sacramento Bee Editorial from today suggests, to employ site-specific tree removal recommendations as opposed to a “denuded earth” approach.
