Saving California

California has had quite a bit of trouble lately, and there is a lot of attention being drawn to the economic/housing crisis.  This crisis is a big deal, don't get me wrong.  We need to fix it.  Lurking beneath it, though, is something a lot more sinister.  Although it bubbles to the surface from time to time, it really isn't in the public consciousness.  Yet, it has the potential to possibly drive California into famine and war that has not been seen in the United States since the days of the Civil War.  Do you think I am being overdramatic?  Well, I hope I'm wrong, too.

Humans are adaptable, smart, tough, and stubborn. As a species, as a culture, we can get through a lot of incredibly harsh times.  The bottom line is, though, that we can not, and will not, survive without enough water.



Disclaimer 1: These views reflect my views only and are not associated with my project in Pittsburgh or anything happening in Vermont.

Disclaimer 2:  A lot of what I am going to say here seems impossible, from a political standpoint.  It probably is impossible, without major cultural and social changes.  It would be hard... but not as hard as going without food and water.

Disclaimer 3: This is really long.  I should be working on grad school work, so I should not have just typed this all out.

Neat Iphone App for Monitoring Watercourses: "Creek Watch"

I just learned about a very neat app from the LA Creek Freak blog.

The CreekWatch app, developed by IBM, allows you to take photros of a creek and report the amount of water and whether or not there is any trash present.

(picture from the Iphone App Store)

City of Pittsburgh Online Map Viewer

Are you interested in maps and GIS but don't have access to ARCMAP?  Do you live in Pittsburgh?  If so, check out this City of Pittsburgh Maps website.  This website allows you to check out some different GIS data layers of the city, including zoning maps, road maps, aerial photos, and even wooded areas.  I don't see sewers or historic stream channels on here yet, but there's no reason they can't be added at some point.

One of the most interesting things I noticed while perusing these maps is that almost all of the areas that are forested are also 'landslide danger areas'.  This really demonstrates how important trees are in stopping erosion and landslides.  It also really illustrates the fact that trees were mostly preserved in areas that were hard to develop.  When pondering the nature left in the refugia amongst the city, we should also think about welcoming nature back into flatter areas as well, amongst our homes and businesses, instead of banishing it to our steep slopes.

Anyway, check out the maps, and see what you can discover on your own!

Panther Hollow Run Watershed Map on Google Maps!

Remember the Historic Channels of Squirrel Hill map I made last summer?  I've made a draft version of this map that is viewable on Google Maps!


View Panther Hollow Lost Channels V1.0.kmz in a larger map

(Be patient, it can be slow to load.)

The dark blue lines are existing watercourses, the light blue lines are historic watercourses I found on old maps, and the yellow lines are places where I think surface water once flowed, based on hydrology, but did not see on historic maps.  The light red outline is the current Panther Hollow Run watershed and the maroon line is the part of the watershed that drains into the combined sewer-stormwater system.  There are a few other features thrown in too.  Click on the features on this map for more info.

Over time I hope to expand this map over the whole Four Mile Run watershed and add other features.  Ultimately it will hopefully expand to be a big part of the outreach I am working on for my project.

I am currently looking at ways to get this on the version of Google Earth on 'smartphones', so that people can actually pull up this map while in the watershed and see where historic channels are.  Stay tuned...

Freezing Rain in Vermont, Autumn in Pittsburgh's Urban Ecosystems

Being from southern California, and having only spent a bit over a year in Vermont, there are a lot of cold-weather things I just haven't experienced.  Southern California has high mountains that can get quite a bit of snow, but few people live in the mountains; for most people, time in snow is an optional recreational activity, not a way of life.  Here in Vermont, of course, the cold winters are a huge part of the landscape and culture, and are a defining feature on the landscape.

Last Monday, Burlington experienced a short period of freezing rain.  While this was not a major ice storm by Vermont standards, it was fascinating to me because I've never experienced freezing rain before.  (We didn't happen to get any freezing rain last year, and it is quite rare in California, even in areas that get lots of snow).

Water slows down for the season

Yesterday I spent the day in the Adirondacks.  The spatterings of snow that moved through the area, and did not accumulate near Lake Champlain, did stick around at the higher elevations.  At the mid elevations, the ground was too warm to allow snow to stick around, but the vegetation was not.  Snow accumulated on the spruce, on downed logs, even on lichen... clearly demonstrating that trees don't just intercept rainfall, but also slow down water of a more icy sort.

Scalable Water and a Big Storm

Due to being very busy this will be a short post.  There are, however, two neat things I wanted to share.

One of my favorite things about water is how scalable it is.  A small trickle in sand will act much the same was as the Earth's largest rivers do.  Yesterday I was exploring a gravel pit for a geology class (and learning about eskers!) when I found this 'delta'.





It had many of the same features of a large river delta.  By altering the flow of the little trickle of water (creating a dam and then breaking it), we were able to watch the delta experience high water events, and shift its channels.  Then, I lowered the level of the 'lake' about an inch by using a shovel to drain the puddle.  The water began cutting into the little delta and creating a new delta at the new water level.  Soon, the entire geology class was involved.  Unfortunately, as is usually the case when many humans are trying to modify the flow of water, by the time we left the little delta was mostly destroyed.  Don't feel bad though because it rained last night and probably built itself back in that time.

Speaking of which... the rain last night in Vermont was quite mild.  I hear that in Pittsburgh, there was a moderate storm, but nothing particularly intense.  The large weather system responsible for this was anything but mild in other parts of the Midwest, however.  According to Jeff Masters' blog, this storm was the strongest on record in the interior United States in terms of barometric pressure (hurricanes and nor'easters can still be more intense than this storm was).  It led to tornados, severe thunderstorms, and also winds near hurricane force on Lake Superior. 

There have been an awful lot of intense storms lately, perhaps due to long-term changes in the climate, or perhaps due to other factors we don't understand.  There are some indications that this winter could be quite a stormy one, and may be a winter of very heavy snowfall in many places.  It's time to prepare for winter, as the squirrels are doing right now as well.

More about Beavers in Southern California

Beavers have been on my mind lately, as evidenced in the long post I made about them yesterday.  As mentioned in that post, beavers have huge positive effects on watersheds, and their removal has caused drastic effects that we can't even understand the full effects of.  I have wondered if beavers were present in some of the more protected perennial streams (or streams that would be perennial with beaver meadows) of southern California.  In fact, today I found evidence that in fact beavers did inhabit at least one more wild southern California stream.

The Beaver: Our Slow Water Animal Ally

Us humans sure have an inflated sense of importance!  Since we are the ones who created pavement, rooftops, and channelized culverts, we think we are the only ones who can also work to slow down water with rain gardens, bioswales, and constructed wetlands.  It's time to face up to the truth.  There is another mammal who has been constructing wetlands and 'rain gardens' since long before humans even set foot in North America.  In truth, they do a better job of it than us, too.  Unfortunately, humans have done a good job of driving these animals away from much of the United States in the last 500 years.  The good news is that they are already on the comeback, and all they ask in return for their work is a little bit of space, tolerance, and some delicious aspen and willow to chew on.

A Pond of Two Watersheds

Although there are many sub-watersheds within every watershed, it is very rare for an area to be part of more than one watershed.  Water that falls on the Earth and flows downstream generally has only one possible path to follow as it flows downhill (unless it evaporates or is used by living organisms).  In particular, it is quite unusual for a pond to drain into two watersheds.  For this to happen, the pond has to be right on the peak of a drainage divide!  (If you think of a watershed as similar to a tree, a pond draining into two watersheds would be like a single apple growing on two trees at once).  However, in Vermont, there is a pond called Sterling Pond that is perched right on the main divide of the Green Mountains!  Water from this pond flows both into the Winooski River (via the east side of the mountain range) and the Lamoille River (via the west side of the mountain range). 

It's the First Day of Spring in Los Angeles

It sounds absurd to say, but in effect it is true, if you define spring as the season of growth and renewal.  The first rains of the cold season have arrived in southern California. Click below to read more about the turn of the seasons in the place I lived before I moved to Vermont.

"Super Rainstorm Nicole" Strikes East Coast

On September 30 and October 1, heavy rains affected much of the east coast from North Carolina to Vermont.  In eastern North Carolina the rains were extremely intense, and some areas received more than 20 inches of rain!  The rain was not quite as severe as that in Vermont but most areas still received over 3 inches of rain (there were around 3 inches of rain in Burlington, 4 in Middlebury, and around 5 in Rutland, for instance.  Christopher Bert, an extreme weather expert, has named this rain event 'Super Rainstorm Nicole' because it was in part fed by short-lived Tropical Storm Nicole.  Visit this blog for more info on this storm and its similarities to rainfall associated with Hurricane Hugo in 1999.

The storm caused widespread minor flooding in Vermont, but a major disaster was avoided, probably in part because most of September was rather dry.  Nevertheless, the rivers were filled to the brim by this rainstorm.  Here's what Otter Creek in Middlebury looked like on Friday morning:

Flooding Rains Still Possible in Vermont

Just as a quick update, flooding rains are still in the forecast for Vermont and other areas of the East Coast tomorrow.  A tropical storm is expected to quickly form, and then zip north from South Carolina bringing heavy rain along its path.

*** note: images removed because they no longer are relevant - NWS has updated/changed the links. More info on the storm soon.***

These storm systems are small in size and hard to predict so this is not an easy forecast.  Needless to say, however, anyone from New York State south to South Carolina should be ready for the possibility of some very heavy rain.

I am hoping the downpour (if it happens) doesn't ruin the fall foliage!

Rainy times in Vermont

Rainy times have come to Vermont.  After a relatively dry late summer, fall is arriving, and is bringing copious rain.  As I type this it is raining outside, and it has been for most of the day.  It will be raining on and off for much of the rest of the week too, and if some computer models are correct, it could be very rainy indeed.

Four Mile Run Watershed Workshops; Change of Seasons.

If you live in the 4-Mile Run watershed or another urban watershed in Pittsburgh, you should consider attending these workshops!

Meanwhile, in Vermont, fall has arrived.  While it is not 'officially' fall for two days, this morning was greeted by 'almost-frosty' dew, ground fog, and slightly more fall color than the day before.  The changing of the seasons has become quite evident here, even though peak foliage is still quite far off.