We have lots of logging, road building and development in the Chehalis Watershed.
Many claim that these activities don't influence flood events. The world's most populated country, China, seems to have a different opinion. Perhaps we can learn from them?
The Washington Post recently reported:
"YANGXIN, China - As the waters from China's worst flood since 1954 recede in the Yangtze River valley, many people here hope the disaster will be a turning point - a warning to the world's most populous country that it can no longer ravage its environment.
"During the past few months, the State Council I China's Cabinet, has issued stern notices, prompted in part by last summer's catastrophe that left 3,656 people dead and doused 64 million acres. The council banned most logging in Sichuan province to halt the massive soil erosion that contributed to the deluge' It has prohibited further land reclamation Projects that squeezed the Yangtze's flood plain. It has earmarked $2 billion to reforest barren hills in the Yangtze's upper reaches."
The story goes on to say:
"But while officials in Beijing speak in sweeping terms about protecting the environment for tomorrow, local officials worry about today. While Beijing's leaders publish stringent rules to protect the Yangtze's watershed, local officials wonder who will pay for them and look for ways around the bans.
"The environment is one of China's most serious issues. It routinely leads the list of citizens' concerns in public opinion polls, and it's a big issue for the world as well. By early next century, China likely will produce more greenhouse gases than the United States, the world's No. 1 polluter. "
It seems that they allowed and encouraged development:
"To understand the complex issues deviling China, journey to Yangxin, river-crossed county on the Yangtze's southern banks in Hubei province, 800 miles from Beijing.
"Since the mid-1970s, the Yangxin county government has emptied 104 lakes, turning the lake bottoms into cotton fields and housing projects. It has moved more than 40,000 people into these areas from poor regions in the forbidding Mufu mountains to the south. This pattern has been repeated throughout the Yangtze basin, where the population as more than doubled since 1949, about 200 million people."
As one might expect - and perhaps our experiences locally are a taste of our future - the results were disasterous:
"During this year's floods, the Yangtze's flow peaked at less than 2 million cubic feet per second, a rate it had surpassed 23 times since 1949, Chinese statistics say. So this year's flow should not have been a problem. But the combination of land reclamation and population growth created an environmental time bomb. It exploded in August.
"When the Yangtze's waters roared through Yangxin last summer, the lake beds, which once soaked up excess water, became giant traps. Throughout the area, more than 5.6 million houses were washed away; the disaster caused $30 billion in damage and affected 230 million people, said Niu Maosheng, vice director of China's flood control bureau.
"China deals with crises by issuing proclamations and blanket bans from Beijing. But the bans, poorly thought out and badly implemented, rarely work. Little effort is made to coordinate policy with county chiefs such as Xu, who must implement the rules."
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