Flooding cause on the Oregon Coast is obvious
An intense storm makes landfall at Newport in 2007. (The Oregonian)
Every year during the rainy season, flooding on the Oregon Coast is a possibility. This letter to the editor published Friday in The Daily Astorian provides local insight in the cause and effect relationship cutting trees has with heavy precipitation:
Am I the only one who thinks it’s crazy for the county and the Oregon Department of Transportation to spend money to find out where the water comes from that floods the Necanicum River? Maybe I can help them out. I recommend getting a Metzker Map and Google Earth, so they can get the scope of the river’s drainage.
First off, it’s not where the water comes from (it rains hard), it’s how that water is delivered to the river. The biggest contributing factor is trees. When the rain hits the tree canopy it’s slowed down and dispersed over a greater area by the branches. The slower the water hits the soil, the slower it becomes saturated, the slower it erodes, and the slower the water runs off into the many tributaries of the Necanicum.
Read the remainder of the article here.
–Toshio Suzuki
Tags: runoff
Interesting. Should we stop logging?
Well Daniel, I certainly wouldn’t speculate as to what timber companies, private citizens and public municipalities should do, but it seems this Oregon Coast resident feels if avoiding flood damage was one’s primary concern, logging at or near river tributaries is a bad idea.
All we know over here at Friends of Trees is, if you cut down that huge conifer in your back yard, make sure there are no valuables resting on the floor of your basement come winter.
Also from an urban perspective, locally here in Portland we have storm runoff issues that flood our sewers beneath us and lead to overflow into the Willamette River. While local officials and county tax payers have been waiting for the Big Pipe for about a decade, it should be no surprise that the City of Portland is dedicating millions of dollars to more sustainable runoff solutions like eco-roofs, street swales containing native plants and … trees.
Thanks for your great question.