The Last Bedload-mobilizing Peak Flow of the Season

Okay, you read the title and wonder, "why wasn't this in the Nerd Terrarium category?" Because that is a pretty nerdy title. I almost created that category when I wrote the title. I still may.

So the weather is warmer, the sun is stronger, and San Geronimo Creek is low. This gets me thinking about walking up the creek again on a warm day. Last year I walked from our house up to the next bridge upstream. The first attempt ended at a neck-deep pool on a not-warm-enough day when I wasn't appropriately attired. Turning around and walking downstream ended at a debris-jam with a similarly-intimidating pool.

Now I look downstream and see that the debris jam appears to be gone. The set of storms and resulting peak flows this winter were not big enough to jam more debris, but big enough to clear out the debris already there. I want to go downstream to investigate.

I am not an Environmentalist

A friend of mine shared this article with me recently, prompting me to think of this "Best of" from my former Website, republished below, which touches on many of the ideas mentioned in the article.

I am not an Environmentalist

circa 2001

I don't like stereotypes and labels, and this is no exception. It is too easy for someone to say, "Oh, he thinks that because he's an environmentalist." This devalues the worth of your ideas and allows someone with different ideas to brush them off without even considering them because of who you are.

It Matters What Kind of Bullets You Use

"The Iraqi city of Fallujah has seen a dramatic rise in birth defects and childhood cancer since 2004, when U.S. forces used depleted-uranium shells and white phosphorous against militants. Doctors say the city's birth-defect rate is 14.7 percent--much higher than in Hiroshima after World War II." --The Week, January 20, 2012

After reading this in The Week a couple of months ago, I couldn't help but think this is an "I told you so" moment (and what took the mainstream media so long to notice this story?!!!). This seems like a good time to post another "Best of Beyond the Batholith--Essays from the Eastern Sierra" that I wrote around 2007: