Rainest November ever here in Ish River Country as back-to-back winter storms hammer the Northwet : 11.64 inches fell in Seattle while rivers spilt over their banks, lights went dark and phones fell where the first chair of the season creakily climbed up the ski hill for yet another season. The Hoh River Road suffering a 75 feet long by 25 feet=deep blow outt, North Cascades Highway closed down weeks earlier than normal and the Mount Baker Highway is down to one lane near Maple Falls. The backcountry is reportedly getting hammered too; Mt. Rainier National Park is closed down for the first time in its 107-year history, with untold numbers of bridges, campgrounds, trails and road miles scoured out of existence. It is too soon to know how bad it is elsewhere in the remote corners of Cascadia.
I wonder in particular about the thousands of salmon that are making their annual return to Ish River spawning grounds in these past weeks. With fast-moving water saturated with soil and other suspended particles, the caving in of river banks and scouring of riverbottom gravels, I don't see how these storms can be helping. On the other hand, the fury of the winds and rain are washing a huge bumper crop of trees in to and down rivers, where they will snag and accumulate, building up new in-stream structures that provide excellent habitat for salmon fry. In fact, at the Salmon Summit in Bellingham two weks ago, a lead scientist in the salmon recovery efforts of the Puget Sound basin explained that the lack of quality woody debris in local waterways was one of the foremost limtiing factors in salmonid rehabilitation. So.
I also tend to suspect that these types of extreme weather events give the landscape a good scrubbing. Not only do they remind us of powerful forces that lie outside of human control, no matter how clever we think ourselves, but I can se how the carving of new river channels, closing of old roads, clean sweep of old detritus and refreshening of water tables, lakes, ponds, marshes and other wetland are all rejuvenating results. Then again, as the influence of Homo sapiens on the plant's climate increases, it is hard to tell when a storm is naturally revitalizing or freakishly destructive. So.
Seattle Times covers the deluge here, and provide the chart below.
Pacific Northwest
Flood
Salmon
Rain
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