next message in archive
next message in thread
previous message in archive
previous message in thread
Index of Subjects
catch and meas Hello John, and all, Thanks for the input about water regimes. This is also a concern we are hearing from local residents here in Annapolis county. People close to some of the extensive clearcuts on the South Mountain have experienced unusual flooding with mud and water around their homes since the intensive clearcutting began. They say it is unlike anything they have seen in the past although they have lived at those locations for decades. I live on Round Hill Brook -- a length of my property runs along the shore. This will be my 10th season here. When I first came here, the brook was always a little wild after spring break-up, but through summer, it was intermittent -- by July, it was really getting slow and I would often take my dogs for long wades while I photographed plants and insects alongs the shore and in the waters. After a good rain, there would be more flow for a few days -- but nothing crazy. I would still go wading with the dogs or cool off sitting in a nice pool at the bend between my shore and a little island. The flow was just brisk enough to sort of flush out the brook a bit. However, for the past three summers, the story is completely different. The brook level is usually somewhat higher, but what is conspicuous is that it's practically like a flash flood after a heavy rain -- really fierce. The water must be entering the brook very quickly upstream on the South Mountain. It can be really blasting as it comes past my place. You wouldn't dream of wading in it when it's like this. I can check the level against a huge granite boulder at a bend in the stream and it never used to be more than 2/3 covered at best -- but now is often almost overtopped. In one of these periods of wild water, I watched helplessly from shore as a large brood of ducklings were swept away out of a sheltered spot on the shore. There was no recovering them -- they were all swept downstream so quickly. I ran along the river seeing them bobbing and peeping as they were carried away -- no doubt out to the confluence with the Annapolis River. I probably need not say that I don't let my dogs walk near the brook when it is behaving this way in summer. I have asked my neighbour who lives across the brook whether he's ever seen the brook act like this in summer. He says not (I think he's been at his place about 40 years). He feels that it is from all the harvesting happening up on the South Mountain above us. I believe he is right. I've spoken to people living at the lower end of a couple of the other brooks coming down off the South Mountain and they feel the same way -- that the water is just shedding off the range and blasting down the brooks and out in to the Annapolis River. What will that do to the soil ecology up on the South Mountain? It is already so thin over all that granite. Also, what is happening to aquatic life? I used to have lots of Ebony Jewelwing damselflies here every summer, but have not seen more than a handful for the past couple of summers. There used to be lots of glass eels (Anguilla rostrata) too -- many in early summer. I could not find very many this year and I'm guessing they probably got blasted away during some of these rains. Well, these are matters that should concern all of us in these times where higher temperatures, more wind, more drought, will have an impact on soil and watershed. Bev On 3/3/19, John and Nhung <nhungjohn@eastlink.ca> wrote: > Sorry, Bev, should have participated sooner but am chronically preoccupied! > > An additional concern I have shared with various folks is the effect that > overly enthusiastic cutting may have on our water regimes. > > (1) Hotter drier summers are on the way, and as folks in the stretch from > Queens to Yarmouth Counties can attest, severe droughts seem to be getting > more serious. > > Someone said country folks need to get back to the old ways and cut back on > their water use during droughts. Swim instead of showering and do dishes > the old fashioned way. > > That’s well-taken, but isn’t enough. > > Forests, I understand, are important stabilizers of water. Extensive > clearcutting means flashier regimes. Would be interesting to talk to folks > who work at some of the older power dams. I was told by someone at the > Tusket dam that forty-odd years ago, water would rise slowly after heavy > rains, then drop gradually and the effect on electricity generation was > limited. Now when it rains hard, the water rises faster and drops faster, > leading to less stable electricity generation. > > Gotta wonder, too, what the 105-year-old Hwy. 3 dam at Tusket was taken out > after a torrential rain in November, 2010. Yup, it was quite a rain, but > there have been very heavy rains in the 105 years previously. Gotta wonder > ... > > Ah, externalities. But destabilization of water resources is pretty > serious, and isn’t just an issue for tree-huggers. > > (2) Not long ago, the media were reporting on blue-green algal blooms along > the Carleton River. The Fur Industry Regulations got enacted in 2013. > Phosphorus levels started dropping pretty consistently starting in 2015. > Drier summers and less runoff may have played a role, but levels continued > to drop in 2017, when rains were more "normal." I think heavy rains in 2013 > and 2104, a massive spring runoff in 2015, and lower rainfall in recent > years have probably all played a part but so, in my opinion, did the > Regulations. > > However, the blooms haven’t disappeared; they’re moving upstream to > darker-water lakes whose high colour protected them from blooms in earlier > years. I am seeing a very strong association between rainfall early in the > summer and colour later on. Less runoff, less "tea" ... So with drier > summers, we can expect our lakes to become more vulnerable to blue-green > algal blooms. > > Trees use nutrients. Dead trees gradually liberate them. More seriously, > runoff from clearcuts are going to carry a lot more nutrient than runoff > from a forested area. > > I know I know, nature isn’t simple, but forests help maintain water quality, > as well as quantity, and those blooms aren’t just an issue for recreation > and property values. Some of those little buggers liberate very nasty > toxins when they rupture. > > I, by the way, have been writing the water quality monitoring reports on the > Carleton system since 2014. >
next message in archive
next message in thread
previous message in archive
previous message in thread
Index of Subjects