This article is scary. It is very well worded, for most reading it they can take away that we have messed up the headwaters and therefore we need to shut down all activity in them. This will lead to the whole Eastern Slopes being restricted to all but the elite.
This article states that dams are good. but they are bad. Trees are good but they are bad.
The reduction of water in the headwaters is related to usage of that water. Downstream.
They talk about dams loosing 1 liter for every 100 they store. That is called evaporation. They talk about snow being evaporated from the tree canopy, causing a shortage of ground water. Then they talk about the tree canopy helps protect evaporation.
Why don't they look at the historical water levels for the past 100-200 years. Then we might get a bit more realistic values.
Downstream use really needs to be evaluated more then the head stream production.
We may need to manage flood ranges/ times better and figure out a way to store that water and replenish our underground aquifers instead of allowing that water to run amok downstream.
This article is Scary because it makes a simple person think wow it is trying to defend all sides. In fact this article is filled with anti use of the Eastern slopes.
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