<story><title>The High Sierra forest is dying, and you can&apos;t count the loss in dead trees</title><url>http://www.latimes.com/travel/california/la-tr-changing-landscape-20160912-snap-story.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>npsimons</author><text>I too spend a lot of time in the Sierras, though more of the Southern end. I would concur with your conclusions. While I&amp;#x27;m not the most cognizant of foliage, I can say that the watershed has dropped noticeably over the years. People might say &amp;quot;who cares? you only need water for overnight trips.&amp;quot;, but that&amp;#x27;s not only wrong, but missing the big picture. The Sierras have been getting less snow, and LA is literally sucking them dry with the aqueduct, refusing to even consider solutions such as desal plants. Public transportation to reduce AGW is also a no-brainer that no one seems to want. Damage has already been done, but there are actions that could be taken to improve the situation. No one seems to care, though.</text></item><item><author>thaumaturgy</author><text>I live in the foothills of the sierra, and I&amp;#x27;ve been a search and rescue volunteer for a while now, so I&amp;#x27;m in some part of the Tahoe national forest about once a week on average.&lt;p&gt;The damage, when you see it up close, is stunning. You&amp;#x27;ll be driving along a highway and see miles, and miles, and miles of dead trees standing there, waiting to burn.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s catastrophic, and that&amp;#x27;s not a word I use lightly.&lt;p&gt;The prediction for this year is a mostly dry and cold Winter. If that happens, I expect next Summer to be one of the worst fire seasons in state history. There&amp;#x27;s so much dry material out there now in areas that require tremendous resources to combat.&lt;p&gt;If&amp;#x2F;when superfire season happens, there&amp;#x27;s a good chance it&amp;#x27;ll overwhelm state resources and there&amp;#x27;s going to be a lot of damage that will take decades to recover.&lt;p&gt;I was in Kings Canyon for a state SAR conference not too long ago and the fire scars from a few years ago still look fresh. Most of the stretch of highway 20 through Clear Lake is just black and brown. That&amp;#x27;s gonna be a look that&amp;#x27;s hard to get away from pretty soon, and I doubt we fully grasp the impact of that yet.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>dubyah</author><text>&lt;i&gt;refusing to even consider solutions such as desal plants.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;That&amp;#x27;s not really true; improved stormwater capture, potable reuse, and fixing leaking infrastructure are far more economical &amp;amp; environmentally friendly options being planned or undertaken. MWD put out a proposal last year for a billion dollar potable reuse plant and the SWRCB put out a draft report for regulation of direct potable reuse out last month.&lt;p&gt;Desalination plants are really an option of last resort given their cost, environmental impact, and capacity. The Carlsbad desalination plant cost $1 billion, runs their RO membranes at 800 PSI, produces 50 MGD, and is ~ $2,000 per acre-foot of water.  Whereas OC&amp;#x27;s GWRS(indirect potable reuse) cost ~$623 million after an initial expansion last year, runs their RO membranes at 150 PSI, produces 100 MGD, and is ~ $476(~$850 before subsidies) per acre-foot.</text></comment>
<story><title>The High Sierra forest is dying, and you can&apos;t count the loss in dead trees</title><url>http://www.latimes.com/travel/california/la-tr-changing-landscape-20160912-snap-story.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>npsimons</author><text>I too spend a lot of time in the Sierras, though more of the Southern end. I would concur with your conclusions. While I&amp;#x27;m not the most cognizant of foliage, I can say that the watershed has dropped noticeably over the years. People might say &amp;quot;who cares? you only need water for overnight trips.&amp;quot;, but that&amp;#x27;s not only wrong, but missing the big picture. The Sierras have been getting less snow, and LA is literally sucking them dry with the aqueduct, refusing to even consider solutions such as desal plants. Public transportation to reduce AGW is also a no-brainer that no one seems to want. Damage has already been done, but there are actions that could be taken to improve the situation. No one seems to care, though.</text></item><item><author>thaumaturgy</author><text>I live in the foothills of the sierra, and I&amp;#x27;ve been a search and rescue volunteer for a while now, so I&amp;#x27;m in some part of the Tahoe national forest about once a week on average.&lt;p&gt;The damage, when you see it up close, is stunning. You&amp;#x27;ll be driving along a highway and see miles, and miles, and miles of dead trees standing there, waiting to burn.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s catastrophic, and that&amp;#x27;s not a word I use lightly.&lt;p&gt;The prediction for this year is a mostly dry and cold Winter. If that happens, I expect next Summer to be one of the worst fire seasons in state history. There&amp;#x27;s so much dry material out there now in areas that require tremendous resources to combat.&lt;p&gt;If&amp;#x2F;when superfire season happens, there&amp;#x27;s a good chance it&amp;#x27;ll overwhelm state resources and there&amp;#x27;s going to be a lot of damage that will take decades to recover.&lt;p&gt;I was in Kings Canyon for a state SAR conference not too long ago and the fire scars from a few years ago still look fresh. Most of the stretch of highway 20 through Clear Lake is just black and brown. That&amp;#x27;s gonna be a look that&amp;#x27;s hard to get away from pretty soon, and I doubt we fully grasp the impact of that yet.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>jefurii</author><text>&amp;gt; LA is literally sucking them dry with the aqueduct&lt;p&gt;Those alfalfa farms where the entire crop is shipped off to China are a huge chunk of the state&amp;#x27;s water usage.  The Central Valley could also move from almonds and other water-intensive crops.  If it was just vegetables and tree fruit it wouldn&amp;#x27;t be so bad.</text></comment>