'Should we be surprised when scientists tell us the West is the driest it’s been in more than a thousand years?' asks Pepper Trail.
Pepper Trail | Writers on the RangeAh, what a beautiful day! The air has that magical quality it sometimes gets in spring, a caressing softness on the skin. The buds on the plum trees are swelling, and the robins have ascended to the tops of the trees, where they’re singing with abandon.
Winter weather is the price we pay – gladly – for the mountain wildflowers; the lakes full of trout; the water that irrigates our farms, orchards and gardens through the long hot summer; and for the lush, green forests that are not on fire. That hasn’t happened this year, or last year, or the year before that. Since January 1, we have received just 0.61 inches of rain, 2.11 inches less than normal. For the “water year” that started Oct. 1, we are at 8.54 inches, most of which came in a near-blizzard in late December. That storm gave us a nice white Christmas and hope for a wet winter at last—but since then, nothing. Normal for this time of year would be about 12 inches. And the long-term forecast doesn’t look good.
On the Oregon-California border, the drought forced a complete shutdown of water deliveries to farmers in the Klamath Basin this year. The basin’s great national wildlife refuges – used by 80% of the migrating ducks, geese, and swans on the Pacific Flyway – are almost completely dry, their lakes nothing but expanses of cracked mud.
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