The Abajo Mountains “Old Tree Story”

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Waterbaby

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http://www.sjrnews.com/view/full_story/27477731/article-The-Abajo-Mountains--Old-Tree-Story-

The Abajo Mountains “Old Tree Story”

Sep 12, 2017 |

Core samples from the oldest living tree in the area (found on the Abajo Mountains) is providing valuable scientific information on the climate on the Colorado Plateau. Courtesy photo



by April Baisan, Edu. Coordinator, Canyon Country Discovery Center

In 2015, scientists from the University of Arizona, Tucson, chanced upon a living Douglas Fir tree on the lower slopes of the northwest side of the Abajo Mountains, that, when analyzed, proved to be 800 years old, from the AD 1200s.

This is the oldest known living tree in the Four Corners area—a tree that started growing around the time that the Ancestral Pueblo people left the area completely, and around the time Genghis Khan and Marco Polo were in action in Europe and Asia.

The scientists figured out the age of the tree by counting its growth rings.

Scientists such as these are called dendrochronologists. “Dendro” means “branching” or “tree-like,” and “chronology” means “the study of time.” Hence, the study of climatic, geologic or other events over time, using tree “growth” rings as an indicator.

The width of tree rings shows the amount of tree growth in each year, which is used as a measure of the amount of precipitation for that year.

Knowing the amount of precipitation allows scientists to “reconstruct” (estimate) streamflow amounts for rivers in the same drainage (watershed) as the tree, from the past, before there were any measuring devices in place. This has great implications for water management in a fairly dry area like the American West.

In the Abajos, the dendrochronologists from the UofA Laboratory of Tree Ring Research have been at work since 2004. During this time they also analyzed rings from downed logs (dead trees, but that still have growth rings intact enough, i.e., not rotted away to provide good information) and identified older dates, including an oldest tree ring date from the AD 300’s.

This and a few similarly dated downed trees from near Price are the oldest known tree rings showing ancient climate (precipitation) information from the entire Upper Colorado River Basin, from Glen Canyon Dam upriver into Colorado and Wyoming.

Streamflow histories over many hundreds of years, such as we now have for the Colorado River, are much more valuable than for just 20 or even a few hundred years. Until the research was fully analyzed and published in 2007, the climate history of this area “only” went back into the AD 1500s.

As is well known, policy makers and scientists drew up the Colorado River Watershed Pact in 1922 which allocated water to seven western states and Mexico. Unfortunately it was based on only 20 years of actual streamflow data — data which happened to be much higher than the average, but they didn’t know this at the time.

As the 1900s came to an end and 100 years of measured streamflow data became available, as well as some 400 years of tree ring data, it became clear that the Colorado River Watershed is seriously over-allocated to the seven states, as well as Mexico.

Scientists had seen evidence from the 1500s to the 1900s that drought occurred, but until 2007, no one knew how bad it could be. The headline news in 2007 was the AD 1100’s “Mega-drought” of about 50 years. Contributions from other scientists showed that this drought happened not just in the Upper Colorado River Basin, but in California also, and probably in between.

The take-home here is that drought is normal for the West, and that a West-wide 50-year drought can make droughts of a few years or a decade, bad enough as they are, pale in comparison.


Monticello and surrounding communities can be proud of these ancient trees nearby, living and dead on the ground, that are assisting climate and ecosystem scientists as well as water planners all around the West in managing and allocating water resources for the future.

Even without government mandate, as responsible community members of the Colorado River Watershed during the current drought and beyond, we can use the scientific information in choosing to use our stored water (underground as well as above ground) wisely.

Let the rain wash your car (become more tolerant of a dusty car in between rains), use drought-tolerant landscaping and set up graywater systems (see the Utah Greywater Code) for watering a few shade trees in your yard.

Smart gardening and smart overall water use costs little but will benefit us down the road, dusty as it may be!
 
So how does the global warming crowd explain the 50 years drought in 1100 A.D.??? No SUV's back then? And as the article says "it extended into California - this is also proven by the tree rings in a very old Redwood tree on display in the garden area of the LA County Fair each year... shows the same thing in Northern California same time period. All the more reason CA with a burgeoning population should have constructed more dams, not taken them out.
 
Bon fire size was becoming out of hand each night. A small left wing movement of solar cooking Ancestral Pueblo's grew bigger, they then disbursed to areas like Boulder, Seattle, Park City, and Berkely.

And then decided to reconvene on an annual meeting format and determined a dry lake bed in Nevada (to honor the drought) was the best location and made offerings to the drought Gods in the form of a large burning man.
 
Bon fire size was becoming out of hand each night. A small left wing movement of solar cooking Ancestral Pueblo's grew bigger, they then disbursed to areas like Boulder, Seattle, Park City, and Berkely.

And then decided to reconvene on an annual meeting format and determined a dry lake bed in Nevada (to honor the drought) was the best location and made offerings to the drought Gods in the form of a large burning man.

And a pile of 5,000 bicycles!!! (Read that somewhere this morning) Just walked away from them and left them there!
 
And a pile of 5,000 bicycles!!! (Read that somewhere this morning) Just walked away from them and left them there!


Did you see the environmental disaster the "environmentalists" left at the Dakota Access protest? Disgusting isn't a apt description - even found dead dogs in the trash:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidb...s-at-dakota-access-protest-site/#404ebb8a4c5b

Feb 14, 2017 @ 09:13 PM 100,490 12 Stocks to Buy Now
Threat Of Flooding Rises At Dakota Access Protest Site


David Blackmon
, Contributor
Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.
Oceti-Sakowin-Camp-water-300x225.jpg



Unseasonably warm weather results in ice melt, turning the Oceti Sakowin protest camp side into a muddy quagmire. [Photo Courtesy of NDResponse.gov]

Imagine if you will an oil and gas pipeline company whose workers move into Army Corps of Engineers land in the middle of summer and establish an illegal campsite. Imagine next that said oil and gas pipeline company then sends out a nationwide call to action inviting non-employees from all parts of the country to join its employees at the campsite. Imagine that, over the next several months, thousands of such outsiders come and go to and from the illegal site, leaving behind piles of trash, large volumes of human waste, and dozens of abandoned cars, commercial vans, buses and trucks, many of which are broken down or out of gasoline.

Next, imagine that said oil and gas pipeline company's management gets a little antsy about the situation around December, worried that the campsite in fact sits smack dab in the middle of a flood plain, a flood plain that drains into a nearby lake which serves as the drinking water supply for several Indian tribes and surrounding communities. Imagine that management understands that, when the spring thaws begin to come around the first of March, the resulting flood waters will carry whatever garbage, human waste and abandoned cars remain at the site right down into that nearby lake, thus polluting the drinking water for those surrounding communities.

Now, imagine that several hundred of those outsiders choose to ignore the requests by management to leave, and instead stick around causing trouble and interfering with cleanup efforts until mid-February. Imagine that the oil and gas pipeline company refuses to clean up its own mess, and leaves that job to the Army Corps of Engineers.



Imagine that, as the cleanup efforts finally begin, the weather suddenly becomes unseasonably warm, causing much of the snow and ice to begin to melt, turning the campsite into an ugly, muddy quagmire. Imagine that, at that point, the crews conducting the cleanup have only managed to haul off about 25% of the gigantic mounds of garbage, and haven't even begun removing the abandoned cars, and now they're having a hard time getting their trucks and other equipment into the site to do the work.

Now, imagine the uproar that would be taking place in the national news media had an oil and gas pipeline company caused such a situation to exist. And imagine the legal hell that would rain down upon said oil and gas pipeline company in the form of fines, civil penalties and even criminal penalties from a multitude of local, state and federal government agencies in such a situation, especially if the site is not ultimately cleaned out before the spring floods begin in earnest.

I am of course describing the current dire situation that exists at the protest site of the Dakota Access Pipeline, and the series of events that have led up to it. Except, of course, it wasn't an oil and gas pipeline company that created this situation - Energy Transfer Partners (NYSE:ETP), the builder of the Dakota Access line, is in fact the target of the protesters, who somewhat ironically like to call themselves "water protectors."

There is of course no national media uproar condemning the protesters who have created the current mess, or the conflict groups that helped to organize them, raised millions as a result of the conflict, but are contributing nothing to the cleanup. Nor is there any negative media mention of the dozens of celebrities who have visited the site to get a little free publicity over the last several months, or drawn attention to themselves by supporting the cause on social media, but who also are doing nothing to help with the clean up effort.

The Washington Post managed to find space to publish a story on the situation on Monday, but its story angle was completely sympathetic to the protesters - whose efforts have now cost Morton County taxpayers almost $33 million at last count, with millions more to come - and to the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, whose national call to action last summer was the catalyst for the influx of the outside protesters. Indeed, a January tally of the almost 600 protesters who have been arrested during this protest action demonstrated that more than 94% of them hail from out of state, and more than 180 had criminal records.

Standing-Rock-300x169.jpg

Abandoned property used by people who temporarily occupied the Oceti Sakowin camp to protest the Dakota Access pipeline is piled in front of Dumpsters headed to the landfill. A massive cleanup is intended to prepare for possible spring flooding and prevent contamination. LAUREN DONOVAN / BISMARCK TRIBUNE

The Washington Post's story makes no mention of any of that, no mention of the dozens of abandoned cars or of the estimated 200-plus large truckloads of garbage left behind by the protesters that remain at the site. No mention of all the arrests of out-of-staters, or of the massive cost to Morton County. Indeed, the only real mention the Post makes of trash in the camp reads as follows: "In the slurry running through camp are the remains of a mostly abandoned mini-city: an unopened packet of Top Ramen, a broken shovel, a mud-soaked glove, a pacifier."

National media outlets have tended to portray these protesters - many of whom are professionals - as a peaceful and spiritual bunch. When I asked Morton County spokesman Rob Keller about that, he chuckled and said, "this is not a peaceful and prayerful crowd." When I asked him what he meant, he said, "Let me put it this way - our county law enforcement officials have never been into that campsite, because it's a free-for-all."

Local officials have been stunned by the hateful nature of the protesters and their supporters, who have deluged the county's phone lines with death threats. "We have collected more than 25,000 recordings of hate calls," Keller says.

The local news media outlets - most notably the local Fox affiliate, KFYR, and Rob Port, a columnist for the Forum News Service who has done yeoman's work at the SayAnythingBlog - have been much more on top of the story, and willing to publish films and photos of the camp's real condition.



Oceti-Sakowin-Camp-Cleanup-300x199.jpg

February 2, 2017: Crews begin work to clean up the Oceti Sakowin camp. [Photo courtesy of NDResponse.gov]

The state of North Dakota also manages a website - NDRESPONSE - that provides excellent documentation of the real status of the protest site. Their reporting has very clearly demonstrated that there is far more "in the slurry running through the camp" than the Post's report implies, and with another week of spring-like weather to come, concerns about the potential for that slurry turning into a stream carrying pollutants into the nearby lake are very real indeed. "We are very concerned about the potential for significant flooding and runoff into the lake later this week," Keller said.

Given the way in which this situation has developed over time, it is fair to provide an admittedly partial list of well-heeled celebrities who have either visited the protest site since last August or expressed their support via social media for the #NoDAPL protest, and who are now making no effort whatsoever to assist in cleaning up the looming ecological disaster their "water protectors" have left behind:

Actress Shailene Woodley (who actually got herself arrested at the site for inciting a riot), The Reverend Jesse Jackson, Jane Fonda, Susan Sarandon, Mark Ruffalo, Patton Oswalt, Lawrence O'Donnell, Josh Fox, Leonardo DiCaprio, Bernie Sanders, Rosario Dawson, Samuel L. Jackson, Chris Hemsworth, Chris Evans.

There are many more, but you get the point. As of this writing, the total contribution made by these celebrities to the cleanup effort is zero. If any of this surprises you, you haven't been paying attention.
 
Just a bunch of anarchist PIGS, all should have been put in jail.. I would say it much better in my own words, but I remember Dale getting reprimanded, so I'll leave it there....
 
Reminds me of that article posted here recently where the early Powell rafters would dump their trash just after Cataract in efforts to sabatage the reservoir faster.
 
Feb 14, 2017 @ 09:13 PM 100,490 12 Stocks to Buy Now
Threat Of Flooding Rises At Dakota Access Protest Site

Actress Shailene Woodley (who actually got herself arrested at the site for inciting a riot), The Reverend Jesse Jackson, Jane Fonda, Susan Sarandon, Mark Ruffalo, Patton Oswalt, Lawrence O'Donnell, Josh Fox, Leonardo DiCaprio, Bernie Sanders, Rosario Dawson, Samuel L. Jackson, Chris Hemsworth, Chris Evans.

There are many more, but you get the point. As of this writing, the total contribution made by these celebrities to the cleanup effort is zero. If any of this surprises you, you haven't been paying attention.[/QUOTE]
 
The State should file a lawsuit against every one of these people personally for the cost of the cleanup and environmental damage. After they have $Millions deducted from their bank accounts, they may not be inclined to be so stupid again!
 
The State should file a lawsuit against every one of these people personally for the cost of the cleanup and environmental damage. After they have $Millions deducted from their bank accounts, they may not be inclined to be so stupid again!

Wanna bet?....
 
Maybe. These brain dead leftists are all about the money! When they have to spend it, they suddenly vanish!
 
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