We learned in this month's Astronomy Magazine that computer models suggest that it might be possible that the sun did rise in the West for the first few tens of millions of years of Earth's history. We could buy that.
We could also buy that it is possible to watch it snow and see the snow sublimate simultaneously in Colorado in April, as it did yesterday.
What we can't buy is yesterday's argument in the Denver Post that dead forests are a good thing.
While almost a million acres of evergreens across the state are dying from an unparalleled outbreak of bark beetles, experts say the infestation is creating hidden benefits.
Among them are increased water runoff to streams, opportunities for new vegetation and more varied wildlife habitat
If increased water runoff is a good thing, why would a state that has problems divvying up its scarce water want to have forests at all? Quick, Somebody send Mark Udall a memo that we in Colorado don't want roadless wilderness, we want roadless bald mountains with deep gullies and mud filled streams. Mark Udall is to be commended for his foresight in helping kill off the forests so that the state could have a more abundant, if silt filled water supply.
We can't wait until later this spring when the heavy snow pack in the mountains create flooding across the state.
The additional water may, however, be of limited benefit because it will flow into streams during the wettest times of the year, MacDonald said.
"You'd have to capture that additional melt that you get early in the spring, and that means building reservoirs," he said.
The increase in water also would be relatively short-lived, typically lasting only 20 to 30 years, until new plants and trees replace the dying pines.
Canon City is already expecting flooding this year. Only the magnitude is uncertain.
Astronomy magazine is credible. The Denver Post and Steve Lipsur, the author of this ignorant article aren't credible, they're incredible. This gets filed under "the Denver Post Embarrasses Itself."
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