Letting excess stormwater inundate carefully managed low-lying areas would be good for California's natural ecosystems and a large, thirsty population at risk from water shortages and flooding.
An incoming storm threatens to overflow the swollen Salinas River, imperiling the lives of farmworkers and crops and triggering evacuations.
California needs to restore its floodplains. Not the whole valley floors, and not as they were in the pre-development era. But it needs to have many more acres of land reserved for floodwater. And restoring floodplains restores seasonal wetlands, which is good for the entire natural web that holds California together — including native plants that are less like to burn during fire season than invasive species, fish that regain spawning habitat, migratory birds that find nesting areas, mammals that can once again migrate across the valley.
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