the river always flooded, but human intervention has exacerbated the process, with hydraulic mining—hillsides washed away in pursuit of gold—the flooding of the Sacramento and its tributaries worsened, their beds silted in with Sierra mud.

fields turn green with winter's rains

even now, flood control leads to worse floods, counter-intuitive perhaps, but more levees means more land that can be developed, and paved land doesn’t absorb water, she says.

a wild turkey runs down the driveway

my brother tells me they’re putting in a new Super Wal-Mart north of Chico, this is in addition to the Wal-Mart on the south end of town. and old walnut orchards (you can see the trunks split half-white and half-black, an English walnut grafted onto a black walnut) are being cleared for new housing.