Why We Need to Follow the Flow of Nature?

California is flooding. Families are evacuating their homes, and some have lost their lives. The impact on the community and the country is significant, but this is not a new phenomenon. The California Valley is a major multibillion-dollar farming industry in America. Although, it was once a natural flood zone due to its low-lying area.

Holmes Flat, known today as Holmes, is seen submerged by the 1964 flood. - File photo

Over the years there have been various floods some more severe than others throughout the history of the California Valley. For example, there were floods in 1964 and 1995 where many lost their homes and had to evacuate as a result. One of the most severe atmospheric rivers to affect California Valley was the storm of January 1862, which resulted in widespread flooding across the state, including in the Central Valley. The storm lasted for several weeks and is considered one of the most significant meteorological events in California's history.

What I'm trying to get across here is that this is nothing new for farmers and residents in this area.

Yet, social media will continue to twist this event into a "world is ending crisis" while missing the significant ecological and environmental impact. Regardless, this is not limited to the California Valley, but it also affects Los Angeles and other rural to urban areas as well. Yes, infrastructure needs to be built to withstand this kind of weather and flooding, in the major cities like Los Angeles.

However, before the valley became farmland it was a diverse range of habitats, including wetlands, grasslands, and forests.

The conversion of California Valley's natural landscape to farmland has had a significant impact on the area's wildlife populations. Several species that were once common in the area, such as the San Joaquin kit fox, the blunt-nosed leopard lizard, and the giant kangaroo rat, are now endangered or threatened due to habitat loss and fragmentation. Additionally, the decline of wetland habitats has had a particularly negative impact on bird populations, with several species either going extinct or declining significantly in the area.

Yokuts Making Tule Boats is a photograph by Underwood Archives Onia which was uploaded on September 17th, 2014.

In addition to the loss of wildlife, a major lake Tulare was drained which had a significant ecological impact and cultural impact on the local indigenous communities in the area. The Yokut, Paiute, and Miwok peoples, among others relied on the lake for its resources and cultural practices.

One of the most notable figures in this protest was Frank Latta a historian and Yoimut a Yokut woman both fought to protect the lake and the rights of Indigenous people in the area. Latta organized protests and lobbied politicians to halt the draining of the lake, but his efforts were ultimately unsuccessful.

Yoimut, the last Chunut language speaker, warned historian Frank Latta in 1936 that the lake would return and that she wanted to be there to witness it. Yoimut grew up on an island in the lake that is now home to Alpaugh, a tiny farming community.

Farmers eventually pushed Yoimut and her family off the island, threatening to set fire to the dried reeds. Yoimut witnessed Tulare Lake being drained and mourned it until she dies in 1937. Today many Yokut people have never seen the lake filled until today.

I encourage you all to watch this informative video on the ramifications of draining this lake and the floodings if Central Valley.

Basically, some rich white man with power and money saw an opportunity to transform the landscape to convert the land into farms. That man being J.G Boswell, who owns the Boswell company, mainly growing cotton of all things in an environment that doesn't suit the Central Valley whatsoever.

This dude owns somewhere over 150,000 acres of land all taking up the area of Tulare Lake. Boswell Company is one of the top privatized farms in the country. Just looking up this business websites there's a tomato paste company, a brewery, and the signature cotton.

Now I get it, this farm most likely than not provides vital jobs to immigrants, H2A workers, and food the like literally the entire nation. HOWEVER, when a company such as Boswell, allegedly diverted the water flooding their fields to other local small farms and small towns where families and farm workers live.

The flooding doesn't end with just the atmospheric river, snow caps that have accumulated over the winter months are expected to melt this season. Now there are concerns with the natural water cycle of snow melting as the season gets warmer floods will be ever present again in the near future.

In conclusion, nature is doing its natural thing in the environment in which it should. Its humans and our interference with these cycles that are creating the devastation we see. We're shooting ourselves in the foot with not working with nature. From J.G. Boswell destroying an ecosystem, and planting nonnative crops and soil depleting crops to disrespecting the indigenous people's outcry on preserving the Central Valley.

California is experiencing a natural phenomenon in an unnatural terrain that was never meant to be live on in the manner that it is.

It's sad that people had to lose their homes and few people lost their lives.

and livelihoods. But so did the Yokut, Paiute, and Miwok peoples when they decided to destroy their homes and livelihood. The vital animals and plants lost to greed. Farmers in the Central Valley are experiencing the same pain and devastation as the indigenous people back then.