Open Ears - Growing Fears

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This is what is sounds like - after removal of about 150 trees - when rainfall runs off (with soil) into the ditches instead of soaking into the earth to replenish dropping water tables

http://www.eap.mcgill.ca/MagRack/SF/Summer%2090%20M.htm
Copyright © 1990 REAP Canada. Henry Kock resident horticulturalist at the Arboretum at the University of Guelph wrote in part:
... Now is the time to look back at what happens to the earth when trees are removed over large areas, trees that are the sheltering skin of this earth, that prevent the wind from drying the soil and blowing it away.
There are only two natural deserts in the world, the Atacoma desert in Northern Chile and the Carcross desert in the Yukon... All the other deserts are what is left of what were once grasslands and forested watercourses! Through all of the ages people have ... cut trees... but never planted trees to protect the land...When the wind removes soil moisture the land loses its heat holding capacity. This loss is increased by the use of tile drainage and ditches... Without water's heat holding ability temperatures fluctuate to greater extremes; the land heats up more during the day, steaming off even more water, and cools off more rapidly at night, in creasing the risk of ground frost...rainfall runs off (with soil) into the ditches instead of gently soaking into the soil to replenish dropping water tables.
If the land is sheltered and ground cover is maintained...a gentle soaking rain fall from widespread low level clouds replenishes the ground water...the amount of rainfall does not determine soil moisture so much as the rate at which water returns to the soil, thereby replenishing or not the ground water reserves...
The evidence of a dropping water table can be seen in dead tree tops, trees that have not yet reached half their life expectancy...When a tree is stressed by drought all of the water that it can take up is needed for transpiration - to keep the plant cool. Consequently, there is little water available for photosynthesis. Without energy conversion from sunlight the tree can not feed itself well enough and the root system suffers directly, in turn leading to a downward spiral of reduced health and strength for the whole tree. This is true for any plant...