Each summer I switch from moving pixels on computer screens to moving pipes on hay fields. I enjoy this balance between abstract symbols and material stuff. This year, noting our low soil moisture while anticipating draught, my change came earlier than usual. I'm shutting down my Apple computers and firing up my Berkeley pumps. Throughout the northern Rockies, I find guides, outfitters, anglers, environmentalists, and researchers worried about our spring creeks and rivers.
Problems stem from the mild winter, low snowpacks, and warm days leading to early runoff.
Even here, global warming isn't entirely beneficial. Before European settlement, the aboriginal hydrograph followed a predictable pattern of high spring runoff and late summer drawdown. The result was that by late summer many creeks would warm up and dry up. Some were so low that fish were easily predated or died from elevated water temperatures and depleted oxygen. Settlement of the mountain valleys, however, substantially changed them, and, in terms of fish and wildlife, significantly improved this situation.