USGS – Desdemona Despair

A post-wildfire debris flow in the burn scar of the Walker Creek Fire caused significant damage in central Washington in the summer of 2022. Photo: Washington State Department of Natural Resources

December 3, 2023

When burn scars become roaring earthen rivers – “We’re screwed for mudslides”

By Kylie Mohr 1 November 2023 (High Country News) – Two Septembers ago, the residents of Grotto, Washington, woke to the Bolt Creek Fire ripping through the mountains above their homes. “This doesn’t happen here,” Patricia Vasquez remembers saying at the time, shocked. While areas east of the state’s Cascade mountains frequently burn in the […]

Example of coastal flooding in Alamitos Bay, California with 0.25 m of sea level rise and storms. This example illustrate that there are locations with significant flood risks for small amounts of sea level rise when storms are considered. Graphic: Barnard, et al., 2019 / Scientific Reports

July 9, 2019

Trump officials deleting mentions of “climate change” from U.S. Geological Survey press releases – “It’s an insult to the science”

By Scott Waldman 8 July 2019 (Science) – A March news release from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) touted a new study that could be useful for infrastructure planning along the California coastline. At least that’s how President Donald Trump’s administration conveyed it. The news release hardly stood out. It focused on the methodology of […]