Stanford Study Shows Where – And Why – Recharge Is Uplifting Sunken Ground
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https://sjvwater.org/stanford-study-shows-where-and-why-recharge-is-uplifting-sunken-ground/ <-- shared technical article
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https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ad5855 <-- shared paper
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#GIS #spatial #mapping #remotesensing #groundwater #subsidence #overpumping #water #hydrology #waterresources #SanJoaquinValley #California #SanJoaquin #recharge #rechargingaquifer #aquifer #InSAR #radar #uplift #elevation #spatialanalysis #spatiotemporal #AEM #soil #geology #clay #sediment #gravel #compaction #infrastructure #canal #watersecurity #farming #agriculture

The soil in the raised beds at the community garden is so hard, the carrots are literally tying themselves in knots. Some of them had greens as tall as my head, with just a round nubbin of carrot maybe an inch big. The above ground growth looks so lush, I didn't suspect what was happening under the surface.

One of the other volunteers was working on a bed whose bordering planks are rotting out. One whole side of the bed was disassembled, giving me a view of the cross section of the soil to about 1.5' deep. I wasn't expecting it to be so homogenous, all one color and terribly stiff. These beds aren't walked on, nothing is happening to compress the soil, it's just got hardly any humus. It's even touching the earth below, so worms and ants should be able to travel through it freely.

You can't sink a trowel into it. You can chip at it, and it makes a *chunk chunk* noise and comes apart a few 1/2" crumbs at a time. The small chunks can't be easily mushed or broken by my fingers.

Most of the gardening I've personally done, has been in hydroponic clay balls or directly in water. The place I lived in SF had dangerously tainted soil, so I just kept all my stuff in aquaponics. I haven't had much experience with veggies, so this is my first hands-on look at this style of growing. Most of my knowledge has been from reading and videos.

These beds are in bad shape. I'm a bit surprised, because I thought they'd know how to prevent it getting like this-- but I don't know how quickly or easily it reaches this state, or what the preventative measures are. The garden has been here for over a decade.

It's interesting, because they have a pretty large compost setup. Three cubic pallet-sized stalls, plus a pile to the side. All in varying stages of full, the results pulled out and used on the beds regularly-- but it's apparently not nearly enough.

The guy working on the bed walls says the beds need to be tilled. That might be a temporary fix, but it's going to be tough even for a machine.

There must be a better way to handle this.

My impulse would be to just plant loads of radishes and leave it until next season. And/or toss in loads of mulch and Ruth Stout the thing. The beds have sunk about 6" below the edges of their walls, so there's space. But what do I know??

For most of my life I've not had access to a yard to grow things, so it's good to finally get some direct learning experiences.

#Gardening
#RaisedBeds
#Compaction
#Carrots

The East Coast Is Sinking [USA]
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https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/02/13/climate/flooding-sea-levels-groundwater.html <-- shared media article
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https://doi.org/10.1093/pnasnexus/pgad426 <-- shared paper
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#GIS #spatial #mapping #gischat #remotesensing #subsidence #EastCoast #USA #groundwater #pumping #overextraction #depletion #aquifers #waterresources #saltwaterintrusion #coast #coastal #engineeringgeology #soils #reclamation #sediments #compaction #water #hydrology #dewatering #SLR #sealevel #sealevelrise #climatechange #SLR #glacial #isostaticrebound #geology #landmovement #sedimentation #USGS
@USGS

Logging practices:
"It's basically dead" AI reveals the legacy of decades of logging in Victoria

"An AI-based analysis of 20 years of VicForests’ logging, researchers say, shows the scale of failed regeneration in Victoria’s state forests.The data, which has been shared exclusively with the ABC, suggests that 20 per cent of Victoria’s state forests have not regenerated after logging.... That’s almost 13,000 hectares of state forest the analysis found to be standing in a state of ruin."

"Now the state is shutting its native logging industry in a matter of weeks, and the forests that were once given to Victoria’s state-run logging agency, VicForests, are being returned to the public."

"By law, the logging agency is required to regenerate the areas it has logged and hand them back to the public in a healthy state. But until now, how much that has actually happened has largely been a mystery."

“VicForests is definitely doing a dodgy job, pretty much as they’ve done for the best part of the last 20 years.... We have a biodiversity problem, we have a carbon problem, we have a water problem, we have a fire risk problem,” Professor Lindenmayer
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https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-12-01/ai-analysis-finds-failed-forest-regrowth-after-logging-/103153614
#logging #NativeForests #LoggingIndustry #VicForests #failure #destruction #compaction #machinery #TimberMining #regeneration #PublicOwnership #liability #StopLogging #NSWLogging #SaveTuckersNob #Bushfires #ClimateEmergency #biodiversityCrisis #extinctions

"More than 850 small-scale opal miners in Lightning Ridge and White Cliffs have been granted invalid mining licences."
Rehabilitation of Lightning Ridge?
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-05-24/government-error-hundreds-of-western-nsw-opal-miners-jobless/102388280
#Opals #Mining #Regulation #NSW #Erosion #Compaction #HeavyMachinery #VegetationClearing SurfaceDisturbance #Moonscape #Legacy

#Compaction - The act of making compact, or the state of being compact.