Every year or two, Americans face "historic" weather events; the Yellowstone fires, Hurricane Katrina and the Great Flood of 1993 come to mind. So far this year, we have witnessed a severe, prolonged drought in south Texas and record flooding along the Red River near Fargo, North Dakota.
But the term "historic" is a bit misleading. North American weather records are, at most, a few hundred years old while the current ecosystems of our Continent have been developing for thousands, if not millions, of years. The landscape and vegetation patterns that we see today are a reflection of natural forces acting on the underlying geology; these forces include recurrent floods, droughts, storms, wildfires and freeze-thaw cycles.
Unfortunately, as modern man colonized America, he paid little attention to the clues of past natural events. Building our settlements on floodplains, barrier islands and moisture-starved landscapes, we have relied on dams, levees, aqueducts and deep wells to protect and sustain our towns and cities. But, as we learn time and again, we are no match for nature's whim and fury.
