Greetings members. I want to tell you a little bit about what has been happening around here the past couple of months. In late April, WMC and several other professional societies co-hosted "Whose Watershed Is It?" in Sacramento. This was the first time that WMC has collaborated with other organizations on a major interdisciplinary conference. Nearly 300 people attended an excellent program.

I also attended the third annual Truckee River Conference in Reno last month. The meeting had special meaning after the flood of '97. We learned a few things. For one, the flooding in Reno would have been a lot worse except for the several reservoirs on the Truckee River. Also, because of a 1930's court decision which requires that the level of Lake Tahoe be maintained below a ceiling elevation, the lake was spilling throughout the floods, aggravating the downstream peaks. Finally, the flood has caused the resurrection of a dormant Corps of Engineers project to levee the river through the city. Balancing all this were presentations by Jeff Mount on why levees are not a solution to flooding and Ben Urbonas from Denver who described that city's approach to flood control. The Denver Urban Drainage and Flood Control District has done a great job of coordination among local jurisdictions and blending flood control with recreational and aesthetic developments. The message to Reno was fairly direct: engage people in the river management process, develop a vision and implement it. I guess time will tell how the "biggest little city on earth" responds. Tremendous dollar values are at stake since over 20 million square feet of industrial and commercial space were engulfed by 1-2 feet of water last winter. Losses exceeded $150 million and many businesses were closed for two weeks, some forever. There appears to be support for a regional flood control entity to try and deal with the problems in a comprehensive manner.

Another note: The WMC Board is engaged in strategic planning. We would certainly appreciate your comments and suggestions on these issues. In the last issue of the Networker I raised some of them. We are waiting to hear from you.

Have a great summer and I hope to see you at one or both of the fall field meetings.

Richard R. Harris
Extension Forestry Specialist
Environmental Science, Policy, and Management
University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-3114
(510) 642-2360; (510) 643 5438 FAX rrharris@nature.berkeley.edu