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The West Bank of the Clear-Dish is unique in that it is flanked on one side by the Clear-Dish
Water, which is cool, continuous, and clean, and on the west side by water from the irrigation ditch,
the sand of a lateral, which is seasonal. So you have this very narrow strip of vegetation,
basically three miles long in north-south that is a border type of ecosystem between the
Kerala's Basque on the east and on the west by Kerala's fields and residences. A proposal has
been made to remove some trees and vegetation along the West Bank of the Clear-Dish from Romero
Road on the north down to Priestley Road on the south. This stretch is practically the only stretch
now that is so wonderfully shaded and you can feel the difference when you ride from the shade
into the sun. The Clear-Dish is provided historically a lot for the community. So many of us spent
time enjoying kind of the micro habitat that's there. A darting dragon flies, the birds flitting
around is a special and unique part of Kerala's. That particular stretch, which runs along the
west side of the ditch, is the most active and I will say that with songbirds, sparrows, small
nesting birds, ducks, often herons are in there, but it also provides the citizens of Kerala's
a beautiful oasis in which to walk. The trees just are so much a part of the character of the Basque
and this is just a wonderful thing for us to have and it would be just a shame to lose these trees.
With the function of this Clear-Dish, it's actually a drain and so the whole concern was many,
many years ago to maintain the integrity of all the farm fields. There needed to be some sort of
drainage subsurface to clear that water out from underneath. So to use these ag fields into
perpetuity, you need to prevent it from turning into a swamp. The quality of this water is actually
very, very high. It's not the muddy water that comes in directly from the river and so this is
actually a really high quality habitat for many, many species of animals. This type of habitat
that shows this uneven vegetative pattern with the canopy, the mid-story and the understory is
disproportionately important to bird life. There are between 30 and 40 birds per acre that have
been recorded in this habitat, especially during the winter months where the number is nearly
double. So what the birds are needing are shelter and food and just cover for escape cover. During
the winter months these birds are living kind of at the edge, they come in to feed, they come in to
drink and to bathe and then they have escape cover which is very important and it's not just the
birds we're talking about, we're talking about mammals as well. So there's a whole suite of
vertebrate species. In fact over 80 percent of the vertebrates that are found in the southwest
United States, so this is birds, mammals, all life, 80 percent actually use riparian systems at some
point in their lives and 50 percent can be considered riparian obligates meaning they have to
have this type of riparian vegetation to survive. North of Romero Road and south of Priestly Road,
the clear ditch area has been cleared of vegetation many years ago and actually
that cleared area is very much a wasteland. When we first moved here 38 years ago the entire
length of the irrigation ditch was a lush tree bush filled area and then suddenly that whole
area was literally clear cut every bush every tree and now it is just like walking along a
parched desert. So I find that my walks that used to go south I'm now continuing to go north where
it is lush and green and inviting for everyone. I don't see too many walkers on the south side
anymore. The west bank of the clear ditch is a big recreation destination for many people from
Corralis and outside of Corralis. All use the sand volateral, particularly the east side that is
shaded by trees from the west bank. With having all of the vegetation overhanging the water it provides
a cooling effect because the sun is not heating up that water there's less evaporation and so the
overall result is actually more water into the drain which then will be making it into the river.
There are concerns about how much evapotranspiration the plants will actually cause
but there are many studies that show that it's either a net loss of zero or actually it would be
beneficial to keep the vegetation there to prevent the evaporation. When the water temperature
is raised it is detrimental to a lot of the aquatic life that's in the drain itself including
the fish that are in there as well. High temperature equates to less oxygen in the water which means
less life in the water overall. For many reasons trees have been cut in this area over the last
five years several thousand trees have been removed since the Corralis boski for restoration
projects and cutting fuel breaks. Once a tree is gone it is gone another tree will not grow back
for 30 40 years. So here in the valley we've had scientific studies on the bird life since the 80s
and the beauty is that a lot of that was gathered in the before period if you will and then the
after period. Work from Hauksaloft have they've been doing bird surveys here in this boski for
20 years based upon work done by Hink and Omark back in the 80s so we have this really long history
of bird studies in the area and the Hauksaloft studies have shown that the populations are less
than half in the cleared areas during the summer months than they are in the unclear areas meaning
that at least biologically they're nearly a desert compared to what it was beforehand. More and more
areas like this are being deforested and de vegetated and the hope is that Corralis
and this middle real grand area can keep jewels of ecosystem of recreation multiple use like this
west bank of the clear ditch. With the overall rationale for further development along the ditch
it's something that I'm having a hard time digesting as a biologist I look at the science behind
all of this as an ecologist I don't think what they're proposing makes a great deal of sense
including cutting this drain even deeper and clearing all the vegetation now these animals
they need to go somewhere well where do they go if we submit this entire ecosystem to death by
a thousand cuts which is what we've been doing for many many years we have violated the biological
integrity of a functioning system and this is something that we really do not want to see here in Corralis.
