They Get It in California . . .

Excerpt from "Wildlifes Trial by Fire Is Just Beginning," Los Angles Times, Nov. 2, 2003:

"Trees are like sponges, filtering pollutants out of the air, intercepting rainfall" and helping replenish groundwater supplies, said Greg McPherson, director of the U.S. Forest Services Center for Urban Forest Research at UC Davis. "Burning up those trees is like losing one of your lungs. The air quality isnt going to be the same. The runoff isnt going to clear. The system is going to be perturbed."

This also makes case for what happens with the vast deforestation created by mountaintop removal.

Another article, from Nov. 3, "California Wildfires Will Bring Floods, Mudslides," drives home the point:

LOS ANGELES - Long after Californias raging wildfires have finally been extinguished, they will still be wreaking havoc on the lives of Californians, setting off a dangerous wave of flash floods and mudslides.

When the wildfires scorched more than 750,000 acres of southern California, an area just slightly smaller that the U.S. state of Rhode Island, they destroyed all vegetation on mountains and hillsides.

Now when heavy rain falls this winter, there will be nothing to stop it from penetrating directly into the soil. In addition, waxy compounds in plants and soil that are released during fires create a natural barrier in the soil that prevents rain water from seeping deep into the ground.

The result is erosion, mudslides and excess water running off the hillsides, often causing flash flooding in the communities below.