Army Corps levee tree rules rattle Sacramento flood agencies

From the Sacramento Bee:

If a tree grows on a levee, is it bad? According to a recent scientific review, there’s no way to tell by reading federal policy.

In 2007, in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers began enforcing national levee maintenance policy in California for the first time. The policy allows only grass on levees; trees and shrubs are banned.

The corps’ rules have caused alarm in the Central Valley ever since, where trees and shrubs growing on levees provide the only remaining riverside habitat. Critics say removing that vegetation poses not only huge fiscal and environmental burdens, but would also drastically change the region’s iconic scenery.

The levee maintenance policy has never been applied uniformly in California. In fact, local Army Corps officials have worked with the state for years to plant more trees on levees.

The corps commissioned a scientific peer review of its policy last year. Finished in December, the corps provided The Bee a copy last week. “The policies and guidance lack scientific foundation, as evidenced by broad anecdotal assumptions and lack of (non-Army Corps) literature citations,” the three-member review panel wrote. “The document is from the single perspective that vegetation on levees is bad and should be removed. Some vegetation may help stabilize … levees.”

Read more from the Sacramento Bee by clicking here.

Photo of trees on the levee at sunset in Sacramento by flickr photographer Orin Optiglot.

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