Commentary: American River levee work angers residents at loss of trees
Since the founding of Sacramento, residents have treasured the beauty of the American River while living in fear of its destructive power. Were the American to defy its man-made banks in a series of historic storms, hundreds of thousands of residents would face a flood disaster modern-day Sacramento has never seen. The more we try to tame the river — as when the Folsom Dam was constructed in 1955 to deny the river its floodplain — the more we disfigure it. This ugly trade-off has marked the passage of time in Sacramento and is as central to the essence of this community as the state Capitol or the Tower Bridge. A proposal to shore up some erosion spots along the lower American River is the most recent flashpoint in the trade-off between public safety and nature.
-Written by Tom Philip, Sacramento Bee columnist.