SUPERBLOOM: An Upside To The California Downpours

Short Wave

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🗓️ 28 April 2023

⏱️ 15 minutes

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Summary

California's wet winter has devastated many local communities. It has also benefited some of the state's endangered ecosystems. Those benefits are on full display in California's largest remaining grassland. Wetlands, long severed from the rivers and streams that nourished them, are being flooded with freshwater. Biologists are seeing baby salmon, fattened by new food sources in flood plains, make their way to sea. Endangered birds and waterfowl are nesting next to flooded fields. Today, NPR climate correspondent Nate Rott takes us on a tour through California's booming natural beauty.

To see one of the superblooms and other ecological benefits, check out Nate's story — filled with photos by NPR's ace photographer Claire Harbage: https://n.pr/428xWOB.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to shortwave from NPR.
0:04.3	Hey shortwaveers, Emily Kwong here.
0:07.1	So if you live in California, I don't need to tell you that the weather has been rough.
0:11.9	Levy failures in flooding.
0:13.6	Atmospheric rivers that could bring more flooding and infrastructure damage to the already
0:18.0	relic state.
0:19.0	In California's Central Valley, a once vibrant lake is back and that's not necessarily
0:24.0	a good thing.
0:25.0	So yeah, Emily, the state has just been hammered this year by storm after storm after
0:29.9	storm.
0:30.9	Yeah, and you, Nate, brought you've been covering California's historic flooding
0:33.9	for NPR's climate desk.
0:35.4	Yeah, it's right I have.
0:36.4	You know, everything from river flooding here where I live in Ventura, California to that
0:40.8	reborn lake you just heard about where the flooding I can say is definitely not a good
0:45.7	thing for many, many people living in the area.
0:48.5	But I heard that there is actually a positive side to all of this rain.
0:52.0	Tell us about that.
0:53.0	Yeah, it's a literal bright side.
0:55.0	We've got the facility of the purple.
0:56.8	We've got the goldfields which are the.
0:59.2	So that voice you hear, Emily is Gabe Garcia.
	...

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