NYT:In the West, Wet Winter Brings Blooms, Threats(West Nile, fires, bees)

[DeepModem Mom]

In the West, a Wet Winter Brings Blooms - and Threats
By CHRIS DIXON

Published: April 11, 2005


SAN DIEGO, April 10 - After the record rains and snows of winter, vast swaths of the Southwest have been transformed by color. The coastal foothills of California lie blanketed by patches of yellow mustard blooms, and the deserts of New Mexico and Arizona are drowned in once-in-a-century seas of grasses and wildflowers.

Yet the wet winter has also led to three threats: West Nile virus, wildfires and swarms of bees.

In 2004, California reported 28 deaths from 830 human cases of West Nile virus, a disease spread by mosquitoes, which thrive in wet weather. Though human cases have yet to appear in 2005, birds and mosquitoes with the virus have shown up in 20 of the 58 California counties. Last week, 12 infected dead birds were found, raising the total to 51....

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In the Cleveland National Forest in eastern San Diego County, over 40 inches of rain have filled a mountaintop gauge since last July. Thirty thousand acres of the forest burned in October 2003 in the Cedar Fire, which destroyed about 273,000 acres in total, the largest wildfire in California history. Officials said that once the new greenery dries out, it will create new fire hazards....All the new grasses, he added, will be problematic for desert areas. "You're going to see desert fires that we haven't seen in quite some time," (Acree Shreves, a fire management officer for the Cleveland National Forest) said....

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From November 2004 to March of this year, Phoenix had 7.51 inches of rain, more than double the average for the period. And Las Vegas was pelted with 8.94 inches, far above its average of 2.37 inches. From Las Vegas to Tucson, this has meant seas of flowers and swarms of bees....


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/11/national/11diego.html