The Cry-Baby Valleys that Nourish Life

Listen to the Song in the Audio ↑

Read the Story Behind The Song ↓

My life has never been better than since I’ve accepted the fact that I’m a bonafide cry-baby. That’s right: when life gets tough, I start pouring snot -buckets of it, shamelessly soggy shirts from nasal eruptions without hesitation, I treasure the release of my grief and worries into salt-waterfalls of purification.

It hasn’t always been that way, however. In this song and story, I’ll share how the making of fertile valleys has helped me to embrace life’s inevitable flooding.

It starts with how valleys come into being. Many valleys are formed by snow-melt rivers that are, overtime, carved within the mountain¹. Typically, young valleys start with fast and steep flows that ultimately become flat-floored valleys as the river slowly meanders to form the landscapes. But, some valleys formed by huge glaciers. And, some valleys, like the California Central Valley, are formed “when an oceanic plate runs into a continental plate and slides beneath it.²” This is called subduction. 

However valleys are made, the rivers (that run through them, or drain into them) are tremendous sources of life that “provide for one third of global food supplies³” This is because as rivers make their way from the mountain to the sea, they pick up and carry rich sediments, feeding the fish and plants who (then) feed all the life in the ecosystem (including us). Then, when rivers flood, they spread this generous source of nutrients across the valley, making it very fertile soil.

Throughout history, humans have relied heavily on the rich floodplains of rivers to sustain them. Starting in ancient times, the Egyptians, for example, knew the flood-power of the Nile to fertilize their crops and built their entire civilization around it.⁴⁵. A similar story goes for the rich Central Valley of California, which uses only 1% of America’s farmland to produce 25% of the whole country’s food⁶. This is largely due to the rich soil that the Central Valley provides after “eons of erosion from the adjoining mountains depositing rich sediment to create deep topsoil and prime farmland.⁷”

With that in mind, flooding is essential in the process of nutrients making their way into the valley’s soil as, before the gold rush, snowmelt from the Sierra Nevada mountains would flood the valley to form an “immense, quiet inland sea of a hundred miles long.⁸”

Though the many Native Californian tribes lived in harmony with these flood cycles for thousands of years, the gold-rushers were not prepared for such conditions as “new settlers in Northern California lived close to the river, where boats would sail into port and visitors stopped for food and lodging.⁹” So, when the Great Flood of 1850 hit, the young city of Sacramento was absolutely devastated. It was then that levees began to be constructed to keep the flooding out of cities and farms. 

But early the levees didn’t always withstand the tremendous forces of the floods, with the first substantial levee breach flooding and destroying the city, again.  Then, the Great Flood of 1862 (which extended over the entire west coast, marking one of the greatest disasters in modern California’s history) left the entire central valley completely underwater (up to depths of 30 feet in some places¹⁰) . 

As a result of these devastating events, the state began “system-wide construction of flood management facilities, including dams, levees, weirs, and bypass channels” creating “one of the most complex flood-control systems in the world” that “has allowed agricultural and urban development to flourish in the historic floodplains¹¹.”

Since then, however, “because of drought and crop rotation, up to 20 percent of the cropland is now fallow¹²” presenting a huge challenge for not only California, but for the whole nation that depends on it as primary food source. 

Metaphorically, the predicament is one that I can relate to: I know the fallow feeling of stifling the floods and damming the rivers of my life. Indeed, that’s the role that addiction played: to suppress the deluge of emotions that come from long and harsh winters of change. But the lessons of the valley remind me that life depends on these seasons. If I am to flourish over time, I need to figure out a way to integrate the flood. 

The farmer-founded non-profit, River Partners, is doing just that by restoring river ecosystems throughout California. One of their largest, and most successful projects, Dos Rios, is in the Central Valley where they have restored 2100 acres of farmland to its native form as a floodplain habitat. The project (which has taken over 10 years and 40 million dollars), has planted 280,000 trees, protected 9 priority species, restored 8 miles of riverfront, and conserved 700,000 acre-feet of freshwater. 

Restoring these floodplains is natural and cost effective solution to the valley’s increasingly flood-prone nature as it “allow[s] flood waters to slow down and spread out and sink into overdrafted groundwater aquifers, creating a new water supply and providing other benefits like wildlife habitat for imperiled species¹³.”

Since this restored floodplain faced its first major “atmospheric river” in 2023, it has effectively proven to “trap all the excess water without flooding any private land.” Plus, “the removal of a few thousand acres of farmland hasn’t put anyone out of work in nearby towns, nor has it hurt local government budgets. Indeed, the groundwater recharge from the project may soon help restore the unhealthy aquifers¹⁴.”

It’s an inspiring reminder that there’s always a way to restore the wellspring of Life. Though upon first glance the sludge and floods of life may not look appealing, the more I’m able to recognize the role they play in my overall flourishing, the easier it is to accept their gifts.

So, with this next song, I celebrate the delivery of life as the weeping waterfalls of change flood me with a new chance to begin.

Wanna hear the Audio ReadAlouds that are coming soon? Become a Paid Subscriber to hear the song and the story too.

1. https://www.thoughtco.com/valley-formation-and-development-1435365

2. https://www.usgs.gov/news/science-snippet/earthword-subduction#:~:text=Subduction%20occurs%20when%20an%20oceanic,plate%20and%20slides%20beneath%20it.

3. https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffopperman/2023/06/16/rivers-of-food-how-rivers-support-one-third-of-global-food-supply/?sh=5663fdef5f6d

4. https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/nile-river/

5. https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffopperman/2023/06/16/rivers-of-food-how-rivers-support-one-third-of-global-food-supply/?sh=5663fdef5f6d

6.  https://fruitgrowers.com/how-the-central-valley-feeds-the-nation/#:~:text=Central%20Valley%20produces%20hundreds%20of%20different%20crops&text=Other%20crops%20enjoy%20niche%20production,1%25%20of%20all%20U.S.%20farmland.

7. https://farmtogether.com/learn/blog/why-california-is-an-agricultural-powerhouse

8. https://norcalwater.org/efficient-water-management/flood-protection/#:~:text=System%2Dwide%20construction%20of%20flood,performed%20these%20flood%20control%20actions.

9. https://www.abc10.com/article/news/history/when-sacramento-became-levee-city/103-48d5063b-ad48-4b32-9709-c7ca4fe8ea79#:~:text=The%20flood%20occurred%20on%20Jan,inland%20sea%22%20of%20the%20valley.

10.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Flood_of_1862#:~:text=In%202012%2C%20hydrologists%20and%20meteorologists,from%20Oregon%20to%20Southern%20California.

11. https://norcalwater.org/efficient-water-management/flood-protection/#:~:text=System%2Dwide%20construction%20of%20flood,performed%20these%20flood%20control%20actions.

12. https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/draining-california/

13.  https://riverpartners.org/initiative/flood-safety/

14. https://www.wired.com/story/california-is-solving-its-water-problems-by-flooding-its-best-farmland/