It’s not smart to bet against scientists. Their minds grasp numbers faster than most and they’re constantly calculating and recalculating the odds.
Vance Kennedy is a scientist, or was before retiring from the U.S. Geological Survey some years back. He studied rivers, the water in them and the stuff in the water – not fish, but sand, silt and clay and how it all moves.
As the hillsides of eastern Stanislaus County have become covered with almond trees, Kennedy has been calculating the odds. He knows the hillsides were graded and ripped before being planted. Then the ground was often left bare without cover to hold the dirt in place. All this, said Kennedy, could add up to disaster.