Water is life.

Alter the course of water, and you alter the climate, itself.

In the previous article, we looked, very briefly, at the damage caused to the climate through alterations made to waterways, and the water cycle, in general.  In this article, we will look at the function of the healthy water cycle.

Where Does the Water Cycle Begin?

It is eternal.  It neither begins nor ends. It is a cycle, and as such, it goes ’round and ’round forever. As long as the planet is alive, the water cycle continues.  In fact, the water cycle is so integral to the life of the planet, and life on the planet (same thing) you could compare it to breathing.  Or blood flow.  If the water and the air are not moving around together, the way they are meant to, there can be no life.

Yes, there was a time when Earth did not exist.  And there was a time on Earth before water appeared.  But, by our very limited reckoning, that was an eternity before time even began.

What Happens in a Water Cycle?

A lot!

Powered by solar energy, water is continuously cycled, or re-cycled, through multiple stages, all around the earth.  Also known as the hydrological cycle, the processes of water include evaporation, condensation, precipitation, runoff, sublimation deposition, transpiration and transportation.  There is also the infiltration and percolation that forms groundwater, as well as plant uptake from the groundwater.

Evaporation is the process where water becomes vapor.  Being lighter than air, it rises.  The larger the body of water, the more evaporation there is.

Condensation is what happens when water vapor particles condense together into clouds.  Once they become heavy enough, the water vaper falls back to earth as rain.  You can see this happening in a closed terrarium, as water collecting on the inside of the glass before dripping back down

Precipitation is rain, snow, sleet and hail falling to the earth from the clouds.  It can be completely liquid or in various degrees of frozen.

Runoff is the liquid water in streams, creeks and rivers that leads into bigger rivers, lakes, and eventually back to an ocean.  Melting snow can be considered runoff, too.

Sublimation is a process where solid snow or ice returns to the atmosphere by turning directly into vapor..

Deposition is the opposite of Sublimation. It is water vapor becoming a frozen solid, snow or ice..

Transpiration is the movement of water through plants.  It’s how they stay hydrated without becoming water-logged. Water in the soil is pulled up by the roots and transpires, out through the leaves, back into the atmosphere.  In a year, a mature oak tree can put 40,000 gallons of water back into the atmosphere, or about 109 gallons a day.  This is how large forests make rain and why deforestation is so destructive.  (One of many reasons.)

Transportation is the movement of water, in different phases, through the atmosphere.

Infiltration and Percolation is liquid runoff soaking into the ground.

Groundwater is water in the ground that is drawn up into plants – Plant Uptake.  Large trees can draw up hundreds of gallons of water a day.

 

Interesting Factoid-

Most of the planet’s water is in the salty oceans.  Only about 3% of Earth’s water is fresh…with most of that frozen in glaciers.

 

 Healthy Water Cycles

But, of course, it goes way beyond a simple circular model.  It’s a good way to get our heads around it it, but the truth is, it’s barely understood.  The paths and influences of Earth’s water cycle are extremely complex and nuanced.  They integrate air, clouds, oceans, lakes, vegetation, snowpack and glaciers…in other words, all the major parts of the climate.

The climate varies and changes and water influences how.  Likewise, water is influenced by climate change.  Water and climate fit together like a perpetual motion Yin/Yang symbol.  Each is an aspect of the other.  Each leads into and out of the other.

When we alter the course of water, we alter the climate.

And it’s not just storm drains that are altering the natural course of water.  Engineers reverse the flows of rivers, and turn them on and off like spigots.  There are 58,000 large dams in the world.  Worldwide, cities import the equivalent of 10 Colorado rivers to meet their needs.  There are so many pipelines and canals that, stretched end to end, they would reach halfway around the planet.  Huge pumps draw up water from aquafers to irrigate crops.  Major rivers are depleted to trickles.

It’s too much.  It has broken the water cycle.

The way things are now, talking about healthy water cycles seems impossible.  It immediately becomes a discussion about how they have been damaged.

“Water is the lifeblood of our bodies, our economy, our nation and our well-being.”
– Stephen Johnson

Water Cycle in The Forest 

“Water is always working, reorganizing the land.”
― Tim Palmer

Since permaculture is, at its core, about creating and accelerating a forest succession process, it makes sense to look at the water cycle, specifically in the context of a forest.

Forests, as living, dynamic eco systems, are an integral aspect of the water cycle, so increasing deforestation has an increasingly adverse effect on the water cycle.  But it doesn’t function on a machine model.  It’s not like fixing a faulty electrical system in your car.  That’s simply humanity’s wrong-headed way of looking at things.  The various “systems” in a forest are all integrated, interdependent and in intimate cooperation with each other.  It’s an organism.  It functions like an organism.  All the water molecules, soil organisms, fungi, insects, birds, reptiles, amphibians and mammals, all the life, death and decay have important parts to play in the perfectly orchestrated symphony of this living process.

Even the thickness and composition of the forest canopy influences the transpiration process by altering how much moisture and energy move into the atmosphere.

Obviously deforestation is bad.

Deforestation has been progressing at an alarming rate, since the Bronze Age. You have to burn a lot of trees to get one bronze belt buckle.  And even more for the endless instruments of war.  It had already gotten so bad by the Iron Age that a new metallurgy had to be devised that required the burning of fewer trees.  Even back then they could see how bad it was.

The Arab Desert?  Was once a mighty forest.

The reality of this makes it hard to see the reality of a healthy water cycle in the forest, when forests barely exist anymore. Not the way they did. But we will try.  Because the only way to start bringing it back is to understand where it started.  On a global level. Think globally, act locally.

In a very small nutshell, there are three important ways healthy forests support an endlessly cycling supply of clean water

Water Quality & Quantity

Erosion, by either rain or wind, breaks up soil particles, allowing them to be washed or blown away.  This, in turn, has a detrimental effect on both water quality and quantity.

Forests are the perfect water filter.  Strong, interconnected root systems hold the soil together and the decaying leaves and branches are an aid in the absorption of nutrients and sediment.  Undisturbed forests keep sediment flows where they belong: out of waterways and into the soil, where plants can utilize them, creating more health and vitality for animals, who, in turn, also feed plants.

 Water Availability

Healthy, undisturbed forests slow down rain and snow runoff, by absorbing it into its vast underground root system.  This, in turn, reduces the possibility of both droughts and floods. And with so many trees transpiring so much water vapor into the air, across the whole planet, rainfall is perfectly regulated…in a Whole Earth, systemic way.  Excess ground water over here is converted by trees into rainclouds which blow away and rain over there, where the depleted groundwater is replenished.  Cooling rains also keep the temperatures down.  As a living entity, the Earth’s body is self-regulating, not unlike our immune systems. We are, after all, simply extensions of our living planet. So, even when deforestation happens in one place, the devastating effects of dis-regulated rainfall patterns are felt across the globe.  When you live on a sphere, everything comes back around.  Deforestation in Central Africa can decrease rainfall in Illinois by as much as 35%.  Deforestation of the Amazon rain forest affects the whole planet.  It’s all connected.  It’s all One.

Water Treatment

A natural infrastructure, like a forest, is more than just pretty scenery, wildlife habitat or a recreational area for humans to get away to.  It’s all those things, to be sure, but it’s also the best…and cheapest… way to ensure clean water for all.  Towns and cities that rely on expensive water treatment plants have a much more difficult time of it without any surrounding forest.

For example.  New York City spent $1.5 billion on preserving and protecting over a million acres of forested watershed in the Catskills.  This saved them nearly $8 billion, the price of building a new water filtration plant.  That’s a lot.  And water that’s been filtered through a forest is better than water filtered through a treatment plant.  No comparison.

 

In Conclusion

When it comes to water, there is no conclusion.  But this is a good place to conclude this article. Upon reading what I’ve written, I see many places where I can expand it, but enough for now.

I hope you’ll join me for the next article, where we’ll be looking at making regenerative Rain Gardens.  Remember, regenerate one tiny spot, and it effects the whole planet.  Obviously, one little Rain Garden will not counter the effects of the Hoover Dam, but small changes, added up, end up having important consequences.

And. as always, please leave a comment.  I love to hear from you all!