Dear Sir,
No doubt the recent flooding has caused some interruptions to daily life and crop loss along the Lachlan and Belabula Rivers. While these are disturbing to farming success, we should remember that the very existence of the fine soil river flats is due to millions of years of erosion and soil deposition to create them. This new soil is full of nutrients for the next round of cropping, and the slowed water also has more time to re-charge the groundwater removed over drier times.
It is best to also remember that the clearing out of fallen trees from the river beds is a retrograde step; in that the water is not slowed and held back to allow silt to fall out of suspension on to the flats along the rivers, and that this same clearing allows the flood waters to then run unchecked at a higher velocity which causes greater erosion and scouring along the river bed and banks. The effects then are not so much the loss of strong river banks, but also the loss of habitat to water living creatures like crayfish (yabbies), fish proper, water rats, platypus (yes, they used to be in the river) worms etc., who are taken downstream to perish.
There can be a silver lining in clouds over the long term.
Regards
Bob Sherwood
Perth Western Australia