The disastrous policy of the US Parks Department to fight all fires has been replaced by a more realistic fuel management program since the Yellowstone Park fires in 1988. The flawed policy had the effect of preserving unburned wood on the forest floor for year after year until there was so much fuel scattered about that even a small fire threatened the entire forest. A more realistic policy is to allow an average burn off each year to avoid a conflagration.

Flood control is pursuing the same catastrophic course in a different but forseeable way. By preventing every river flood, the main stem flood control levees are destroying the surrounding wetlands by starving them of fresh water and silt. Just like dry wood on the forest floor, dying wetlands and salt water incursion make the area more vulnerable to storm surge and defeat the purpose of the levees. Sure the flood waters will come from the gulf during a hurricane rather than from the river in the spring melt, but the result will be the same.

The Corps of Engineers can probably foresee the ultimate consequence of its actions but for whatever bureaucratic reasons has been unable to use this knowledge to affect policy. As they constantly remind us, they are but an instrument of Congress. The people of New Orleans would rather not have to help the Corps learn this lesson through additional catastrophic experience.