I need to fine-tune your editor’s note on long-term drought (HCN, 1/24/05: Who'll stop the rain?), I’m sure that you folks have heard about the tree stumps in Lake Tahoe. They are over 100 years old and reveal to us that drought has been here in our recent past and it lasted for a very long time. The water demands in the Truckee Meadows and vicinity would far exceed availability if a drought of this duration comes again. You mention at the end of your article our combustion of fossil fuels and the impact on lengthening drought periods and that dams may not sustain us through drought amplified by global warming. The tree stumps in Tahoe tell me that our impacts on global warming may be irrelevant. The killer drought will come regardless.

Ed S. Kleiner
Gardnerville, Nevada