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to sudden floods that can shift its channel almost instantly. I do not mean just 100-yeaz floods, but gazden-variety 10- and 20-year events. That is why the Dolores is dangerous. Betweetr the Line Camp and Stapleton Bridge, there appears to be an especialy large pulse of gravel moving downstream. Even on contour maps, this gavel plug shows up. In that reach of channel, the river has resorted to braiding-a river's most efficient way of moving bedload. Below the Line Camp the channel shifted 100 feet nearly overnight in the 6,000-cfs flood of 1983. It moved toward Akin's Ranch and has continued to do so slowly ever since, carving another 200 feet in a new meander. The meander could continue eating into land until its amplitude is 600 feet, the size of nearby relict patterns. Or the river could shift suddenly once again, if it keeps braiding, and move back toward the Line Camp and the Robinsons. All the above gives a picture of the Upper Dolores from Stoner down to town. But we have not yet painted in the positions and impacts of gravel pits. Gravel pits ate not evil creations. They merely are poor companions for this high-powered, channel-switching Dolores. The combination is sure to cause disasters. Every single pit already dug or planned has some problem with its reclamation plan. From the top down, Twin Spruce Pits are located immediately down-valley from a major bend in the Dolores, where the river crosses to the southeast side of the valley. Only a narrow sliver of gravel road separates the active, outer bend of the river from an abandoned channel. Sighting with a Brunton compass verifies that the road is barely above the height of the floodplain. The spot is highly vulnerable to the river breaking through in a lazge flood and taking out the pits like dominos. As ponds were breached, their extra water would add to a flood rushing upon the line of houses between ponds and river. Houses and lives could be lost. At the proposed Line Camp Pit, other specific dangers arise. That reclamation plan calls for two berms, one all the way across the end of the property, the other up the side along the river. Even with the proposed gap, the long,crossing berm would impound floodwaters-but not for long! It is to be built of waste 5nes: sands! a river's favorite thing to move. When that berm breaks, all the pent-up flood and mud will rush down upon the Robinsons. Meanwhile, the other berm along the river is constricting floodwaters so that they cannot spread. Just below the berm, they will rush out sideways and take out the Akin's new house. I have contemplated the sight of this massive log house rafting down the river. Downstream at the expanding Koenig Pit, the valley narrows. That reclamation plan calls for high waste-fines piles along the perimeter of the mined area. Such piles will