Deer Season

I have been writing a daily essay for a few weeks now, each day in that day’s Daily Guides, a group that exists within the Living Metaphysics community (a location on the Ning platform)  It is a community that originated within Zaadz  (begun by Brian Johnson, a philosopher), which continued in the community when he sold it to the Gaiam Corporation, only separating off when Gaiam closed our doors, with very little time to remove content.

I am definitely enjoying the challenge.  I have committed myself to do a year’s worth of these.  It is my first genuine attempt at a disciplined and focused kind of writing, that might be of publishable quality.  I write these in the format of a Science of Mind magazine Daily Guide – in homage to, in hope of someday maybe, and just because I have for so many years appreciated them.  Mine are quite long by their standards; but I figure they could always be shortened, by editing if necessary, and perhaps these will be a book someday; or at the least, a legacy of my personal philosophies on life, that I can leave to my children and grandchildren.

Since today’s topic is quite universal, I thought to share it, as a blog here at my WordPress blog, because in Missouri – Deer Season is a bigger holiday than Christmas.  Your comments and perspectives are quite welcome.

 

A Year of Daily Reflections by Deborah Hart Yemm
November 10th

 

Deer Season

 

“Hunting for sport is an improvement over hunting for food,

in that there has been added to the test of skill

an ethical code, which the hunter formulates for himself,

and must live up to without the moral support of bystanders.”

~ Aldo Leopold

 

“God is life.  Life cannot produce death.

Death is but the shifting of a scene,

the moving from one place to another,

an impatient gesture of the soul as it seeks freedom.”

~ Ernest Holmes

 

It is opening day of this year’s Deer Season.  Living in a somewhat remote, rural, forested wilderness means that this conservation wildlife practice has a real impact on our lives.  Just up the road, our neighbor has an active “deer camp”, right there on his property complete with the recreational trailers of distant relatives who have arrived to be closer to the less inhabited areas, adjoining our neighbor’s home.  It is actually remarkably “quiet” of gunfire within hearing this morning but we will curtail our daily jogs and hikes, and replace them for 10 days, with family hikes after dark which even include our 3 cats.  Though all of us actually enjoy this alternative to cabin fever, we only hike in the darkness of our forest (of course, with headlamps) during the “forced” daytime exile of deer season.

I thought about an article on oneness perspectives I read this morning in the Science of Mind magazine.  Could I somehow apply that perspective about finding common ground with others and see them as “just like me” ?  Can I lean upon the spiritual perspectives that I have spent a lifetime in learning, to transcend separation; and so align my awareness with the spiritual realm, that I can feel connected, through a Taoist kind of balance with both the hunter and the hunted ?  Can I see a wholeness in what is happening all around me for the next 10 days ?

In truth, hunting goes to the core of human beings as a species of life.  We are composed of 2 million years of evolution which began with our survival supported by being hunters and few could argue that human beings have evolved to be the most effective, most adaptable and most successful predators on the planet.  One Vermont hunter, named Robert F Smith describes that his reason for participating in the practice is that “Hunting is an ancient dance as old as life itself, written into the very core of what we are as humans”.  The old Disney movie “Old Yeller” portrays our early pioneer life with a realistic inclusion of hunting as a necessity of existence, in which young boys are initiated into manhood by bringing home meat for the family.

Hunter Smith goes even further to idealize a long ago time in human evolution, describing it this way – “Hunting a deer or antelope or harvesting wild berries or nuts is only a few hours of intensive work for several days’ worth of food, while raising, feeding, watering, and protecting a herd of sheep or goats, or planting, cultivating, and harvesting a field of grain, is unending labor. While the tribal system of hunter/gatherers led to equality and leisure time, agriculture brought in slavery, religion, caste and class systems, and the plight of poor peasants and field workers that continues today around the world.”  It is a perspective worth considering.

Missouri has a serious conservation ethic regarding all aspects of our natural world.  In Missouri, the deer and turkey were almost eradicated by indiscriminate hunting – and the population was much smaller then.  With modern food distribution, the population is no longer dependent upon hunting for basic survival; but the season that brings many hunters into our community, from the more populated areas of our state and even beyond, is a significant source of revenue for many of the local businesses.  I have also contemplated this practice as a need in some human beings for a particular kind of experience, even though it is not one that I personally yearn for myself.  An overpopulation of deer does actually pose a danger, when driving on the state highway at night, a danger that I am ever alert to, when the necessity to do so puts me in that position.

In Missouri, the influx of settlers in the last half of the 19th century coincided with the rapid decline of the deer population.  By 1925, the number of deer left in the entire state was estimated to be only around 400.  With concerted regulation by law and efforts to restore the population by bringing new deer into the state, by 1944, the deer population was estimated at 15,000.  Now approx 500,000 hunters participate each year in the harvest of approx 300.000 deer statewide.  I think in the best of circumstances, the hunter is reverent, the hunter connects with the animal, even blesses it as some traditions do, for being willing to give its life in the food chain that is our world and even, yes, face mortality, face the reality of what death is and does.   There is something truly somber about connecting with the eyes of an unarmed animal who you know will die in the next moment by your own hand.  Personally, I forego such experiences but I try to understand, that hunters are just like me and so are the deer – the latter is easier for me personally; but the predator must be understood as well.

~ perspective

 

I understand a circle of Life that has ever been part

of the wholeness of this planet.

I sense the yin and yang,

the Taoist perspective of wholeness,

in the expression of the hunter and the hunted.

I seek to understand the deep roots that connect

whole families to the history of their intimate tribe

and to the fact that family’s survival

was dependent upon hunting.

I am grateful for modern wildlife management practices

that consider environmental conditions, population changes,

fairness and historical, as well as economic values,

all inherent in the practice of a deer hunting season.

I am at peace, with the realities of life and death, 

in all of the many expressions, upon this planet Earth -

I am of it, it is all just like me,

for it is all one Life force diversely expressing.

 

I wish I could find a scene from Old Yeller that shows the older boy hunting for the family’s food but these “theme song” with movie scenes will have to suffice.  If you’ve ever seen the movie, perhaps you can appreciate my using it for illustrative reasons.  If you haven’t and are looking for a light-weight, feel-good entertainment, perhaps you should rent it some Saturday night.

I believe that we idolize the pioneer days because life made a kind of basic sense – living by day/night cycles, growing crops, tending livestock, hunting game and all the attendant dangers of living remotely.  It was a “hard” life physically; and easily endangered in so very many ways, that the movie does a great job of graphically portraying.  There were not the modern conveniences that we so take for granted but there was not the complications of our modern way of life, with its own serious stressors either.

Yes, WE can do it !!

In the late 1990s, my husband, my self and my in-laws attended one of our monthly Historical Madison County Society meetings, during which we were given a viewing of an old film shot around the county courthouse in the 1930s.  What has remained stuck in my memory was this astonishing fact – there were nothing but lean and thin people present.  Of course, there have been throughout history, some people who were “gravitationally challenged” – King Henry the VIII or “Chubby” of the Little Rascals.

However, something happened after the 1930s; that was already becoming clearly evident, in the 1990s.  I think I have found at least a couple of the “major” suspects – High Fructose Corn Syrup; and the trade group “Center for Consumer Freedom“.  High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) was not introduced into the American food supply until the 1970s.  Coincidentally, about the same time that partially hydrogenated oils were also “added”.  These rapid changes to the overall content of processed foods have led to the epidemic levels of obesity, and the highest rates of disease along with the lowest life expectancy of any industrialized nation.  This is NOT a coincidence.

Becoming a well-informed consumer is certainly the “first step” in personal responsibility, as publicly promoted by the Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF), founded in 1996 – those “friends” of every disease vulnerable American consumer (Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Kellogg and Kraft are some of the known entities)  Their website says many of the companies – food companies and restaurant chains – supporting the lobbying and media campaigns of the CCF prefer to maintain their anonymity – Why ? – their website states that they are apprehensive that vegetarians and health activists might threaten their privacy and safety.  I would suspect that they are MORE apprehensive that their profits might be at stake.

 

Sadly, the Center for Consumer Freedom

 isn’t even able to see the irony in their own hype.

I have inherited genes that are particularly vulnerable to excess sugar in my blood stream.  So, although I’ve had an interest in nutrition since the 1970s, I am in a “getting serious” mode now, thanks to threats of pharmaceutical interventions for diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol.  What I see with my own eyes, so many overweight people out there, is both scary and sad.  Last fall, my activist heart (born in the late 1960s but dormant for many years since) was re-awakened by the Occupy Movement.  Thanks to Occupy, and other collective efforts to educate the populace – I have now learned, and I can’t go back to not knowing.  What has been happening, while we, the people, gave the elected government politicians a free reign, is not pretty.  Large multi-national corporations are in control, not only of the law itself and the economy overall; but even in such places as the Dept of Agriculture and their funding resources, as well as both national and state food policies.

“YES, WE CAN DO IT” -  we can change the nature of the human diet to be nutritious and wholesome again; and this is something that every man, woman and child can easily and inexpensively chose to make contributions toward and participate in.

There is HOPE.  We, the people, are collectively sharing information, through more “alternative” channels than ever before and over which, we have individual discernment.  We are “finding” one another – our real friends who care about our genuine quality of Life – and we are supporting and encouraging one another to just say “No !”, to some of the most biologically addictive substances yet devised, which coincidentally ? boost the profit margins simultaneously for Big Agriculture, Big Food and Big Pharma.  Now, I’m not trying to suggest that there is an intentional conspiracy among these 3 globally-influential entities; but the actions of each of these are supporting the revenues of the others.

Not only is there a growing and impregnable collective, of nutritionally-conscious individuals that can’t be infiltrated by any external entity; but we have “heroes & heroines” willing to put themselves “out there” on the front lines; and they are not going to be silenced, until we succeed in taking back the health of the people of this country, and encourage similar activities in all other countries that have been similarly damaged by a profit-driven, market oriented approach by multi-national corporations, to the global food supply.  We, the people of the planet, will not fail; because our very lives, and even more especially a “good quality” of Life, utterly depends upon our success.  One who is sick cannot enjoy living, in the fullest sense of that concept; and is unable to contribute fully, to the evolving  of a “next – better” human society – for disease captures fully the human attention; and does not let us go, until we die.

Here are a few names and links, just some of my own personal “heroes & heroines” -

Dr Mark Hyman - pioneering nutritional approaches to wellness and spearheading a “Take Back Our Health“ movement – in our schools, for our communities, in our workplaces and our places of worship, for our democracy, through our media and from a “sickness-oriented” medical perspective.

Michael F Jacobson, PhD of the Center for Science in the Public Interest and sponsors of “Eat Real, America !” on Food Day, this 2012 year on Oct 24th; as well as the long-time editor of Nutrition Action Healthletter and a dedicated activist, at the political level.

 

Whole Living Magazine for encouraging healthier lifestyles and for their yearly Action Plan.

 

Marianne Williamson for her perspectives in A Course in Weight Loss.

 

Geneen Roth for her retreats and workshops to heal eating disorders; and her books- including “Women Food and God” and “When Food Is Love”.

 

John Robbins, author of Diet for a New America, and Ocean Robbins, founder of YES (Youth for Environmental Sanity) and author of Choices for Our Future - and their co-founded organization – The Food Revolution Network.

 

May WE all be well,

May WE all be happy,

May WE all be free of suffering,

May WE all be at peace.

 

Yes, WE can do it !!

Why What I Eat Matters

“What I eat matters.”  I almost feel I’ve known this forever; but why what I eat matters, has changed over time.  When I was in high school, my mother made clear to me in words or actions, that diet would be important to me, my entire life.  In this case, diet meant not gaining weight, not getting fat, rather than about good nutrition.  At the same time, I was raised with having to eat everything on my plate, whether I liked it or not; and unfortunately, I still do that for the most part; so my hope for controlling consumption is left to not taking too much to begin with.  This is helped, by a long habit of splitting entrees with my husband, when we eat at any restaurant. 

I have tried more diets than I care to remember; and have reached a point where I truly hate dieting and think it is generally detrimental; but find I must resort to that technique on occasion, to reign in weight gains in excess of my body’s need for long-term well-being.  I constantly seek to not need to go “on a diet”.  Yet, I am not obsessive about my diet either.  My dad left instilled in me the thought that – “you have to eat a little dirt” – to be healthy; and so, I eat a varied diet, at least.

When my husband and I conceived our oldest son, we made a commitment to obtaining as much food that was natural and/or organic, as possible.  We live in a rural wilderness area; so, such foods are generally not easily available, at the local grocers.  We do eat some foods off the land – mostly fruits as we have an abundance in season of black raspberries, wild blueberries, blackberries, wild cherries, pawpaws, autumn olives and persimmons.  There are not any organic farms close by, locally; although some regionally, they are not really in convenient locations, to where we live.  So, we must travel 2 hours one way, as often as our lives allow it – to visit Whole Foods Market and other upscale urban grocers in St Louis (Dierbergs), where I can purchase the best foods I can manage, for my family. 

Fortunately, WalMart makes some effort; and though they are certainly not my favorite for many reasons; still, they are the best quality there is available to me locally.  Sadly, our “hometown” grocer focuses on poor quality, cheap versions of basic provisions.  Since my elderly in-laws passed from physical existence, taking with them my reasons for the long journey to St Louis (for their numerous doctor’s appointments, at the end of their lives); WalMart is my weekly provider.  And I still happily commit to the longer trip but keep that to once or twice a month only, stocking up as best I can.  When it comes to produce, that’s a significant issue, for it spoils so quickly; and I know that focusing on fruits and vegetables is an important aspect of a basic, healthy diet for my family.  I can only do the best that I can do; and be grateful that I am able to do, what I do.

Cancer took both of my in-laws, but they had each led long lives (both died mid-80s) and had long health-spans, only suffering illness during the last few years of their lives.  Still, as I see cancer take the lives of more of my acquaintances, at much younger ages than my in-laws, I am suspicious that the changes in our modern human diet, have been adversely impacted by chemicals and all the artificial ingredients now put into convenience foods; which are the ones that much of the population consumes.  It does not help matters that, these are also the least expensive but the least nutritious choices available, to many people. 

I seek to provide my family with simple, home-cooked meals of very basic foods, prepared minimally (and not pre-processed and packaged) to avoid the excess sodium and chemicals, I would prefer to keep out of our diet.  I am an avid label reader; and make many food selections on that basis.  So choosing organic and natural foods is one way to avoid chemicals.

Choosing to support organic food producers helps to preserve water and air quality – both important elements in health and global well-being.  Organic producers help to prevent soil erosion, while enhancing soil quality; and these practices are also respectful of the health of those who work at farms.

One of the challenges we face in our time is a decline in biodiversity due to environmental impacts, the loss of habitats, organisms, standardization of genes in food crops and species extinction.  As humans, we are single-handedly one of the greatest threats to a healthy biodiversity; and therefore, our own significant risk factor, which could eventually lead to our own extinction. 

With healthy biodiversity, wasps and birds can prey on pests that might otherwise destroy our food crops, without depending on toxic chemicals to do that for us.  Insects, birds, bats and some other animals pollinate our crops, making the fruits they produce for us possible.  There are even living organisms in our soil, that decompose matter back to nutrient rich soil; and with broader genetic diversity, our plant and animal food sources are definitely better able to weather disease and pests. 

Where humans over history have relied on 7,000 different species of plants for food crops, we now rely mostly on only 15 plant and 8 animal species for 90% of ALL human food.  The infamous Irish Potato Famine was caused by a fungus that was able to destroy their entire crop of single variety potato. 

Thousand of non-commercial animal breeds and crop varieties have disappeared due to industrialized agricultural practices.  Even though none of the major species of domesticated food animals is in danger of extinction, we still lose 2 breeds to extinction every week.  Half of all the breeds that existed in Europe in 1900 are now extinct (300 of the 6,000 breeds worldwide have been lost in only the last 15 years).  The loss in genetic diversity for livestock creates a system dependent upon a carefully-regulated environment, that requires climate controls, antibiotics and high-protein feed and produces massive amounts of concentrated waste products.

Biodiversity is lost as untreated animal waste, chemicals and soil erosion damage the natural environment.  Enormous amounts of pesticides and chemical fertilizers, used by industrial agriculture, continue to leach into the ground and water.  All of these pollutants kill the living organisms that should naturally thrive in the soil and that depend upon the soil for sustenance. 

I happened to be driving through cotton fields, ready for harvest in SE Missouri yesterday.  I was struck by the “dead appearing” quality of the soil – only cotton growing in bleached white earth.  And I was also staggered by the significant amounts of cotton waste left behind, by the enormous machinery used to create giant round bales of cotton.

There is one more thing that matters a lot to me personally – it is the spiritual aspect of all of this thinking – I should remember to appreciate and hold precious every bit of the food that I do have, in recognition that there are always some who do not have enough, some who’s food is not at all healthy and many who’s food is lacking in some way, even lacking in an acknowledgement by the people eating it, of all the aspects of Life that the food has touched, on its way to nourishing the body. 

I do not need to feel guilty that I have enough to eat; but I should not over-consume the food that I have, even if it is of good quality and highly nutritious.  It is important to be mindful; and in balance, for the health of the self, and for the health of our world.

I seek to have a balanced, personal expression, relative to the food I eat – I want to be mindful of adequate but not excessive consumption, aware of all the energy and labor that went into my food’s production, supportive of efforts to reduce any negative impact that my need for nourishment may make, and grateful to have provision and waste it not.  In seeking an end to the suffering of any person, sentient being, or living aspect of my planetary home, the Earth, I intend to be a beneficial presence, in the living of this lifetime.  Food is a very important aspect of that impact. 

Water, Water Everywhere

 This is the 150th year, the Sesquicentennial, since the beginning of The Civil War, there will be many battle reenactments in key states . . .

In May 2011, we took a little trip, down the Mississip. 

We saw a lot of water; and in Memphis, we had a little fun . . .

This year (2011), the earthquake in Japan and the tornadoes in Alabama and Mississippi devastated human life more significantly; but closer to my own backyard, the Mighty Mississippi is drawing lots of attention, more than it has needed since the Flood of 1993.  While there are similarities, there are differences. 

The Mississippi is the 3^rd longest river in No American and it’s watershed is the 4^th largest in the world.  These are the worst floods to hit the central US in 70 years.  Below Missouri, the 1993 Flood was not big news; but then, during that flood, over 1,000 of the 1,300 earthen levees failed, flooding farmland and small towns and sparing the lower river of much flooding.  Major cities like Hannibal, St Louis and Cape Girardeau in Missouri along the Mississippi River, have massive concrete flood walls with heavy metal gates.  These protected the old city centers but areas above or below these structures did not have the same protection.  

Similarly, the combination of record winter snowfalls, and the snowmelts of spring, along with heavy rains over the Midwest – have done their best, quite successfully, to cause much damage.  Here is a pretty good overview of the June to mid-August Mississippi River flood of 1993.

The USGS has some good photos of that same flood here – http://mo.water.usgs.gov/Reports/1993-Flood/photos.htm .  They note that on Aug 1, 1993 the largest peak discharge since 1844 was measured at St Louis on the Mississippi River.  Before 1927, there were no flood control measures in place on the river.  Most of the damage in 1993 occurred in the area from Minnesota to Missouri.  In the Fall of 1992, soil moisture levels were already high in the Central US.  Winter rain and snow contributed to the saturated soil conditions and so when spring rain and snowmelt came, it could only run off into streams and rivers.

In June 1993, the rivers were already running high and a persistent upper level atmospheric pattern developed.  Moist air flowed up from the Gulf of Mexico into the Midwest.  Other upper level disturbances were crossing the country from west to east and collided with the moisture coming up from the south.  There was wave after wave of these storms.  Between June and  August, some locations had received over 30” of rain (almost 200% above normal).

The river crested at St Louis in 1993 at 49.6 feet (over 19’ above flood stage and 6’ above the record set in 1973).  The river remained over flood stage for 2 months.  Record flooding was also occurring in Iowa along the Des Moines River (which is a tributary of the Mississippi).

Because the Mississippi River Flood of 2011 is also a significant historical event, our family decided to take a little trip this last Thursday and Friday down to Memphis, TN (where the river crested 2 days earlier – Tuesday, May 10th – at 48′). Memphis received 11” of rain between  April 25^th and May 6^th and a downtown airport in Memphis was submerged on May 5^th when a temporary levee broke.  The Mud Island reproduction of the Mississippi River watershed is submerged, though the walkway is high and dry.  We enjoyed strolling the riverfront, where the river looks more like an ocean and took in a supernatural carriage ride (perhaps I’ll add more about that in a comment to this blog) and a trolley ride.  We stopped at King’s Palace Cafe on Beale St to eat Crawfish Etoufee and were entertained by some old black men playing authentic classic blues live.  My friend, Lucienne (in the Netherlands), found this video (without knowing anything more, than that I had listened to Blues in Memphis on Beale St).  It so perfectly captured that last part of our Memphis experience, that I had to share it with you in this blog.  There was a man in a red bowler hat, that strolled through the diners, playing his trumpet at the beginning of the band’s set.  I’m certain the guy in the video, is the guy I listened to that night.

Here’s a little video of the flood, made at Memphis, about the same time we were there.

We started our contact with the Mississippi at Cape Girardeau on Thursday morning.  This year’s flood of the Mississippi is caused by a combination of April deluges (in our area, in one 8 day period, we received 22-1/2” of rain).  The flow was made heavier by near-record winter snows in the northern states beginning to melt.  The crest in Memphis was approx 48’ – the 2^nd highest on record (that record being in from 1937, when it reached 48.7’).

Before we got to Memphis though, we traveled towards New Madrid and the Bird’s Point levee.  The National Guard had checkpoints in the area and the roads were still flooded, causing the first of our backtracks to detour around impassible roads but we were able to reach the river on more than one occasion, where we saw livestock having to make due with levee hills and river water, instead of their usual pasture and ponds in the floodplain.  The plan to breech the levee was highly controversial in Missouri.  The State of Missouri asked the US Supreme Court to intervene with the US Army Corp of Engineers’ plan to intentionally blow up the levee.  The lower court and the US Circuit Court of Appeals had both already ruled against Missouri, giving the Corps the right to breech the levee based upon a 1928 law.

Here’s a YouTube about that breeching of the Bird’s Point levee – (the video didn’t seem to embed on my preview and so, just in case, here is a url http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmF3m4R3FfY)

Besides the flooding of the Mississippi itself, there has been record flooding on the Ohio River (which merges with the Mississippi at Cairo).  Harrah’s casino at Metropolis IL on the Ohio River is an island in the flood now.  They have donated $100,000 to local chapters of the Red Cross.  The Ohio River has been so high that barges are passing over dams on the river.  The Ohio River crested at Cairo IL at 60.5’ on May 1^st.  That exceed the 100-yr flood stage and is the highest flood in history.  The previous record was 59.5’ in 1937.  So this was the highest flood height ever recorded at Cairo (records go back 100 years) on the Mississippi, due to the effect of the Ohio River converging.  The new mayor of Cairo (only just sworn in on May 2nd) had evacuated the entire town of Cairo, before the US Army Corps acted.  Previous records at New Madrid, MO (which crested at approx 44’) have been – 48’ in 1937, 44.6’ in 1913, 43.6’ in 1975, 43.5’ in 1950 and 42.9’ in 1997.

The blasting of the Bird’s Point levee did seem to help with water at Cairo, IL dropping almost 2’, down from a record of 61.72’.  The water was still lapping at I-55 in that area, when we drove through.  It was still sandbagged, as well.  We drove through water, that was still over the road (though not deep) there.  I would assume it got a bit higher there on the Interstate, when they first blew the levee.  Also establishing crest records were Caruthersville, MO and Poncahontas AR (along the Black River, where a levee failed near Poplar Bluff, MO).  Down in the boothill of Missouri, one riverfront business in small rural town had a sign in the window of his sandbagged store front “Play Nice Old Man River” (video is Paul Robeson in Hammerstein’s Showboat song) – (the video didn’t seem to embed on my preview and so, just in case, here is a url http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eh9WayN7R-s)

It is still the poorest of the poorest that are most devastated by Old Man River and his ways.  Yes, Old Man River keeps rolling along.  He’s not in any hurry to reach the sea.  The story is still unfolding, and far from complete – at Vicksburg MS, the crest is expected at 57.5’ on May 19^th (topping the 56.2’ historic record set in 1927).  The Arkansas and Yazoo rivers have contributed additional water flow.

The Army Corp of Engineers is faced with yet another unpopular decision.  If it doesn’t act, the predicted crest at New Orleans around May 22^nd would be anywhere from 19.5’ to 25’ (these predictions are constantly changing, of concern there in New Orleans is that the top of the levees are approx 20’).  We heard a lot of news locally in Memphis, about the plan to open a spillway to relieve the river in Louisiana.  There are even concerns about the river choosing a new channel to the sea.  Baton Rouge and New Orleans would likely flood, if something isn’t done.  The flooding of farmland and rural towns would prompt further evacuations and flash flood warnings in Louisiana and Mississippi.

The Army Corps of Engineers opened the Morganza Spillway yesterday, channeling Mississippi floodwaters into the Atchafalaya River basin.  This is “built-in” to their system about 45 miles northwest of Baton Rouge.  The last time that they had to do this was in 1973. 

Around 2,500 people live directly on the flood path of the diverted water, which could also impact another 22,500 people and 11,000 buildings, as well as 2,264 oil wells which produce almost 20,000 barrels of crude a day.  But it does take the pressure off the cities and numerous oil refineries further south in Louisiana.   The number of huge oil and chemical processing plants in that region is staggering; and so, the opening of the spillway is realistically as much about big corporations with huge financial clout, as it is about any of “the people” living in New Orleans and Baton Rouge (but making it about the people is better received by the masses ;p and doubtless, it IS about them as well).

The engineers estimated that had they not opened the spillway, New Orleans would have been swamped in as much as 20′ of water.  If you are interested in learning more – about the Army Corps Mississippi system – there is a good deal of information in this New Yorker article – The Control of Nature: Atchafalaya.

I have a friend, Denise, who lives north of New Orleans and Lake Pontchartrain; and I checked in with her yesterday.  She wrote back -

“Oy, that river is something, huh?  I’ve gained a whole new respect for the Mighty Mississippi!! They finally opened up the Morganza Spillway upriver from Baton Rouge today around 4, I believe.  That has diverted all of that massive amount of rushing water to split so that we won’t get the full force of it all down in the cities along the river.  It’s a sad thing that all of that farmland and smaller communities will be flooded ‘on purpose’ to save the big cities, but I do understand that they are saving the greatest population areas.  Doesn’t make one feel any better about it though.  On the news this afternoon around 6, they were reporting that the river had already crested in New Orleans, and is expected to crest in Baton Rouge on the 16th, so apparently it’s working, but the rivers are SO HIGH it is eery.  Now, as long as the levees hold! Luckily we’re not expecting *any* rain, which is a very good thing right now!”

I’m not sure about the “river had already crested” part.  My understanding was that it was not due to do that, for a few days yet.  I saw a graphic in Memphis on their commercial TV showing the river was moving rather slowly.  I think the crest in Vicksburg was not expected before Thurs, the 19th; but perhaps it is the opening of this spillway, that allows that determination regarding New Orleans.

Below is a picture of the current level of flooding at the Old Train Depot in downtown Vicksburg MS, just yesterday (Sat, May 14th).

I found this NASA photo taken from the Space Station of the flooded fields in Missouri from the Bird’s Point levee breech by the Army Corps of Engineers.  This is actually from the day (Thurs, May 12th) that my family passed through the area of Caruthersville, MO (this photo shows just north of there – note that north on this photo is the lower right corner of the image).

Below is an image from Vicksburg – the “Flood Mark” on the river flood wall is the 1927 historic flood level that caused the creation of the Army Corps flood control system of locks, dams and spillways.

Now here’s an interesting aside, which I personally attribute to Nature’s innate wisdom – at  NOLA.com (note, this is the abbreviation for New Orleans, Louisiana) I found an article titled “Audubon Park Bird Island abandoned”. 

Is it related to the weather and flooding ?  I would hazard a “yes” on this one.  Of course, it could also be somehow due to adverse conditions for food continuing in the gulf, from the BP Deep Horizon incident of a year ago.

The Audubon Park Bird Island in New Orleans, LA houses one of the most prominent rookeries in the region for great egrets, snowy egrets, cattle egrets, herons and double-crested cormorants.  On our own journey, we did see such birds scattered about the receding floodwaters in Missouri, Kentucky and Northern Tennessee.  Anyway, the article says that “some birds indeed arrived at the island early this year, began mating, buidling nests and laying eggs but in early April, they all mysteriously disappeared, leaving behind nests and eggs.”  You can read more at the NOLA.com link above.

Taum Sauk

Our human body is 55% to 78% water, depending on body size.  We cannot live more than about a week without drinking appropriate water (fresh, clean and not salty).  Freshwater ecosystems provide food and livelihood for many of the Earth’s people.  Approx 70% of our planet Earth’s surface is covered in water, most is salty water in our oceans.  All of the life forms found on earth are believed to have originated in some way connected to water.  

People use water in many ways – for agriculture, for generating energy, for recreation and for sanitation – to name a few of the ways we use water.  As an environmentalist, I am aware of how man’s actions impact the quality of water.  Of how our insatiable need for fuel leads to polluting our oceans and waterways with oil – not just, as in the recent Gulf of Mexico disaster; but for a very long time now in Africa and South America.  These negligent activities impact real people in real ways – their food sources, their clean drinking water, their livelihoods and their general health and well-being.  Often these are what is called indigenous people, native humans who have inhabited those areas for a very long time.  Sadly, too often, corporations play shell games with ownership changes, to avoid facing the costs of cleaning up after they have finished taking the resources they desire. 

There is no way that a corporation, the responsible, non-human, legal entity (yes, I know there are humans controlling it)  can care in the same way a rooted people cares.  How can they care in the same way, that the people living there must care ?  It isn’t a reasonable expectation.

As a child of the Southwestern United States desert, I have always been highly aware of the role of water in my life and of the need to use it wisely.  Water and the impoundment of it, remains a serious issue in the geographical area where I was born and grew up. 

While the general focus for this year’s Blog Action Day is clean drinking water, and I have already acknowledged the importance of that and some of the adverse conditions impacting the availability of that, I am going to use my own blog space today, to talk about this issue of impoundment.  In Missouri, I experience an abundance of water – in perennial streams and rivers, and in having a multitude of springs of all sizes – we are very blessed by an abundance of this resource, which grows more critical in its quality and availability globally.  The United Nations expects demand to outstrip supply by more than 30% around 2040, with global water consumption is doubling every 20 years.

In the state where I reside (Missouri), water is used to produce electricity.  This is considered a positive effort, decreasing our dependence on oil and coal, for that necessity of modern life.  The most unique generating facility is not far from where I live, on a mountain top called Taum Sauk about 90 miles from St Louis.  This facility is notable for being a pure pump-back operation with no natural primary flow for generation.  This blog is the story about how that impoundment failed, what the damage from that was and of the surprising recovery and benefits of that event.  It is a story of how Life improves itself; and in sharing this story with you, I hope to inspire optimism that recovery even from the worst aspects of man’s use of water, is always possible.

This is a satellite image taken of the Taum Sauk Reservoir and Johnson’s Shut-Ins State Park before the breech happened.  The dammed reservoir is in the upper center right.  (Photo courtesy of Missouri Department of Natural Resources)

A satellite image taken just 8 days later on Dec. 22, 2005. Notice how the water literally stripped the land of everything it had and deposited it in the river, shut-ins and the lower reservoir. (Photo courtesy of Missouri Department of Natural Resources)

I was sound asleep when our weather radio came on warning of flash flooding on the Black River.  This seemed strange to me, as it had not been raining.  Only later, did I learn that the Taum Sauk dam had failed at 5:12 am that morning (Dec. 14, 2005), and unleashed a huge environmental impact, as over 1.3 billion gallons of water cresting on a 20 foot high wave headed down the steep mountainside, towards the East Fork of the Black River.  The reservoir was emptied  in just 12 minutes.  The rush of water began destroying everything in its path, all the way through Johnson’s Shut-ins State Park.  The 5,000 acre/foot lake was built by AmerenUE between 1960-1963.  The upper reservoir is drained through a pipeline in the middle of the mountain and runs through electric generating turbines and the “spent” water is deposited in a lower reservoir.

I had visited the original dam more than once, as well as the nature center on the way up that mountain.  At the time, there was no restriction to just driving up on a whim.  There was no security at the site.  On Aug 7, 2010 I joined many others in touring the new $490 million dam at Taum Sauk.  The facility is now highly secure (which put the nature center out of access – its assets are being moved to other locations).  Even though a lot of damage occurred to take the old dam unintentionally out-of-service, what has resulted from the event, appears to be only positive – in terms of how much safer the dam structure is now (it was completely rebuilt from the ground up, there is a new routing for water with a spillway, if the dam were ever to over-top again and multiple fail-safe redundant sensors).  AmerenUE’s officials claim that the new dam may actually last thousands of years because it has been strongly rebuilt (and is the largest roller-compacted concrete dam in North America, using almost as much concrete as was used in the building of Hoover Dam near Las Vegas, NV).  The new dam was recognized by the US Society on Dams with an Award of Excellence in the Constructed Project.

On Aug 7, 2010, we also visited Johnson’s Shut-Ins State Park, so that we had a more “complete” understanding of the whole event and what has happened since.  I learned that over 8 feet of sand and clay plus 15 feet of downed trees ended up deposited in the state park after the water was no longer pouring through.  The force of the volume of water pouring through the breech, unbelievably, moved boulders, even some as big as cars, all the way into the park.  The debris created a dam causing a temporary 6 acre lake to exist, where one had not been before.  The unique rock formations that are the swimming hole, where crystal clear waters have mostly delighted hot summer visitors, were murky and full of soil that had been carved from the mountain. 

Above is how the park looked before the breech.  The rushing water filled the campground not only with natural materials but with the concrete and rebar that had been the dam.  The Park Superintendent’s home was washed away down to its foundation.  The family (including wife and 3 children) were deposited in fields downstream (remember it was December when this happened – good that there weren’t the masses of tourists, bad that it was very cold).  In the photo below, you can see what was left of this home’s foundation (area that is orange).  The only structure that “sort of” survived was a vault toilet, which still lost its rear wall but the fixtures, rolls of toilet paper and even a flypaper strip remained.

To the park service employees, one of their saddest losses was a 9 acre Fen.  This is a combination of seep forest and calcareous fens found in the flood plain of the East Fork of the Black River.  Seasonal floods pond rain water and calcareous ground water seepage.  Seep forests are rare in Missouri, hence the special attention this area received.

Union Electric (now AmerenUE) built Taum Sauk between 1960-1963, claiming it did not require any Federal permits to do so.  That contention was challenged but in the meantime, the facility was opened without federal inspection of its construction.  In 1965, the case had reached the US Supreme Court and the decision was that it was under federal jurisdiction, though its faulty design was allowed to remain.  It was faulty because the earthen dam was not of bedrock but “dirty fill”, a high concentration of sand, which was substandard, even by 1960s standards.  Other dams of such design had previously failed in a similar way.

While this was not the main cause of the breech (which was the failure of the computer system sensors to indicate the reservoir was full and therefore, the pumps kept bringing up more water), when it finally over-topped, the faulty construction facilitated severe erosion that led to a 656 ft gap in the dam. 

Contributing to the failure was minor leakage through the dam wall that had caused the breech area to slump lower than remaining walls (this was a known problem that had been addressed by lining the reservoir with a membrane in 2004).  Only months before the failure and collapse, company memos indicated observation of an overflow in the breech area, caused by wave action related to winds from Hurricane Rita in late Sept; and in Oct, it was noted that the gauges were malfunctioning.  There is evidence that a person on duty “raised” the gauges and that the gauges had been moved when the investigators arrived.

The Independent Panel of Consultants who investigated the breech also noted the omission of any kind of spillway from the design.   The Missouri Coalition for the Environment and the Missouri Parks Assn were parties to lawsuits (including attempts to deny a rebuilding of the dam).  Eventually, AmerenUE agreed in 2006 to pay $15 million after the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission determined that negligence (operating errors) had led to the overflow and collapse of the structure.  In 2007, Ameren UE agreed to pay approx $180 million to settle a suit brought by Missouri’s then Attorney General (now governor) Jay Nixon.  Certainly, some of those proceeds went into the rebuilding and recovery of the Johnson Shut-Ins State Park’s new and well furnished amenities.

In spite of AmerenUEs reckless behavior, their request to rebuild was approved and construction began in 2007.  Insurance covered most of the cost of rebuilding.  The utility was prohibited from billing their customers for any part of the expenses the failure and collapse caused the company.

The Johnson Shut-Ins State Park was quite primitive before the breech.  The park totals 8,549 acres and was donated to the state of Missouri by Joseph Desloge (a well-known lead mining name, who was also a St Louis civic leader and conservationist).  Since the breech, its recovery has turned it into a modern, state of the art, recreational and educational destination.   Its educational value was greatly enhanced by the disaster itself. 

Before the event, the park was known primarily for its water filled, shoots and slides of rock, to frolick upon on hot, summer days. 

There is now a beautiful new visitor/interpretive center and a new and re-located to safer ground, campground, just in case.  I will admit that it is a bit disconcerting to see the signs posted along the trails indicating a person should immediately head 1,500 ft uphill (not sure of that distance but it is significant considering the rough and steep terrain there), if they hear a warning siren sound.  There are plans to connect the park with the larger Ozark Trail and to create a backpack camp.

During the recovery effort, mangled trees were mulched and truckloads of sand and sediment were removed.  Native grasses and saplings were planted.  New topsoil was brought in.  Wetland ecologists and soil biologists were brought in to determine how to restore the fen, which was under several feet of sand and sediment.  An industrial vacuum was used to remove this material in some places, in the more sensitive areas only shovels, rakes and wheelbarrows could be used as an attempt was made to salvage the unique vegetation buried there.  Time was of the essence, for these plants had to be salvaged in only a few months, by spring.  Recovering the fen was the park’s first major recovery success.

The primary educational benefit comes from 900 million years of earth history, in the form of geology that includes rocks from at least 3 geologic periods.  These are now visible in the scour channel that remains from the breech.  This is an opportunity for geologists that happens rarely.  The scour channel is now the newest and one of the more fascinating features of the park.  It is the reminder of how the water came down so very fast, from that steep slope at the top of this channel; and then, spread out when it hit the flatter valley floor.  As the flood slowed, the water started dropping all the solid material it had carved away from the mountain.  Walking among the angular, basketball-sized rocks, of rhyolite, dolomite, granite, sandstone and chert, is still difficult while hiking in the scour channel.

Volcanoes created the St Francis Mountains (I learned at the center that there is a chain of 3 Calderas in our region, south of St Louis) erupting 1.4 to 1.5 billion years ago, which formed the Rhyolite rock that became the mountains (which were higher than the Rockies at one time).  Not long after, holes left underground by these explosions began to collapse, a pattern than continued for centuries. 

The volcanic mountains were later covered by a sea (long before the glaciers melted, fish swam there or dinosaurs roamed) and some part of that 530 million yr old beach was near the top of the reservoir mountain, before the breech occurred.   This period, when the Midwest was underwater, was just before the supercontinents began to pull apart.  The igneous rock was then covered by thousands of feet of sedimentary rock such as limestone, sandstone, shale and dolomite.

In the low places, the swift Black River has created a feature known in Missouri as a Shut-in.  This is a place where hard rock, in this case igneous, shuts in the flow of the river.  At Johnson Shut-Ins, the water’s action of swirling and churning has created potholes, water slides and miniature canyon like gorges.  My family hiked the Scour Trail from Route N to an overlook about midway up the channel, before we told the children about the swimming hole.  We had not come dressed for swimming but my boys all swam in their shorts and pants without their shirts.  The shoots and slides are wonderfully clear and clean once more.  We would have liked to have gone up the scour channel a bit further, towards the reservoir mountain but it was brutally hot, giving us an excuse to return for another hike in milder weather.

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