08 May 2015

Dilemma...man vs. nature.



 Our wetlands are so full of life, more varieties of water fowl nesting than I've seen in ages. The beaver have created two step dams, each with about three feet of head. With the 3/4 inch of rain we've rec'd, apparently the drought is over...and the water level has risen by about 18 inches by the township road. A couple of years ago the DNR dredged a channel upstream, taking out a beaver dam and putting in a control for a wild rice lake...the township/state collusion (partnership) dug up the road and placed two 4 foot culverts beneath the new road bed...no apron, no rip rap...now the water is high (my choice...not tearing down the beaver dams, preferring to have water stored here)...had the road "engineers" built the road up two feet higher along with the culverts and added aprons/rip rap...there'd be no problem. Today one of the township supervisors came knocking at my door...he'd gone to the DNR to tell them of the high water undermining the road by the culverts (poor engineering) and the DNR told him to consult with me. We looked at the road together...I made suggestions as to what they should do with the road and told him I'd drop the level of the water by a foot or so...so as to not disturb the nesting waterfowl...so, Cheryl and I walked out to the dam, and I clawed about a foot to 18 inches 6 feet long out of the dam on two sides...about 100 feet apart. The water is rushing, but not so much as to be uncontrolled and flood downstream. I'm keeping an eye on it, but I must say...it was all okay with me before...why not engineer the road in concert with nature, rather than try to control nature for some road? This is a forest area, after all.
Off my soap box now.

As I sit staring out of the window in the woods, birds flutter by...Veterans' Day 2023

 With wars and conflicts raging in multiple locations, I'm living in relative peace now.   I went to the Wikipedia page to see how many ...