Post
by Half Ton » Tue Mar 05, 2013 4:05 pm
To further clarify, regardless of appetite size.... The population with appetite is more numerous each day than the day before.
On the issue of smell - if smell was bad for water quality hikers and boaters would be banned from the river....at least for multi day trips!
Smell can be bad from a hog operation, but its not smell that can impact water quality directly. Air quality yes, water quality no. I could see neighbors being upset about smell and using the buffalo as a back up reason greater than their own selfish and perhaps reasonable excuse of "smells bad"
Smells bad was also part of the misperception that poultry litter polluted the Illinois river. Again not true or directly related.
Manure production and management is a potential pollution problem that can impact water quality for sure....potentially. Not for certain.
If we are looking at potential threats, which we are, what else is left? A lot.
Salt on roads for people to drive when conditions are bad, increasing percentages of impervious areas in the watershed, thousands of gravel bar deposits by people, road concrete and asphalt sealants on the roads, poor stream corridor practices on the tribs, poor forestry practices, poor grazing management, poor county planning, poor city planning, personal care product use in the river like soap and shampoo, endocrine disrupters and emerging contaminant inputs from tourists urinating on and near river, cattle in streams, all the trash that is frequently found, failing septic systems, automobile fluids, illegal dumps, and on and on.
The people in these counties that are in charge do not care much for outsiders in general. From what I could tell the old animosity population was literally dying off. To aggravate them further at this point is not a good move when we could be working with them to address many of the issues.
I've always heard that everyone wants clean water, but the difference is in how we get there. For me, I'll go to the watershed and volunteer at stream team events when I can, and share water quality education materials to folks in those counties.
Hopefully they are learning that water quality protection is everyone's responsibility and that we sll have a role to play. Everyone is a polluter to an extent. There is really no escaping the fact. So the solution is for us sll to do our part to minimize our pollution, and encourage others to do the same.
Regarding the protected Buffalo- it's still much more protected than any other waterway in the state via regulations, and that us exactly why we all need to do as much as we can for all the others which are not protected at all for the most part.
I've heard it said a couple of times that conservation activists are often to reactionary rather than pro-active. What a true statement. Nobody can be on the ball all of the time, and nobody has a crystal ball to predict the future.
What we do know though, is that this watershed will see growth and develop more in the future and has many more potential threats looming. So do all of the other rivers in the state for the most part.
Regardless, there's nothing like a perceived crisis to get a lot of different parties together to avert similar crisis in the future.
More than anything, I wanted to speak up to present perspective from an Arkie that cares for the river and works with water quality management with several different stakeholder groups such as farmers, municipalities, homeowners, landowners, individuals, govment and so on to help out water quality.
Debbie is a role model of mine, and I greatly respect her vigilance toward looking out for our environment and its critters. All the people that wrote letters and were involved in the letter writing are also heros of mine for being involved in trying to do something to help protect the river as they saw fit...even if I disagree about the level of "threat".
"The challenge goes on. There are other lands and rivers, other wilderness areas, to save and to share with all. I challenge you to step forward to protect and care for the wild places you love best"
- Neil Compton
Made me feel so good I finally remembered to renew my membership. 
So many of you guys have helped me with river beta, outfitting advice, paddling instruction, shuttling and friendship. This bunch is easy to help. I will take you up on the cake, though.
