And then I wrote...
by Dick Schilling, Editor Emeritus
... that Iowa’s farmers have taken a lot of guff from editorials and letters to the editor in daily newspapers about how they are allegedly increasingly polluting Iowa’s streams, or the two major rivers which border the state.
I know from my active days with this newspaper that nobody is more concerned with water quality than farmers. I have seen tremendous cooperation on conservation efforts in watersheds such as English Bench and Paint Creek.
So it was with considerable satisfaction that I noted a trio of recent stories which seem to indicate things are getting better, not worse.
One was a photo in these pages of a 22-inch Brown Trout caught in the Mississippi River near Lansing. Brown Trout are known to be reproducing naturally in some northeast Iowa streams. Trout require water of a certain temperature and cleanliness. I have heard of trout being caught in the Upper Iowa River and lower reaches of Yellow River. But the Mississippi is generally considered too dirty and warm for trout. Browns are perhaps a little less fussy than Rainbows or Brookies, but still.
Then in a recent issue of Big River, an excellent magazine to which I subscribe which covers in considerable detail the Mississippi from the Twin Cities to the Quad Cities, there were two stories which may seem to confirm water quality improvement.
One deals with the continued spread of wild rice beds. Growth of that rice was pretty much confined to area of Pool 4 (La Crosse-Alma) and northward, and the only legal harvest is the property of Native Americans. The amounts of rice in those areas has risen slowly, but the major growth has been in pools five through eight, with a major bed as far south as near Brownsville - La Crosse, and I have heard reports of beds in Pool 9, Lansing to Prairie du Chien. Water levels, water temperature and nutrient availability are governing factors.
The other story notes that the few remaining commercial fishermen on the Mississippi are netting fewer carp than in past years. A number of possible reasons are cited, including ecological improvements and cleaner water. Cleaner water discourages the “roiling” of muddy waters which carp prefer, it is said. Filtering by invasive Zebra mussels is also noted as contributing, hardly a blessing.
Perhaps things are changing for the better in this world at least.
Speaking of worlds, there was one of those “omens of the end of the world” sunrises Sunday, May 3. Thanks to a slight haze and high humidity, the edges of the rising sun were not visible, and instead there was a huge circle of indistinct brilliance for a time. Nature and Nature’s God can be awe inspiring.
