Madsen is a forgotten treasure. Turns out all our ducks are not in a row, but another old saying comes to mind: " 'Play ducks and drakes with': Trifle with; treat frivolously. Also to behave recklessly; to idly squander one’s wealth."
Chris: I appreciate your many efforts to educate us about how we have ruined our environment. I hope you can elaborate on solutions to the dilemmas. On Talk of Iowa recently you were able to mention bullet points at the end of the program (when I asked for your landscape solutions): ethanol and biofuels to die, more outdoor livestock, then you added that land prices might fall if grain prices fell and that more young people could enter farming. The last two points seem totally unrealistic to me, and I wonder if you have thought those through with any economists. A future column or two, perhaps?
And Osceola is searching for drinking water, looking at using treated wastewater, City officials were quoted as saying in December the lake (source of water) is 6.5 feet below the level it should be. I trust Chris will make the connection. Thanks also for the hydrological explanation and the reminder of our past
Seems to me that each field tile outlet is a point source of effluent and therefore should be regulated, like sewers in cities. Field tiles are not "natural drainage."
Your slides of the destruction of Iowa creeks left me haunted. As a girl, I love to walk to the creek to wade in the cool water, catching tadpoles. Today, I don't want to get near the filth.
Even if it’s true that tile drainage doesn’t have much effect (on total annual flow) during flood years like 1993, it can still have significant effects on flooding downstream. Most ditches in central Illinois are wider and straighter and deeper than first built, so it seems reasonable to expect the water to get to places like St. Louis much faster. Maybe that’s why articles about the 1993 flood referred to a 500-year flood in St. Louis, while the Weather Service reported only a 50-year rainfall for the watershed.
Sure, saturated ground produces about as much runoff as pavement. But the streams have now been lowered 5-10 ft by dredging, creating a sponge-like layer above the new water table that captures and eventually sends downstream rainfall that might otherwise have been evapo-transpired by deep-rooted prairie plants. That might explain the effect you noted for the pothole lands.
I was thinking of Iowa as we toured The Netherlands for the last two weeks. At least as far as drainage, as for nitrates the farm we visited, dairy, is allowed one cow per acre for grazing to keep the nitrogen load low. There was a farmer from Nebraska on the tour. I wanted to hear more of their discussion but had to move on.
One of John Madson’s treasures is Stories From Under The Sky, ISU Press, 1961.
Madsen is a forgotten treasure. Turns out all our ducks are not in a row, but another old saying comes to mind: " 'Play ducks and drakes with': Trifle with; treat frivolously. Also to behave recklessly; to idly squander one’s wealth."
Chris: I appreciate your many efforts to educate us about how we have ruined our environment. I hope you can elaborate on solutions to the dilemmas. On Talk of Iowa recently you were able to mention bullet points at the end of the program (when I asked for your landscape solutions): ethanol and biofuels to die, more outdoor livestock, then you added that land prices might fall if grain prices fell and that more young people could enter farming. The last two points seem totally unrealistic to me, and I wonder if you have thought those through with any economists. A future column or two, perhaps?
And Osceola is searching for drinking water, looking at using treated wastewater, City officials were quoted as saying in December the lake (source of water) is 6.5 feet below the level it should be. I trust Chris will make the connection. Thanks also for the hydrological explanation and the reminder of our past
Seems to me that each field tile outlet is a point source of effluent and therefore should be regulated, like sewers in cities. Field tiles are not "natural drainage."
Your slides of the destruction of Iowa creeks left me haunted. As a girl, I love to walk to the creek to wade in the cool water, catching tadpoles. Today, I don't want to get near the filth.
By this great de-biodiversifying system of drainage
derives weakened environmental service and greater toxic loading and flushing into the commons.
Thanks for recognizing John Madson as one of Iowa's best writers and conservationists! I was privileged to have known him!
Even if it’s true that tile drainage doesn’t have much effect (on total annual flow) during flood years like 1993, it can still have significant effects on flooding downstream. Most ditches in central Illinois are wider and straighter and deeper than first built, so it seems reasonable to expect the water to get to places like St. Louis much faster. Maybe that’s why articles about the 1993 flood referred to a 500-year flood in St. Louis, while the Weather Service reported only a 50-year rainfall for the watershed.
Sure, saturated ground produces about as much runoff as pavement. But the streams have now been lowered 5-10 ft by dredging, creating a sponge-like layer above the new water table that captures and eventually sends downstream rainfall that might otherwise have been evapo-transpired by deep-rooted prairie plants. That might explain the effect you noted for the pothole lands.
I was thinking of Iowa as we toured The Netherlands for the last two weeks. At least as far as drainage, as for nitrates the farm we visited, dairy, is allowed one cow per acre for grazing to keep the nitrogen load low. There was a farmer from Nebraska on the tour. I wanted to hear more of their discussion but had to move on.