January 02, 2023

When I pulled up my NY Times feed yesterday it was all about taking the happiness challenge.  For the last 80 years researchers at Harvard have studied what makes for a good life and have found the one proven predictor of happiness is developing warmer relationships.  This year a team at the Times set out to develop a seven-day challenge to help people increase their happiness.  The team worked with Robert Waldinger of Harvard to craft exercises to help people cultivate more happiness in their relationships.  One of the challenges suggested is the invitation to write a “eulogy for the living,” or to tell someone why you are grateful for them right now.   Another challenge encourages talking to strangers.  Asking questions can feel uncomfortable, and you risk rejection, but it can have a maximum reward for a minimal effort.  The road to happiness does not begin until you start.

When I looked online, I found happiness is an emotional state characterized by the feelings of joy, satisfaction, contentment, and fulfillment.  While happiness has many different definitions, it is often described as involving positive emotions and life satisfaction.  Since happiness is a broadly defined term, psychologists and other social scientists typically use the term “subjective well-being” when they talk about this emotional state, and subjective well-being tends to focus on someone’s overall personal feelings about their life in the present.  There are two key components of happiness.  The first is the balance of emotions.  Everyone experiences positive and negative emotions, but happiness is generally linked to experiencing more positive feelings than negative ones.  The second is your level of life satisfaction.  This relates to how satisfied you feel with different areas of your life including your relationships, work, achievements, and other things that you consider important.

The search for happiness is not new and has been spoken of in print since at least the ancient Greeks.  The philosopher Aristotle suggested happiness is the “one” human desire, and all other human desires exist to obtain happiness.  Aristotle hypothesized four levels of happiness: happiness from immediate gratification, from comparison and achievement, from making positive contributions, and from self-fulfillment.  It is important to remember that happiness is not a state of constant euphoria.  Happiness is an overall sense of experiencing more positive emotions than negative ones.  Happy people feel the whole range of human emotions (including sadness) from time to time.  When they are faced with the discomforts of life, they have an underlying sense of optimism that things will get better, that they can deal with what is happening, and that they will be able to feel happy again.

THOUGHTS:  Research shows that a lot of people take the attitude they will find happiness in the future “if” and “when”.  IF I get the job I want, I will be happy.  WHEN I get the money or WHEN I retire, I will have more time to do the things I like.  However, the idea of a time surplus is a fallacy. You can do something small and actionable today to create happiness right now.  I wish you all the happiness of the coming New Year.  Act for all.  Change is coming and it starts with you.

December 30, 2022

Since this is the last workday of 2022 for many, I thought I had better finish several projects that I have been putting off.  This began with several checks we had received that needed to go to the bank.  Melissa snap deposits them, but I am old school and take them to the drive thru.  I got them signed and put them in my pocket.  Then there was the linen closet I had cleaned out before Christmas.  When I pared down my clothes closet, I immediately took the items to Goodwill.  When I cleaned the linen closet, I was more tenuous and held onto the items.  I separated them, placed many in plastic bags forming sets of sheets and pillowcases, but then placed them on the spare bed in my office.  I wanted to get Melissa’s approval before I got rid of ten sets of bedding.  Now the end of year (EOY) is here, and I wanted to take them in on this year’s donation.  I packed up the remaining sets and put them all in the car.  Next, I loaded the recycling that had built up during December.  This was partly due to not wanting to go out in the cold, but also because of the number of boxes and cans from the holidays.  Finally, there was the router Melissa had purchased to improve our Wi-Fi.  She found when it arrived that it did not work on our system, and I needed to return it.  These projects had been waiting for several weeks, but I needed an EOY push to get things out of the house.

When I looked online, I found the term “end of year” refers to the conclusion of the business year’s closure.  In business, the EOY can be defined as the end of the calendar year or the fiscal year.  The calendar year is the twelve month period that starts on January 1 and ends on December 31.  A fiscal year is a twelve-month period defined for accounting purposes and may be different from the calendar year and can start on a day different than January 1.  This one-year accounting period is established to suit a particular need of the company, since sometimes issuing a financial statement at the end of the calendar year is a though task because of the high volume of transactions going on at the time.  This difference between a calendar year and a fiscal year is recognized by tax authorities and companies are normally free to declare and pay taxes at the end of their fiscal (not calendar) year.  I do not have that ability and the IRS expects my taxes to be paid every April, and usually on the 15th.   This will be on Monday the 17th in 2023.

After packing everything in the car I began my EOY trek.  I had decided to make a loop to hit the four places I needed to go.  This began with the recycling and then looped back by the bank.  These were in the town where I lived, but the donation was 20 miles away.  While this is out of my way, I prefer to donate or give away household items and clothes when I can rather than throw them away.  I then swung through town to check on friends and on my way home the trek took me near one of my favorite restaurants right around lunch time.  The New Year always brings the question of diets and I wanted to make sure I was able to get a Thai Bun bowl before the EOY.  My last stop was the return.  While the router was ordered online, Melissa found I could return it to our local market, letting me complete my grocery shopping and avoid the New Year’s Eve rush.  As I pulled into my driveway, I was feeling smug about completing all my EOY tasks.  I picked up the newspaper from the seat to go inside and remembered the overflowing box of newspapers in our dining room.  The papers had been one of the main reasons I began my EOY trek.  Oh well, there is always next year.

THOUGHTS:  The EOY holidays serve to bring family and friends together.  We celebrate Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas, and Kwanza, and then end with a bang as the ball drops on New Year’s Eve.  New Year’s Day often finds us reflecting on the past year with its blessings and regrets.  Regardless, the EOY becomes the first day of the rest of your life.  Make it a good one.  Act for all.  Change is coming and it starts with you.

December 29, 2022

I had been working in my office all morning listening to the wind howl outside.  The weather has been so cold lately that I wait until afternoon to walk Zena.  By 2 or 3 pm the temperatures have usually gotten into the 40’sF (4.5’sC).  It warmed up to the 60’sF (16.5C) yesterday and made for a pleasant walk.  Still, with the wind howling all I could imagine was the bitter cold and wicked “feels like” that it must be today.  I finally got up the nerve to check and see if our walk would be possible, especially since Zena has been in my office begging to go out for the last hour.  I braced myself and pulled up the weather app on my phone.  It was 74F (23C) outside, and even with the with our wind advisory, the “feels like” was also 74F (23C).  It seems our extremes are out of whack.

When I looked online, I found some social media users are sharing an Instagram post that claims Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg was one of the many people whose plans were disrupted by recent winter weather extremes.  The December 25th post shows what appears to be a screenshot of an article from the Genesius Times with a headline that reads, “Greta Thunberg’s Global Warming Conference cancelled (sic) due to sub-arctic freezing temps.”  Exavier Saskagoochie is listed in the byline as the author.  At the time the post was shared, many parts of the U.S. were reeling from a winter storm that caused blizzard conditions and a dangerous drop in temperatures.  While many users appear to believe the article is authentic, it was published by the Genesius Times, an explicitly satirical news outlet.  The satirical article claims the canceled global warming conference was to be sponsored by the International Global Warming Trust, an organization that does not exist.  The picture of the article’s alleged author originates from a stock image website.  The article was originally published in 2019, then re-uploaded in December.  This was obviously fake news.

The Genesius Times is a satire website founded in 2018 by JSB Morse which delights in poking fun at the left.  Articles use fictional names such as Exavier Saskagoochie, the byline for the climate change satire.  The website does not disclose ownership and funding is derived through advertising and donations.  The text at the top of each page on the website labels it the “most reliable source of fake news on the planet,” while text at the bottom states, “We strive to provide the most up-to-date, accurate fake news on the Internet.”  In general, this is a satire source that would appeal to those on the right or perhaps those on the left with a good sense of humor.  The sources entirely use humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people’s stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues.  These are also clear that they are satire and are not an attempt to deceive the reader.  Apparently, some either fail to read or just do not get it.

THOUGHTS:  This is not the first time climate change skeptics have suggested cold weather proves global warming is not real.  Julio Friedmann, chief scientist at carbon-management firm Carbon Direct, previously said climate change is making the overall climate more volatile, meaning extremes of heat and cold events are both becoming more common.  Gerald Meehl, with the National Center for Atmospheric Research, previously said extreme cold events are being offset by twice as many extreme heat events.  While the Genesius Times may provide humor and satire, the extremes we experience will continue to get worse until the entire planet decides to act.  Act for all.  Change is coming and it starts with you.

December 28, 2022

When I examined the odd looking trees at the reservoir earlier this week, I thought at first that they were some sort of deciduous (not conifer) tree.  They were about 30 yards (27.5 m) away and they appeared to have leaves still hanging from the branches.  When I got closer these turned out to be the fern-like leaves that had died but not yet dropped from the trees.  The trees were both standing in water and situated closely along the shore, where they would have been inundated as the lake level rose.  Around each of the trees were a series of knobby protrusions sticking up through the soil.  These gave the appearance of knees supporting the large trees.

When I looked online, I found these knees are not exclusive to the Bald Cypress (Taxodium distichum).  This distinctive structure forms above the roots of various species of the subfamily Taxodioideae, of which the bald cypress is one.  Their function is unknown, but they are generally seen on trees growing in swamps.  Current hypotheses state they might help to aerate the tree’s roots, create a barrier to catch sediment and reduce erosion, assist in anchoring the tree in the soft and muddy soil, or any combination of these.  The knees are woody projections sent above the normal water level, roughly vertically from the roots, with a near-right-angle bend taking them vertically upward through the water.  One early assumption of their function was that they provided oxygen to the roots that grow in the low dissolved oxygen (DO) waters typical of a swamp.  This was thought to act as a specialized respiratory root in certain aquatic plants that grows upward and protrudes above the water or mud into the air (pneumatophores).  Mangroves (Avicennia marina) are another tree with a similar adaptation. 

There is little actual evidence for the assertion that knees provide oxygen to the trees root system.  It has been noted that swamp-dwelling specimens whose knees are removed continue to thrive and lab tests demonstrate the knees are not effective at depleting oxygen in a sealed chamber.  Despite the fact there is no expert consensus on their role, the belief that they are pneumatophores is repeated without comment in several introductory botany textbooks.  Another more likely function is they act as a structural buttressed support for stabilization.  Lowland or swamp-grown cypresses found in flooded or flood-prone areas tend to be buttressed and have knees, while cypresses grown on higher ground may grow with very little taper.  This was the case with the cypress grown in my back yard at the camp.  I was in a dry and even slightly elevated section of the yard.  It was over twenty feet high (6.5 m) and had been there for a while.  There were no knees associated with the tree.  Despite there being no evidence, this theory has continued to be passed through the scientific community.

THOUGHTS:  Cypress developed during the Mesozoic era when the continental crust was concentrated in a single huge landmass, the supercontinent Pangea.  This was a time of ferns and fern-like trees buttressed by knees and was often depicted as swampy grounds of early illustrations.   This era is also associated with the Jurassic Park dinosaurs of the movie franchise.  I grew up enthralled by these dinosaurs and their habitats.  This love was passed on to my son, and he in turn passed it on to his two children.  Knowledge and culture are passed from one generation to the next through a combination of oral tradition, observation, and imitation among family members.  This results in the shared traditions that form the basis of our actions.  That emphasizes how important it is to pass on love and compassion rather than fear and hate.  Act for all.  Change is coming and it starts with you.

December 27, 2022

Melissa had the day off yesterday since Christmas was on a Sunday this year.  She was wanting to get out and knew I had not been able to fish as much as I liked since we have gotten Zena (yeah, blame the dog).  We decided to go to one of our favorite reservoirs that is just over an hour away.  This has a flat beach where Zena could run as well as an outlet and tailrace that I like to fish.  Zena now loves to ride in the car and was excited as she hopped into the back seat.  We stopped for sandwiches (and a dog treat) and then took off on our journey.  When we arrived at the cove with the beach it was filled with ice, although the deeper parts of the lake were ice free.  We stepped out of the car and let Zena check this new environment.  The wind was biting and brought tears to Melissa’s eyes, which froze on her cheeks.  We decided to get out of the wind and drove to the swimming beach.  I noticed trees along the shore and in the water that I was unfamiliar with.  When I checked my Google app, it identified them as a grove of bald cypress.

When I looked online, I found the Bald Cypress (Taxodium distichum), or swamp cypress, is a deciduous conifer in the family Cupressaceae.  The native range extends from southeastern New Jersey south to Florida and west to Central Texas and southeastern Oklahoma, and inland up the Mississippi River.  The tree is hardy and adapts to a wide range of soil types, whether wet, salty, dry, or swampy.  The cypress is a slow-growing and long-lived tree that usually grows to 35–120 feet (10–40 m) and has a trunk diameter of 3–6 feet (0.9–1.8 m).  The main trunk is often surrounded by cypress knees which jut through the soil from the roots around the tree.  The bark is grayish brown to reddish brown, thin, and fibrous with a stringy texture.  The cypress is noted for the russet-red fall color of its lacy needles.  The tree has some cultivated varieties and is often used in groupings in public spaces (like our reservoir) and can tolerate atmospheric pollution.

Ancient bald cypress forests once dominated swamps in the Southeast, with some trees more than 1,700 years old.  The tallest known specimen, near Williamsburg, Virginia, is 145 feet (44.11 m) tall, and the stoutest in the Real County near Leakey, Texas, has a circumference of 475 inches (368.3 cm).  The National Champion Bald Cypress is recognized as the largest member of its species in the country and is listed as such on the National Register of Champion Trees by American Forest.  This Cypress is in the Cat Island Nation Wildlife Refuge, near St. Francisville, Louisiana, and it is 96 feet (29 m) tall, 56 feet (17 m) in circumference, and is estimated to be 1,500 years old.  The oldest known living specimen, found along the Black River in North Carolina, is at least 2,624 years old, rendering it the oldest living tree in eastern North America.  “Big Dan” is one of the oldest living specimens near High Springs, Florida at Camp Kulaqua, and was estimated to be 2,704 years old in 2020 and is more than 35 feet (10 m) in circumference.  “The Senator”, a bald cypress near Sanford, Florida, was 165 feet (50 m) tall before the hurricane of 1925, when it lost about 40 feet (12 m) in height.  It had a circumference of 47 feet (14 m) and a diameter of 17.5 feet (5.3 m) and was estimated to be 3,500 years old.  It was burned down by vandals in 2012.

THOUGHTS:  At the camp where we lived, we had a bald cypress in our back yard.  I had never seen one as they are not native to any of the places I lived or traveled.  The tree was clearly a conifer, and I was surprised that first winter when it dropped its leaves.  We had struggled with dry conditions during the summer and bitter cold as we began the winter, and I assumed the tree had died.  I was pleasantly surprised when the foliage returned the following spring.  The resilience of nature always surprises me.  Sadly, the ignorance of human vandals does not.  Act for all.  Change is coming and it starts with you.

December 26, 2022

Melissa forwarded me a text from an NPR article by Michaeleen Doucleff concerning the strange ability of Donut the dog.  Donut was a stray who arrived at the family’s house when the two boys were young.  She was a hound mix, with big, brown floppy ears and giant white and black spots on her flanks. When the two boys went to school, Donut would spend most of her day lying on the living room rug sleeping.  However, without fail Donut would hop up just before the bus dropped the boys off and go to the back porch and sit by the window, waiting for the boys to arrive.  She was never early, and she was never late.  The writer decided to solve the mystery of how Donut knew what time the boys would arrive.

Alexandra Horowitz studies dog cognition at Columbia University and Barnard College.  Horowitz says dogs (and people) use many environmental cues to estimate the time during the day.  They listen to their body’s physiological signs, and they have varying hormones that create a built-in clock in their bodies and minds.  Even the amount of light in the room or angle of the sun can tell the passage of time.  Another trick dogs have is called olfaction.  Dogs are living in an olfactory world, and Horowitz suggested they can track time with smell.  Smelling time for Donut likely began with the boy’s unique bouquet of scents.  Humans stink, and dogs can recognize their owners by their smell (that is why they constantly sniff you).  Humans also leave a smell signature everywhere we go.  As the boys rushed out the door to catch the bus in the morning, they left their smell in the living room.  Over time the scents changed as the odors would deteriorate.  It was likely Donut noticed the shift in smells and used it to predict when the school bus would arrive.  Donut literally smelled time pass.

While this may seem an unlikely explanation, this precision is what enables dogs to follow scents through space when tracking missing people.  According to cognitive scientist Lucia Lazarowski, “Tracking and trailing dogs are probably using the intensity of odors, based on how old the odor is, to determine the direction of a track or a trail.” That means more recent odors are going to be more intense than odors that have dissipated over time.  When dogs are keeping track of physical space, they’re also tracking time, and for dogs, time is inseparably woven into space.  Doucleff suggested This is reminiscent of the way physicists describe and think about time and space, as two inseparable ideas combined in one four-dimensional continuum.  If this is the case, dogs are smarter than we give them credit for, and Donut was displaying a mastery of astrophysics.

THOUGHTS:  One reason I found the article about Donut and his ability to tell time interesting was because I see similar behaviors in Zena.  When the clocks “fell back” this fall Zena would come in at the same time and place her head on my knee letting me know it was time for supper.  It took her several weeks to understand I was not going to feed her until 5:30 pm (clock time), regardless of what time she knew it to be.  Einstein’s Theory of Relativity determined that time is relative and depends on your frame of reference.  Time is even relative for the human body, which is basically a biological clock.  Time can speed up when you are trying to finish a project by a certain date but can slow to a crawl when we are waiting for a certain hour to arrive.  Since time is relative, we should relax and let time pass, relishing each moment.  Act for all.  Change is coming and it starts with you.

December 24, 2022

The temperature has hovered between 0F to 20F (-17.7C to -6.6) for the last week.  While Northwest Arkansas did get 2 to 3 inches (5 to 7.5 cm) of snow, all we got in the River Valley was a dusting.  With the temperature this cold we are technically going to have a white Christmas as even our snow has not melted.  The cold has been accompanied by wind gusts that have driven the ‘feels like” down below 0F (-17.5C).  I have not been taking Zena for her daily walks and she is getting antsy being cooped up inside.  Today the winds dissipated, and the sun was out, so Melissa decided to let Zena out back to run.  I watched the birds clamor over our feeders and thought I had better refill them.  When I opened the back door to the patio the vinal I had placed on the door of our makeshift greenhouse came loose.  When I looked, I saw almost five feet of the sticky backing had separated from the plastic.  The temperature had gotten so low the glue would no longer hold.   

An AP article in my paper reported the cold temperature has hit Germany as well.  Churches have joined in the country’s efforts to save on heating costs this winter, forcing congregations to wear increasing layers of clothing.  At the same time, the churches are providing warm spaces for the homeless and for people who are struggling to pay their bills.  Germany is trying to reduce energy use to head off a potential energy crunch after Russia stopped gas supplies.  Many German churches have decided to switch the heating off completely or limit the temperature.  At Martha Church in Berlin, worshippers are being offered extra blankets and heated cushions to keep warm during services as the capital endures a prolonged spell of below-freezing temperature during Advent.  Pastor Monika Matthias says the church is currently between 12 and 14 degrees Celsius (53.6 and 57.2 F).  She said the temperature does not bother her as she is active during services, but other worshippers have found it a struggle to stay warm.  Coffee and tea are offered to heat them up afterward.  During a recent service, most members of the congregation continued to wear their thick winter coats, and many wore hats, scarves, and gloves, with blankets draped across their laps.

While worshippers wrap up to stay warm, churches continue to run shelters for the homeless and for people who are otherwise in difficulty.  There is a focus this year on providing warm spaces for people who do not have access to adequate heating to fight the low temperature.  Ralf Nordhauss of the Diakonie Deutschland charitable organization said the situation is “critical” for people struggling to pay bills amid soaring inflation.  Many prefer to turn the heating down or off rather than get into debt, and more people are expected at shelters.  “Here, it’s not just the homeless, but people who are simply looking for companionship or advice, or a coffee and a warm room,” Nordhauss said.  There are all kinds of warmth needed in times of shortage.

THOUGHTS:  When the temperature drops, I can complain and stay inside where it is warm, but others are not so lucky.  Each year, more than 100,000 people die from cold in the United States, and 13,000 in Canada.  That is more than 40 cold deaths for every heat related death (2,500).  Globally, 1.7 million people die of cold each year, dwarfing the 300,000 heat deaths.  Tackling cold deaths is much harder than heat deaths because it requires well-heated homes over weeks and months.  Heavy-handed climate policies only increase heating costs and make cold deaths more frequent.  Climate change is about extremes, and not just about getting warmer.  Act for all.  Change is coming and it starts with you.

December 23, 2022

I had gone to visit friends in a care facility earlier this week and was surprised to see Santa walk through the door.  He spent time talking with the staff and then proceeded to go room to room saying hello and stopping to chat with those residents who greeted him.  I have also seen Santa in several parades and even at the Christmas celebration where I work.  While he generally looks the same, I have marveled at his ability to gain and lose weight, seemingly at will.  I guess it must come from the enormous amounts of cookies he eats on Christmas Eve.

When I looked online, I found Santa Claus, aka Father Christmas, Saint Nicholas, Saint Nick, Kris Kringle, or simply Santa, is a legendary character originating in Western Christian culture.  He is said to bring children gifts during the overnight hours on Christmas Eve.  These toys, candy, coal, or nothing, depend on whether the child was “naughty or nice”.   Santa is aided by Christmas elves, who make the toys in his North Pole workshop, and by flying reindeer who pull his sleigh through the air.  Santa is generally depicted as a round, jolly, white-bearded man, often with spectacles, wearing a red coat, trousers, and hat all trimmed with white fur, and black leather belt and boots, and carrying a bag full of gifts for the children.  This image became popular in the US and Canada in the 19th century due to the significant influence of the 1823 poem by Clement C. Moore, “A Visit from St. Nicholas”.  Caricaturist Thomas Nast also played a role in the creation of Santa’s image.  This image has been maintained and reinforced through song, media, children’s books, family Christmas traditions, films, and advertising.  The modern character of Santa is based on folklore traditions surrounding Saint Nicholas, the English figure of Father Christmas and the Dutch figure of Sinterklaas.

While Santa is venerated and enjoyed by many, some find this characterization objectionable.  Santa Claus has partial Christian roots in Saint Nicholas, particularly in the high church denominations that honor him along with other saints.  Other denominations hold views that vary from acceptance to denouncement.  The English Puritans and Dutch Calvinists of the 17th-century banned the holiday tradition as either pagan or Roman Catholic and the American colonies established by these groups did the same.  Following the restoration of the monarchy in 1660 the ban on Christmas was lifted and was satirized in works such as Josiah King’s The Examination and Tryal of Old Father Christmas; Together with his Clearing by the Jury, in 1686.  Modern criticism centers around commercialization of the Santa Claus figure that began in the 19th century.  The original figure of St. Nicholas gave only to those who were needy, while today Santa seems to be more about conspicuous consumption.  With all the stress and criticism, it is no wonder the jolly old elf overindulges in sugar.

THOUGHTS:  Santa is one of the few characters who brings joy equally to children and adults.  The mere presence of Santa can bring a smile as memories of Christmases past flood our minds.  Life is the combination of memories (good and bad) and the expectation of events (and their memories) to come.  Plan to make good memories this Christmas that will last a lifetime.  Act for all.  Change is coming and it starts with you.

December 22, 2022

There is a wicked cold front arriving in our area this morning and we needed to prepare the outside succulent beds for the cold.  Forecasters have been warning all week to be prepared for bitter cold and the possibility of snow.  While it has been cold this week, the beds had not yet needed to be covered.  Melissa reminded me Tuesday night to be sure and cover the beds on Wednesday.  I forgot and instead took Zena on her first visit to a local dog park.  When I got home, I worked on other projects until Melissa reminded me that we needed to cover the plants.  I searched through the house and garage but could not find the mesh cloth we have used to cover the beds for the last two years.  I gave up and promised I would get up early this morning and get something over the beds.  Melissa woke me this morning saying she had covered the beds with blankets, but it was about to start to rain.  She suggested I use the drop cloths in the garage rather than cut more of our vinal sheathing.  As I crawled out of bed, I reminded myself this could have been done when it was warmer.

When I looked online, I found the definition of reminded is to make someone think about something again.  I also found an article from today’s Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that reminded readers of the incessant snow that piled up in January 1979.  The month began with 13.9 inches (35.3 cm) of heavy snow at Mitchell International Airport on New Year’s Eve, and another inch (2.5 cm) by the morning of New Year’s Day.  Drifts as high as 14 feet (4.25 m) piled up and temperatures dropped and stayed below 0F (-17.7C) for several days, with lows down to -15F (-26C).  On Jan. 13-14 a second winter storm dropped 14.6 inches (4.4 m), and again, the bitter cold returned.  By 8 am on January 5, the temperature had dropped to -15F (-26C), and The Milwaukee Journal reported a wind chill of -53F (-47C) that afternoon as another 4.9 inches (12.5 cm) of heavy snow fell.  From the night of January 23 through the following evening, another 9.5 inches (24 cm) of snow fell, for a monthly accumulation of snow at a record 33.7 inches (85.6 cm). 

At the top of the front page of the January 25, 1979, Sentinel, Milwaukee Mayor William Janz issued a joking/not-joking proclamation: ” … Be it resolved, that the County of Milwaukee, the City of Milwaukee, all of its suburbs, and any other communities in southeastern Wisconsin that want to affix signatures hereon, do, with snow shovels in hand, officially and unconditionally SURRENDER to the winter of ’79 … ”  With snow forecast for Christmas, the article in today’s Sentinel seems to suggest its readers need to be reminded of the negative affects of large amounts of snow.

THOUGHTS:  Melissa and I watched White Christmas last night.  This movie features Bing Crosby singing the namesake song as he wistfully dreams of snow at Christmas, and I am reminded of past Christmases when I felt the same.  Now the temperatures have dropped and the light mist that had begun as I covered the succulent beds has turned to snow.  While the sun glinting off snow covered branches and pristine fields is beautiful, like Milwaukee I am reminded there are other effects as well.  Snow and cold are especially hard on those without proper shelter or adequate heat.  Act for all.  Change is coming and it starts with you.

December 21, 2022

This week’s newsletter from the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission included news on removal of one of the low-water crossings in the southwestern part of the state.  Many of the manmade low-water crossings, bridges, and dams can impede the movements of fish to spawning areas, especially smaller fish species.  Thanks to a partnership with Weyerhaeuser, one of these dilapidated low-water crossings was removed to help promote fish movement and improve safety for recreational floaters and anglers in southwest Arkansas.  Removal of the crossing was necessary as the structure presented dangers to those on the water, and because it was in such poor condition it was unsafe for vehicular traffic.  The blockage caused by the structure also caused a major restriction for stream species along that stretch of the river and the feeder creeks to it in the watershed upstream.  Removal was made possible by an EPA-319 grant through the Arkansas Department of Agriculture.

When I looked online, I found the first Federal Water Pollution Control Act (FWPCA) was enacted in 1948 but was completely rewritten as FWPCA Amendments of 1972.  Major changes were later introduced via amendments, including the Clean Water Act of 1977 (CWA) and the Water Quality Act (WQA) of 1987.  The CWA is now the primary federal US law governing water pollution.  Its objective is to restore and maintain the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the nation’s waters, and was one of the first and most influential modern environmental laws in the nation.  Its laws and regulations are mostly overseen by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in coordination with state governments.  Section 319(h) of the CWA provides funds designated for state and tribal agencies to implement their approved management plans. These were the funds allocated for removal of the low water crossing.

A low water crossing provides a bridge when water flow is low.  Under high-flow conditions, water runs over the roadway and blocks or makes vehicular traffic hazardous.  This approach is cheaper than building a bridge to raise the road above the highest flood stage of a river, particularly in developing countries or in semi-arid areas with rare high-volume rain.  The collapsed low water crossing was removed and the banks on either side of the river were restored.  Native shrubs and trees were planted to reestablish the riparian area and riprap was placed to prevent shoreline erosion along the old roadbed.  The grant is intended to remove all potential fish passage barriers in the Lower Little River watershed, and at least three more barriers will be removed.  The barrier removal opened at least 25 river miles of connected habitat below Dierks Lake to native aquatic species, and more miles can be restored through continued work on the watershed.

THOUGHTS:  Migratory freshwater fish are among the most threatened animals on the planet, declining by 76 percent between 1970 and 2016, a much higher rate of decline than both marine and terrestrial migratory species.  Many of these freshwater species are bait fish for the larger predators we like to catch or eat.  Low-water crossings were quick to build and provided access to rural areas where high water flow was seldom a problem.  Unlike bridges, these structures dam the rivers most of the year.  As these crossings degrade and collapse, they no longer serve for vehicular traffic and remain an impasse for migratory species.  Like many of our past shortcuts, this problem will take time and money to resolve, but if we do nothing the problem will only get worse.  Act for all.  Change is coming and it starts with you.