Morning August,
I've probably mentioned this to you before on some thread, but I spend much of my time from spring through fall out in my canoe paddling on creeks, rivers, and marshes. Being up here in Canada where the population is much less dense, you would think that the water would be fairly unpolluted. However, this isn't the case at all. You have to go quite far up north, or look for creeks, rivers, or lakes close to the high end of unpopulated watershed regions in order to find relatively clean bodies of water which are still rich in biodiversity. Fortunately, I still know where there are quite a few, but I am becoming increasingly dismayed by the condition of the "downstream" ends of many rivers. The same is certainly true in the U.S. It's getting difficult to find rivers that you would want to swim in, or in many cases, even wade around in in your bare feet. And yet we expect aquatic creatures to be able to exist in these environments.
I think the thing that makes me feel so bad about all of this is that I have spent so much of my life along rivers and know what a healthy river looks like. And it is frightening to me that over the past 3 or 4 decades, the condition of so many waterways has basically gone "down the toilet", despite the efforts of conservation groups, etc... What kind of a legacy is this to leave to the next generation? It's actually quite shocking and sad -- so much so, that I try not to think about it too much as it can make one start to become complacent about not trying to "do something" and we just can afford to have people giving up just yet.
Dark thoughts on such a bright sunny day! Weather is actually still quite good here. Snow is still only about 6-8 inches deep. The day after Christmas, we went hiking up on Foley Mountain overlooking Upper Rideau Lake to see the deer herd that yards up there in winter. I shot some footage of the deer and of a Pileated Woodpecker that was working on a hole in one of the old growth White Pines up there. The snow was falling just lightly.. it was very quiet and we had the hiking trails all to ourselves. I found a small, clear little brook where the water was splashing down between the ice and the Precambrian granite boulders, and shot a bit of footage which has the most incredible soundtrack of natural "music"... It was a wonderful day. Hoping to go out to some other old growth forests to shoot some tapes over the New Year's holiday.
Take it easy,
croc |
