Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Save Lubbock's Rivers!

The Double Mountain Fork at max flow!

Don't you just love misleading headlines!

I drive through Justiceburg often, and the highlight of that trip is usually the craning of my neck to see if there's any mud lingering in the bed of the Double Mountain Fork of the Brazos. There is usually a little. Once in a great while there is actual water visible. And there was one time that I saw the highway department out there monitoring to make sure that a flash flood was not going to wash away the Highway 84 bridge. (One small regret in my life is that I did not head straight home, grab the kayak, and ride the red whitewater from Tahoka to Justiceburg.) Two weeks later I passed that way again and saw only mud.

DMFBR

FYI, I love being near water, especially if that water has the capacity to support wildlife. I love ponds, lakes, streams, drainage ditches, playa lakes, buffalo wallows, mud puddles, and the ocean.  I am not terribly fond of swimming pools and it really gets to me that I live in an area where almost all bodies of water have dried up but the freshwater-for-fracking ponds are full and open for business.

The most intriguing water to me is running water. I love rivers.

So, when I ran across this article about the Freshwater Trust, I was both depressed at the enormity of their task and encouraged by the fact that they exist and are making headway. FYI, the Freshwater Trust is not based in West Texas.

The State of Water in America

May your rivers run wild and clean!

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