Re: NANFA-L-- Around Pigeon Mountain
Prizma-in-aol.com
Mon, 18 Jul 2005 22:21:08 EDT
so much to say and think. if it was not for roads and maps and gear i could
not scout these streams. i am part of the problem. i too want a home by a
mountain stream tho i would strive to keep and protect what is there. i can see
myself in a fight with the guy that moves upstream and begins to do do who
knows what to the streams banks, watershed, yard, trash, driveway, yardwaste,
pesticides, daming for a pond, ..... ive seen so many horrible sights. but i
dont want to be pessimistic but the word, the real, is there before us. ive
seen beautiful things, i want to see more. but i know without a doubt what they
once were. it takes very little imagination to see.
i visited the infamous little shultz creek after the convention, still
electric rainbow shiners in the seine and rick mayden assuring me they are as they
were for the last 10 to 15 years he had been going there. a concern of mine
as so many of us have been there collecting and observing. yet the bigger
concern is just above and beyond it the hills are being deforested, clear cut.
that topsoil will run downhill. it will stay in the stream. the chubs will
work much harder to find silt covered stones to pile. fewer sites will be
available. fewer fish will spawn. there must be a critical mass when the few
remaining are not enough and then they will be gone. no more.
i dont want to be negative and i try to be upbeat. i like to see nature's
glory. i want others to see it.
dang... there are just so many of us ever pushing outward.
im certainly for protecting what is left and restoring what we can. we have
learned not to pollute like we had in the past when our rivers were raw sewage
soap sudded flows and toxic dumping grounds. but so much is due to our
growing, expanding mass. and still plenty of ignorance by all of us as to what
happens. we dont see below the surface much. it is easy to look across a wide
green pasture and think and know it is beautiful. but what about the shade that
was, the cows that are now wading in it, the collapsing banks? tranquil,
idealic view? not if you were a srbd.
here is one for you. tennessee dace are listed in my state. a fairly rare,
cool fish, isolated pops of them scattered. need spring runs, mountain streams
and cool, clean water to thrive. tva is building a power station (
transformers and such ) off the main power lines just ne of here. i went there to help
sample and confirm. a new pop was found. the new power lines go immediatly
over the small spring that feed this meandering stream of tn dace. they will
have to denude the trees canopieng the spring since they are under the new
powerlines. tall trees and powerlines dont mix. what is gonna happen to that
spring flow? siltation, heat, death.
now that is tva, our government making choices. not walmart.
would not it be cool to designate these 3 or 4 meandering acres as a nature
park preserve / reserve and shift the lines a hundred yards in another
direction? celebrate what is there. put some park benches up? a sign. a trail.
i just dont get it.
i guess they have finally gotten land rights, a path, a logic and well gosh
durn... those fish are in the way. cant change plans now.
i always hear folks giving walmart a hard time... well check that out. i
know walmart could not do that or any private enterprise.
well anyway pigeon mountain offered some interesting places beyond the
dissappointment and i hope to return when the opportunity presents itself. instead
of hitting and exploring every thin blue line and road crossing i will now
focus on about 3 of the promising sites for a full day. im kinda fascinated w/
this tn divide and how two massive drainages can be seperated by the lowest
hill slope. yet certain species will never meet their distant cousins. fish
cant walk. bugs can crawl, birds fly, mammals cross roads. but fish are stuck
where they are. upstream or downstream.
im also interested in stream capture tho today's bait bucket introductions
can account for a lot. they have records of rainbow shiners in tn drainage.
very, very few specimens were collected tho.
im gonna go take a look.
maybe i will find something that mesmerizes me.
casper, headed home, on the west side of south chick.
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