A year or so ago a blogger died. He died of cancer. T’was a not good thing as he seemed a decent person. He had a story, as do most of us. I didn’t know the man personally, only through his blog – which I accidently stumbled across by following links given by other writer I was following at the time.
The blogger ran afoul of the governments project of reclaiming the over flow areas along the rivers. Now, if one is not familiar with the program, the government is forcing, taking to be blunt, all the lands along western rivers between the bluffs where the flood waters are usually trapped in the spring time. Those lands are not navigable waters under the loose definition of the law, and much of them are the most productive lands some ranchers own. But the government doesn’t want settlement there. The same program started behind the leeves and the flood plains of the Mississippi and was expanded dby Clinton into the Missouri river and now into Oka and Texas long the Cimarron and the Red rivers. An on going project for the government.
Anyhow, our blogger owned some land down along the river and they built a highway up on the bluffs above the historic flood plain, trapping his land between the highway and the river.
He lost the land, of course, and had about a year or two there after before he died. He wrote about the flooding of his property once or twice. He wasn’t happy with the trash that floated down that river. Not only because he had to police it up when the river receded, but because it was unsightly and he ran a camping area and had to, just to maintain a decent place to rent out.
I thought of him when I saw this article:
Littering problem along Arkansas riverbank is reasoning for city event
Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Google+ (Opens in new window) Share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window) WICHITA, Kansas – Lace up your grubbiest
So, yeah, by all means, clean the river banks and for Christ;s sake use trash bins when your out and about.
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From the reaches,
Ten Whiskey