A Walk in the Woods: Ephemeral Wetlands

Marion County Naturalist Marla Mertz is a treasure. She teaches kids and adults about nature, rescues wildlife, rehabilitates injured eagles and hawks, and does so with a gentle kindness and wisdom revered in other cultures and too often ignored in ours.  She richly explains and brings great meaning to things that most of us drive by, too busy to care, much to our detriment, and to the earth's. She's a great teacher, and has taken Austin DeJong, a seasonal employee, and anyone who cares to listen along with her on her journey to understand and appreciate life on earth.  Here her topic is ephemeral wetlands, and it's time for a walk in the woods on my program for KNIA/KRLS.  The program can be found here.

Muddy Boots

It's raining as I write this.  We're under a severe thunderstorm watch, and we have a flash flood warning until noon tomorrow. We have broken June to-date rainfall records that were set last year.  Last year we broke records set in 2008. In 2008 we broke records set in 1993, another year of great Iowa floods.  And so far, we're lucky--nothing here like the flooding on the Missouri. But it could yet come.

A few days ago I was driving home and noticed a US Geological Survey truck parked by the bridge at Cedar Creek.  Of course, I pulled over and had a conversation with two young men who were taking readings at the Creek, and checking instrumentation there. Garret Welsh and Lance Gruen, employees of the USGS are also students at the University of Iowa who are studying hydrology.

Flash flood watches and warnings save property and lives.  And you can have all the fanciest scientific equipment in the world, and it doesn't mean anything unless you have people checking that equipment, calibrating it, and making real-time observations.  And those men and women who do this important work--have muddy boots.  What's their job like?  And what do they think of notions in Washington DC, and Des Moines that will result in support for these river monitoring services being cut? I work in news for a great radio station--KNIA/KRLS Knoxville/Pella, IA, and my interview with them can be heard here.