Thursday, June 18, 2009

Brief environmental report from commuter using Razorback Road and 265 south this morning

"Bad sights on way to work this morning.
"Someone mowed the field at Razorback and 15th where the white wild indigo was just blooming.
And the county is SCRAPING the ditches... which have numerous milkweed, cup and compass plants etc."

Same person told me yesterday that I needed to go photograph native wildflowers on that route, but I was busy. Frustrating time of year when such things happen at the beginning of the summer peak of prairie-flower glory.

Removing the vegetation from the ditches causes erosion. In this case, the water along Arkansas 265 south of Fayetteville from the de-vegetated ground flows down Cato Springs Branch to the West Fork of the White River carrying silt to Beaver Lake.
Why do county crews do things exactly opposite to the rules of watershed protection?
There is plenty of bare ground in south Fayetteville resulting from mismanaged construction without a public agency adding to it for absolutely no justifiable purpose.

Instead wasting fuel in such a manner, they could be sitting in an air-conditioned building and watching one of thousands of video productions on sound watershed management practices. That would cost the county less and actually accomplish something worthwhile.

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