Nomads, Day 7 and 8 (9/9/2023)

We continue our trek up the great Missouri River, and it is time to report on days 7 and 8.

Day 7: East Totten Trail Campground – New Town (SD) – Belfield – Medora – Theodore Roosevelt National Park – Miles City (MT)

Day 8: Miles City – Pompeys Pillar National Monument – Billings – Lewistown

It was a cold morning when we woke up. It was about 43 degrees (6 C), at least that is what the Weather Channel told us. One thing that had been pretty surprising to me was that all through Nebraska and South Dakota we had great cell phone coverage. This was somewhat amazing to me but every little hamlet and even along all the roads we had traveled, my phone told me it was mostly a 5G service. Even in North Dakota where we were on day 7 and for a large part during day 8, we were never without cell phone coverage. Some of the posts up to now were written when my wife, Donna, was driving and I used the hotspot on my phone.

To continue, that night at the East Totten Trail Campground we used our small space heater, the night sky was amazing, and we even heard a group of coyotes howl, which greatly amused our dogs. It was interesting to watch the folks next to us trying to level their huge camper; it took the guy at least a half hour or longer. We have Camco leveling blocks, which look like giant Lego blocks, and I just had to drive one side of our van on to them to sleep somewhat level that night.

The next day it was through the North Dakota prairie, we go! This part of the world was a mix of corn, sun flowers and native short grass prairie rangelands. We did drive a number of fields that appear to be alfalfa. Amazing were the oil rigs or pump that were littered throughout the landscape. We had heard of the North Dakota oil boom and here it was! Most towns on the road were small, except the town of New Town, which appeared to be a tourist resort and oil town. Being from our area, New Town is a development in Williamsburg where we used to work.

After lunch in Belfield at a very interesting restaurant, we toured the southern section of the Theodor Roosevelt National Park. It was a pity that the sky was so smoky; however, the park is definitely worth visiting. We were off to Miles City (MT), after a brief visit to the park. In Miles City we experienced a true camping site, a gravel lot with plenty of RVs, including folks that live there long-term. It was located next to a feed lot and here we came up with notion that SD, ND and MT were dominated by flies. The owner of the RV site was a riot and we enjoyed interacting with her. Bathrooms were clean and it felt great to take a shower.

The trip next day was fairly uneventful. The visit to Pompeys Pillar was fun and warmish. Pompeys pillar is the site where you can find the only real evidence of the trip that Lewis and Clark made. Clark carved his signature into the rock. It was a shame that they were doing some heavy work there and had a huge crane set up. But after inquiry, I found out that the pillar was slowly coming apart, courtesy the weather. As I used to teach, water is the strongest force in breaking rocks apart. Combine that with frost, and Clark’s signature was in danger. It was interesting to see how the entire pillar was being monitored. The crane was there to assist with a stabilization effort.

After lunch and groceries in Billings it was on the road again to Lewistown. This town is the central point in Montana and a cute town. We quickly found out that microbreweries in Montana do not allow dogs, something that we are accustomed to in Virginia. In other words, my dream of doing a microbrewery tour of Lewis and Clark was dashed. We again stayed at an ordinary camp site, this time without feedlot and great owner who talked our ears off, but still with a lot of flies and folks that do not clean up after their dogs next to your camp site. Oh well. That night we were hit by more rain, which sounds great on the van. Overall, a fun two days. I cannot get over the fact how much I missed this type of landscape we have been driving through. The prairie is amazing. A second observation was that it seems that the country in this area is littered with casinos. Every small (and large town) in SC, ND and MT seem to have a casino in it. These are combined with local bars or liquor stores.

On a sad note, it was around this time that our good friend Vaughn Deel had passed away. The news affected my wife and me greatly. Vaughn was a great person and wonderful musician. He always remembered us and had a kind word for you whenever you met him. It was shortly after we moved to Virgina that he had a stem cell transplant what kept him alive for at least another 22 years. It were these years that he did not take for granted. Rest in peace Vaughn and do some jamming up there with Jerry and the bunch.

Breakfast at the East Totten Trail Campground

North Dakota Prairie with its windmills

National Grasslands

In the Theodor Roosevelt NP, showing of our camping van.

In my classes I used to tell folks about rocks as mulch and the pedestaling you can see in the dessert.  Here you can see where there were rocks there was no erosion.

Pompeys Pillar.

The view from on top of Pompeys pillar: the Yellowstone River (Clark's return route).

We made it to Lewistown and it's time to relax.

Stormwater, the early years (7/10/2023)

In a previous post I mentioned that I once had the ambition to write a book on stormwater and erosion and sediment control (and I may still do it). This idea was a natural outflow of the job I did pre-retirement. The following post is part of an introductory section that I wrote for the book. Ince I lifted from a chapter, I have changed it a little to make it a narrative for you all to follow and understand. I left the literature citations out, feel free to contact me, if you are interested in them. So here I go:

Very early, North American settlement history may have followed similar patterns as were encountered in Europe of the Middle Ages. The settling population in North America initially concentrated in towns and villages for mutual protection from outlaws and native Indian population. This is evident by some of the older larger urban centers on the east coast. In addition, large tracts of land were deforested very early on in settlement history for the use of timber (building materials) and the growth of cash crops, in particular tobacco. A 17th century document in the historic town of Williamsburg describes that climbers of the church spire in town (or what is now Colonial Williamsburg) were able to see the York River to the north and the James River to the south, a feat that is impossible nowadays because of the regrowth of the forest in the area. The peninsula appeared to have completely deforested, mostly for the growing of tobacco at that time.

The cartographer Lewis Evans observed the same thing when he reported in 1750 about the deforestation and conversion to agriculture land that had already greatly altered the hydrology and clarity of streams and creeks in the Piedmont of Northern Virginia:

"When the country was cover'd with Woods, and the Swamps with brush, the rain that fell was detained by these interruptions, and so had time to insinuate into the Earth, and contribute to the springs and runs. But now the country is clear'd, the rain as fast as it falls is hurried into the rivers, and washes away the earth and soil of our Naked Fields."

 

The reports by Evans were only the beginning. Human caused accelerated erosion increased steadily as is shown in a recent study by Kemp et al (2020) who conclude that European settlement of North America during the past century has resulted in the movement in as much sediment that natural processes can move in 700 to 3000 years. They estimated that geologic sediment production which had been relatively stable for the past 40,000 years increased 10-fold as a result of European settlement and the rapid expansion of agriculture and river modification seen throughout the continent.

So, what are currently the main sources of sediment the waterways in more developed nations? It was reported that while agriculture practices generate considerable amounts of sediment by way of erosion; we now estimate that areas cleared for construction are able to generate the equivalent of many decades of sediment in one year compared to agricultural uses (let me know if you are interested in the source). Research determined that construction can yield 140,000 tons of sediment per square mile per year, compared to 1000 tons from agriculture land and up to 500 tons from forested land in the Piedmont area of Maryland. In other words, construction is a major contributor producing 140 times more sediment than agriculture land per unit area (for example per acre or hectare). However, , there is so much more land being used for agriculture than actively being disturbed by construction activities.

On an interesting note, while sediment production increased at least 10-fold over historical times in North America during the last century, it was also observed that during the same period it seemed that less sediment reached the ocean. This was caused by the retention of the sediment by reservoirs that were constructed by human. Reservoirs served for the storage of drinking water and water for energy generation and irrigation. It has been estimated that a total of 1.4 ± 0.3 metric tons of sediment per year is retained by reservoirs world-wide. Siltation of these reservoirs will eventually greatly reduce the capacity, function, and usefulness of these structures. It appears that Indonesian rivers were a rare exception and that they deliver more sediment to the coastal areas than other rivers that they surveyed.

Here I’ll step away from my book chapter. I saw similar issues in Nepal where the land or better fertile soil was being carried away by runoff. The main reason was deforestation for agriculture. We often joked that a new island was being formed off the coast of Bangladesh. This island was formed from the sediment being carried by the rivers coming out of Nepal. The results in Nepal were the drying out of springs and dropping groundwater table, a phenomenon seen throughout areas that are being deforested.

I’ll end here, there are many posts where I discuss some of these items as well. Just look in the keywords for the words like stormwater, erosion, sediment, erosion and sediment control, runoff reduction and alike. If you like or enjoy what I wrote here, let me know and I’ll pull some additional material out of my writing.

Our daughter was in New Delhi, India these past few weeks and sent me this newspaper shot.  They had 6" (126 mm) of rain in the afternoon and it flooded the town.  Can you imagine all the impervious area in such a large city, it created havoc.

Roots (2) (9/18/2016)

Of late I have been fascinated by roots.  I wrote about it earlier in the year, and today I would like to revisit it.  That blog of earlier this year had more to do about how our present is rooted in our past, not bad for a biologist turned amateur psychologist I would think.  In the real world I hear they have remade the TV series called “Roots” and I constantly hear about the genetic testing to see what your roots are, but that is not where I want to go with this post.

Today I am really interested in the real roots, the things that feed plants.  Those are the ones that have fascinated me for a long time, and the interest has grown even stronger.  What has happened that sparked this interest?  Well, for the past 30 years I have wanted to grow bonsai trees.  I have had trees in training since that time or should I say I have had trees that I kept in benign neglect.  I have not managed them probably for the past 10 years, just kept them in their pots and they have not done much.  Finally this year, I somehow figured it was time that I spend some time with them.

My 30 year old Japanese Black Pine, as you can see the trunk is still really small.  The tree had almost died this spring, I root pruned it pretty severely and planted it in a new pot.  It seems to be doing well.  I wonder what next year will bring.

Well the plants were root bound.  It was surprising that the plants were still alive.  Moreover, it was not surprising that they had hardly grown and still looked like seedling after the 30 years.  After untangling the roots, I cut them some and repotted them in what I thought was a very loose soil mix and yes they are growing great (that is, compared to the past 10 years).  They really seem to like what I did to them.  Then I started to look on YouTube at various Bonsai channels and was amazed how others hacked at roots, combed them out, arranged them to make them look like a “natural” tree with spread out roots, you name it.  I hurt and I cringed when I watched them hack at the roots.  But the plants recovered and did great!  (Here is one of the channels I watch).  I was way too gentle. (And wow I just realize, going back to my first post on roots that I mentioned above, maybe cutting all or most of your personal roots may be OK in some cases; you can grow new ones and be fine).

An overview of my selection.  A lot of these plants are close to 30 years old.  I need a bigger table and bonsai pots, but we are getting somewhere.

We all know what roots do; they anchor plants and take up water and nutrients.  Well, there is much more than meets the eyes.  In my teaching I tell my students how roots assist with the decontamination of polluted stormwater.  It seems that the root tips shed sacrificial cells (a.k.a. root cap) as they push through the soil.  These cells serve as nutrients for microorganisms which in turn absorb the pollutants that are in the water and break them down.  The roots will grow longer and the microorganisms will run out of these sacrificial cells to live on.  Eventually they will die and now these pollutants that have been broken down by the microorganisms will be released and become available as  nutrients for the plants and be taken up by the roots that fed them in the first place.  Pretty cool eh?

So it is understandable that combining my interest in roots, my interest in bonsai and my background in botany with a vacation that included hiking in the woods resulted in some photographs of some cool root structures.  In bonsai we are always interested in roots over rock, or showing a nice radial root structure over the ground.  When working with ficus trees, it is fun to get aerial roots.  In other words, I have been walking in the woods being aware of roots.  Here are a few pictures of some roots I have seen lately.

We found this root in Bigelow Hollow State Park in Connecticut.  The soil must have eroded quite a but to expose this much root since roots do not typically grow like this over the air.  You only get to see them when the soil erodes away.  This tree does not look very old, which leads me to the conclusion that erosion was very fast in this area.

This photo was taken along the Appalachian Trail in the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area (where we went for a 7.3 mile hike).  This one looks somewhat older but again the soil has eroded quite far.  Grated this is on a ridge, but still.  I love it the way this root has found its way in and around the rock.

During our visit to Pittsburgh in July we went for a hike on the Trillium Trail and tripped over this root structure of this massive beech.  Here again, soil erosion is very evident.

Water (2/12/2016)

Walking in the woods this morning after a very cold morning I was reminded of one of the things I really try to push in my classes: 

“The importance of (clean) water!”

I tell my students that life is not possible without water and that one of the reasons is that water has these special properties.  One of these properties is that is expands when is gets colder than approximately 40 degrees Fahrenheit.  Below that temperature water becomes more buoyant (lighter) because of the expansion and rises to the top of the water column.  When temperatures drop below freezing water freezes on top and creates this insulated layer which allows fish and aquatic life to survive in lakes, ponds, rivers and oceans (and it allows my crazy Dutch country men and women to win gold medals in speed skating).  If water would freeze from the bottom up these water bodies would be lifeless because every thing wold freeze to death.  This is also one reason why NASA is so fascinated by the (water) moons of Jupiter and Saturn, because they are expected to have liquid water deep down.  There may be life up there!

After an night of frost you can see the small cracks that formed and refroze as a result of the expanding ice, creating this magnificent mosaic.

The photograph above gives a great example of it all.  There is liquid water under the ice.  Obviously after the water froze it got even colder and the expanding ice has all kinds of small cracks in it from expanding and now looks like a mosaic.  Really cool!  Although it may be quite disturbing that instead of enjoying nature, I am constantly analyzing things in nature, just like that cartoon that I saw on Facebook of how a scientist spends his vacation on a tropical island.

Click <here> to see the site where I found the cartoon and to see many more science cartoons!

Anyway, I do teach almost daily about the importance of water, about the importance of clean water and about keeping it clean through erosion and sediment control and stormwater management.

Expanding ice in wet soil causes what we call frost heaving.  These soil particles become very loose and can become erodible and end up in our stormwater.

What can you contribute to keeping our water clean?

1. Pick up your animal’s waste, especially when they do it on the road or in or near a place where it will readily enter the stormwater
2. Don't over-fertilize or apply too much pesticide to your yard
3. When you apply fertilizer or pesticide stay a few yards away from streets or your property boundary
4. When you wash your car do it on the lawn not on a paved surface, like your driveway or the road in front of your home.  Better, do it at a car wash.
5. Don’t poor waste oil or any other wastes down the storm drain
6. Minimize the bare soil in our yards and mulch

We all can contribute to clean water, and it is so important!  If we run out of water, our earth will turn into something like Mars, lifeless; without clean water who knows, but it will not be pretty.  As I teach my students:

"Filthy water cannot be washed!"

The big ephemeral pond behind our home has the same mosaic like features.  The water in these ponds is so nice and clean.

I-81 near Christiansburg (3/24/2014)

Maybe a strange picture today, but I am a teacher in erosion and sediment control for the state.  On my way to western Virginia to teach one of my classes I drove by this and felt the need to take a picture of it.  This is a prime example of how not to do erosion control.  It is one of the first things we say and still people do not listen.  It is somewhat infuriating, knowing that the soil that runs of this hill will end up in a stream and then we complain that the streams have cloudy water, and that the fish cannot live in that stream any longer etc etc..

I realize that I am over simplifying things a bit, but all these little things impact the big picture.  That is what we call cumulative effect.  If we do not do anything about these little things, eventually it is all going to multiply and become a big thing.  But that is what we call the tragedy of the commons; shared resources are abused. The theory is that shared resources such as air, water or grazing grounds that are owned by society are difficult to protect; because if I don't pollute them, or if I don't over-graze, my neighbor will, so I might as well do it now.  I am tired while writing this, it has been a long day, but it is so important and to me it often seems to be the crux of our troubles.  Kind of like "great that you are driving a Prius or another fuel efficient vehicle, because that gives me more gas for my Hummer.  I know this is much more complex, but that is how I feel tonight.  I'll write more about this one of these days.

Yorktown (7/25/13)

When I drove to work this morning I had to stop at this spot in Yorktown.  County personnel were cleaning up the debris field from last night's storms.  They told me this was the third time this week.  Looking at it, all the stone was undersized, so was the channel.  The worst of it was that all the runoff ran right into the Chesapeake Bay.  Being one of the stormwater experts in the state it really stings seeing this and what the workers reported to me was the inaction by management.