The Mark River Blog:
Water for Life
By Mighty Quapaw Youth Leader Mark “River” Peoples
1 Mississippi Southern Region Intern
www.1mississippi.org
Coming off the healing ceremony of the equinox, the Bear Dance, I’m feeling focused and energized for the season ahead. With fall arriving fast and football season in full throttle, my body and mind drift with the Mississippi River. I reflect upon my travels as a Mighty Quapaw and process ideas and adventures yet to be documented and shared. With the anniversary of the Clean Water Act of 1972 upon us, I’m compelled to share how this significant piece of legislation, which saved our waterways and wetland ecosystems, has affected my personal journey. In my universe, the Clean Water Act is as epic an event as the Louisiana Purchase, the acquisition of the western reaches of the Mississippi River and its tributaries. The Clean Water Act regulates industries and holds them accountable for discharges of bio-accumulative toxins of PCBs (man-made chemicals) and PCDEs (flame retardants), which eventually contaminate river bottoms and the organisms that live there, eventually working their way up the food chain.
USFWS_DaveMenke
As a river guide, I’m blessed that I don’t have to make time to cultivate an intimate connection with our great rivers and streams. I man my canoe for an overnight expedition past Island 64 and into the Muddy Waters Wilderness below. The gray cool day is infinitely beautiful with sandbars’ angelic curvatures creating the setting of a desert with only an occasional fish carcass skeletal system altering the landscape. The water is low and beautiful with pelicans, egrets, herons, and other fish-eating birds celebrating the reception of a great summer. As usual, a bald eagle welcomes me to the sacred Mississippi River, causing me to pause and thank the Creator for the restoration of the species affected in the early half of the 20th century by the poisonous DDT use by farmers. Banning these chemicals directly led to the passing of the Clean Water Act. I get emotional knowing the passing of this legislation preserved this great resource for myself and generations to come.
I contain my emotions and realize the Mississippi River is only as healthy as its tributaries. I recall my introduction to the Yellowstone River, a tributary of the Missouri River, which eventually feeds into the Mighty Mississippi. I arrived in the middle of the night, with only the sounds of the current meandering around the shoals of rock. The sky was as vast and beautiful as the wide skies of the Lower Mississippi River Delta, its features leap into your mind as if the Creator took a water balloon of stars and splashed them against the mountains. Thick clusters of stars sit side by side, as if fireworks exploded but never descended to earth. I slept with the roaring sound of the river, anticipating the parabolic view of the mountains I would receive in the morning. The morning doesn’t disappoint, as mountains strongly rise from the earth. Walking to the shores of the Yellowstone, I noticed I’m not alone as whitetail deer drink and graze 20 feet upwind from human existence, while a beautiful Montana stallion gallops down the mountain for a drink. Rainbow trout tread the shoals waiting patiently for the warming of the sun to trigger the first hatch of flies. With the oil and mining industries prevalent in the Northwest, it was great to see this great river healthy and thriving. Another ecosystem preserved and prosperous because of the Clean Water Act.
Nearly 25 years ago, my father purchased approximately 100 acres of land in the St. Francis Mountains of the Mark Twain National forest in Iron County, Missouri, near the headwaters of the St. Francis River. Approaching retirement, my dad wanted to fulfill his father’s dream of creating and working a portion of land that would provide resources essential to sustain human life. He also saw the value in reintroducing wildlife to a forest which had been depleted by the lumber industry and to streams contaminated from the mining industry. For a great price, my family acquired a freshwater spring and aquifer filtered by the limestone beds deposited by the shallow seas of long ago. We created a lake which is now booming with catfish, bluegill, and bass. This freshwater lake is a resource for raccoons, weasels, fox and bobcats, and is essential to sustain wildlife on our land. Eagles, herons and egrets maintain balance in our lake. Owls and hawks canvas the land, taking an occasional chicken and keeping the rat population in check. This process of creating a habitat can only be achieved if you have a freshwater source and the legal means to protect it. That’s why the Clean Water Act is so monumental to me personally.
Einstein once said, “Make every equation simple as possible, but no simpler,” spawning my title: “Water for Life.” That’s as simple as it gets. Without water, there is no life.
To Preserve and Protect our most valuable resource – Become a River Citizen today
-Mark River
www.island63.com
www.rivergator.org
(Note: you can help us celebrate the 40th Anniversary of the US Clean Water Act with FREE CANOE & KAYAK & SUP Rentals on the Mississippi River and Sunflower Rivers. Participate in a river Clean-Up. Get to know your river! Visit the events page here for more information).