First Frost of the Fall 2007

First Frost of the Fall 2007

Tuesday morning the North Mississippi Delta woke up to find the first frost of the fall which had settled overnight into the Mississippi Valley borne by north winds and a crystal clear night sky, stars visible all of the way to the horizon (even from downtown Clarksdale), the Moon a waning crescent falling below Venus, Old Man Owl (Great Horned Owl) calling out deep and woody resonance over the gently flowing waters from his perch on Old Woman Cypress, Emma Louise and I wandered down along the river and took the following photos later as the sun was rubbing its eyes and rising over the East bank of the Sunflower:


Can anyone identify the vegetation?



Frosting edges making the chaos more sensible




Clearish greenish water flowing slowly through town, partially fed by the new pumps sunk into the Mississippi River aquifer at the headwaters of the Sunflower, the start of a 200+ mile journey winding through the fields and forests of the Mississippi Delta, the Sunflower becoming the Big Sunflower, eventually meandering into the largest bottomland hardwood forest in the National Forest system, through some old channels of the Yazoo, and some canals dug into the delta, and then finally into its confluence with the Yazoo through the gates of Steel Bayou Control Structure.

Will this muddy water of the Mississippi Delta be pumped back over the levee into the Mississippi River (during high water on the Mississippi)? This question now sits on the desks of the President and EPA Administrator, Stephen Johnson.

Deer Creek Watershed Association, is working to clean up and revitalize Deer Creek to take it back to its former place of beauty

Ronnie Yarbrough's on the trail of something exciting

MONDAY JUNE 25, 2007
Ross Reily, editor of the Delta Democrat Times.

What would you say about the possibility of a walking/bike trail that spans 163 miles through the Mid-Delta?

Well, while there's nobody ready to break ground for this project in the next 48 hours, there is one man who has a vision of bike trails, walking trails, fishing piers and boat ramps from one end of Deer Creek in Bolivar County to the other where it empties into the Little Sunflower River.

Ronnie Yarbrough, along with the Deer Creek Watershed Association, is working to clean up and revitalize Deer Creek to take it back to its former place of beauty.

Over the years, neglect has taken its toll, but Yarbrough sees more than just a litter-filled ditch. Yarbrough lives along Deer Creek near Arcola and first spent his own money to help clear and clean a portion within eyesight of his home. Since then, he and a group of dedicated folks have worked for a couple of years dealing with governmental agencies and cities and towns in the Delta to help clean, clear and beautify the Delta.

"I see this as an economic development issue," Yarbrough said, noting that Deer Creek was once a great place for fishing.

After the Mississippi Fish and Wildlife Department restocked Deer Creek, Yarbrough hopes the fishing get back to its pre-Katrina levels when people traveled from across the South just to throw a line in the historic water trail.

"If we get everything clean and pristine, I can see a bait shop, a place for canoe rental and maybe one day an outfitter to help people traverse the creek," Yarbrough said. "We have to think along these lines. I don't see any big industries beating our doors down. So, why don't we think progressively and work with our own natural resources. What do we have to lose?"

He has a point.

Why not create a place that spans the entire Mid-Delta where people can come and enjoy a beautiful natural setting?

According Yarbrough, the Mississippi Development Association is already on board. Also, if previous cleanup days are any indication, state Sen. Buck Clarke and state Rep. John Hines are on board, too. Clarke and Hines have been involved in local cleanup efforts.

More than a month ago, 87 showed up in Metcalfe to help clean and clear Deer Creek. There were 95 in Leland and 125 in Arcola.

What needs to happen next is for Greenville and Washington County to organize and help clean up the Deer Creek area that runs through the Mid-Delta Regional Airport.

How nice would it be if there were a walking trail, a fishing pier and possibly a boat ramp to go along with the Greenville Municipal Golf Course as a great green area for Greenvillians and Washington County residents?

What about money?

To this point, money hasn't been a major problem, with federal agencies willing to work with the Deer Creek Watershed Association.

The cleanup day in Metcalfe was funded with $40,000 from the Department of Environmental Quality, and Yarbrough says there may be as much as $2.3 million more out there from various organizations.

At this point, what the Watershed Association needs is more people to volunteer and more communities and cities to jump on board with a clear vision of a manicured creek with bike trails, walking trails, fishing piers and boat ramps from one end of Deer Creek in Bolivar County to the other where it empties into the Little Sunflower River.

That vision should also include smiling faces getting out and enjoying the Delta. That vision should include ways to market our beautiful natural resources, and we should envision people coming to the Delta just to enjoy how we made our dreams a reality.

Now, who could be against that?

Small Environmental Groups Can Make a Big Difference

Local "stream teams" help clean up America's rivers and watersheds

Environmental groups in the United States come in many sizes, from the 1.3 million-member Sierra Club to small neighborhood groups that clean trash from their local streams, monitor water quality and plant trees to prevent erosion. Even the smallest grassroots groups can have a big impact.

Living Lands and Waters (LL&W) consists of fewer than a dozen people who live on a barge on the Mississippi River and direct river cleanup projects in their region. Members went to Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina to clear debris, and once a year the group travels to Washington to organize a volunteer cleanup of the Potomac and Anacostia rivers.

Throughout the United States, citizens are joining "stream teams" - groups of volunteers that collect water samples and other data to monitor the health of their local watersheds (drainage areas). These nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) provide information to government agencies and lawmakers and press for effective laws against polluters. They focus on local problems but are frequently part of national coalitions.

At the neighborhood level, people who want to protect the small streams or creeks flowing through their back yards are forming tiny "subwatershed" groups, increasingly important tools for protecting the rivers that are fed by these streams, said Brian Van Wye of the Earth Conservation Corps (ECC) in Washington.

"These are citizens in their communities who are the eyes and ears and voice of their creek," he told USINFO. "They get involved in volunteer cleanup activities, restoration activities, and they notice if something's going on that shouldn't be going on and try to urge government officials to do the right thing, to hold businesses and polluters accountable - all the good things citizens can do by being involved."

Van Wye said the focus within the Washington environmental community is on fostering the growth of these subwatershed groups.

"I see citizen involvement as essential to getting our rivers cleaned up," he said.
ECC, the group for which Van Wye works, provides environmental training opportunities for disadvantaged young people in the Washington metropolitan area. It works on restoring the Anacostia, which Van Wye says receives more than 70,000 tons of trash, sediment and pollutants from storm-water runoff every year.

For the past month, ECC and several other local groups have been working with LL&W on its annual monthlong cleanup of the Potomac and Anacostia. They put out a call to federal agencies, NGOs and the general public for volunteers to don gloves and spend a few hours picking up tires, plastic bottles, Styrofoam cups, discarded toys and tons of other debris resulting from storm-water runoff.

Capital River Relief, as the project is called, was started after LL&W founder Chad Pregracke flew to Washington in 2002 to receive a Jefferson Award for Public Service in recognition of his work to clean up the Mississippi River. He is based on a barge docked in East Moline, Illinois.
"I just could not believe all the garbage I saw on the shore of the Potomac," Pregracke told USINFO. "There was two feet [.61 meters] of garbage on the shore in some places."
As he has done in Illinois, Pregracke set up coalitions of local groups and agencies and obtained corporate sponsorship. In the past four years, "we've had a couple thousand people come out and volunteer with us" in Washington, he said. In 2006, Capital River Relief collected more than 2,600 bags of debris from the Potomac and Anacostia.

Since Living Lands and Waters was launched about 10 years ago, 40,000 volunteers have helped collect 4 million tons of discarded appliances, tires and trash, Pregracke said.
On April 18, one of the volunteers was U.S. Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne, who led a group of Interior Department employees participating in a volunteer program called Take Pride in America. Three boatloads of volunteers were taken to Oxon Cove on the Potomac River. As they approached the shore, they could see perhaps 2,000 plastic and glass bottles carpeting the ground and floating in the water.

"It was incredible," said Kempthorne.

"We need to understand that what we do in our neighborhoods affects everything else," he said, noting that litter thrown on the street kilometers away from a river ultimately can end up in the ocean. A project such as Capital River Relief "shows the tremendous power of volunteerism," Kempthorne said. "This is trash that won't end up in habitats down river."

Kristen Ellis with LL&W said that after volunteering for the cleanup "a lot of people say 'I'm never littering again.' I've heard that several times. People are dumbfounded when they see the trash."

Chris Fenderson, who also traveled from Illinois for the cleanup, said one of the group's main goals "is to get people out and show them the garbage and show them they can do something about it. We want to leave a lasting impression that you can do something."

Additional information is available on the Web sites of Capital River Relief, Living Lands and Waters and the Earth Conservation Corps.

See also "Tending the Rivers" with a related article on Chad Pregracke and Living Lands and Waters in the the eJournal Protecting the Environment.

For more information, see Earth Day.

Source: U.S. Department of State
judythpiazza@gmail.com

Adopt-A-Stream Mississippi

At NatureFEST April 14th I met Debra Veeder, coordinator of Adopt-A-Stream Mississippi. Welcome Debra to our Friends! Also, welcome John Henry Anderson, Public Relations Director of the Mississippi Soil & Water Conservation Commission.

Debra Veeder offered to conduct a one-day water quality for Friends of the Sunflower. What a great opportunity! Good training, and we will receive a water quality test kit. So let's get together and pick a good day in June or July, August at the latest. I have a baby coming in June, I vote for mid-August. How does that sound to y'all?

What is Adopt-A-Stream Mississippi?

Adopt-A-Stream Mississippi is a cooperative effort between the Mississippi Wildlife Federation and the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) to involve citizens, like you, in stream stewardship and water quality monitoring. The common theme of the Adopt-A-Stream program is caring for and learning to conserve our water resources. Adopt-A-Stream promotes environmental stewardship through training workshops, outdoor field activities and by introducing participants to watershed action projects.

Mississippi is fortunate to have abundant water resources. Streams, lakes and marshes provde a home for aquatic life and help maintain the sensitive balance of nature. Mississippi's waters are excellent resources for fishing, swimming, and canoeing. Rivers are a vital source for drinking water, agriculture and industry. The quality of that water affects all of these uses. Everyone needs to play his part in protecting these resources for the future.

You can get involved with Adopt-A-Stream simply by contacting the Mississippi Wildlife Federation and expressing an interest in the program and becoming a Stream Steward!

Adopt-A-Stream Goals:

1. Educate citizens about the value of clean streams, rivers, and estuaries and how pollution from point and nonpoint sources affects water quality, wildlife, and fisheries and ultimately humans

2. Collect baseline data on all streams and rivers in Mississippi for use as indicators of stream health

3. Use data to promote cleanup of polluted streams and to maintain the health of clean streams for our children

Click Here to Download Adopt-A-Stream Brochure

Mississippi River Valley Alluvial Aquifer

Dry conditions increase pressure on Mississippi Delta aquifer
Associated Press

JACKSON— The Mississippi River Valley Alluvial Aquifer contains trillions upon trillions of gallons of water and serves as a vital safety net for farmers and catfish producers in the Mississippi Delta.

After 30 years of increasing agricultural pressure and a recent yearslong dry spell, though, researchers are beginning to see signs that the aquifer might not be bottomless after all.

“The Delta area of the state used way too much groundwater to irrigate and dewatered that aquifer considerably,” state climatologist Charles Wax said. “And now here we are in 2007 coming into a very dry spring.”

Increased use and long-term drought conditions dating back to 2000 have led to falling water levels in the aquifer. While it would take decades to tap the reserve because it naturally recharges itself in time, researchers are beginning to see a net loss.

Wax and other researchers have secured grant money to get a better understanding of the loss-recharge cycle of the aquifer and to come up with ideas to slow down the steady pull from farms and ponds.

Dean Pennington, executive director of the Yazoo Mississippi Delta Joint Water Management Council, said on average researchers are seeing a net loss of 200,000 acre-feet of water a year or about 65 billion gallons of water.

Over the last year the aquifer dropped 2 feet in some places and it’s unclear how this spring’s dry conditions will affect its natural recharge, Pennington said. In a really bad year, the aquifer might lose 228 billion gallons. It might also gain that much in a year where rain and snow are plentiful.

“It’s like I like to say about Mississippi — it’s feast or famine,” Wax said. “We’ve either got too much or too little. There are a lot of flood years in there as well as drought years.”
Rainfall this March in the Delta was the second lowest since 1950 and the Climate Prediction Center calls for the possibility of moderate to extreme drought through June.

“This is a really bad time to be having a drought,” Wax said.

The introduction of irrigation helped increase the number of crops grown in the Delta and the overall profitability of farming when it started in the mid-1970s. But water usage has continued to increase.

Mississippi rice farmers alone would need about 195 billion gallons of water a year under total drought conditions, Pennington said. And now that corn is taking hold in the Delta for use in ethanol, groundwater usage likely will spike.

Pennington will work with Wax this summer to compare aquifer water-level and climate data over the last three decades. They will then work on recommendations to help reduce the draw.

The sand and gravel aquifer extends out on both sides of the Mississippi River and touches parts of Mississippi, Louisiana, Tennessee, Missouri and Arkansas, where the bulk of it is located.

It sits 20 to 40 feet below the surface and extends 100 to 150 feet down.
The water is iron-heavy and tastes bad, so it isn’t suitable for drinking water, Pennington said. It’s perfect for rice, soybeans, corn and catfish.

The aquifer is naturally recharged from the Mississippi River and runoff from surrounding hills in the watershed. Wax said it’s unlikely the entire aquifer could be drained, but it could be lowered enough that certain areas would no longer be able to pull water from wells.

Farmers are looking at ways to lower their use of water. Ronnie Aguzzi, chairman of the water management district’s board of directors and a lifelong rice and soybean farmer from Cleveland, Miss., said he has leveled his fields so water doesn’t run off as easily.
There has been increased use of ditches to hold surface water for later use.

“That’s how we pick up extra surface water, letting rain water go in these ditches,” Aguzzi said. “But it looks like we’re getting less of that, too.”

Which means more of a reliance on the aquifer. Pennington’s group is hoping to help farmers cut use of the aquifer by 20 percent in the coming years.

“And that’s a very attainable goal,” he said. “If we had to cut our water use by 70 percent, that’s more serious. We’d be sweating this.”

The Sunflower River - a true story by D.L. Wiebe

The Sunflower River

We used to let the dogs run down on the banks of the Sunflower River amongst the decades old wreckage of The Sunflower River Yacht Club and the the rusted bars and cages that were all that was left of The Down Town Zoo. The dogs would swim in the sluggish brown and green
slime-coated river water, and chase pigeons underneath the Second Street Bridge and return to us smiling with blood on their muzzles and feathers in their teeth. During the dog days of Summer the river would often be reduced to little more than a fetid creek, and one time the dogs dug up what appeared to be a walrus tusk. Another time the receding water revealed the bleached skull of a rhino with the horn still intact. We took that home and wired it to our mail box.

So much for the zoo; it was flooded out one stormy Spring night in 1952 when the river water rose so fast that by the time the lone zoo keeper had made it out of bed and down to the river the water was raging and too high for him to reach the pens and cages. The boat he attempted to launch was swept away into the lashing rain and lightning as soon as he slid it into the water. Above the howling wind he could hear a cacophony of ululating beasts raging against the rising water. He hocked his wad of Big Chief onto the muddy bank and made his way back to his truck. He drove to The Den and proceeded to get stinking drunk on corn liquor with the Harbor Master, who was also feeling kind of beat after witnessing the wreckage of what used to be the Yacht Club; broken masts and smashed hulls around the bend of the river from the marina where all the boats that had come loose from their moorings had piled into a huge oak tree that had fallen into the river during the initial onslaught of the storm. The next day the newspaper said it had been fourteen inches of rain in twelve hours. Many in town thought that was a conservative estimate after witnessing the river waters sweeping down Sunflower Avenue and the rapids that used to be Soldiers Field, Those news jockeys over there at that damn paper dont know their shit from their squat.

Thirty-five years later a broken mast and the lichen coated ribs of the occasional boat hull could still be found miles down stream. We took the dogs down to the river daily, and then one sunny Fall day we had made our way a little further upstream than usual and heard the sound of
rushing water around the bend. We rounded the corner to investigate and from a huge rusty pipe imbedded in the river bank a gush of stinking brown water and paper and turds and oh the unholy stink of it all poured into the river causing a yellow foam to well up in the river and coat
the johnson grass and wild raspberry vines on the banks like a hepatitis lemon meringue pie.

A few days later I was talking to Down Town City Water Works Manager, Marv Foley, and happened to mention witnessing this horrific event. He was nonplussed, Yaw. That shit comes from the Water Treatment Plant. Just dump all that crap into the river after they done treated it. I mean its all been treated, yknow. Aint nothin wrong with it cause it done got treated up there by them boys at the sewage treatment plant.

Jesus, Marv, this stuff stunk to high heaven! There were actual turds and toilet paper coming out of the pipe.

Yaw, it does smell some, Ill admit that, but it done been treated. Its all safe and all like that. Every last bit have been treated. All EPA approved, and that kind of shit, He peered at me through his reflecto sunglasses, What the hell were you doin up around there
anyhow?

Running the dogs.

Wall, Id stay clear of that spot from here on out if I were you.

Why?

Wall, you said you didn like the smell, didnja?

There have been some rumblings of late about resurrecting The Sunflower River Yacht Club. Its a tall order, but theres already a t-shirt designing contest underway, which is a sure sign of progress.

About a year after wed abandoned The Sunflower River as a dog running eden some kids found our friend Larry's little sister, Kootchie, not far from that treated raw sewage drain pipe; dead, sexually assaulted, beaten, and strangled. She was a well known crack whore, and there
wasnt much interest in the case at the Down Town Police Department. She had been dead for a week or two, and dogs or coyotes had messed up the crime scene pretty badly. The kids had tried to steal her rings, but her fingers came off, and they ran home crying. She was also covered with raw sewage. There wasnt much to go on.

Chief Buck Buckie Blinks told the Down Town Delta Times, Were following every lead. And thats the last time anybody heard anything about that.

copyright D.L.Wiebe 2007

Huge Musselshell from Sunflower, Mississippi

As Friends of the Sunflower River is being formed and which Allen and I have sent our $25.00 membership, I thought of the shells that I had saved from fishing.

Allen and I would fish on the back of the place each afternoon that weather would permit. Many afternoons I would think I had a "whale" of a catfish on my line only to find a huge Mussel. They are so beautiful, and I understand why areas that have them have been protected as they make beautiful buttons.

Sadly, we were fishing one day and noticed fish beginning to float on top of the river. Some appeared to be gasping for air. I reached out, picked up one, and realized something terrible had happened. Yes, apparently somewhere up the stream someone or something had dumped poison or a chemical in the River. Needless to say, that was the end of the fishing for many months. Then, when we did return, we did not find any mussels attaching to the line. Luckily, I kept some of the shells. Many small shells would be found on the bank as something apparently had made lunch on them.

We had lucked upon a Blue Heron one day near the mussel spot. It was so tall that I slowly walked up to it for comparison and looked the Heron dead in the eye. My can of fishing shrimp was an offering for him, but he looked, spread his wings and flew away. The bird was fabulous and my experience was most exhilarating. I never saw the bird again.

(Sent from Sunflower, Mississippi, by charter member Sonia Fox)

A quick way to get to know the river in Clarksdale:

Walk through downtown Clarksdale along the Riverwalk (which is a posted "Bird Sanctuary") located opposite downtown, on Clarksdale's "West bank."

From the South entrance on Riverside (at the foot of Cherry Street), the Riverwalk takes you under the two bridges, 1st Street, then 2nd Street, past a small copse of Cypress, several Syacamores and giant Cottonwoods, and into Soldier's Field, around which the Sunflower flows. Walk the perimeter of the field (where Malcolm Mabry planted Oaks a decade ago). There is a gazebo in the center, a good place for a picnic. Conner Burnham conducts his yoga classes here during the warmer months. You'll see several paths leading from the field towards the river. Follow one and you'll drop down onto the river's bank. Here you'll enter another world: a striking hallway of medium Bald Cypress growing like the columns of a Greek temple. You'll notice the confluence with "Lyons Bayou" on the opposite bank, and your view upstream might look something like this photo, taken from Cypress knee level:

The view this morning

towards the second street bridge

a fine mist settling in layers

the muddy banks of the river

first light just entering the sky

blackbirds beginning to fly

a bend of the river

a bend of the river

near Lindsey Lake Nat'l Wildlife Refuge

Sunday, February 18, 2007

This river has the blues!

Friends of the Sunflower River is all about appreciating and caring for the lonely little river that winds its way through the center of the Mississippi Delta, from Friars Point to Clarksdale, from Mound Bayou & Merigold to Sunflower; from Indianola to Anguilla, from Holly Bluff to Vicksburg.

This river has the blues! Besides the many blues & gospel musicians who were born & baptized along its banks, its mussel shell beds (which are reported to be the richest such biota in the world) seem to be in constant danger of overzealous engineering. The Sunflower River has been neglected and over-worked; so much that it was proclaimed America’s “Most Endangered River” in 2003.

The good news is that its forests constitute the largest bottomland hardwood forests in the National Forest system (they also produce the highest carbon-sequestration of any forests in North America!), and its banks are home to every creature winged, webbed or otherwise, found native to the Mississippi Delta. It’s a beautiful place to get away, to reflect a moment on the rivers and woods of America, to walk along its banks, to paddle its waters, to enjoy its scenery. Most importantly, its home to all of us who live on or near its banks, and second home to many others who love it from a distance. Shouldn’t we be taking better care of our lonely muddy river?

Physical Description: The Sunflower River is born in the bayous and lakes of Northern Coahoma County and meanders South some 250 miles through the Yazoo/Mississippi Delta paralleling the Mississippi River on the West and the Yazoo on the East, (with which it confluences with 10 miles above Vicksburg). A small but dynamic river, once forested, now mostly bordered by fields, the Sunflower is a rich habitat for all creatures native to the region, including black bear and panther. Its muddy current averages 2100 cfs (cubic feet per second) at Sunflower, 3461 at the mouth of Bogue Phalia, and approximately 4500 where it empties into the Yazoo River at Steele Bayou. Its drainage includes most or all of Coahoma, Bolivar, Sunflower, Washington, Sharkey & Issaquena Counties, some 3,689 square miles, inhabited by 169,150 people.

Cultural/Historical Mélange: In its journey through the Delta, the Sunflower winds through the layers of mud and history that gave the world its first great blues singer (Charlie Patton, Dockery Plantation), the first mechanized cotton picker (Hopson Plantation), its oldest African-American founded community (Mound Bayou), rural Civil Rights era leaders (Fanny Lou Hamer, Sunflower County; Aaron Henry, Clarksdale), the Teddy Bear (Delta National Forest), King of the Chicago Blues (Muddy Waters, born in Rolling Fork, lived 25 years at Stovall) and the renowned ambassador of the blues (B.B. King, Indianola). The Rev. C.L. Franklin (Aretha’s Father) is just one of many who were baptized in her muddy waters. Legendary woodsman, Holt Collier (1846-1936), who cornered the Teddy Bear, reported its waters to run clear & clean, and Roosevelt started each day of the hunt with a cold-water swim. One of our long-term objectives is to make the waters safe once again for fishing and swimming.

Birth of an Organization

Friends of the Sunflower River became an official organization tonight with a meeting in Clarksdale along the banks of the river at Quapaw Canoe Company. We decided we are mostly concerned with education and appreciation, and drew up a long list of objectives, one of which was to create an informational website. And now -- voila! Mike Clark of Big Muddy Adventures constructed this blog site for us using the blogspot template. Do you like this? Any additions? Comments? If you are a web designer, and you have better ideas, give us a holler! We are worker bees here. Other objectives and "action" items will appear periodically, perhaps as a sidebar on this blog, maybe in some future posts. Become a friend and help us out! Its easy: send your $25 annual membership fee to Friends of the Sunflower River, 291 Sunflower Avenue, Clarksdale, MS, 38614, and get ready to help us take care of the river you love!