After nearly two months of rain, winds and darkness, I may be ready for spring and summer. My tennis shoes seem to be perpetually soggy from jumping over numerous mud puddles and my sense of humor slightly dented because I have been walking hunched over for two months in the downpours. After last year’s drought and heat, I was ready for some long bouts of Oregon winter rain, but maybe it is time for a little different mix of weather. Perhaps we should have a few weeks of cold sunny days.
I walked up the Mulkey Creek trail to Fitton Green on Martin Luther King Day and nearly every draw was filled with flowing water. The trail had a different smell, appearance and sound after weeks of steady rain. I have always liked the resonance of water as it energetically weaves its way across landscapes. The trail had a few miniature waterfalls coursing over down logs and falling through culverts that created a little white water acoustics. I also appreciate that water seems to accentuate the brilliant, iridescent green hues of ferns and mosses growing on tree trunks and limbs in an otherwise dark brown and gray winter forest.
The human body is apparently composed of 60 percent water and our blood is over 92 percent water so it is not surprising that I seem to be attracted to oceans, rivers, streams and marshes. I assume that within the vastness of our genome we still retain strong connections to our water-dwelling ancestors. The primordial tetrapods that 365 million ventured onto land for the first time likely looked wistfully back to the waters that spawned their forebears. People vary in the percentages of water that make up their bodies. Our children are 78% water for the first year of their lives. The percentage of water in women is generally less than men. Just about everything that happens in our bodies is dependent on water. Our brains use water to manufacture hormones and neurotransmitters and water regulates our body temperature through respiration and perspiration. Water transports oxygen throughout our body, lubricates creaky joints and is critical to the growth, reproduction and survival of cells in our body. We are constantly cycling water out of bodies so need to replenish the amount by drinking 3 or so liters a day. Perhaps a billion or so people on earth don’t have access to clean water. Even more people live in arid regions with limited availability to water. Many of us in water-rich environments like the Willamette Valley take water more or less for granted. We open our taps with abandon, flush toilets and fill bathtubs without thinking twice about where the water comes from or goes.
The Willamette River has already reached the action stage (pre-flood) several times in a few areas this winter as a consequence of all the rain. Last fall we slightly lowered a road-bed and re-contoured an existing swale to allow for more river flow on the floodplain at Harkens Lake. We also installed two large culverts to improve the flow through a remnant backchannel. The higher river this winter will be a good test to see if the engineered work performed as expected or if we need to make a few modifications. I expect that by mid-August I will be looking forward again to walking hunched over in a winter downpour with soggy tennis shoes.
Blog post by: Michael Pope, Executive Director
