Bruggers in USA Today

James Bruggers has published a brilliant article in U. S. A. Today regarding Louisville's remarkable progress in improving the city's air.

Last year, the air in Lexington, Kentucky, was ranked worst in the country. Louisville's air was third-worst. But we are coming up fast due to monumental commitments on the part of government and industry.

Busy as beavers on Beargrass Creek

The beavers are back in the part of Beargrass Creek that runs through Draut Park in St. Matthews.
I think the tree was supposed to topple over at this point. The beavers weren't counting on the surrounding trees foiling their plan.
So far I haven't seen the beavers, just the evidence of their presence. It's just as well; I hear they're mean if they feel threatened and also that they have strong teeth. Well. I guess that second part is obvious.
And here is the dam that their hard work has created.
And a close-up of the waterfall.

You do understand that we live in a city; that everything around us is built up; and that this is the same creek about which I do the sewage-in-the-water posts? I am often amazed at the intersection of humans and nature.

Or nature and nature, for that matter. I've had an email from my dad today in which he said there are no birds on the island, that they throw out bread for them to eat (as they have done in the winter for years) and the bread just lays there in the driveway for days. They also saw no raccoon kittens around this fall. The culprit? Most likely the bald eagles that nest on the island.

Stormy weather

Benjamin Franklin, Craftsman
Originally uploaded by kerrins_giraffe
I came across this photo of the young Ben Franklin at his printing press in a flickr.com search. Be sure to click on the link so you can see kerrins_giraffe's other photos.
Ben came to mind because it's raining this morning. On the horizon are the freezing rain and ice storms that have already hit the middle of the nation. The quantities of pollution in the Ohio River and our creeks and streams will increase all week, and it will be four days after the rain/snow/ice ends before the water is again safe.

The severity of the CSO problem across the country sent me searching out a quotation this morning. I thought it came from Nathan Hale but it was the charming Ben Franklin who said, on the occasion of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, "we must all hang together, gentlemen, or assuredly we shall all hang separately."

A similar situation faces us with the out-of-code and/or now-antiquated infrastructure. As long as we prefer to drive on paved roads rather than dirt and to have sewage taken away through pipes rather than floating down the creeks we walk beside, then we must be willing to pay for their improvements.

It's easy to whine about the prospect of taxes going up. Personally, though, I'm willing to pay -- oh, let's say double what I'm paying now in taxes to keep the effluvium off my shoes, my floors, my dog, my grandchildren...

With our infrastructure problems, either we'll all hang together or we'll all be hung out to dry separately.