A return of Silent Spring?

Late yesterday, at dusk, we were visited by five whitetails. They were looking for something to eat under the pear tree and around our ephemeral pond. Meanwhile, at the pond, what I believe was an owl flew from the water’s edge into the nearest wood’s edge. Lighting at dusk isn’t always the best, especially when the sky is overcast, so much of what we were seeing was in shades of gray. Hence, some uncertainty.

our ephemeral pond behind the house

Photo by J. Harrington

Today’s backyard pond looks much like the one in the picture, but with much less surrounding snow cover. We’ve recently seen open water in several of the local streams. The pond north of our property is mostly ice free now. We’ll take a look at the Carlos Avery pools in the next few days and see how much ice cover remains there. Spring is slowly plodding its way into the North Country, under mostly cloudy skies with occasional downbursts of snow flurries.

The dogs seem pleased that most of the snow has melted. The dog walkers await dryer conditions before cleaning up a winter’s worth of dog droppings. It’s been a sad winter with the dogs since we lost one of our two as did the Daughter Person, Son-In-Law and Granddaughter, plus their other dog recently had three tumors removed. Prognosis looks hopeful though.

We’re in a funk about a continuing lack of appropriate action at the state and federal levels in response to a half century’s failure to meet long ago congressionally mandated water quality goals as evidenced by

• The Clean Water Act at 50: Promises Half Kept at the Half-Century Mark,  joined by


•  PROTECTING MINNESOTA’S WATER -- Threat Assessments & Policy Recommendations

Each notes disappointing failures, plus some success, at protecting and restoring one of our critical resource bases.

We’ve essentially broken the climate with increasingly dire consequences. Approximately 50% or more of our waters fail to meet an interim 1983 goal of “fishable--swimmable.” Corporate agriculture is looking for more subsidies to produce more mandated ethanol which represents a net increase in greenhouse gases. The list goes on and on, but for how long. Will our solar system face a Silent Spring that’s world-wide? How soon?

The Springtime

By Denise Levertov

The red eyes of rabbits   

aren't sad. No one passes

the sad golden village in a barge

any more. The sunset   

will leave it alone. If the   

curtains hang askew   

it is no one's fault.

Around and around and around

everywhere the same sound   

of wheels going, and things   

growing older, growing   

silent. If the dogs

bark to each other

all night, and their eyes   

flash red, that's

nobody's business. They have   

a great space of dark to   

bark across. The rabbits   

will bare their teeth at   

the spring moon.

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