A path we often walk on our weekly Church of Nature hike is east of Edgewater Park along the river heading into Rangeline Nature Preserve. This path is a stretch of unmaintained dirt trail which floods often. Some folks would like to see this section of river and much more flooded completely and permanently killing thousands of woodland animals & plants and mature trees and robbing local and migratory birds of precious habitat. This would have an incredibly negative effect on the health of the river and the plant and animal communities along it.
The Mounds Greenway initiative would like to see a walking and bicycle trail along the river from Anderson to Muncie. If the trail were built humans would get more enjoyment from sections of the river which are currently inaccessible to us and we would be able to safely and easily travel back and forth between the two cities by bike which would be healthier, more fun and easier on the planet. The best environmental effect of this trail though is that it would mean the end to the mound's reservoir plan and looming threat of a massive dam and shallow recreational lake.
Although the Mound's Lake reservoir project is seriously stalled for now due to defiance from Yorktown and Daleville, the divisive two sided issue of what to do with the river remains.
What most folks sporting their yard signs in favor of either the lake or greenway don't know is that as of November 2018 a small group of engineers are already in the early stages of constructing a dam not far from the proposed reservoir dam site. They're doing this without city or private landowners approval. This dam will cost tax payers absolutely nothing, is being manufactured out of 100% natural, organic materials and will not harm the eco-system at all. In fact the dam that is in the works will create a new small wetlands area that will enrich the forest floor inviting all sorts of new plant and animal species to thrive there. The wetland area is intelligently engineered to filter pollutants out of the river sending clean water downstream for all to enjoy and slowly healing the damaged river forests. The trees used to build the dam will sprout many new baby trees from their stumps creating an excellent food source for shorter mammals and the other part of the tree will decompose sending nutrients into the soil and creating habitat for fungi that also cleans air and soil of pollutants.
Yes, beavers have returned to Anderson! That's a sure sign of a river becoming more healthy. Beavers create dams to flood an area and so they can build their homes "lodges" in the resulting pond. The lodges can only be entered by swimming into them therefore making them a perfectly safe place from predators. Beavers alter their environment more than any other animal besides humans but unlike humans beaver activity restores beauty and vitality to rivers in scores of ways.If the Mound's Greenway trail is approved this family of beavers' work will be undone, they'll be forced to move along or may die and the area they planned to flood will be well drained and paved. If the lake pulls through than the whole area will be under eleven feet of water that's essentially a big cup of poison tea steeped from the landfill that's under our abandoned mall and who knows if the beavers will survive the initial flooding.
If only we could stop asking how the river can meet our needs and ask how we can better meet the rivers needs. Beavers are able to use the river for their own purposes of creating food and shelter but in the process they help out innumerable other species and make the land more healthy than it was before. Beavers can't use tools. Beavers don't have complex reasoning and language skills. Beavers can't make fire. Imagine what we with our incredible survival prowess and engineering mastery could do for our ecosystem if we worked more like beavers.
So with that in mind - which expensive, environmentally devastating, recreational project do you choose to support? Greenway or Lake?
I'm on team beaver!
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