River Keepers

Green River through Dinosaur National Monument-NPS

http://www.nature.nps.gov/geology/education/foos/dino.pdf

I recited the words to Langston Hughes poem, "I've known rivers..." on the banks of the Green River on the night before floating through Dinosaur National Monument past an exquisite anticline with colleagues and friends. The words of the poem are lush and evocative. I will never forget that night, nor the waters of the Green that were alternately light brown, or clear green as it ebbed over boulders within the river.

I've known rivers

I've known rivers ancient as the world

and older than the flow of blood in human veins

My soul has grown deep as the river

I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young

I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep

I looked upon the Nile and raised the pyramids above it

I heard the singing of the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln

went down to New Orleans, and I've seen its muddy

bosum turn all golden in the sunset.

I've known rivers

Ancient, dusky rivers

My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

Langston Hughes-The Negro Speaks of Rivers

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15722

The geomorphology courses I took at Weber State University where I studied the evolution of rivers, their habit and the role of watersheds brought a different perspective to the poem. Human culture has been shaped by rivers. They were our first mobile interstates, and civilizations have flourished, or ended on their banks. We have worshipped them, bathed in them, washed and drank from them. While many still visit for recreation or reflection their banks are often held in place by concrete, and jumbled mounds of rif-raf (jumbled boulders).

http://www.wildlandhydrology.com/html/references_.html

Currently, I am participating in an internship with the Ogden River Restoration Project while I complete my masters in education. The stretch of the river being restored traverses through a dilapidated, and now mostly vacant neighborhoods. Except for the occasional brief honking of mallard ducks, the river is quiet. While it the river has frequently been used as a midden for the last hundred years, and its banks held in place by large slabs of concrete, with an occasional shopping cart peaking through its light-brown waters, the granny-nanny cottonwoods that line its banks are exquisite.

Rivers, link humans to the water cycle. They assist in recharging our ground water acquifers and provide food and shelter for a myriad of lifeforms. Perhaps we all need to become River Keepers and stewards, and become in the words of Langston Hughs, "My soul has become deep as the river."

Utah Adopt a Water Body Program:

http://www.adoptawaterbody.utah.gov/

Project WET

http://www.projectwet.org/

Acid-Mine Drainage:

http://energy.er.usgs.gov/health_environment/acid_mine_drainage/

Utah History: Peter Skene Ogden

http://historytogo.utah.gov/people/peterskeneodgen.html

River Restoration

http://www.riverrestoration.org/

Utah Rivers: Realtime Data

http://ut.water.usgs.gov/