Farmers Fencing Off Streams Has Restored Over 1000 Miles of Waterway in Oklahoma
Image and text from this article in the New York Times:
Oklahoma has been exemplary in cleaning up its streams, by some measures more than any other state. A big part of the solution was simple: Give cows clean drinking water and keep them out of streams. When one farmer tried it, he quickly saw results. His veterinarian bills went down and wildlife returned to the area. [...] For Mr. Victor, the decision to fence his cattle off from the waterway wasn’t easy. The creek was why his great-grandmother, who was Cherokee, especially prized the land. The parcel was allotted to her in 1891 through the Dawes Act, which allowed the federal government to break up tribal land. The waterway gave the family’s cattle a place where they could drink and cool off. “I’m sure at the coffee shop, they were all laughing at me,” Mr. Victor, 68, said. But even though it’s my land, it’s not really my land. I’m just a person here with it at this time, and I carry that big responsibility. The benefits of a healthier waterway exceeded his hopes. Mr. Victor thought that the land around the creek might regenerate in five years, perhaps 10. But within just a couple of years, the banks were transformed into verdant corridors of grasses and shrubs. Wildlife appeared, including white-tailed deer, bobcats, coyotes and bald eagles that return each year to a sprawling nest to rear their young.
I think we lose a lot when we envision conservation or environmental protection as something that only folks in left-leaning states or communities care about. Climate change and environmentalism didn't use to be partisan issues. This work is for everyone and there are allies in more places than a lot of people would expect.
