The following is a semi-refined draft of the article I will be submitting for our next Trout Unlimited newsletter. Lately I seem to be making a habit of using other authors work as a Launchpad for my own. This is a truly baffling thing, since I hardly have time for writing, where the hell am I finding the time to read???
James A. Michener was a native of Doylestown PA. A museum in
his name stands in his hometown, on display there are works from local, well
known artists. Born in 1907 he obtained a Master’s degree, became an educator,
ran for public office, and served in the Navy during WWII. He also earned The
Presidential Medal of Freedom and served on the NASA Advisory council.
Impressed yet? Well, despite all the above, James Michener is actually more known for his more than 40 published
novels. Most of his books are recognized as a perfect blend of fiction and history.
His stories typically span generations and employ a remarkable amount
of historical research that take readers on a palpable journey through time.
Michener, despite his many accomplishments was not, to the
best of my knowledge, a fly fisherman…I’m writing about him today because not
only is he one of my favorite authors, but because of his book “Chesapeake.” In
the chapter titled ‘Voyage Eleven: 1886,’ he describes the effects on the Chesapeake
Bay from a massive sea born storm that lands in central Pennsylvania. While actual
historical occurrences drive his tales, Michener is careful to not cross the
line, he is a story teller not a text book writer or record keeper. Did a
massive storm leapfrog from Norfolk to the Susquehanna Valley that year? While Michener’s
reputation for research is more notorious than mine, I cannot find much…what I
can confirm is that was one hell of a year for hurricanes on the Atlantic coast.
But that’s not the point, because storms happen all the time. Obviously they
generate in the south and where they make landfall depends, and the bay can
take a real beating even if the storm doesn’t drop right on it. The Susquehanna
River does flood, and that water goes to the Chesapeake.
Michener starts by breaking down the Bay into its various
parts; North, South, East, West, and its bottom and top layers. Each part
having its own characteristics and roles within the ecosystem; the northern part
being fed by the mighty Susquehanna that pushes in fresh water, to the southern
portion which takes on salt water from the ocean, the western side being fed by
smaller rivers of fresh water, the east being nutrient rich and dense marshes
of brackish water inlets, and then the deeper parts being colder with more
salinity than its higher oxygenated top layer that is warmed and replenished by
the sun.
In ‘Chesapeake’ a massive storm results in the Susquehanna
River flooding the bay with an abnormal amount of both fresh water and silt
deposits. Michener brilliantly breaks down the impact of these factors on the
delicate balance of the bay’s diverse ecosystem. The usual equilibrium of
salinity, temperature, sunlight and sediment are thrown out of kilter. He evokes
our sympathies for the oysters suffocating under sediment deposits, and blue
crabs who despite their advantage of mobility over the oysters, struggle to
breed and survive in lower salinity. But it doesn’t end there, for by 1886 the
local economy was dependent on the bay and also suffers with the loss of its cash
crop normally bound for consumers in the cities to the north.
The reader sees that this onslaught was brought on by
natural forces. As our hearts are torn by the personification of crabs and
oysters, we think we clearly have mother nature to blame; after all we are,
along with crabs and oysters, just a pawn in a much larger game. It is as the
chapter closes and we feel like we’ve slipped the jab, Michener delivers a blow
that puts us on the ropes. He reminds us that our hands too, are bloody. He
describes in the last few paragraphs how the Susquehanna did not only carry
silt to the bay, but human and industrial waste also. Sewage, oil, poisons…some
of the oysters might have survived the silt, but the bay could not dilute the
toxicity of human contamination that would ultimately kill the rest of them. Consuming
any product of the bay that could be salvaged resulted in death or pestilence
such as typhoid. This is a lesson in accountability, realizing our own activity
can have exponential impacts on our environment. Since humans have not and
probably will not master a “leave only footprints” way of doing things, we need
to at least be responsible.
If you have read this far I will reward you by wrapping up
shortly. On a very grand scale Michener teaches us that our river systems are
more than just the stretch of water we can see at any given place. We can, and do,
have an immediate positive or negative impact on our own local streams, but we
need to remember they also go to other places. The Chesapeake Watershed is one
of the biggest you will find anywhere in the world, which means it can be
effected by so many different things, in so many ways. Today we have many
threats to maintaining healthy potable and life supporting water. We can always
rely on industrial pollution to spoil the party, and though we seem to control
that better nowadays, along comes “fracking” to keep us on our toes.
Michener is no doubt a good read, and I’m sure as you read my
synopsis you couldn’t help but be reminded of the BP oil spill some years back.
Groups like TU, and of course with respect to the very topic of this article,
the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, strive to have a positive impact on our water
ways. As we are coming up on our annual banquet we are pleased to think how
part of our fundraising efforts is to ensure the education of conservation to
future generations. We can only hope the message gets out to others as well.
