While I was sitting in the dentist’s chair recently, preparing to have some work done, he asked me what I had been up to lately? I said that I have been spending a lot of time sitting near my pond, feeding the birds and fish. A short time later, when his assistant was spraying water in my numb mouth, he said that he thought that he’d like to have a pond on his property. He began to ask a series of questions, about where and how he should have a pond dug.
My ability to provide meaningful information was compromised, of course, by both the feeling that my mouth was swollen, and choking on the water. However, I was finally able to say that if they would stop water-boarding me, I would tell them the secrets to making a pond. He asked if I was okay, and I attempted to explain that I had been making an attempt at humor. Both of them forced a laugh, proving that when one has to explain a joke, it is a sure sign that joke was not funny.
Like one of my friends – a professor at a area state university, who also wants a pond of his own, after spending time at mine – the dentist is an intelligent man, who spent most of his life in New York City, before moving to this rural upstate region. Both have an appreciation for the beauty of the land here. And although "city life" had removed them from the more intimate relationship that the small, family farmers and others have with nature, both provide evidence that human beings have a "green consciousness."
In planning a pond, there are a number of "clues" to look for, in order to choose the best spot – which, of course, is equally true for digging a well. I had several open springs in the area where my pond is; they ran throughout the year, even in the driest parts of August. A marsh or swampy area is usually a good place for a pond, though not for a well.
Rushes and/or cattails indicate that there is water close to the surface; reeds are evidence of high quality water near the surface. Pickleweed indicates salty water near the surface; saltbush suggests surface water of a lower quality. Elderberry bushes mean that good water is found about 10 feet underground. Rabbit brush will only be found where there is a good water supply no more than 15 feet deep. Mesquite indicates water will be found from 10 to 30 feet down, and black greasewood shows that highly mineralized water lies 10 to 40 feet under the surface.
It’s easy to see how knowledge of plants has been important to human beings who have lived on this land for centuries. As environmentalist Charles Lewis has noted, with water, anything is possible; without it, nothing is possible. Or as Onondaga Chief Oren Lyons notes, water is the first law of life.
In his wonderful book "Green Nature/ Human Nature" ( University of Illinois; 1996), Lewis speaks of how the understanding of plants played an important role in human evolution, long before people mastered the cultivation of plants for food. The most fascinating example he provides involves the preference that the majority of people have for the savanna biome. (A biome being the community of plants and animals inhabiting a specific region that is defined by its climate.)
A study by psychologist John Balling and ecologist John Falk showed that people of all age groups, who live in the northeastern US, express a high degree of preference for savannas. Children under the age of 12 having the highest rates of preference, which the researchers believed indicated that humans are born with a genetic predisposition for this type of biome.
Further evidence of this can be found in the parks in our nation’s urban areas. The most popular types of trees for parks tend to be the smaller types, with a trunk that branches out close to the ground, which spread into a multi-layered canopy. These are, of course, very similar to the Acacia tortilis that are found on the African savanna. We often think of these trees as providing a degree of safety for our early ancestors, but there is something that is equally, if not more important: these trees have a distinct relationship with water. In the areas of the savanna that have more ground water, the trees grow significantly higher, and feature a taller canopy. In the dry areas, the smaller, umbrella-shaped trees are found; more, they grow in spots where water is available. Thus, early humans recognized that the shape of the tree was associated with the water necessary for survival in the savanna biome.
As human culture has evolved, there has been an unfortunate tendency to take water for granted. This is evident in urbane areas, where people’s relationship to water comes out of a faucet, or a plastic bottle in a store. But just as our ancestors learned to read the signals from the Acacia, and then the weather patterns, we must become fully aware that there is a storm brewing on the horizon. And, for many parts of this country – and indeed the world – that storm is already posing a serious threat to people’s existence. Clean water cannot be taken for granted.
What we dump into the water, for example, flows downstream to the next community. This is not only true in the sense of distance, but also in the context of time: what was done yesterday, and the day before, is reaching our communities today. And what we do today will impact the community tomorrow.
There are already "water wars" taking place in America. Corporations are attempting to impose unnatural "water rights" on communities of human beings. In this context, those running these companies are seeking to create corporate biomes that deny access to water to all other living things: the plants and animals that are part of the web of life that support all life on this earth. In his book "Angler: The Cheney Vice Presidency," author Barton Gellman documents how VP Cheney and his side-kick Ron Christie lead the efforts to twist our nation’s environmental laws, to provide "water rights" to favored corporations.
The answers to these challenges will not be found in unnatural settings. This is a good time to seek out those natural settings that communicate with our green/human consciousness.
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