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Copyright
© 2007 by Bill Scifres
12-10-07
Well, the rains and snow came pretty much on
schedule for winter, even if the season will not arrive officially until
just past midnight on December 21. So our water problems were terminated
. . . right?
Wrong! Dead wrong! Our water problems are just
worsening!
As my columns--first “Lines and Shots for 45
years, then “All Outdoors,” since 1999--have noted from time (almost immemorial)
we are not treating water worth a hoot, the fluid of everything that “liveth
and creepeth” upon the earth.
As those columns have pointed out from time to
time, I am not worried about pollution of water so much as I an concerned
with simply having water in good quantities. We can stop pollution, we’re
doing that to some extent, but the first thing you know, we’ll be depending
on water from the stems of plants for the next drink.
This is not a “flash-in-the-pan" type thing.
I can recall a big water conference on conserving streams and rivers as
far back as the 1950s (can’t remember the date) staged by the Izaak Walton
League of Indiana, at (then) Indiana Central College, with many bigwigs
in the conservation movement participating and many others attending.
I can’t remember who spoke, but I do recall that
Bill Barnes, a stalwart of the (then) Division of Fish and Game was a speaker,
as was I (on water levels of streams and rivers).
My pitch, at a time when water table troubles
already loomed on horizons of streams and rivers, regardless of the fact
that the Department of Natural Resources were telling us there were no
problems, was that the level of these waters were already low. As proof,
I cited the fact that 20 years before, streams flowed free and I (in my
fishing jaunts) often sat with my back against trees at water’s edge and
dangled my feet over the roots of the trees into the water. But even then,
I pointed out, the water was 10 feet below. It’s even worse now. Some streams
are nearly dry beds in summer, or potholes at best.
The gist of the whole schmear is that it is late
. . . probably more than half a century late . . . but that we had best
do something to keep the water here longer when it falls instead of shunting
it off to the Mississippi River and the ocean. We can go--we had better
go--from there.
APPRENTICE LICENSE--There’s
a move underway to legislatively create an apprentice hunting license (maybe
fishing, too) to help get more people in the field to give hunting a try.
The concept came up at the meetings of the Summer
Study Committee (on legislative matters). It now appears that Rep. Robert
“Bob” Bischoff, Lawrenceburg area, chairman of the panel, has said he will
introduce a bill on the matter in this year’s session, which reconvenes
in January.
For several years Indiana’s efforts have been
to bring dwindling youth into the hunting program with such a license in
order to get them to give the activity a try and strengthen hunting. Our
efforts are aimed at those who have passed a hunter education course. If
passed, the new setup would apply to all persons born after December 31,
1986, the hunter ed course not being necessary.
More on that as it develops.
ROLLED DUMPLINGS--A
recent column that briefly mentioned squirrel dumplings has spurred interest
in my recipe (actually, it is my grandmother’s recipe, improved, if that’s
possible). It will be found (with picture) on this website, (http://bayoubill.com)
under the heading of “Bayou Bill’s
Rolled Dumplings.” Look in “Wild Recipes.”
The recipe is adaptable for fruit, bean, or meat
dumplings.
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