February 9th, 10:30am; Town & Country Garden Club

The Home of Merrily Hardisty; 5700 Springfield Drive; Bethesda, Maryland

Note: This event is open to members of the Garden Cub only

There was only one thing missing from the spring spectacular. I walked along the trail marveling at the sudden emphatic presence of spring, an annual miracle that never fails to fill me with joy of being alive to experience nature in all its complex beauty. This is a special place, preserved forever and the property of us all. It’s a place that enables us to get away from noise, demands and soul-numbing routine. Solitude among the spring flowers was a tonic for me. At the same time I shook my head, saddened that I was the only person on the trail, in fact the only person in the park at all. Where is everybody? Where could there be that is in any way better than here? These woods are not complete without people.

Now is the time to get out and wander the woods. Now – while the flowers are abundant, birdsong is common, and the bugs aren’t too bothersome. There aren’t so many days like these in our lives that we can afford to say, “Oh, I’ll get there next year.” You don’t have to take time off from work (though now is the time when the health benefits of a woods walk are at their peak!) : stop by on the way home. Along the Patuxent and its tributaries are miles of parks and trails. Now is the time to go out and discover what’s out there. The Patuxent River Trail near the Riverkeeper office is a tiny but undiscovered gem of a public park. Near where you live or work or shop, seek out the place that deserves to be honored by your presence.. Experience the beauty and wonder of spring; take it with you in your heart and pass it on. Don’t worry; there will be enough for the next person.

Where are your favorite Patuxent River trails? Let us know and we’ll let others know.

Contributed by:
Susan Charkes
Ex. Dir. Patuxent Tidewater Land Trust
www.patuxent-tidewater.org

Resettled Residents

We visited villages that had been relocated due to wholesale devastation of their water supply created by the largest open pit mining excavation in the world, We also saw first hand the toll and scars that unrestrained surface mining takes on the surrounding land and waterways. Zambia, for context, is among the poorest of nations on earth in spite of the enormous mineral wealth harvested by multi-national corporations. From the copper mining flow into the waterways mine drainage mine waste, creating severe water quality problems caused by decades of heavy industry that by its very nature rips ore from the earth and discards the resulting waste on people lacking any political power at all to fight back and protect themselves or the waters.

Largest Open Pit Mine in Africa
The Zambian government recently passed tougher environmental regulations but enforcement of the laws is challenged by limited government resources and powerful corporations that have every incentive to put profit before the environment. The citizens effected by the mining industry often lack the political or economic clout to do much more than eke out an existence on some of the toughest and most drought ridden lands on earth located near the Kalahari desert. By comparison, in America, our natural resource wealth consists of (formerly) robust fisheries, sprawling fields of agriculture, lucrative forestry industries and much more. Americans also have the First Amendment and a culture of donorship and philanthropy to support citizen action and rebut government inaction. However, Zambians face nearly impossible choices between propping up their struggling economy and their economic reliance on foreign investment to exploit the mineral wealth of the country. Political will to protect the environment is often beholden to the massive corporations expending hundreds of millions of dollars to wrest riches from the earth, the waterways and from anywhere else it might be found.

What we share with Zambians is the difficult tension between those seeking to privatize resource wealth contrasted with the need to protect poor or less empowered citizens and the resources they depend on and are entitled to. The most striking contrast I noted was the stunning resource wealth that still exists in our country but that eludes Zambia. America is a relatively young civilization with a comparatively brief history of resource exploitation from industrialization. Zambia, while it has changed its name and political regime, is fundamentally a very old civilization and resource wealth is primarily accessible if one uses heavy industry. Agriculture has a weaker presence there, as does forestry and commercial fishing. The notion of applying sustainable practices in a country that lacks roads, basic telecommunications and cannot feed its citizens makes it vivid and obvious that water quality concerns would ever compete with the many other legitimate priorities of government.

Mine Drainage in a Stream
The lesson I brought home is that the difference between a first world country like America and a third world country like Zambia is foremost one of values but also of inherent wealth. More wealth matters very little when the reigning establishment is tightly fused with and dependent on the resource polluters. In the case of Zambia, the government takes a percentage of what is earned by industry. In America the polluting institutions pay taxes, employee citizens and have other ties to the host communities. In neither place do the corporate polluters adequately protect the public or remunerate the community for the permanent damage done to the commons. In America, the mechanisms of corporate control are less obvious and much harder to unravel. In fact, people are often confused in America about the exact source of the pollution and who the bad actors really are. There is a vague sense that we are all part of the problem, even though there are some sources that are egregiously problematic. In Zambia the problems are clearer cut. More black and white.

In the coming years of more stringent resource, we should clear the fog of confusion about what these problems actually are, their sources and what problematic alliances exist between business and industry. Our strategies to combat these forces that can suck the life our of our economy need to be proportional to the harm. For examples, while rain barrels and trash cleanups are necessary, we need to keep clear in our minds that these are not plausible solutions to bad wastewater plants, non compliant dischargers and poor stormwater management. Likewise in Zambia, promoting individual accountability for environmental practices does nothing to stem the losses created by those acting in bad faith toward the environment who are not doing their share. At least in America our social wealth and legal system affords us far more and better advocacy tools like the First Amendment, and also due process of law to act on behalf of preservation and solve the problems even where the government is over a barrel. Comparatively speaking, I saw that environmentalists in Zambia tread a much finer line between defending their rights and incurring the wrath of very, very powerful interests who are a law unto themselves. I easily imagine that a private citizen in Zambia who lacked governmental and political support, would have an exceedingly hard time challenging the commercial mining interests. Here, citizens have the right to do so but far too few of us actually exercise those rights. Zambia has many beautiful and special resource treasures, so does America. In both places, it us up to the citizens to make clean water a reality.