Ever Think of the Mississippi River as an Orphan?

Posted on August 12, 2009 by unifythemississippi

Several speakers the first day of the Visions of a Sustainable Mississippi River Conference used the word “orphan” to describe the Mississippi River. If you think about it, the Mississippi River is just that: an orphaned national resource and monument, in spite of public acknowledgement of its value to the nation.

How is this so? Some of it’s due to the role the Mississippi River plays as a border to states. It’s easy for state regulators and tourism officials to not see what goes on at the fringe of their state, unless a major city or population center abuts it.

Then there’s the issue of multiple jurisdictions. The Corps of Engineers, the Environmental Protection Agency,  and other regional and federal agencies are divided into districts. They tend to divide the Mississippi River for practical management reasons that made sense in an era when communication was more difficult and expensive. The natural topographical  differences of the River contribute to this approach as well.

From my perspective, the answer to the Mississippi River’s “orphan status” is its lack of a constituency willing to advocate on its behalf.  When you’re on the East Coast, you see active support for the Chesapeake Bay. Powerful Washington and state officials lend their support to local efforts, and residents sport bumper stickers and Save-the-Bay license plates. The Great Lakes, through a multi-year process to write and pass the Great Lakes Compact, have built a constituency largely because threats from other regions of the country highlighted the value of the lakes as a system.

We can end the orphan status of the Mississippi River. America’s Waterway embodies a plan to build that constituency and engage it via the internet and shared goals and objectives. The process takes all aspects of the River into account. It’s not just about clean water or preserved wetlands, our process seeks to take cultural heritage as well as community development  into account. In today’s social networking environment, that engagement can be maintained using the connectivity of the Internet.

The Mississppi River doesn’t have to be an orphan and this conference is demonstrating that there are a lot of people committed to ending that status. Today’s sessions will engage participants as well as experts to explore options for advocacy for the River. Tomorrow, a public policy panel will hear from the conference participants. It is a worthy introduction to a much needed effort.

Posted in Future of the Mississippi River | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

t.s.eliot’s Mississippi River Vision Not Far Off

Posted on August 11, 2009 by unifythemississippi

Paul DuBowy, environmental program manager for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, shared this vision of the Mississippi River from t.s. eliot’s poetry. Eliot knew the River from his days growing up near St. Louis: 

I do not know much about gods; but I think that the river
Is a strong brown god—sullen, untamed and intractable,
Patient to some degree, at first recognised as a frontier;
Useful, untrustworthy, as a conveyor of commerce;
Then only a problem confronting the builder of bridges.
The problem once solved, the brown god is almost forgotten
By the dwellers in cities—ever, however, implacable.
Keeping his seasons and rages, destroyer, reminder
Of what men choose to forget. Unhonoured, unpropitiated
By worshippers of the machine, but waiting, watching and waiting.

Ironically, this passage does paint a common vision of the Mississippi and yet DuBowy contends that there are really five rivers. DuBowy’s presentation this morning at the Visions of a Sustainable Mississippi River Conference matched those of  Gerry Galloway, Steven Kraft and Ken Lubinski in their calls for taking a longer vision and getting involved.

DuBowy says the Army Corps of Engineers is charged with creating a two hundred year vision for the Mississippi. Lubinski asked whether we all value the same ecosystem attributes.  And Galloway stressed that there are new Principles and Guidelines  and an Executive Order on Floodplain Management in the works right now.

Perhaps some of what we value and much of what we share about the Mississippi River can not be measured in engineering or economic models. Perhaps t.s. eliot has the more accurate measure of a River that means so much to the nation. Perhaps his words more accurately reflect what we all know about the Mississippi River and what we value.  Perhaps the secret to the long vision is in what people feel, and we should spend more time talking to the people of the River to find the long vision for its future.

 

Posted in Culture and History | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

The Mississippi River’s Ancient City

Posted on August 10, 2009 by unifythemississippi

To reach the site of this week’s Visions of a Sustainable Mississippi River Conference, you pass a graphic reminder of the enduring power the River has had throughout not just the history of America, but the world.  A new book by Timothy Pauketat, “Cahokia: Ancient America’s Great City on the Mississippi” has just been published to remind us that the history of the River goes back well beyond its introduction to Western civilization by European explorers. In a most understated way, the interstate slides by what was the 12th century’s economic, cultural and religious center of the continent. It’s thought to have been home to 20,000 people and was larger than London at that time. Its central plaza covered 50 acres and housed the third largest pyramid in the New World. An article in the St. Louis Post Dispatch bemoaned the effects of the state budget crisis in relation to the significance of the state park commemorating Cahokia: 

Last year, an article in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch explained that Illinois’s budgetary problems were leading to neglect at Cahokia Mounds, a state park. But as Timothy R. Pauketat’s new book makes clear, Cahokia Mounds is not just of state importance (it is also a U.S. World Heritage Site). The great mounds built across the Mississippi River from St. Louis were quite influential, believes Pauketat, an anthropology professor at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign: “The people of this North American city seem to have created their own culture, then proceeded to spread it across the Midwest and into the South and Plains with a religious fervor.” In other words, Cahokia was the mother of North American mound mania, whose beginnings go back a thousand years.
Mound-building flourished in a culture that made much of the planet Venus, exacted human sacrifice and ate a diet heavy on maize. Some archaeologists believe that there are links between Cahokia and the great civilizations of pre-Columbian Mexico, to which Cahokian residents may well have traveled and from which they may have brought back stories and images that figure in Cahokian mythology, such as “the cult of a Corn Mother or of twin Thunderers.” Pauketat’s book, which summarizes these and other theories as to what the Cahokia site means, is part of the Penguin Library of American Indian History.  — Dennis Drabelle

As we consider visions of a sustainable Mississippi River, it would be good to remind ourselves that this River is one of the great marine wonders of this world and has been for centuries. Its significance goes beyond our time and our ability to address its current issues. But an appreciation for its history can help us understand the importance of efforts to ensure its future.

Posted in Culture and History | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Unify the Vision – A Unified Mississippi Will Follow

Posted on July 30, 2009 by unifythemississippi

Paddlewheels, young boys with fishing poles, banjo music, horrific storms washing out dikes and a whole host of other images have come to represent the Mississippi River. These visions of the River come from history or from disasters or both.  But what of the River and its future? What is the contemporary vision of the Mississippi River?

This topic will be the subject of presentations and debate at an upcoming meeting in Collinsville, Illinois. While the title of the conference is Visions for a Sustainable Mississippi River, I doubt a unifying vision will emerge in one session. It’s a good first step.

That’s too bad because a unified vision is the basis for a unified Mississippi River. Many who read this will say the Mississippi River is too vast and too varying to produce a unified vision, but we know from our own history that it often took a unified vision to rally the kind of support needed to take monumental action. And that’s what’s called for in the case of the Mississippi River.

When President Kennedy wanted public support for space exploration, he captured the essence of that exploration (not every technological innovation it would take) in his image of a man on the moon. When President Eisenhower wanted public support for interstate highways, he created a vision of an interconnected U.S. thriving because of expedited commerce and family connectedness. More recently, President Obama wanted public support for the stimulus package, the unifying vision that enabled its passage was people going back to work. (There was also avoidance of a negative issue. The desire to avoid the images of the Great Depression were vividly unifying, too,)

There are ways to capture a vision for the Mississippi River and it calls for a more deliberate and continuous effort. In the public opinion arena, strategists often test imagery around issues to assess the positives and negatives. They come up with the images they think are right and then test them.

In marketing, focus groups of interested parties are often asked for their input first, before developing any images. That input is collected and massaged and tried out on consumers. With attention to including a cross section of consumer attitudes, marketing still holds a higher success rate than political strategists. However, leaders, if they are sensitive to public sentiments being expressed by their constituents and they are articulate enough to capture that sentiment, are often the best visionaries.

In the case of the vision for the Mississippi River, I hope for a mix of all three by engaging River residents in a National Dialogue on the Future of the Mississippi River. In the meantime if you have a vision for the Mississippi River, share it here.

Posted in Future of the Mississippi River | Tagged , | Leave a comment

New Study Calls for Action

Posted on July 27, 2009 by unifythemississippi

A study group within the National Research Council has released its latest work on the conditions and possible solutions for the quality of the water in the Mississippi River. The suggestions need support from throughout the Mississippi River community. Add your comments here or on the site below. Better yet, write your congresspeople!        

http://www.physorg.com/news167908025.html The Mighty Mississippi Basin and Gulf Suffocating: Inertia Not An Option

The Water Science and Technology Board, (WTSB), Division on Earth and Life Sciences of the National Research Council has released for publication its study for improving water quality in the Mississippi River Basin and Northern Gulf of Mexico.  The purpose of the study was to create an action plan for reducing nutrient load in the effected areas causing low levels of oxygen and creating a condition called hypoxia.

Posted in Environment | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Shared Visions for the Mississippi River

Posted on July 27, 2009 by unifythemississippi

What does the Mississippi River look like? In New Orleans, it looks like an industrial boulevard. In the northern parts of Minnesota, it looks like a place to spend your spare time. In between it looks like everything in between.

What would it look like if all the residents of the Mississippi River banded together and discussed what they saw in common? What does a resource look like? What does a clean river look like? What should the Mississippi look like in the future?

In this blog, we’ll begin to explore these questions and more. Stay tuned.

Posted in Future of the Mississippi River | Tagged , , | Leave a comment