Congratulations on changing your life!

There are two aspects to this landscape.

First, it's flat. you could lay foundations without a measure. You can see for miles in any direction. The reason for this is obvious. For the last 2 million years, or until 100 years ago, the delta was wild. Few people lived here, and few cared to because it was a natural uncontrollable alluvial plain. Constant flooding, depositing of silt, and shifting of land masses smoothed the surface of our soil to an even keel. Since then we've "removed" the abilities of the river to create this landscape; we've tamed her and mostly we lay our homes without fear that they'll fill up with water should the 5 year or 100 year flood event occur.

Second, it's vast and empty. I guess the reason for this should be obvious as well but I don't really think it is. The delta was a wild forrest. For entire seasons it'd revert to swamp stature. The early settlers of Mississippi wouldn't touch the place until about 1895 when they started to develop the means to control it. We no longer live with the ghost of clearcutting because there is nothing left to cut here, and somehow I think we've all forgotten that. I know I had. Fields, infinate fields stretch in every direction. It'd goddamned beautiful really, such vastness, like a midwestern prairie. This soil is deep rich and black. There was a time when farming it was profitable enough to justify the destruction of the true nature of the delta I guess. Or maybe it didn't seem that way at the time. Things look so clear and wrong in hindsight. I should be sleeping in a swamp, a southern rainforrest.

The Army Corps of Engineers has their hands down in the delta on two projects right now. One is the dredging of the Sunflower River. The Sunflower exists two miles from my house where it runs perpendicular to our road for a bit. It's old, muddy, and slow like a smaller cousin of Ms. Mississippi. She is also, interestingly enough, home to an insane colony of mussels the likes of which is not really seen anywhere else in the nation. For years they've been dredging the Sunflower, claiming that it's full of silt that causes flooding all over west MS. The dredging will, effectively, open up more acreage to farming by lessening flood threat. The dredging will, effectively, open up more acreage to clearcutting. The costs, should you chose to wonder about them, include the likely loss of the majority of the rare mussel population, thousands of acres of wetlands, and in many places the ability of our people to walk to creeks and rivers in our floodplain and simply fish.

The second project is to install backwater pumps at the Yazoo river. The backwater area of the Yazoo is an area of wetlands that floods every year in order to alleviate pressure from the Mississippi. The 38% of the backwater area that is wooded constitutes the largest forrested acreage remaining in the Delta. The area takes up the counties of Sharkey and Issaquena, the two least populated counties in MS. And rightfully so, it's a constant flood plain. No one wants to live where their house will wash away once a year. But instead of accepting that, the corps will descend into the bowels of those wetlands and install pumps that will remove the water from this area. Swamp to poor farm land. Natural habitat to impoverished neighborhood.

Here's the thing of it, we humans want to think that the planet is only made for our habitation. Surely it's justified that we should be able to live wherever we want and make whatever use of the land that we want. We can't wait until we have the technology that will allow us to build driveways and condos on the top of Mount Everest. Goddamnit it's our human right to be there.

I've never much had an affinity for direct action. I've just not had the passion to sacrifice for it. But things can change. Dear Army Corps of Engineers,

Get your dirty hands out of the Delta. We don't need you here. We can tear our ecology to shreds by ourselves, thanks.

This is not a threat or a warning. Anything I say here may or may not be true.

There are two aspects to this landscape. First, it's flat. you could lay foundations without a measure. You can see for miles in any direction. The reason for this is obvious. For the last 2 million years, or until 100 years ago, the delta was wild. Few people lived here, and few cared to because it was a natural uncontrollable alluvial plain. Constant flooding, depositing of silt, and shifting of land masses smoothed the surface of our soil to an even keel. Since then we've "removed" the abilities of the river to create this landscape; we've tamed her and mostly we lay our homes without fear that they'll fill up with water should the 5 year or 100 year flood event occur. Second, it's vast and empty. I guess the reason for this should be obvious as well but I don't really think it is. The delta was a wild forrest. For entire seasons it'd revert to swamp stature. The early settlers of Mississippi wouldn't touch the place until about 1895 when they started to develop the means to control it. We no longer live with the ghost of clearcutting because there is nothing left to cut here, and somehow I think we've all forgotten that. I know I had. Fields, infinate fields stretch in every direction. It'd goddamned beautiful really, such vastness, like a midwestern prairie. This soil is deep rich and black. There was a time when farming it was profitable enough to justify the destruction of the true nature of the delta I guess. Or maybe it didn't seem that way at the time. Things look so clear and wrong in hindsight. I should be sleeping in a swamp, a southern rainforrest. The Army Corps of Engineers has their hands down in the delta on two projects right now. One is the dredging of the Sunflower River. The Sunflower exists two miles from my house where it runs perpendicular to our road for a bit. It's old, muddy, and slow like a smaller cousin of Ms. Mississippi. She is also, interestingly enough, home to an insane colony of mussels the likes of which is not really seen anywhere else in the nation. For years they've been dredging the Sunflower, claiming that it's full of silt that causes flooding all over west MS. The dredging will, effectively, open up more acreage to farming by lessening flood threat. The dredging will, effectively, open up more acreage to clearcutting. The costs, should you chose to wonder about them, include the likely loss of the majority of the rare mussel population, thousands of acres of wetlands, and in many places the ability of our people to walk to creeks and rivers in our floodplain and simply fish. The second project is to install backwater pumps at the Yazoo river. The backwater area of the Yazoo is an area of wetlands that floods every year in order to alleviate pressure from the Mississippi. The 38% of the backwater area that is wooded constitutes the largest forrested acreage remaining in the Delta. The area takes up the counties of Sharkey and Issaquena, the two least populated counties in MS. And rightfully so, it's a constant flood plain. No one wants to live where their house will wash away once a year. But instead of accepting that, the corps will descend into the bowels of those wetlands and install pumps that will remove the water from this area. Swamp to poor farm land. Natural habitat to impoverished neighborhood. Here's the thing of it, we humans want to think that the planet is only made for our habitation. Surely it's justified that we should be able to live wherever we want and make whatever use of the land that we want. We can't wait until we have the technology that will allow us to build driveways and condos on the top of Mount Everest. Goddamnit it's our human right to be there. I've never much had an affinity for direct action. I've just not had the passion to sacrifice for it. But things can change. Dear Army Corps of Engineers, Get your dirty hands out of the Delta. We don't need you here. We can tear our ecology to shreds by ourselves, thanks. This is not a threat or a warning. Anything I say here may or may not be true.
My AIM changed to gingermissippy for now. ginger@mosquitoinc.org