New Pioneeers Notes
By: Martha Young, Published in the Springfield Sun 5-6-2009
Abraham now stands in the court square in Springfield, looking at the courthouse where his parent’s marriage is recorded. When I drive through town at night, his face seems to speak to me of my own childhood memories. Abe’s earliest memory was of the Knob creek farm; my family lived on Knob creek from the time I was four until I left home at 18, just a few miles downstream from the Lincoln farm. I learned to swim in the creek, picked blackberries on its banks, waded and played in the riffles as a child. Mother sent us all to the creek with Ivory soap (it floats) on hot days, as a quick way to clean up a pack of dirty sweaty kids.
Like Abe, I came close to drowning in the spring floods. As foolhardy children will do, our neighborhood gang tried to ride the spring rush on inner tubes, and was nearly carried away to the Rolling Fork, until my father spotted us and pulled us out of the water. After the scare faded, we were all lectured and placed on probation and work detail for punishment.
Now I return to the Knob Creek Valley almost every week. The creek where I played has changed dramatically. Deep pools and shaded tree banks have disappeared, banks washed away with erosion as the watershed has degraded. The loss of tree roots and heavy farming practice has turned a clear stream into a wide shallow ditch prone to flooding with every rain. The knobs on each side of the valley that gave the creek its name have been heavily logged and abused by ATV trails.
The condition of Knob Creek is repeated all over Kentucky, as failure to see beyond immediate financial returns destroys the land that we depend on for our existence here on this green earth. Look at the watershed where you live in Washington County. Drive down to the nearest creek or river now in early spring when wildflowers and wildlife are most abundant. Go to the Beech or the Chaplin, to Hardin Creek or Cartwright Creek. Are the banks covered with trees and the water clear? Or is the stream basin used as a trash dump? How many plastic bags and tires are polluting the picture? Would you want to eat fish that were caught from the water or would they be contaminated with pesticides and mercury? The safety of our drinking water, the conservation of our most valuable land for food all depend on the will of our communities to protect our watershed basins and begin to pay attention to the fresh water resource we take for granted.
What would the young boy Abe say if he went back to Knob Creek today? What will your children and grandchildren say in another 20 years if we do not protect their heritage? Take a drive to the streams in your neighborhood and appreciate the running water and their beauty, and let your support be known for taking care of this resource.
By: Martha Young, Published in the Springfield Sun 5-6-2009
Abraham now stands in the court square in Springfield, looking at the courthouse where his parent’s marriage is recorded. When I drive through town at night, his face seems to speak to me of my own childhood memories. Abe’s earliest memory was of the Knob creek farm; my family lived on Knob creek from the time I was four until I left home at 18, just a few miles downstream from the Lincoln farm. I learned to swim in the creek, picked blackberries on its banks, waded and played in the riffles as a child. Mother sent us all to the creek with Ivory soap (it floats) on hot days, as a quick way to clean up a pack of dirty sweaty kids.
Like Abe, I came close to drowning in the spring floods. As foolhardy children will do, our neighborhood gang tried to ride the spring rush on inner tubes, and was nearly carried away to the Rolling Fork, until my father spotted us and pulled us out of the water. After the scare faded, we were all lectured and placed on probation and work detail for punishment.
Now I return to the Knob Creek Valley almost every week. The creek where I played has changed dramatically. Deep pools and shaded tree banks have disappeared, banks washed away with erosion as the watershed has degraded. The loss of tree roots and heavy farming practice has turned a clear stream into a wide shallow ditch prone to flooding with every rain. The knobs on each side of the valley that gave the creek its name have been heavily logged and abused by ATV trails.
The condition of Knob Creek is repeated all over Kentucky, as failure to see beyond immediate financial returns destroys the land that we depend on for our existence here on this green earth. Look at the watershed where you live in Washington County. Drive down to the nearest creek or river now in early spring when wildflowers and wildlife are most abundant. Go to the Beech or the Chaplin, to Hardin Creek or Cartwright Creek. Are the banks covered with trees and the water clear? Or is the stream basin used as a trash dump? How many plastic bags and tires are polluting the picture? Would you want to eat fish that were caught from the water or would they be contaminated with pesticides and mercury? The safety of our drinking water, the conservation of our most valuable land for food all depend on the will of our communities to protect our watershed basins and begin to pay attention to the fresh water resource we take for granted.
What would the young boy Abe say if he went back to Knob Creek today? What will your children and grandchildren say in another 20 years if we do not protect their heritage? Take a drive to the streams in your neighborhood and appreciate the running water and their beauty, and let your support be known for taking care of this resource.
