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What's the deal with the creek?
May. 29th, 2004 09:05 pm"Deep Ecology" (Sessions & Duvall) enjoins us to be aware of the watershed we live in, where the water comes from and where it goes. So here's what I want to know. The Willamette River flows through the middle of Eugene, of course, and then north another 100 miles to Portland, where it merges with the Columbia. One would think all of our local creeks would be tributaries of the Willamette, since we're in a basin with the river at the lowest point. However, my neighborhood creek, Amazon Creek, does not. It starts at Spencer Butte, flowing north and acting like it's heading for the Willamette, all right, but then when it gets within a mile and a half of it, the creek instead veers west, travels another 10 miles, and merges into Fern Ridge Reservoir, which is a man-made lake on the Long Tom River. The Long Tom flows north out of Fern Ridge and eventually, in 30 miles or so, makes it to the Willamette. So what's the deal with the creek? Why does it wait another 40+ miles to enter the river? It seems more like an act of the Army Corps of Engineers than something natural, but apparently it's been that way for hundreds of years or more.
(And now off onto a side point that is likely to send non-linguists into a dazed stupor, but I wanted to mention that Willamette (wil-LAM-it) and Long Tom are both, surprisingly, Kalapuya names, from "wall-ama" and "lakhta-ama," the word "ama" obviously meaning "river." It's interesting because "ama" comes up in several other Willamette tributaries, such as the Santiam (santy-AM) and the Clackamas (CLACK-a-mus), and the words are all pronounced so differently that we white folks never notice the common root, but it's there!)
Anyway. This morning I went to see what has been done with the headwaters of Amazon Creek. A main street in the neighborhood dead-ends in a trail there, which I'd never before tried walking on, but as of a few months ago they've gravelled the previously often muddy path, and I believe the city has acquired it for parklands. I'm very excited about this. So off I went into the forest, with the creek reasonably loud, and meadowlarks and other birds up above in the douglas firs and big-leaf maples. I didn't go all that far, but it was sure lovely.
Today I also walked around the grounds of the French immersion school, which I hadn't actually seen before, but it was near the headwaters. What a gorgeous site for a school! Probably not the overriding criterion when deciding where D. should go, but, wow, set in a great green meadow all enclosed by forested hills, it seemed very remote from any urban cares. The site seemed at least as suited for a meditation center as for an elementary school.
I went on this outing while R. and D. bought his bookcase at Fred Meyer's, where I'd found a suitable one on Monday. So three months after otherwise assembling D's "Big Boy Room," finally the books are within his own reach.
(And now off onto a side point that is likely to send non-linguists into a dazed stupor, but I wanted to mention that Willamette (wil-LAM-it) and Long Tom are both, surprisingly, Kalapuya names, from "wall-ama" and "lakhta-ama," the word "ama" obviously meaning "river." It's interesting because "ama" comes up in several other Willamette tributaries, such as the Santiam (santy-AM) and the Clackamas (CLACK-a-mus), and the words are all pronounced so differently that we white folks never notice the common root, but it's there!)
Anyway. This morning I went to see what has been done with the headwaters of Amazon Creek. A main street in the neighborhood dead-ends in a trail there, which I'd never before tried walking on, but as of a few months ago they've gravelled the previously often muddy path, and I believe the city has acquired it for parklands. I'm very excited about this. So off I went into the forest, with the creek reasonably loud, and meadowlarks and other birds up above in the douglas firs and big-leaf maples. I didn't go all that far, but it was sure lovely.
Today I also walked around the grounds of the French immersion school, which I hadn't actually seen before, but it was near the headwaters. What a gorgeous site for a school! Probably not the overriding criterion when deciding where D. should go, but, wow, set in a great green meadow all enclosed by forested hills, it seemed very remote from any urban cares. The site seemed at least as suited for a meditation center as for an elementary school.
I went on this outing while R. and D. bought his bookcase at Fred Meyer's, where I'd found a suitable one on Monday. So three months after otherwise assembling D's "Big Boy Room," finally the books are within his own reach.