Nature’s Ways More Than Just a Breeze

By Katherine Fischer

Hiking up Valley View trail in Big Sur’s National Park, I feel the usual breeze streaming across my face down from the Santa Lucia mountains. But this time, however, instead of California wild flowers, Redwood leaves and, yes, even pollen, this breeze brings only ash.The higher I climb, the harder I cough.This week, 2,095 fires are finally contained in California. The trees of the forest bear the scars of fires ignited by lightning back in June.While nature’s fires blazed across California, high water immersed Cedar Rapids, Iowa City, Des Moines, and other places.Because national news reported Iowa flooding with little distinction as to which parts of Iowa, people I’d come to know as a journalist through post- Katrina interviews e-mailed daily, “Are you OK up there?” and “If they evacuate you, come stay with us in the French Quarter.”A group of Biloxi well-wishers sent an entire vanload of drinking water to Cedar Rapids. These folks understood well the aftermath of natural disasters. Just in case the calamity wasn’t bad enough, FEMA and governmental ineptitude rushed in to make things worse.Although I live on the floodplain of the Mississippi, our stretch of river incurred trifling damages by comparison. Sure, our son who was evacuated from Des Moines returned home to our house with five feet of river running through the basement. But this was a drop in the bucket contrasted with whole houses vanishing downstream elsewhere.Charlie and Cyndi, my brother and his wife, are ranchers in the California Murrietta mountains south of Big Sur. During our visit with them, Cyndi reports, “Whenever we shower or take a drink of water, we’re very aware of our region’s ignitability.”She says this just minutes before our chairs shimmy sideways across their kitchen.Earthquake!Measuring 5.4 on the Richter Scale, this quake is foreshadowing of what seismologists now say will happen within the next decade – a major eruption of the San Andreas fault. Predictions suggest that losses will total billions of dollars. Tens of thousands will die.Forests burn to regenerate themselves, killing off old wood and sprouting new plant life. Rivers overspill their banks to eliminate toxins, create fresh feeding habitat for fish and birds, and carve new pathways.Earthquakes – whether end of plate like the San Andreas, or mid-plate like our Midwestern New Madrid – are a natural result of stress building up along the earth’s crust. Sooner or later, it’s got to break loose.Nature’s ways are messy for humankind. Witness the recent levee breaches swamping Iowa towns. Consider 1.1 million acres of scorched California landscape.Glance back at the post-Katrina Gulf Coast levee breaks. Even farther back, the 1811-1812 New Madrid earthquakes even caused portions of the Mississippi River to run backward.Engineers could build Category 5 levees, but Category 6 is just around the next bend. Modern seismic codes ensure that buildings will only sway with the next rumble, but against a Richter Scale No. 8, these buildings will crumble.We can ignite “controlled burns” to mitigate against engulfing forest fires.But there’s no guarantee we can contain it, build it high enough, put it out, or bronco bust Nature to standstill. Ultimately, our paltry efforts will fail against these forces.Mike Gilson, a restaurant and bakery owner in Big Sur, saw his home burn to the ground. Ironically, the fireplace and chimney alone survived. Recognizing the pre-eminence of the natural world, he created a ceremony to make peace with it all.Gilson lit a fire in the lone- standing fireplace to express gratefulness for the natural world, “I released the trauma and pain … it helped me to recognize I was lucky to be alive.” Aren’t we all.Fish gotta swim; birds gotta fly.Fischer is chair of the Language and Literature Department at Clarke College. Coming this fall is her book with co-author (and TH columnist) Rebecca Christian, “That’s Our Story and We’re Sticking To It!”

Originally published by Katherine Fischer for the TH.

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