Difference a Year Makes

The circumstances in which you find yourself can be dramatically different from one year to the next. It can be more than being one year older, it can be more than being at work one year and retired the next. It is a rainy mid-July evening tonight, and knowing that there is little I can do outside, I decided to go through some of the letters my father had written home while he served in the Counter Intelligence Corps during WWII. I just happened to open my copied collection to July 4, 1945. In July of that year he was in, if I correctly read his handwriting, Vilshofen, Germany. He notes in the letter that he and "Jack are going to meet Joe for dinner out" and then go to a party. Although he admits it “has been a dull l4th so far today.” The next paragraph begins with “though the 4th hasn’t had any of the loud celebrating (and this was 18 years before my sister Jeanne was born) which usually goes on in the States, it has been a holiday,” but it is the completion of this sentence that peaked my interest when he wrote “and what a relief from last year.” With the war complete and the censors less concerned about what he writes he adds some additional information on where he found himself one year earlier.

American Cemetery in Normandy in early 1950's, with temporary wooded crosses

“I remember,” he begins “we were living in Carentan (which is a port city in Normandy) and I was sent down to the 329 regiment to work that day as that was the 1st day we attacked the enemy. It was an experience I’ll never forget.” Carentan was made famous by the battle fought by the 101st airborne division in June, as part of the  D-Day invasion. Part of these events are captured in the popular video series "Band of Brothers”  which documents the exploits of the 101st.  The history of the 83rd notes that the division’s first command post was in a circus tent near Bricqueville. At this point in the war, the division was under Omar Bradley’s First Army. While there, they received orders to move to Carentan and relieve the 101st Airborne. Carentan, it says “was the roughest and most hotly contested area in the entire American zone.” The 83rd would move in over the course of two nights in late June—the whole division from the riflemen to the headquarters and service troops. As noted by my father, July 4 was to be the first engagement of the 83rd Infantry division who began to arrive on the continent on about D-day plus 15 at Omaha Beach. The fighting would take place south of Carentan, noted in the 329th Regiment “After Action Reports” specifically as Le Plessis. The division history notes that they jumped off the Carentan—Periers road. They were fighting in the hedgerows of Normandy. The hedgerow fighting was perhaps some of the most severe of the war. Not only was it thick with brush and trees, as the name would imply, but there was also a usual significant change in elevation, also implied by its name. American tanks, with their special plow type fronts, were not nearly as effective in the hedgerows as the war planners had thought. They also had not anticipated the density and commonness of this French farm feature. It could well conceal the enemy, and the hardened Nazi fighters took advantage of the territory. As the division history notes “We found hedgerow fighting treacherous, rugged, nerve-wracking, murderous. Even now we find it hard to explain, for it almost defies description.” It goes on to describe the hedgerows as consisting of “gnarled tree roots and vines as tough and strong as iron hoops, all woven together in an impenetrable wall.” They could not see the enemy, nor the enemy see them, but they knew each other was there. Movement was tortured and time consuming, it was simply slow, creeping, crawling and costly.

A special plow on a US tank to battle the hedgerows

Costly it was, the August 8 entry in the “After Action Report” notes that casualties for the battle that began on July 4 and would last most of the month were in the range of 35%.  More specifically another report notes that of the 3058 enlisted men in the regiment, after two days of fighting 2518 were still in fighting condition. In just two days the 329th had 540 casualties. Yet, the situation was actually worse than that, as the casualty rate of companies that came in to contact with the enemy was 50%. As for weather, it was rain, rain, and more rain. Mud was getting deeper, making movement difficult, and more importantly it dampened air support. It would be 21 days later, on July 25 when air support would arrive to provide some much needed assistance. The Germans utilized effective machine gun placement “with maximum field of fire” which was supplemented by mortars and what they would come to realize were the deadly 88’s.

US Soldiers in Normandy, Summer 1944

In that July 4, 1945 letter, my father goes on to say that prior year he was “fairly safe in a fox hole in an orchard, but the boys on the front 1,000 yards away were caught in a hell as they had to go through a swamp waist deep in water.” But he continues to describe what a dire situation the regiment was in when he says that “some got over and were cut off, others stayed in the swamp and a few struggled back and the look they had after their first real day of battle was horrible.” War is hell, and it showed on the faces of the men who retreated from the swamp as they were caught in the fire of German machine guns and 88’s. That first day of encounter, he goes on to say, was also the first day he “saw a German prisoner for the first time…and it was quite an experience. Now we live with them, practically.”

My father, Roy Bernard Hovel, CIC

One year makes a difference. On July 3, 1944 my father and the 83rd Infantry were preparing to enter battle against the Germans in France, but a year later, on July 3 he had taken “the large Mercedes” to what he refers to as some God-forsaken place” and got stuck twice on the way back due to heavy rain. His location, means of transport and means of purpose had changed, only the rain reamained the same.  He then notes that “4 former German army boys helped me out.” However, following that tale, he gets more serious when he writes “It sure is a funny world though and if you could see all that has been going on here for the past 6 yrs and still it would seem all twisted up to you too. I couldn’t even begin to write about everything because it’d take a year or two. I can understand it because it is my work but I guess there are few others over here outside of some CIC men who do. Even many CIC men are surprised to hear of different things and can’t imagine them.” He goes on to recount of having heard a father send his son to a concentration camp, and a son a father. “The Nazi propaganda, education, and system was horrible in its efficiency and the way it would keep the truth from the German people and still attain a horrible end.”  As a member of the CIC he would experience not only the horrors of war, but the ruthlessness of man to a fellow man.

83rd Infantry CIC Detachment, Morning Report
for August 1, 1944

In less than one year the war went from a terrible situation where the victory to secure the beaches one month earlier was almost lost, two ten months later with the total and unconditional surrender of the German army. It would take one year for my father to write about his account of his first experience near the front. July 4, 1944 was for him an experience that was burned in to his memory, and was quite the contrast with the party and dinner he would have one year later. He was part of the 329th regiment during those July days that would feel the wrath of the German war machine, but yet persevere. He would go from life in a foxhole in an orchard among the hedgerows of Normandy to driving a Mercedes on Army business in the south of Germany. Most of all, he saw the hell of war, the terrible cost, and a bittersweet July 4, 1945 where a holiday was interrupted in his mind by the horrors of one year earlier. What a difference one year can make.

Tubing

Contrary to what thought the title gives you, this post is likely not about that thought. Instead this post is about pneumatic tubes. My first experience in seeing a pneumatic tube at work was in the back seat of the Buick Invicta station wagon when I was a child at the bank drive-through. At least I think it was the Invicta, it may have been the red Electra. If recollection serves me correct, the Bank of Sun Prairie first installed a drive-through on the other side of an alley behind the bank, and the pneumatic tubes transferred the banking material from car to the teller and back. There was no direct view of the teller as most have today, and I don’t recall there being any video screens, likely only voice transmission. Fewer trips are made to the bank today, what with credit cards and on-line transactions, but drive-up, or drive-through lanes are now common. In fact, one of the measures of trips generated by a bank is based on number of drive-through lanes. When I do go to the bank I like to go in and visit a teller personally. Where I bank today, their drive-through uses the pneumatic tubes, and voice, but you face straight to a bank (pun intended) of teller windows. Depending upon activity, you may have difficulty knowing who is processing your banking transactions. Pneumatic tubes date back to the mid-18th century, but are still in use today. However, the first thoughts of such a device go back to Greek antiquity and a man named Hero of Alexandria.

This is not the type of tubing to which I refer.
Anyway, this a rather mild form of tubing, and not the usual for the driver of this watercraft.

Pneumatic tubes are based on a rather a simple principle—using a partial vacuum to move a cylinder through a tube from one place to another. They lost favor in the 20th century, due to a variety of factors. Changes in transportation—large trucks, suburbanization, cost of installation, and the need to move ever larger packages. In the 19th and early part of the 20th centuries, development was more compact, and it was less expensive to place a tube from one building, like a post office to a large office building nearby. Some office buildgs used the technology to move mail within a building. Think of the scene in the movie "Elf." As development moved out further, it was no longer cost effective. But now, a variety of entrepreneurs are looking to reintroduce the pneumatic tube as a method of transportation. The intent is not to move mail, but to move people and goods from one city to another. Currently three groups are looking at raising funds and creating a test project. Among those involved is Elon Musk of Tesla car and Space X fame. Musk introduced this concept in 2012, to set forth a faster method of land transit. What is envisioned was a tube, likely a few stories above grade that would extend from Los Angeles to San Francisco, with a bullet-shaped capsule where a massive air compressor would suck air from the front and put it to the back to propel the capsule at designed 760 mph. But it would not be just people, it could be goods as well, at least of a size to fit in the capsule and tube.

Mail tubes

Musk is looking to construct a test loop in Texas, while another group is looking to do one in California. Depending upon cost-effectiveness, they could replace small regional airports like Dane County. Why fly from Madison to Minneapolis for a business trip when you can hop what is called a hyperloop. On the west coast, it is thought that you could leave San Francisco and about 40 minutes later be in LA, but of course you will need to get to and from the station. On the other hand, we have some states embarking on high-speed rail, but nothing that can come close to the speed of the hyperloop. If the hyper loop makes passenger rail a thing of the past, the rail corridors could be put to good use for the hyperloop, and other linear arranged activities. Nationally there has been rails-to-trails for quite some time now, so introducing another linear activity would not be out of the thinking.

Envisioned hyperloop

If hyperloops do become cost-effective perhaps they could become a reality. One estimate is that a ride of a few hundred miles could be accomplished for about $30.  It would cost more to drive that distance, not to mention the amount of time it would take. It likely is still a pipe dream (pun intended), but the challenge is not the movement, but rather the engineering involved in acceleration and deceleration. You cannot get to and down from speed too quickly as it could be hard on the body. It may be more traumatic, however, to get stuck in a tube. Of course, if it were to become reality, would it allow more sprawl to occur? Would the nation be settling in the depths of Montana with people hyperlooping to work in Denver or Seattle? It would pose an interesting use of an old technology, and it may show that not all advances are related to nano-technology. As I like to go inside a bank, I seldom see the pneumatic tubes at work, but the human transport tube may be of more interest than our commonly thought of water tubing.

Fourth and Food

For many years now, one of the departments where I work hosts a cookout in celebration of the Fourth of July.  The cookout is usually held on the first or second of July.  When the calendar allows, it is often held on July 2. July 2 is perhaps an appropriate day, as while it is not the official independence holiday, it is the day that the Continental Congress adopted a motion declaring independence from Great Britain. If it had been up to some of the members of that august body of American revolutionaries, the date would have been June 7. However, not unlike the doubts in the current Wisconsin legislature about adopting a state budget, at that time there were doubts that a unanimous vote could be secured. Those assembled thought it best to have a unanimous vote for such a drastic move. Debate was delayed until July 1. On June 7, a committee of five was appointed to draft a formal declaration. History seems to teach us that it was the work of Thomas Jefferson. Like class projects of today, one person took the reins, and that was Jefferson. The other members of the drafting committee were John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Robert Sherman, and John Livingston.  It is left to history as to how much input these lesser known members had on that revered document.

John Adams, who always seemed to play second fiddle
to Thomas Jefferson

Debate resumed on July 1, but the vote was delayed one more day, until July 2 in an attempt to still obtain unanimity. When the vote was taken on that early July day, 12 of the 13 delegations voted in favor, with the New York delegation abstaining. Perhaps portending his status as the first Vice-President, John Adams, would say that July 2 would be celebrated as one of most memorable events in the history of America. Not unlike the marginalized powers of the Vice- President, July 2 has been marginalized to July 4. As occurred through much of their careers, Thomas Jefferson would again trump John Adams, as the Continental Congress would meet again on July 4 to formally adopt the Declaration of Independence, of which Jefferson was the lead author.  While adopted in July, the formal signing did not occur until early August.  Jefferson and Adams often butted heads, but in an unusual occurrence, both would die on July 4 in 1826. Just so you know, while the New York delegation abstained on July 2, and again on July 4, they did grant approval on July 19.  Because of the adoption of the formal document on that day, we celebrate July 4 and not July 2 as the day of our nation's independence from Britain.  

The Committee which drafted the Declaration of Independence

Today, we celebrate the 4th with family gatherings, picnics, parties, festivals and fireworks. Likely many other places of work have had some type of event over their noon hour to recognize this most important of holidays for our nation. With such celebrations comes food. While waiting in line to make a choice among the grilled chicken (breasts or thighs), burgers, and brats at the work cookout today, I made an observation. Having been present for many of these events I noticed a couple things. First, not unlike July 2 and John Adams, the brats and burgers have been marginalized from when this event was first held some 15 years ago. Perhaps this is owing to the health craze, perhaps it is the aging of the work force, and the health problems that develop from eating too much fat and processed meat, but chicken seemed to be the grilled item of choice. At least for the older members. Younger members of the work force, and those in the Fire Dept., and Public Works still tend to burgers and brats, but office workers gravitated to chicken. This is consistent with our family picnics over the past twenty some years as chicken is now much more prevalent than it was when that started.

Fireworks are common aspect to celebrate the 4th

My second observation was that healthy food choice only goes so far. Eating lunch in the break room as I do, I see how the choice of lunch for many is healthy food. Thinking that people would choose healthy, I brought a fresh mixed green salad with lettuce, a greens mix, and pea pods picked from my organic garden during the evening of July 1. It could not have been much more fresh.  Who would pass on a nice fresh salad, topped off with my wife’s delicious basil salad dressing? Apparently many did, because I had a whole bag left over, of the one and one-half bags brought to help feed the near 90 persons that showed up. Other than me, I only noticed two others having grabbed my mixed greens salad. If the brats and burgers have been marginalized chicken as was John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, the salad of greens is Robert Sherman and John Livingston, two long forgotten men of the Continental Congress.  The mixed greens I brought were marginalized more than John Adams ever was.  Instead the items of choice were the omnipresent cheesy potatoes, even more ubiquitous baked beans, and a sausage laden pasta dish, perhaps reminiscent of Benjamin Franklin. Perhaps the only other salad that may be considered healthy was a Raman noodle type broccoli slaw salad.  Much to my surprise even the weight-conscious women in the Senior Center did not choose the salad. Perhaps, the feeling among the group was that today is a day to enjoy something less than fully healthy, not unlike the way we celebrate our other holidays, and that more healthy choices can come again next week. Healthy eating, even among the generally healthy, weight conscious eaters apparently has its end point.

Enjoy Independence day, whether it be July 2 or July 4

In that way, what we eat is much like our celebration of the fourth of July. The real date of when independence was declared is not recognized in our collective memory and July 4 now rules.  Burgers and brats may now be less common at our work cookout than before, but not as much as my mixed green salad was ignored.  Rather, the thought among those attendees was to celebrate with butter, cheese and cholesterol. However, while Thomas Jefferson may get the bulk of the credit for the writing of the Declaration of Independence, let us not forgot the others who participated.  While chicken is becoming more common at cookouts, let us not forget the mixed greens.  As you enjoy your grilled chicken, burgers,or brats have some greens, and at the same time think of the others who contributed to the nation’s independence.  But, more importantly, let also think of those less fortunate than ourselves. Just like my mixed green salad was less enjoyed than cheesy potatoes at today's cookout.  As for the greens, the people at work did not know what they missed, particularly when topped with that great basil salad made by my spouse.

 Images from Google images

Won the War Lost the Favor

Last week in South Carolina, several African-Americans were shot down while praying in a famous church.  The midweek massacre has been called a tragedy, But, that description tends to underplay causes and explanations.  It was a horrific event, but it was calculated, and in that sense is unlike our more commonly experienced natural disasters.  This blog seldom talks about current events, focusing on those of a historical nature.  Yet, to me, there is a strong connection between the nation's past and the history of the past several days.  This is further seen in the call to remove the flag of the Confederate States of America from its flying over the South Carolina State Capitol.  South Carolina was the first state to secede from the Union, doing so on 20 December 1860, a little more than a month after Abraham Lincoln had been elected, and about three months before he would assume office in March 1861.

We are all aware that the war with the states in rebellion was a difficult war, with more American casualties coming from that four year war than from all other conflicts combined.  It was a war where fighting methods had not caught up with the implications of newer technologies.  Time has altered our collective view of this massive encounter, and it has occurred over generations. A Harris poll conducted in 2011, for the 150th anniversary of the start of the war with the states in rebellion, aka Civil War, noted that 2/3 of white Americans thought the main reason for the war was state rights and not slavery.  Most of us who know history will recognize that the war was about slavery.  The rights of states argument is a euphemism used to justify slavery.  Why would 2/3 of Americans feel that way?  Well, it has to do with the collective amnesia, and formulations created following the Civil War.  It was led by persons of the south, but involved both north and south.  It involved people in politics, academics and the arts.  Together they would put forth a new thesis that would, apparently, come to form much of the national conscience.  The north may have won the war, but the south won the favor of the nation. As historian James McPherson has said of the Civil War, "Everything stemmed from slavery." Failure to recognize this point is a great disservice to those who served (albeit not all served to end slavery) and to those enslaved.

For 150 years much of the nation has apparently gravitated to the "Lost Cause" interpretation of the Civil War.  While little was written about the war from 1865 until the 1880's, the Lost Cause idea first arose in about 1865.  This idea was based on the proud, heroic men and leadership of the south having done so well against a foe with much more in assets, whether it be financial, men or material.  The confederate cause, the argument goes was noble and chivalrous.  This type of terminology plays on glory and honor and a tie to the medieval past of Europe.  It has been aided by groups such as the Sons of the Confederacy, and the Confederate Literary Society, the former being a strong proponent of the Confederate flag.  Of course, it reached its zenith in the early part of the 1900's.  First, was the 1915 film "Birth of a Nation," which glorified the confederacy and played into stereo-types of happy black plantation workers.  The KKK was seen, in this movie, as a noble tradition of the south.  The first southern to be elected president since 1850 was Woodrow Wilson.  An historian, Wilson played to the southern sympathies that were culturally rampant in the nation.  His book A History of the American People reads like a hermetic for the heroic southern lost cause idea.  Speaking at the 50th anniversary of Gettysburg, Wilson said not a word about slavery.  It is also reported that Wilson saw the formation of the KKK as southern men intent on self preservation.  

Further playing into the noble nature of the south was the blockbuster movie "Gone with the Wind."  Like other works, this movie glorified plantation life, It set a standard for how this nation would come to view the south.  Slavery was not the issue, according this line of thinking, rather it was a group facing bullies from the north.  They like to say it is a story of gallant generals, men fighting for their honor, and to protect their home.  As long ago as "Gone with the Wind" was, this line of thought continues today with the more recent movie ""Gods and Generals." Confederate General Lee has been given a version of southern sainthood, and General Grant, often vilified.  In the "Dukes of Hazzard" southern sympathies were at play and the Duke boys' car was named after the southern general, replete with the Confederate flag on top.  The southern cause has become identified with more of religious theme and fervor.  This all built off works by academics, such as a Lincoln scholar who was at the University of Illinois who thought northern abolitionists were at fault and what has been called their reforming zeal.  Another historian who provided aide to the "Lost Cause", as reported by David Von Drehle, was William Dunning of Columbia University, a self-proclaimed southern scholar, who believed  and perpetuated the "belief that blacks were incapable of equality and that Reconstruction was a disastrous injustice."  

This line of thinking, by politicians, artists and academics, came about as a way to assuage national guilt.  The whole nation was implicit to some degree in slavery.  Perhaps the thought was it was better to reinvent and re-purpose the war, if not to forget. At the time this was viewed as a more noble way of thinking.  Yet it was a false invention. While his memories are famous, U.S. Grant did little to note why there was a call to war, and even his discussion on Appomattox was in line with the noble terms of surrender offered.  Jefferson Davis, the former president of the Confederacy, would  be the one to begin to reform the meaning and purpose.  Obviously a man with significant self-interest in his legacy.  The move to creating memories for self-interest had begun.  

Reconstruction was difficult, and the nation was not yet ready for the reforms the Republicans wished to implement.   These would come over time--up to 100 years later. Of course, our founding fathers knew the problems they were creating, and between then and the Civil War many attempts at compromise and appeasement were made, but nothing pleased the south.   James Madison, during the Constitutional Convention noted that real "difference of interests lies not between the large and small but between the Northern and Southern states.  The institution of slavery and its consequences form the line."  That line was present in the 1780's and is present in 2015.  How the actions of history permeate to this day.  

Perhaps the north was too gracious in the terms it gave to the south.  The nation was certainly too forgetful and forgiving of the cause of the Civil War.  Our national conscience has been formed through time to give a false description to the Civil War.  Only now, following the senseless shooting in South Carolina, is action starting to take hold that the symbol of the south's rebellion perhaps should no longer be flown over their State Capitol.  For too long sympathy has laid with the south.  Several years ago I had a coworker who had the Confederate Flag posted in his cubicle, but underneath were the words "You lost, get over it." If we as a nation believe that the stars and stripes represent the values of his nation, we cannot say that the bars and stars do not represent the values of a slave holding past. Perhaps it could be argued that today the Confederate flag is more representative of a rebellious streak, than slavery, but that too works to play into the "Lost Cause" theme.  This gets me back to David Von Drehle who, writing in "Time" magazine four years ago noted "the path to healing and mercy goes by way of honesty and humility."  Honesty requires the nation to recognize the true purpose of the Civil War.  In my way of thinking, humility is not shown by a display of the Confederate flag over the birthplace of the secessionists.  

If a Raindrop Falls....

I have a brother who cannot seem to want enough rain. In one email he asked the question “What is the best rain?” In an even earlier email he intimated that but for people we would not know flooding. The title of this post is then a play on the long known philosophical thought experiment about the falling tree in the forest if no one is around to hear does it make a sound. So, forming my brothers question and statement another way, would rain drops fall if no one was around to feel/see them? As geology teaches us, rain and wind have been forming the landscape for eons, well before man, well before the dinosaurs, and even before continental drift. It has left limestone, which is formed from creatures of the sea, well above sea level (I can take you to a cave in the east bluff of Devil’s Lake that shows this), it has made mountains into monadnocks, created river deltas, and helped form our soil. The determination of what is the best rain is related to a variety of factors—rainfall intensity, capacity of the soil, type of soil, land cover/use. As we know from grade school, all the water we will ever have has been on the earth, it just keeps recycling by the hydrologic cycle. Of the water on the earth, reportedly only about 3% is fresh water, and of that, one-third (or 1% of total) is surface and groundwater. Therefore, not only is the hydrologic cycle important, but so is how we choose to use our water, and how we develop our land uses. Perhaps over time I can provide more on this connection, but for the time being this post is related to one aspect of storm water runoff. 

Overland Flow

Most, if not all, readers of this blog have been outside in an intense rain event where we see water runoff (for relatives, think of the family picnic in Stevens Point a few years back), and my brother’s email post reminded me of what I learned in a college hydrology course. That runoff we typically see has a name and is referred to Horton overland flow, named for Robert E. Horton, who the text book (yes, I still have the text book) notes provided the foundation for modern quantitative hydrology (1978, Dunne, Thomas and Luna Leopold, Water in Environmental Planning, W.H. Freeman, San Francisco). Horton overland flow, as noted in the book (p. 259) occurs anywhere rainfall intensity exceeds the infiltration capacity of the soil. Further, once rainfall exceeds the infiltration capacity of the soil “runoff rises to a sharp peak at the end of the rainfall, followed by a rapid decline as soon as rainfall intensity decreases.” Of course, not all land surfaces have a direct slope to a stream, there are pockets or depressions that hold water and that water later infiltrates or evaporates. A rain garden is a man-made depression to hold water and allow it to infiltrate or evapo-transpirate. Since the mid 1980’s we have seen detention ponds which hold back storm water and release it based on the calculated development rate by the use of what are called weir structures. But, even detention ponds have problems. More scouring of streams can occur simply because there is more storm water than there would be under predevelopment conditions. In any rain even you can walk out on to your driveway or street and you will experience Horton overland flow. Why? Because the intensity of the rain exceeds the capacity of the land surface to infiltrate it. More impervious surfaces lead to more storm water. Detention ponds release a greater amount of water than what originally have been present, due to impervious surfaces, and hence you get more scouring and disruption of the natural stream system. More scouring leads to more soil laden water that will be deposited somewhere.

Rain Garden

One would think that semi-arid land would have a great amount of capacity for water, after all, it is not like the soil is saturated from many prior storms, since semi-arid is almost desert like. But, what is known is that Horton overland flow occurs most frequently on areas devoid of vegetation or possess only a thin cover. Cultivated fields also have a high rate of flow, even though the fields may be planted the area between the rows leave soil exposed and without proper cover it loses its better infiltration capacity. Lawns of course also see Horton overland flow, partly due to compaction. Of course, infiltration of rain is greater in humid regions due to its often better vegetative cover. A good vegetative land cover, such as forest cover, has the least amount of overland flow. A few of the reasons for this are: the detritus of the leaves and decaying branches provide a nice humus layer that assists in water take-up; the leaves break up the intensity of the rainfall; lesser compaction of the soil; and perhaps even more earth worm or other micro-fauna activity which produce macro-pores. Dunne and Leopold even go on to say that in these areas Horton overland flow may not occur.

Prairie Plant Root Depth compared to
Bluegrass

Don’t be fooled by the presence of what we planners call macro-pores. In 1998, in attempting to devise a more suitable storm water management system, the city for which I work engaged a consultant and actually tested varied soils, and the same soils but under different conditions. What we found was that macro-pores greatly assist in infiltration of rain and storm water. We found that earthworms and prairie plants provide great macro-pores. Prairie plants are able to do this as their root system is much deeper, some up to 14 or 15 feet, compared to a standard 3 or 4 inches for common lawn grasses. The long roots assist in providing openings in the soil. For example, purple coneflower is known as a clay buster due to its root structure, and its effect on that type of soil. The natural vegetation for the area of Wisconsin in which I am located was prairie and oak openings (oak savannah), but do not get the impression that there were was a high density of trees. It is thought that there was hundreds of feet between trees, leaving much area for prairie grasses. The soil present in pre-settlement conditions was not unlike the soil today, but for less topsoil due to erosion.

Rainfall Map for part of June 2008

What may be key is the intensity of the rainfall. The red of the radar means a more intense rainfall than a green or yellow. Intense rainfalls this past week in Chicago caused flooding, and of course in 2008 the Wisconsin Dells area saw two back-to-back 100 year storm events separated only by a few days which led to the Lake Delton Dam breach and the flooding of the interstate highway. Soil was inundated, runoff filled depressions, and the overflow. With intense rains, so much comes so quickly that the soil capacity is quickly utilized or the soil has little time to absorb a heavy rain.

Lake Delton, WI

To answer the question posed by my brother, the best rain is dependent upon a variety of factors, including what you hope to get from the rain. It would seem that a rain that can infiltrate and produce little in terms of overland flow would be the best. The infiltrating rain would then be available for transpiration by plants, evaporation by sun and wind, or recharge of the ground water. (Groundwater also feeds, lakes, streams and wetlands.) Therefore, most people would not consider a good rain event to be a radar reporting red or purple storm event. If one wants a great deal of overland flow to fill streams and lakes quickly, than radar red is a good rain. In the end, perhaps it is appropriate on this day in which Laudato Si was released that we borrow a line from St. Francis of Assisi and his Canticle of the Sun: "Be praised, my Lord, through Sister Water; she is very useful, and humble, and precious, and pure." We just need to realize that it is our job to tend and keep well our water and earth.

Images courtesy of Google

Bigger in Texas

I recall my visits to Chicago as a child with a greater sense of understanding now that it is over forty years later.  Besides marveling at the large, and tall buildings, the forest preserve, Grant Park, the urban plazas, and the well knit neighborhoods I recall watching with trepidation as my father would move through heavy traffic down the massive expressways, such as the famous Dan Ryan.  My Uncles and Aunts, natives of Chicago, typically increased my anxiety with driving antics that we here in Wisconsin refer to as "Illinois drivers."  I now know that is the way one has to drive in such traffic, but to a little boy from Wisconsin it was rather frightening sitting in the back seat as we weaved in and out of traffic.  But, what you may ask, does Chicago have to do with the title of this post--"Bigger in Texas."  While the hint is in this paragraph, and it shows well the love affair that America has with concrete and the automobile. You see Texas has the Katy Freeway, which US Representative John Culbertson is proud. In the June 9, 2014 Congressional Record you will find the following:

I'm very disappointed and disheartened that my friend, Mr. Poe, would...call the Katy Freeway a concrete monstrosity.  It's my pride and joy.  I got the Katy Freeway built without an earmark.  Got it built from five year three months.  Went from eight lanes to 23 lanes.  The economics has boomed because of the Katy Freeway.  it's moving cars in less time, more savings to taxpayers than any other transportation project in the history of Houston.

One section of the Katy Freeway

In 2010 Houston added additional single occupant vehicle lanes to the freeway, apparently taking it to 23.  Although I have seen some reports that in areas the freeway is 26 and even 28 lanes.  the project ending in 2010, cost $2.8 billion, which was $1.63 million more than the original $1.17 billion budget.  One can count on government projects being over budget, but one would think the defense department was in charge of this project with an overrun more than the original cost.  But it is not just the cost or the lanes that is Bigger in Texas, it is also the misrepresentations.  The good politician apparently got his facts wrong.  A study of Houston Transtar data by a group known as Houston Tomorrow, has reported, that the time to travel between the two same points has increased 33% in 2014 as compared to 2011, just after the opening of the new road. You read that right, in just three years the travel time has increased 33%.  Perhaps what is really bigger in Texas are traffic jams.  Traffic experts have the famous mantra that we can build our way out of congestion.  As the Katy Freeway has shown that is simply not the case.  $2.8 billion dollars later, the new and improved 23 lane highway, only three years after its last improvement, has traffic moving at a rate 33% slower.  Perhaps the best thing the congressman said is that he did not need to get any special earmarks for the roadway.  In layman's terms "earmark" is equivalent to what we know as "pork."

Everybody's favorite idea of travel on an urban freeway

Planners know something about roads that transportation engineers wish to ignore, or fail to recognize and that is a concept we call induced traffic.  Any new road construction will draw in more traffic.  People adjust trips, alter their movement, and more development occurs--much of which is, particularly in Houston, unmitigated sprawl.  The disparate land use pattern leads to more auto trips.  Transportation Engineers bring part of this on themselves by their design.  To limit costs, they often decided to limit cross traffic, which would mean more bridge structures.  Fifty years later, WisDOT has realized that their having limited cross access on Madison's locally infamous South Beltline has led to more trips on that roadway as people have to use that road to get to another exit. Studies have shown that most who use the Beltline use it for a local trip, getting on and off in less than five interchanges.  Having had the original street connections, some of this traffic would have had an alternate route available.  With the design they need to get on the Beltline for a local trip.  The Katy Freeway experience may be teaching the engineers down in Houston about the induced traffic concept.  It will only be a matter of time before the freeway is 30 or more lanes.

Dan Ryan Expressway, Chicago, IL

The Dan Ryan was the first of what are called super-sized freeways built in the United States.  it dates the early 1960's.  My Uncle Leo used the Dan Ryan and was proud of the ability of the "Windy City" to construct such a large concrete monolith.  Such freeways are the pride of transportation engineers.  I recall him later pointing out with pride the yellow glow of the then energy efficient "high pressure sodium lights."  In the small city where I work, the City Attorney coined the nickname for our transportation engineer adding the word "Concrete" after her first name.  Houston has now done Chicago one better, by its Katy Freeway.  Showing the pride or deniability of their work, one traffic engineer wrote that the Katy Freeway, "Houston will undoubtedly be among the world's freeway elite."  Of course, this is part a cultural aspect of the United States that progress is not measured by how we care for one another, but in how much concrete we can lay, and how many lanes we can build. In one of our patriotic songs, by Woody Guthrie, we sing the almost romantic words in one stanza--"As I went walking that ribbon of highway...."  

South Beltline Highway, Madison, WI

We all use our roads, some more than others, and our roads have come to help dictate our land use policies.  Post World War II has led to a seventy year experiment in land use that we still have not fully been able to comprehend, much less to think about its long-term unintended consequences.  We need to plan better.  There are better models, but we as a nation are often too set in our ways and, as I say at work--people gravitate to that to which they are most familiar.  This thinking leaves us with the same problems.  As expending billions of dollars fails to decrease highway congestion, as travel time increases, even on new and improved state of the art bands of concrete ribbon, perhaps we will see the futility of our land use policies. Highways are here to stay, and we all use them, we just need to be smarter about how we expend our money and how we move, particularly from home to work and back.  Yes things are bigger in Texas, including, but not limited to, highways, congestion, cost overruns.  Of the ten top metropolitan areas in the US, Houston spends the most per-capita on its highway system.  Chicago, however, is not far behind.  However, if there is one take away from this post, perhaps it is that we as a nation need to think about in what we place our pride.

Pollen

The world is a complicated system, but yet there are certain natural laws that hold true, two of which are: people and animals need oxygen to live and they exhale carbon dioxide; plants need carbon dioxide and release oxygen. This seemingly great symbiotic relationship, that we all learned pre-high school, in which both fauna and flora benefit, has a kink if you suffer from allergies, and more in particular you have asthma. If you have varied environmental allergies, the cards in the deck may seemed stacked against you as you wheeze your way through the now lengthening pollen season. 

A Close-up Look at Pollen

Scientists have noted that carbon dioxide levels have been increasing. Dr. Joseph Leigra, has been collecting pollen and mold spore from a collection machine on the roof of a suburban Chicago hospital, from where he is now retired, for over 24 years. He, being one of many, has noticed the increase in pollen. Increases in levels of carbon dioxide are mainly (some estimates place it at 87%) attributed to our use of fossil fuels. (Prior to heavy use of fossil fuels carbon dioxide natural emissions are said to have been balanced by natural absorption.) With more carbon dioxide you get more plant growth, with more plant growth you get more pollen, more pollen exacerbates allergies, and in particular those that may suffer from both allergies and asthma. But, because allergy symptoms are similar to those of the common cold, the number of persons with an allergy is likely under-reported. It is reported that 1 in 5 Americans have a ragweed allergy and 1 in 12 have asthma. Federal data indicates a 17% increase in asthma between 2001 and 2012. An allergist at the hospital were Dr. Leigra collects his pollen samples noted that children are being affected with allergies at a younger age, and adult symptoms are becoming more severe. I see this in my spouse, who is allergic to grass and trees, and since pretty much every biome on earth has grass, she may as well be allergic to the environment. The past couple weeks have not been kind to her and if increases in carbon dioxide continue, matters may only get worse.

Study Relating Pollen to Carbon Dioxide Levels; 2060 is an estimate

People with asthma can have trouble breathing—they need oxygen too—and while the causes of asthma have many factors, doctors say the condition is exacerbated by pollen. One study found that high carbon dioxide levels are more likely to trigger an allergic reaction. Proteins on the surface of pollen can vary and this variation can lead to different allergic reactions. Allergist and immunologist Leonard Bielory at Rutgers University says that allergy risk is a convergence of many factors—a person's sensitivity to allergens, seasonal temperature variations, urban development, and varied reaction of plants to different chemicals, among other things. It is known, however, that the number of persons sensitized to pollen has doubled in the last 20 years. Part of this may be related to the hygiene hypothesis—where we are too clean and thus do not develop proper antibodies. Temperature variation, not unlike what we have seen this spring, one day with temperatures in the 30’s another in the 70’s, mixes up the immune system and leads to more suffering. Likewise, more male trees, after all pollen is the sperm, are being planted to avoid the trouble with having to clean up seed pods. Less mess, more pollen. It was on drive full of maple seed "helicopters" that my oldest son years ago spun out on his bike and broke his arm. Wet fall and winter weather also is thought to lead to higher spring pollen counts—after all, plants like water too.

Map of Tree Pollen levels in the Continental United States
on June 4, 2015

While we may think that more plant growth is good, most say the few positive effects are outweighed by the negative effects. The world is complicated and temperature changes, erosion and soil conditions and other effects may limit more than limit the beneficial effects of greater plant growth. With increasing carbon dioxide levels, increasing in pollen days per year (pollen days in Minneapolis has increased 16 days in 14 years), my wife and other allergy sufferers may be seeing a new normal. Of course, because the natural world is complicated more study needs to be accomplished, but it would appear that increasing carbon dioxide is becoming a matter of public health.

Images are from Google Images