The week of June 14, 2010 was a week of good news, bad news. We started pretty doom and gloom when the river levels were rising
and rising with the crest not coming anytime soon. We resigned ourselves to the fact that the canoe races we had scheduled for
the weekend would not take place, BUT we still had hope that our festival would go ahead as planned. That is until we stumbled
upon the site you can see in the picture above. That is the campground space we had rented at Katfish Katy's for the festival.
If you look closely in the back of the photo, you can see the stage "floating" between the trees.
At this point we were about
ready to cancel the whole thing! But to give our racers and friends a glimmer of hope, we decided to postpone all of Canoe for
Clean Water to October. Then we began pondering the weekend. Why not use the flood as an opportunity to educate the public
about our beloved (albeit misbehaving) Missouri River?
Thus, Floody Muddy 101 was born! We made some quick phone calls
to our friends at US Fish and Wildlife and Missouri River Relief to see if they were still on for a modified event. Then we
alerted the press to our change of plans. It was a rapid turn-around, but we wanted to have something to show for all our hard
work!
On the morning of Saturday, June 19, bikers and river watchers were greeted at the Katfish Katy's boat ramp with homemade
cookies, and a chance to learn from the experts! AmeriCorps member Rebecca spoke on behalf of Missouri River Communities Network
on the topic of urban flooding, and how it eventually contributes to massive river flooding. Andy Plauck with US Fish and Wildlife
spoke about native fish on the Missouri River, especially the endangered pallid sturgeon and the gar (which he brough along to the
delight of all). Tim Haller, also with US Fish and Wildlife spoke about channelization of the Missouri River and how that has
impacted the floodplain. He also brought along a trailer that contains a scale model of a section of the Missouri River and
shows how sediment moves through the channel. We wrapped it up with Steve Schnarr of Missouri River Relief and a discussion
of "trashology." He talked about making a tally of the trash that can float by a single point on the river in only 10 minutes
during a flood! It made us all think a little more about finding a trash can...
Though the day wasn't quite what we had
planned for that weekend, things worked out in the end! We helped people see a slightly different perspective on the river that
roared behind us, and hopefully they'll all come out to see us again in the fall!
