Today I went to Lewiston in the rain and came across these two fields vomiting, water, and mud into the road side ditch. We have had an unusual rain today, starting before midnight and lasting all day, and into the evening. Events like this show that fields with a history of direct seeding are more capable of taking advantage of these rain events, than cultivated fields. Cultivation, destroys the surface entrances to channels left by old root systems. Cultivation breaks apart soil aggregates and leaves behind smaller particles. The energy released by the impact of the rain droplet on exposed soil breaks down particles left by cultivation into even smaller particles. These then are carried into the macro pore spaces and effectively seals off the surface, greatly slowing water infiltration, causing water to run off the surface, carrying soil with attached chemistry and nutrients into the ditch, down the creek into the rivers, and on out to sea. Road side ditches, and harbors both have to be dredged at great expense to remove this material that should have stayed in the field. Today, with the tools and knowledge we have available to us, these sights should not be occurring. They are ugly to look at, and show a lack of stewardship. Scenes like this live forever in pictures that can be used to justify legislating stronger environmental laws, where a little common sense would do better.
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