Fighting Comeback/Prayer to Bear?

It has been a busy summer so far, and one devoid of fishing at that. Between planning a summer class (which deserves some discussion here) and tending some other responsibilities at school (who can say no to more work for more pay these days?), blogging time is limited.

I did run across a few things today I thought were worth publicizing. The Free Press ran a feature today on the ecological restoration of Fighting Island in the Detroit river. For decades it had been a midriver desert, a dump site for soda ash from a now-defunct factory. But in 1990, BASF, which owns the island, began reforesting it...and the rest of the biota followed their lead:

Driving on its few roads is like going on safari, with pheasants scurrying into dense brush and black-crowned night herons flapping their graceful wings and landing on trees. A colony of thousands of ring-necked gulls protects its delicate, tiny eggs on one corner of the island. Marshes have been created out of what used to be rum runners' canals. Trees, tall grasses, reeds and native berry bushes now cover most of the island, planted on a mix of alkali and soil created from bird droppings and composted leaves. Snakes lurk beneath the bushes, a coyote family roams and two bald eagles are nesting at the island's edge.

BASF's initial motivation was purely pragmatic---it wanted to stop the wind from blowing clouds of ash off the piles. Often in environmental matters, outcomes don't stay within the bounds of intentions, and in many instances that's for the worse. It's nice to see an example to the contrary, and to see that the company didn't knock off after accomplishing its initial goal. Continuing the restoration effort over all these years is a fine act of corporate citizenship on the part of BASF.

And now for a drastic shift of subject...just in case my intermittent spiritual ponderings here haven't convinced you to go Episcopalian, maybe Arctolatry is more your speed. "Come, Lord Ursus" actually has kind of a nice ring to it.