Reclamation

In the winter of 2018 and 2019 the gas company excavated about a hundred foot clearing and installed a 12 inch natural gas line six to eight feet deep! We were devastated to see all of the beautiful trees being turned into wood chips. When they were finished they installed thousands of feet of black plastic silt fence all around the work site to prevent run off into the waterways.

The fiber mats that were put down on both sides of the stream must have been filled with wild flower seeds. When summer came there appeared a large number of yellow Daisies and Black Eyed Susans all across the bottom. The grass they sowed came up and the area began to recover.

This past week they came in with a small track hoe and pulled up all the steel fence posts and ripped up the black silt fence. They loaded it all on a small four wheeler truck hauled it all away. The damage they did was minimal. Now the area can completely heal and we can again see the beautiful flowers bloom in the bottom along the creek.

Gas line scars healing

Man’s destruction disappears

Flowers bloom again

Photos: Dwight L. Roth