Without Nature
Climate change is easy to deny until it’s in your face
Early September is a good time of year to catch a blue-winged olive mayfly hatch on mountain streams in northern Vermont, so I set my work aside and drive to a trailhead near Stowe. There I leave my car and hike the dirt road beyond the gate for a mile before bushwhacking down to the mouth of Cotton Brook, fly rod in hand. I have done well fishing this stream in years past, catching wild trout along with rainbows during long, dreamy afternoons. With mild temps and a partly cloudy sky, I’m excited about the day’s prospects.
Before even reaching the brook, I sense that something isn’t right. I leap over a rivulet winding through the woods that shouldn’t be here. A few moments later, I step onto a carpet of silt and loose rock where Cotton Brook should be. I scramble over an immense pile of branches and uprooted trees only to find a shallow, cloudy stream snaking through mud. Without thinking, I cast my fly onto the water several times before reeling in my line. I know better. I know there’s a mudslide somewhere ahead and that no fish will rise until I get above it. I’ve been in this situation before.
While walking upstream I am surprised by the extent of the damage to the brook and the sheer volume of debris. The slide must be a big one. It can’t be too much farther ahead. But I keep walking, dodging piles of dead wood. Most of the stream’s rocky structure has disappeared beneath tons of displaced soil. I walk for fifteen minutes, twenty, and more going nearly a mile upstream. Then I see it: a huge gash in the side of the mountain, ten acres at least. The brook cuts through a moonscape full of rocks both large and small. Its banks are completely denuded several hundred feet up both sides. In thirty-five years of stream walking, I’ve never seen anything like this. Stunned by it, all I can do is stare.
Oh sure, I’ve seen plenty of mudslides in the mountains. It’s a natural phenomenon. But I’ve noticed during the past decade or so that they are increasing in frequency and intensity. Long ago I took a course in geomorphology so I understand the mechanics of mudslides. Big rainstorms drop heavy loads. Blocks of soil detach from the bedrock once they have been saturated with enough water. Why so many big weather events in recent years? The…
