CLEAR June 2020

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Cheat River History - Then and Now - Wilderness Voyageurs
by Duane Nichols 04 Jul '20

04 Jul '20

Cheat River History – Then And Now — Wilderness Voyageurs The magnificent Cheat River flows from five major tributaries (Black Fork, Dry Fork, Glady Fork, Laurel Fork, and Shavers Fork) which originate in the rugged Monongahela National Forest and join to form the main river stem near Parsons, West Virginia. From Parsons, the scenic Cheat flows nearly 162 miles past the historic river towns of St. George, Rowlesburg and Albright before reaching Cheat Lake and discharging into the Monongahela River at Point Marion in Pennsylvania. The entire watershed spans an impressive 1422 square miles, and the river is one of the longest un-dammed waterways in the eastern United States. https://wilderness-voyageurs.com/cheat-river-history-then-now/

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The Overstory - Richard Powers
by Duane Nichols 27 Jun '20

27 Jun '20

http://www.richardpowers.net/the-overstory/ The Overstory April 15, 2019 Winner of the 2019 Pulitzer Prize in Fiction Shortlisted for the 2018 Man Booker Prize New York Times Bestseller A New York Times Notable Book and a Washington Post, Time, Oprah Magazine, Newsweek, Chicago Tribune, Kirkus Reviews, and Amazon Best Book of the Year Now Available in Paperback The Overstory, winner of the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction, is a sweeping, impassioned work of activism and resistance that is also a stunning evocation of—and paean to—the natural world. From the roots to the crown and back to the seeds, Richard Powers’s twelfth novel unfolds in concentric rings of interlocking fables that range from antebellum New York to the late twentieth-century Timber Wars of the Pacific Northwest and beyond. There is a world alongside ours—vast, slow, interconnected, resourceful, magnificently inventive, and almost invisible to us. This is the story of a handful of people who learn how to see that world and who are drawn up into its unfolding catastrophe. Praise for The Overstory by Richard Powers “Autumn makes me think of leaves, which makes me think of trees, which makes me think of The Overstory, the best novel ever written about trees, and really, just one of the best novels, period.” —Ann Patchett “Monumental…The Overstory accomplishes what few living writers from either camp, art or science, could attempt. Using the tools of the story, he pulls readers heart-first into a perspective so much longer-lived and more subtly developed than the human purview that we gain glimpses of a vast, primordial sensibility, while watching our own kind get whittled down to size…A gigantic fable of genuine truths.” —Barbara Kingsolver, New York Times Book Review (cover review) “Remarkable…This ambitious novel soars up through the canopy of American literature and remakes the landscape of environmental fiction.” —Ron Charles, Washington Post “A big, ambitious epic…Powers juggles the personal dramas of his far-flung cast with vigor and clarity. The human elements of the book—the arcs his characters follow over the decades from crusading passion to muddled regret and a sense of failure—are thoroughly compelling. So are the extra-human elements, thanks to the extraordinary imaginative flights of Powers’s prose, which persuades you on the very first page that you’re hearing the voices of trees as they chide our species.” —Michael Upchurch, Boston Globe “A rousing, full-throated hymn to Nature’s grandeur.” —Dan Cryer, San Francisco Chronicle “An extraordinary novel…An astonishing performance…There is something exhilarating, too, in reading a novel whose context is wider than human life. The Overstory leaves you with a slightly adjusted frame of reference…What was happening to his characters passed into my conscience, like alcohol into the bloodstream, and left a feeling behind of grief or guilt, even after I put it down.” —Benjamin Markovits, The Guardian “[Powers is] brilliant on the strange idea of ‘plant personhood…’ opening our eyes to the wondrous things just above our line of sight. Memorable chapters unfold [with] many unforgettable images in a novel devoted to ‘reviving that dead metaphor at the heart of the word bewilderment.’” —Sam Sacks, Wall Street Journal “Richard Powers’ 12th novel is a rare specimen: a Great American Eco-Novel.” —Financial Times “This book is beyond special. Richard Powers manages to turn trees into vivid and engaging characters, something that indigenous people have done for eons but that modern literature has rarely if ever even attempted. It’s not just a completely absorbing, even overwhelming book; it’s a kind of breakthrough in the ways we think about and understand the world around us, at a moment when that is desperately needed.” —Bill McKibben “The Overstory is a visionary, accessible legend for the planet that owns us, its exaltation and its peril, a remarkable achievement by a great writer.” —Thomas McGuane “The Overstory is a visionary, accessible legend for the planet that owns us, its exaltation and its peril, a remarkable achievement by a great writer.” —Tim Martin, Telegraph (UK) “A colleague of mine once claimed that a critic’s opinions are worth less than his or her ability to convey what a book is like. If that’s true, never mind that I believe Richard Powers’ 12th novel to be a masterwork sculpted from sheer awe. Instead, know that reading The Overstory will convince you that we walk among gods every time we enter a forest.” —Adam Morgan, Minneapolis Star Tribune “The time is ripe for a big novel that tells us as much about trees as Moby-Dick does about whales…The Overstory is that novel and it is very nearly a masterpiece…On almost every page of The Overstory you will find sentences that combine precision and vision.” —The Times (London) “An immense and intense homage to the arboreal world (its biological sophistication, its rich panoply of environmental benefits), the book is alive with riveting data, cogent reasoning and urgent argument. Pages that take you into menaced remnants of primeval forest or contemplate singularly splendid or fascinating trees teem with knowledge and gleam with aesthetic appeal.” —The Sunday Times (UK) “Richard Powers’s novel will complicate the way you think about the environment, activism, our gossamer connection with each other and nature…[I] cannot recommend The Overstory enough.” —Bradford Morrow “A masterpiece of operatic proportions…A magnificent achievement.” —Kirkus (starred review) “A magnificent saga…Powers’s sylvan tour de force is alive with gorgeous descriptions; continually surprising, often heartbreaking characters; complex suspense; unflinching scrutiny of pain; celebration of creativity and connection; and informed and expressive awe over the planet’s life force and its countless and miraculous manifestations…profound and symphonic.” —Booklist (starred review) “A deep meditation on the irreparable psychic damage that manifests in our unmitigated separation from nature.” —Library Journal (starred review) “Vast, magnificent, and disturbing…An array of human temperaments and predicaments as manifold as Charles Dickens’ or Leo Tolstoy’s…I have never read anything so pessimistic and yet so hopeful.” —BookPage Sent from my iPad

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Making sense of whitewater rapid classifications - West Virginia Explorer
by Duane Nichols 20 Jun '20

20 Jun '20

https://wvexplorer.com/2020/06/19/scale-difficulty-rapids-west-virginia-kay… Making sense of whitewater rapid classifications From Mark Armstrong, West Virginia Explorer, June 19, 2020 Kayaker navigate a rapid on Deckers Creek near Morgantown, West Virginia (Photo courtesy Dan Friend) With its many rivers coursing through many different kinds of terrain, West Virginia is a paradise for paddlers and rafters, especially where whitewater paddling is concerned. Advertisement So familiarizing yourself with the International Scale of River Difficulty and understanding how whitewater rapids are classified could prove advisable if you're planning a visit to the mountainous regions of the state. No matter your level of experience, you should never grab a raft, kayak, or paddleboard and head off to a river without getting an idea of what awaits you. The scale, which rates how difficult it is to navigate a river or rapid, was developed by the American Whitewater Association and is used internationally. By checking how West Virginia’s rivers and their rapids are classified, you can make the most of what is available by planning paddling or rafting trips that are appropriate for your skill level. Class I Rapids Although the water tends to move fast at Class I rapids, you seldom will find more than small waves and riffles. There are few obstructions, and those that are there are relatively easy to miss. Even so, you should not attempt to paddle Class I rapids if you haven’t had any training. This class is popular with paddlers and rafters who want a bit of lazy time on a river so they can enjoy the view. The South Fork of the Shenandoah River between Inskeep Landing and Foster’s Landing is where you can find some of the state’s best rapids in this class. Class II Rapids Suitable for novice paddlers and rafters, Class II rapids are straightforward. There are medium-sized waves and rocks that you will need to navigate, but on the whole, the channels are wide and clear. Exercise caution if you plan to do some swimming along the way. You can find several Class II rapids on the Shenandoah River, the best of which are the Mad Dog rapids, which are just after the confluence with the Potomac River. Class III Rapids Fast currents, powerful eddies, ledges, narrow passages, and moderate but irregular waves all are features of Class III rapids. They are suitable for paddlers and rafters with intermediate skills or higher, as successful navigation depends on solid boat control as well as executing challenging maneuvers in tricky spots. Scouting is a good idea. Some of West Virginia’s best Class III rapids are at Cheat Narrows on the Cheat River, and the Lower Staircase on the Lower Gauley River. Class IV Rapids As intensely powerful as they can be, Class IV rapids tend to be somewhat predictable. Even so, your boat handling needs to be precise because some of the dangerous hazards are unavoidable. You could face narrow passages as well as large waves and holes, so advanced skills are a must for rapids of this class. Be warned that, if you go swimming in a Class IV rapid, self-rescue is considerably more challenging than if it happens at a class I, II, or III spot. You can find great Class IV rapids on the Cranberry River, the upper Big Sandy Creek, and Cheat Canyon. The Lower New River offers Class IV rapids and calm pools from July through March. That changes dramatically between April and June when rain and snowmelt increase the volume of the river. Class V Rapids Suitable for experts only, Class V rapids are risky. They tend to be long, with many obstructions, and they can be turbulent to the point of violence. Holes, large waves, and steep chutes are common features of rapids in this class. What’s more, the class has multiple levels of magnitude, which usually are numbered as 5.0, 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, etc. Rescues are difficult, so you need to be physically fit, and you need to know what you are doing. Scouting is recommended where possible. The upper and lower sections of the Blackwater River, as well as the Lower New River between April and June, offer challenging rapids in this class. The upper Gauley’s Big Five, namely the Iron Ring, Insignificant Rapid, Lost Paddle, Pillow Rock, and Sweet’s Falls, are some of the most famous Class V rapids in the state. If you’re looking for Class V+, head to Mann Creek. Class VI Rapids Dangerous, unpredictable, and in many cases, not yet attempted, Class VI rapids are best avoided unless you are a member of a team of experts. Some rapids in this class were attempted when river conditions allowed them to, and only after the teams inspected them thoroughly. In a few cases, Class VI spots were reclassified as Class V+. Points To Remember There are a few important points to remember about rivers, rapids, and the International Scale of River Difficulty. To summarize them in three words—things can change. Like all rivers, those in West Virginia are changeable. Various conditions can affect the water level, which ultimately determines their navigability. A few days of heavy rain can turn rapids that in ordinary circumstances would be suitable for relatively inexperienced paddlers into whitewater that would make seasoned experts think twice. Most, if not all rivers, have rapids of different classes, and those classes are somewhat flexible. For example, you can find Class II rapids that are difficult, and Class III rapids that are relatively easy. Levels of greater ease or increased difficulty are indicated by + and – symbols after the grading according to the scale. What’s more, you cannot classify an entire river based on one or two rapids. Rivers flow faster and get wider the further downstream you go. Between that and changes in terrain, one river can have several different classes of rapids. Before heading out to face rapids on any of the Mountain State’s rivers, check their classification according to the International Scale of River Difficulty, review current local conditions, and see if you can find recent first-hand accounts by paddlers or rafters who have navigated the water before. Knowing the classification of rapids could save your life and understanding how they differ and what conditions they involve is essential for anyone keen on getting out on the water. Advertisement Sent from my iPad

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Action Alert: Senate Prepares To Vote On Public Lands Legislation
by Duane Nichols 11 Jun '20

11 Jun '20

Action Alert: Senate Prepares To Vote On Public Lands Legislation From West Virginia Rivers Coalition, June 10, 2020 The US Senate will soon vote on the Great American Outdoors Act, a strong bipartisan bill which touts Senator Manchin as a lead sponsor and Senator Capito as a co-sponsor. Now is the time to contact Senators Manchin and Capito to encourage their continued leadership and support of the Act. Send a message here. The Great American Outdoors Act ensures that the Land and Water Conservation Fund would receive full program funding each year without going through a drawn-out appropriations process which often leaves it underfunded. LWCF is a highly effective program that uses royalties from offshore oil and gas development to fund recreation and conservation projects. Additionally, the Great American Outdoors Act would provide $9.5 billion over the next 5 years to address the maintenance backlog plaguing our nation’s public lands. https://wvrivers.salsalabs.org/senategaoa2?wvpId=caf2f589-2407-4ff5-bf54-96…

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In Memory of George Floyd
by Duane Nichols 03 Jun '20

03 Jun '20

Dream Catcher Circle, Forks of Cheat Forest, Stewartstown, WV Sent from my iPad, DGN

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Wastewater testing gains support as early warning for Covid-19 - STAT
by Duane Nichols 01 Jun '20

01 Jun '20

https://www.statnews.com/2020/05/28/wastewater-testing-gains-support-as-cov… Wastewater testing gains traction as a Covid-19 early warning system From an Article by Sharon Begley, STAT News, May 28, 2020 An aerial view of a wastewater treatment plant in Oakland, Calif. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images What only a month ago had been merely an intriguing laboratory finding about analyzing wastewater to detect the virus that causes Covid-19 has quickly leapt to the threshold of real-world use. With swab tests still plagued by capacity issues, inaccuracy, and slow turnaround, testing wastewater for the novel coronavirus’ genetic signature could give communities a faster way to spot a rebound in cases — as soon as this fall. “There is real hope that this can be a sensitive, early warning” if, as officials ease social distancing measures, Covid-19 begins to spread again, said Peter Grevatt, CEO of the nonprofit Water Research Foundation. “Several labs have achieved a proof-of-concept in terms of demonstrating the ability to detect the RNA [genetic material] of the virus in wastewater.” Studies in the U.S. and the Netherlands, among others, have shown you can pick up a signal about a week before the first clinical case. Grevatt and his colleagues briefed congressional staffers last week on the potential for wastewater analysis to be the canary in the Covid-19 coal mine, and on Wednesday the National Academies’ Water Science and Technology Board hosted a panel discussion on how to build a surveillance network and what additional research is needed to make it work. Water utilities from southeastern Virginia to Portland, Ore., are already conducting the analysis on their own. And by next week, Grevatt’s group will have identified the labs that will participate in a quality control test deemed crucial for rolling out a nationwide effort to analyze wastewater for coronavirus: The foundation will send wastewater samples gathered by several utilities to all participating labs and have them run the analysis, compare results, and agree on best practices. “We hope to have results of this lab-to-lab comparison by the end of the summer,” Grevatt said. Countries are not waiting for every scientific question to be answered. Finland, Germany, and the Netherlands have already launched national wastewater surveillance programs to catch any resurgence of Covid-19. “People are already starting to scale this up,” environmental engineer David Sedlak of the University of California, Berkeley, told the Academies’ panel. The stakes are enormous. As states ease social distancing, they need to know if they are reopening too quickly. If they can’t detect a surge of cases until patients show up in emergency rooms, it could be too late to prevent a repeat of this spring, when hospitals in New York City and elsewhere were overwhelmed. If, as many hope, the country makes it through the summer with a “flattened curve” — keeping cases below the number that hospitals can handle — then it will be crucial to be on high alert for any second wave in the fall. Otherwise, the body count will rise and the nation could face another economically crippling shutdown. “It’s tremendously important to get this right,” Grevatt said. “These are life-and-death questions.” And although more research is needed to figure out if, for instance, the amount of virus in stool and therefore wastewater varies with the severity of disease, “this has the potential to be implemented in the current pandemic.” “Wastewater epidemiology” has been used for decades to detect polio in countries where the disease remains endemic and, more recently, to estimate the prevalence of opioid abuse in U.S. communities. “We know that SARS-CoV-2 [the virus that causes Covid-19] is shed in stool, which means it can be collected in sewage systems,” said Megan Murray of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. In small studies so far, the detection of the new coronavirus in sewage samples “has correlated very nicely with the arrival of Covid-19 into different communities,” she added, including picking up “significant amounts of viral material” in Boston sewage weeks before cases arrived in March. In addition to detecting cases sooner, wastewater analysis can also get around the well-known limitations of the swab tests used to detect Covid-19. If the test (which looks for the virus’ genes) is given to 100 infected people, it will miss about 67 if they are four days after infection and 38 if they are on the first day of experiencing symptoms, incorrectly pronouncing them virus-free, Johns Hopkins researchers reported this month in Annals of Internal Medicine. And although Covid-19 testing in the U.S. has become more available and faster, testing capacity is still nowhere near enough to test everyone every few days, which would be necessary to, for instance, safely re-open schools and workplaces. “Wastewater offers the opportunity to provide near real-time trend data to evaluate the impact of policymaking,” such as re-opening the economy, said Mariana Matus, CEO and co-founder of Boston-based Biobot Analytics. It can provide “early warning for second waves, and the opportunity to mass-test up to 75% of the U.S. population on a regular basis at a fraction of the cost of clinical testing.” Getting even a weeklong head start on detecting cases can make a huge difference. If the U.S. had begun imposing social distancing measures one week earlier than it did in March, the death toll by early May would have been 36,000 lower, Columbia University researchers calculated this month. Two weeks earlier would have averted 54,000 deaths. Biobot is working with about 400 water facilities in 42 states to see if wastewater epidemiology for Covid-19 in the real world can live up to the hopes inspired by early lab tests. (Many of the utilities are also running their own, independent tests.) When it analyzed wastewater from a Massachusetts plant from March 18 to 25, it found high levels of several telltale SARS-CoV-2 genes. Although that indicated that some number of people had Covid-19, it wasn’t clear how many. Biobot’s analysis “can distinguish between 10 and 100 [cases],” Matus said, “but we are running experiments to get more precise estimates.” Doing that should be at the top of the research agenda, Grevatt said: “Work is moving in a direction where you may be able to count the cases in a community, but we aren’t there yet.” To get there, scientists must figure out when during the course of infection people shed virus in stool, whether the amount of viral shedding is the same in severe and mild or even asymptomatic cases, and whether the quality of an area’s water — mineral content, industrial effluent, and other components — affect the detection of viral genes. They’d also like to know where, in the water treatment facility, is the best place to sample for the coronavirus. On Tuesday, scientists in Spain reported a preliminary answer: remnants of virus, including its genes, tend to collect at the “sludge line” in the large settling tanks that separate solids and liquid. Even if wastewater analysis can’t yet quantify cases, it can detect when their prevalence changes. Scientists in France reported that the rise and fall of confirmed infections in Paris correlated with the amount of virus detected in sewage from March 5 to April 23 (France’s lockdown began on March 17). “Viral genomes could be detected before the beginning of the exponential growth of the epidemic,” the scientists found, and “a marked decrease in [viral RNA] was observed” as case numbers fell. That and other studies show that “you can track changes like those we’re seeing right now in many communities” as they ease social distancing, Grevatt said. “There are many areas of the country, especially rural ones, that may not even have an infection yet. Wastewater analysis can tell them when they do,” days before someone shows up sick. Utilities aren’t waiting for every research question to be answered. Oregon’s Clean Water Services, a utility that serves 613,000 people west of Portland, is part of Biobot’s network, sending weekly samples to the company. It is also doing its own research, trying to answer key questions such as how rain affects viral concentration, said Ken Williamson, director of regulatory affairs. Engineers at the Southern Nevada Water Authority found high levels of five SARS-CoV-2 genes in samples taken around March 9, which lines up with when the state has its first confirmed case, said civil engineer Dan Gerrity of the authority and the University of Nevada Las Vegas. They found a peak in late March and early April, with ups and downs through late May — also mimicking reported case counts. Hampton Roads Sanitation District in southeastern Virginia started sampling for SARS-CoV-2 on March 11 “to look at trends and estimate what prevalence might look like,” said Jim Pletl, director of water quality for the utility. Cost: $70,000 for an automated RNA extractor (to get the genetic material out of cells), $70,000 for a digital PCR machine (to identify the genes), and $100 per sample. For its inter-lab study, the Water Research Foundation will see if the analyses agree, hoping to come up with best practices that can guide nationwide implementation as soon as this fall. “That,” Grevatt said, “is going to be important for the scientific credibility of this approach.”

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CLEAR June 2020