Shade Tree Wisdom 1/15/10

Quite pleasant this morning, no wind, higher temperature, rain had stopped for a bit, and I was late enough to find the bus loading in front of the house as I was starting out. I was tempted to give the old “Head ‘em up, Move ‘em out” cry that started the daily cattle drives that moved thousands of Texas longhorns to the railhead in Kansas and Nebraska.

But give me credit, I did not. No one of that age facing an hour on a bus, and, as it seems to him, grueling five hours in the classroom, then another bus ride to end the day is ready for any Texas range levity.

Rescue teams are on the scene, the Haitian airport has lights, and planes can land at night as well. Work is getting underway. Worldwide the response to the disaster in Haiti has been quick. But one hears of looting warehouses, goods stolen from needy people, often rescue efforts being hampered, and it saddens us. Here is felt need, great need, and the only result for some is “How can I profit from this?” Our President pledges many dollars, we can but pray it will reach the place where it is needed the most.

But let me shift to some good news. Ready?

The freeze was a blessing to inland waters, for it killed much of the invasive hydrilla, giant salvania, and water hyacinth. Such plants come from S. America and here they have no enemies to keep them in check. Howard Elder, of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department's Inland Fisheries Division said this recent frigid spell helps us a lot. “A good hard freeze can kill a lot more invasive plants than our crews ever could with herbicide." While the freeze kills much, it doesn’t kill them all, but it gives the crews “a little breathing room, giving them a chance to hit the plants left, hard.”

The freeze also killed invasive fish such as tilapia and armored catfish, species which compete with native fish, and, in the case of armored catfish, burrow into banks and accelerate erosion.

I can think of no better way to end this than to look to Psalm 8. Psalms 8:1-9 (KJV)
1 O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy glory above the heavens.
2 Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger.
3 When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained;
4 What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?
5 For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour.
6 Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet:
7 All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field;
8 The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas.
9 O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!

GPD 1/15/10