Conservation in Action: Black Hawk Creek Watershed

Thanks to Vivian Swift for the inspiration for this painting

The rock cries out today, 

You may stand on me,

But do not hide your face.

Across the wall of the world,

A river sings a beautiful song,

Come Rest here by my side.

Maya Angelou, On The Pulse of a Morning

There are those amongst us who face the tension between creating and destroying without looking away.

Clark Porter, farmer, environmentalist, philosopher is a man living out a vision for a healthier environment.

Clark recently formed the Black Hawk Creek Water and Soil Coalition group.  The group is concerned about water quality in the 217,000 acre watershed in Black Hawk, Grundy and Tama Counties.

Black Hawk Creek Watershed

"Black Hawk Creek is a little gem. The amount of natural area we have in this vast sea of mono culture is minimal," Porter says.
Greenbelt along Black Hawk Creek

Porter, a farmer with land along the creek, says, "I'm as much a part of the problem as I am the solution. I've got tiles lines running into Black Hawk Creek. It will take me six to ten years to get my farms where I want."

Porter's goal, "What I'd like to see happen is the 270 tons of nitrates currently going into the creek annually reduced to whatever it would have been when it was prairie."

Black Hawk Creek

"Have you reckon’d a thousand acres much? have you reckon’d the earth much?' Walt Whitman, by Walt Whitman

"I'd like to see the water run clear," Porter says. "I'll be dead before my goal is achieved," he laughs ruefully.

Porter is working with local officials in the Department of Natural Resources, water and soil conservation districts, his neighboring farmers, even corporate giants like Pioneer.

I'm sailing away,Set an open course for the virgin sea Styx

For Porter living in the tension between the now of an officially degraded water way and a future of a cleaner water way is a tricky balance of economics.  There's much he'd like to do on his own farms.  But the cost of the improvements when corn and bean prices are falling below break-even levels makes for hard choices.

Porter wants to pass on both a farm that is profitable and more environmentally friendly to the next generation.

"The outcome is important, but the direction you're going is more important.  The process is important. Our economy does such damage to so many things: air pollution, water pollution. We're not going to make money on (conservation). But it's what we ought to do."

Porter adds," You can't go bankrupt doing it.  There's that balance.

Marsh on Black Hawk Creek watershed

There's an economic balance and a moral balance between what we have to do and what we ought to do."

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Greenbelt Lake

Porter sees his work as a creative collaboration between his neighbors, government and God. He recognizes that man's role in living is fraught. "There's no point at which you are not doing damage. You hope that over all you've created more harmony than damage."

Over coffee and between rain showers we talk about the specifics of his farming operation.  He sighs, looking out the window as the sun breaks through. "Every solution builds new problems," he says of various farming methods he is trying.

And still he dreams of more cover crops, riparian barriers, wood chip bio-reactors.  No one solution will improve the water in Black Hawk Creek.

Every small effort to improve water quality makes the water quality downstream from the Cedar River, to the Mississippi to the dead zone the size of Connecticut in the Gulf, a little better.

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Felecia: Wendell Berry writes often that we are “given” our lives; meaning “we ourselves did not make these things, although by birth we are made responsible for them; second, that the world and our lives do not come to us by chance.”

What are you given?

Clark: I was give a great deal. I was born into a family that had land. My parents taught me that it's not "mine". We seem to believe that if you're given much, you're going to acquire more. But I don't think that's the point. What am I going to give away? What am I going to take care of?"

Clark: I was give a great deal. I was born into a family that had land. My parents taught me that it's not "mine". We seem to believe that if you're given much, you're going to acquire more. But I don't think that's the point. What am I going to give away? What am I going to take care of?"

Felecia: How do you care for what you are given?

Clark: Always think about the future generations. What are we doing for them? The biggest waste is to squander what we're given. That's true of money, land, water. These are resources that could be used for the good.

Felecia: What sustains you and gives you hope?

Clark: Sometimes it's important to think small. Too often we think too big. 

We think of God acting through really big forces. We can create hope by really simple things. Smile when you meet people. Don't shame them, encourage. Life is short. That makes everything you do more meaningful.

Contact Clark Porter at porterfamilyfarm@gmail.com to

 discuss the Black Hawk Creek Watershed Coalition.