SUPwichuBlog

Today I got a letter from the University of ALASKA Fairbanks!! It was just saying how I'm guaranteed housing blah blah thanks for your money, but I'm so excited! Seriously geekd, I like feeling feelings. I can't wait to finally go there, it's coming up so fast-January!

I think about AK on a daily basis, I don't know why I'm so into it, some people think it would suck cuz of the temperature situation/snow etc. I'm excited to actually be in a place with more wildlife than humans, like actual wilderness. I hope I don't get trampled by a moose.

 

(Denali National Park, near Fairbanks)

Not too stoked about taking o-chem up there, I'm hoping it won't take up too much of my time. I really wanna do as much as possible, maybe go snowboarding and ride on a dogsled (??idk if they really do that) and hit some trails once the snow starts to melt in the spring.

Wooo well I'm just procrastinating at this point. Animal behavior test this week, gotta go read up on birdsong, infanticide and sexual relations of prairie voles. Piece out

Water, water everywhere.

I just went to weather.com to check the weekend forecast, didn't even get past the homepage...deadly floods in Texas?! I guess it was largely due to hurricane remnants on the gulf coast, still I was alarmed to read about yet another flood this year. The Pakistan flood obviously dwarfs our issues across the pond, but the Ames flood actually made me conscious about this ongoing issue all over the world.

Pakistan has suffered many horrific floods in the past 50+ years, thousands of lives lost and billions in property and crop damage...and counting. Iowa has very few deaths from flooding as far as I know, but crop damage is clearly a huge issue with our flood concerns, our entire economic foundation. Crop damage costs for 2010 haven't been calculated yet, but the 2008 flood cost Iowan farmers about 3 billion. It pains me to see such hard working people and families invest so much time and money, literally their lives, into crop production and reap such adverse effects, how sad. I really don't know jack about farming, but I do know about Iowa's natural landscape before every inch was cultivated by humans.

Iowa used to be a prairie, duh. Prairies have wetlands. K
The weather hasn't changed significantly in the past few thousand years; the landscape has completely changed though.
Currently, less than 1% of natural prairie land remains in Iowa, and less than 10% of the natural wetlands remain.
It doesn't take a genius to figure this out...so where does the water go? It sits on top of a saturated layer of soil until humans take care of it, or til it drains, evaporates, whatever.

http://www.iowaswaterandlandlegacy.org/home.aspx

To me the best solution is obvious, natural grasslands and wetlands should be restored throughout Iowa, we can start small and make it an ongoing project. Of course we still need our farms and cities, but prairie restoration projects even on a small scale will benefit everyone in the state. Our farms, businesses and properties don't need to take these periodic economic hits; we just need to quit destroying Iowa's naturally fertile soils and the immense biotic productivity of natural wetlands and grasslands.

I'm not very familiar with terrain in other parts of the world, but I'm sure this idea of simulating the natural landscape in any region could have positive effects (relating to flooding), at this point it's at least worth a shot.

Hello again world.

Wellll it's a Monday night and I'm avoiding studying as always. Sometimes i think I need ADD meds...caffeine doesn't always do the trick.
I spent this past weekend with my bff/bf/homeboy Chris. It was so much fun hanging out with him and our Dubuque friends. It's so weird going home and seeing people I haven't seen in three or four years! It's amazing how different people look in that short amount of time...or maybe my memory is just shot. Likewise, I think it's funny how some people haven't changed a bit, generally the people that should strongly consider changing (HA). Since becoming a student at ISU, I've had kind of a love/hate relationship with my little ol' hometown. I love how beautiful Dubuque is and everything it has to offer, but I could really do without some of the humans there. I wish everyone would get out of that place for a once in a while and see the bigger picture...