Re: Aquatic Plants Digest V5 #328

["Edward Venn" <e_venn at hotmail_com>]

James,

You and me both! Tom is off playing Bwana Clyde Batty or Heiko Blueher with 
his dipnets and rubber boots and I'm stuck in BORING, HOT and HUMID Tokyo 
working away on articles about cars for Toyota. I'd trade any day-even if it 
means being attacked by mosquitoes and hungry alligators!

I7m glad they are cleaning up the Don River, that river has long been in 
need of reclamation. I hope they'll someday make an effort to reintroduce 
the Atlantic Salmon to the river. According to my Dad they used to fish for 
salmon every fall when he was a kid. I think the last recorded run was in 
the 1940's.

Ed, The guy formerly from Neville Park, The Beaches, Toronto
BTW do you know that song by Martha & the Muffins?
>
>Tom, the recent posts regarding your exploration of local rivers (local to
>you, that is) have me GREEN with envy. I especially liked the comment you
>made in the last one about the park system encouraging the public to think
>more kindly about aquatic plants - far too often aquatic plants get treated
>as noxious weeds.
>
>I've been encouraged by the efforts of the Metro Parks department here -
>they are actually trying to "bring back the Don", a local river that was at
>one time many years ago a pristine watercourse through the heart of the
>city. It had become a moving cesspool with absolutely no life above
>bacteria. Concerted efforts by both local governments and concerned 
>citizens
>is slowly turning things around. From my apartment, I can see a new series
>of ponds (they had been there years ago but got filled in by garbage over
>the years) that are being planted with native water plants and have become
>home to waterfowl, fish and mammals (I saw a muskrat in one last week). But
>there is a long way to go before the whole river system is "healthy" again 
>-
>I certainly wouldn't want to float down the Don on an inner-tube. I visited
>a local wild flower preserve the other day that is in the Don watershead 
>and
>enjoyed a few minutes admiring the aroma of some beautiful native
>waterlilies. I think that next year I'll try and get involved with the
>citizen's groups that are helping out by removing non-natives and
>encouraging natives to repopulate the area.
>
>But there is nothing here even remotely as nice as the localities you have
>access to, at least as far as the variety of aquatic plants is concerned.
>
>James Purchase
>Toronto
>


Edward Venn,
SMG Holdings Co., Ltd.,
Deux Chateaux Blanc 2-303,
1356 Kobuchi, Kasukabe,
Saitama, Japan


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