Tuesday, September 14, 2010

What is Scenic about Fleming Road?

If you've driven on Fleming Road, you have probably thought "This is pretty" or words to that effect. But why do people react that way to some drives and not others?

The hills. The trees. The curves in the road. Trees close to the road. Trees overhanging the road way -- a canopy effect. It all contributes to a scenic driving experience.

A "peaceful and comforting ride" is how one friend describes her trip down Fleming. Another told me that when she is all stressed out, as soon as she turns onto Fleming, the stress melts away - it has that effect on her.

But there is a plan afoot to "improve" the road -- to make it safer -- by enlarging the shoulders to at least 4 feet, and by cutting some of the hills down. The work would also include a change in how water runoff is handled.

Currently, runoff goes wherever it can since there are not consistent swales along both sides of the road. That may sound bad, but actually, it seems to work okay. The runoff flows into the existing low spots along the roadsides and slowly infiltrates into the ground, or is absorbed by plant roots. Modern engineering "standards" say that proper road design means that one must build either large swales or curbs and absorption wells to handle the runoff.

And all that engineering comes at a price - it means widening the road way by nearly 30 feet, from the existing 22 feet of pavement, to at least 30 feet of pavement and up to another 28 feet of ditches. I'm sorry, but how is that an improvement? An improvement in what way?

Isn't it possible that the road way is okay the way it is? That it may not be perfect for everyone, but that in the grand scheme of things, it is a pretty darn good road, and any effort to bring it up to current engineering standards will not only reduce its beauty, but maybe even make it a more dangerous route for drivers?

Consider that the character of the roadway causes drivers to slow down - they slow down because the roadway is narrow, there are trees near the road, the curves and hills mean one cannot see much of the road ahead.

And that's okay.

Based on historic accident records, it appears that the current configuration of the road (with vegetation close to the pavement, hills that make it hard to see what's ahead, and lots of curves) is at least part of why accident rates are low.

Between 2005-2009 there were 38 accidents on Fleming Road. 32% (12) were collisions with deer; nearly all (87%+) of the accidents took place at one of the three intersections (Bull Valley Road, Country Club Road or Route 120). Drivers involved in the accidents were most likely to say that they didn't see the stop sign. 79% of the accidents were when the pavement was dry, and over half occurred during the day. There were no fatalities, one serious injury and six minor injuries.

The highway engineers who are studying Fleming Road right now say that there is only one spot along the road where visibility is a problem for people entering the road, and that is at Hidden Lane looking south. The solution, they said, would be to move a utility pole and trim some bushes. What that tells me is that the curves aren't causing a problem from a road design standpoint, neither is the vegetation close to the road.

So, maybe the buckthorn needs to be trimmed back here and there, but that's okay -- for many reasons. Apply a little Garlon 4 to the cut limbs, and help take care of them permanently!

Thursday, September 2, 2010

Native Americans and the Land

Did you know that native people, for perhaps thousands of years before Europeans arrived on this continent, managed the land to make it more conducive to hunting? They lit fires to keep the brush down in the woods, and to keep the landscape around their encampments open for visibility, and safe from wildfires.

This painting by Frederic Remington, noted painter of the American west in the 1800s, shows Native people watching a grass fire that they set. This would be an image that Remington actually witnessed -- he wasn't one for painting from his imagination -- he liked to depict real people and real situations that he witnessed first hand. Kind of like an early newspaper photographer, but with a canvas and paint brushes.

An early settler's journal describes this place we live in today as looking like "apple orchards planted by the hand of God for the pleasure of man." The oak woods that early settlers found were open, easy to walk or ride a horse through. Today, one might say they were "park like."

This open and inviting scene was part natural (through spread of wildfires), but also partly human-made, through the use of controlled fires by Native peoples.

After European settlement of the region, wildfires were eliminated as were human-made fires. This permitted brush and less hardy trees (like maples and ash) to grow unhindered by fire.


The lesson I wanted to pass along is this thing we call "ecological fire" is not exactly new, and the landscape that our forefathers and mothers inherited when they moved to McHenry County was hardly untouched by human hands.

So, once again, the old becomes new, as we relearn the ways that many generations of Native people took for granted. Careful management of the land was good for game, safety and ultimately survival of those peoples.

Relearning these ancient lessons of how to tend the land in ways that promote sustainability for us and for nature can only benefit every member of the community.