The aftermath

A river channel is forever adjusting its path through the landscape, even in the face of man's best attempts to contain it. Our river is no longer wild; it is part of an integrated and efficient farm drainage system. But even this drainage ditch is not static. After every high water event, the current widens the outside bends and scours out deeper pools. Weak banks slough down and trees tumble with them. This most recent flood picked up debris from miles upstream and piled it in the floodplain forest. Corn stalks and cobs, wheat straw, rotten sugar beets, and birch bark collected in mounds wrapped around tree trunks. New ridges of sand and silt lie on the banks, covered in mottled patterns. The new look is only temporary, as the river continues to flow, always changing.