Our river, the Duck, has been officially designated as a Tennessee Scenic River with the special protection from landfills and industrial pollution that comes with that designation. And after one of the driest springs on record in Middle Tennessee, we are finally getting some steady rain. The thirsty topsoil is soaking it up, and some of the mussels stranded on
the dry gravel of the riverbed are going to survive.
All this is good news and worthy of full- throated celebration—along with a sigh of relief. But don’t get too comfortable and don’t stop paying attention.
Our up-river counties have recently been in what the National Weather Service characterizes as a Severe Drought, while Hickman and Humphreys Counties were in an Extreme Drought. Three inches of rain is wonderful, but it cannot always fix the problem…