No Fracking Way!

Before we get to the fracking story, an update on where we are and the botany.  As I write this we are in the truck just east of Rugby, North Dakota.  We traveled from Glacier yesterday on Route 2 (the "High Line") which runs across the north of the country, near the Canadian border.  We ended last night west of Minot ND.

Unlike the scenic byways we took to get here, Route 2 is straight as can be.  Still, it is pretty country, lots of open sky and rolling prairie.  We started out yesterday morning from Cut Bank, MT.  Cut Bank is near Fort Disappointment, so named because it was where Clark hoped to make celestial observations about the location but bad weather made that impossible.  Also it was the only place on the whole expedition where L & C encountered hostiles and two Indians died in a scuffle over horses.  We imagined that they must have collected plants from the exact spot where we did.  Located on the banks of a bend in the Cut Bank Creek.  There was a train trestle nearby and a classic ranch in the distance.  It was a dry, desert landscape that yielded no fewer than 50 different species, nearly all of them new species for this trip.  We do collect duplicates sometimes because they help fill in the distribution map, especially for those species that are on the edge of their range.  A great spot.

Mentezelia

Eriogonum

Townsendia

Truck du jour

Daniel was super happy.  Of course I made a little bouquet which I left this morning at our campsite.

We stopped in a little town and explored a creek that was loaded with Persicaria and other goodies.  Later we saw vast ponds chock full of Persicaria.  Acres of the stuff (the swath of pink.)

We hit the road with the goal of getting to Minot, ND by nightfall.  As we did some advance Googling for accommodations we realized that we were once again, out of luck.  Traveling across northern ND we started seeing all these oil fields under construction or in operation, pumping something.  When we stopped in Williston, Daniel, a good Texas man, recognized a boom town when he saw one.  All the cues were there.  Lots of RV's.  Lots of pick up trucks.  Crowded gas stations.  Lots of plates from Texas and Colorado.  The rough necks were in town.  Lots of them.  And taking up all the hotel rooms.  On the outskirts of the towns we saw corporate barracks of worker housing.  We saw Halliburton outposts.  It is all about fracking and northern ND is booming.  Here is what Route 2 in ND looks like these days between Stanley and Minot.  What a fracking nightmare.

Jobs are important, I know, but fracking is unproven economically and environmentally.  Fracking is a process of extracting oil from the shale or sand by using a combination of water and chemicals to separate the oil.  When we were collecting in upstate NY several weeks ago communities seemed to be aggressively fighting fracking, which is where I first saw the No Fracking Way slogan.  In the meantime, this is what ND is giving up.  Makes me wanna cry.

We had to deal with the no room at the inn situation.  We found a campsite at Lewis and Clark State Park which is located on Lake Sakakawea.  Daniel was able to set up the tent in the dark without delay.  He was smart enough to put on the rain tarp in case, and yes, it did rain during the night.  It was a very pretty place.  Here is the view as we drove away.  The sad thing is that at night you can see the glow of all the fracking fires off in the distance.  That's just wrong, as my dear Cassie would say.  

For those of you who doubt, here is proof that I camped with good cheer.  Actually, I was grateful for the tent.  If not for it, we would have been sleeping upright in the truck.  

Late morning we stopped on a long dirt road for a brief break and some lunch (goat cheese, hummus and olive sandwiches off the back of the truck.)  There was another fixer-upper, some pretty flowers for a truck bouquet, and a vast open stretch of prairie.

I am sure many people see this landscape and think Hmmm, I wonder how much oil is in all that sand under the prairie.  

Driving on though Minot, which is located in a low lying area we again saw flooding and felt a little deja vu.  It's a gloomy enough drive with the rain.  When you know it will add to people's misery it just makes it so much worse.  The water was lapping the shores on both sides of this road.  

Last update for this posting:  we are now in Roseau, Minnesota.  Tomorrow we will hit the Voyager National Park.  After that it will be a major push for home and probably time on the interstates.  No collecting today at all.  Just rain.

Iowa prairie flowers

One of the reasons I was really excited to do this trip was to have the opportunity to see real prairie.  Sadly, most prairie is plowed under or developed.  I read that Iowa has about .1% virgin prairie.  Oddly, Iowans do not seem to plant the prairie flowers on their properties either.  You see homes surrounded by vast lawns of green green grass.  Surrounded by corn, which is just really big grass.  I find it amazing that we were able to drive for literally hours in Iowa on "scenic byways" without seeing any significant wildflowers.  The farmers have Round-up'd them out of existence.  There are some on the side of the interstate which we got on briefly, and there are random pockets here and there.  We found one under an overpass.  And a pocket of wildflowers by a river.  They are there, but you have to hunt for them more than you should.  If this were like Texas they'd make the wildflowers a tourist attraction.  Anyway, I could rant about this but won't.  Here are some lovely prairie flowers we collected all over Iowa today. 

Ratibida pinnata

Ratibida pinnata

Verbena

Dalea

Cup flower (Silphium perfoliatum)

These, and others made a nice bouquet for inside the truck.  Near days end we left the arrangement at Chief War Eagle's monument in Sioux City Iowa which overlooked the (very flooded, more on that tomorrow) Missouri River.

How to choose a motel

Last night we stayed at the Relax Inn in Kuttawa, KY.  We chose it for all the obvious reasons.  First, there was a meadow next to it.  Second, there were major power lines over the meadow.  Third, the meadow bordered a woods.  Makes sense, right?  Of course it's all about the collecting.  We hit the meadow first thing in the morning.  We started early because the forecast was for a heat index of 115.  Here you can see the meadow and the powerlines.

Beyond the bare baked earth was a diverse meadow ecosystem with some native prairie plants.  Possibly the area under the power lines is a "remnant prairie."  Remnant prairies are virgin, never plowed sections of prairie.  Almost all prairie has been farmed or developed.  But remnants remain, often under powerlines or between railroad tracks.  

Gentian

Daniel examines wild quinine (Parthenium  integrifolium)

(Helianthus divericata) rough leaved sunflower 

Here is what the meadow looked like in the thick of it:

Did I mention the heat index was 115 today?  Even at 8am the heat in the meadow was pretty brutal.  Let's start the day with heatstroke!