Vent: saw a photo of my grandparents' creek from 1985 and barely recognized it today

I was going through old family photos last night and found a picture of my grandpa fishing in this creek behind their house in rural Iowa. The water was clear, you could see the bottom, and there were trees all along the banks. Today that same creek is a muddy ditch with barely a foot of water in it, and most of the trees are gone. My aunt said the neighboring farm started using heavier fertilizer about 10 years ago and the runoff just killed everything. Has anyone else seen a local waterway change that fast?

3 comments

3 Comments

oscarc1225d ago

My grandpa's favorite fishing hole is now a parking lot for a strip mall (progress, I guess?). I swear my bad luck with directions is the only thing that hasn't changed in 30 years.

jennifer83325d ago

Oh wow, that is so sad! We had a similar thing happen to the pond near my childhood home.

sage30825d ago

Quote "muddy ditch with barely a foot of water." Okay, but is it really that bad though? I mean creeks change all the time, that's just what happens. My family has a seasonal stream that looks like a trickle in August and a raging river in April. Maybe you just saw it on a dry year. And muddy water is not always the end of the world, some fish actually like it that way. Unless your aunt is a biologist I'd take her fertilizer theory with a grain of salt.