Like me, anyone driving their vehicle in open places last Thursday afternoon can attest to the fact that they were being buffeted about by strong winds.
If you can remember just a few weeks ago, we had winds even stronger than today. For some of us, they might have caused property damage to roofs and other structures on or about our homes.
Strong winds. What good are they?
Well, I took a look at several of our inland lakes along the shorelines receiving the waves. With strong winds, we get a mixing of the bottom material near shore for several yards out into the lake.
The mixing of the wave action stirs up food for the tiny critters in the lake systems. They, in turn, feed the other critters which feed our fish.
So, although we don’t like strong winds for what they can do to
our real estate, they do enhance the productivity of our lake systems.
Then the wave and wind action further out in the lake stirs up the water so that natural chemical reactions take place. That is
a plus to our lake systems too.
On the inland front, the woods see a type of culling of rotting branches and weak-rooted trees which topple over. This “gleaning” of our forest resource makes sure that just the healthiest of our trees are left behind.
In our yards, it is a mess of twigs and broken branches that we must gather before the lawn mowing season begins. But, as the winds come again and again, there are less and less branches that need to be cleared away before other lawn measures take place.
Don’t get me wrong. I don’t like strong winds that much myself.
But I am glad to share a few observances of what they can mean in benefit to our natural environment.
Marc Larue Gillette
Niles