The Musings of a Simple Country Man
By Hobie Morris
Our challenge is to resist get-rich quick schemes that would ruin all that we cherish….
–Charlotte Zoe Walker from “John Burroughs on “Fracking Our Nests” (2012)
(Brookfield, NY – Aug. 2013) My farmer neighbor Dennis was waiting for his dairy cows to slowly cross the town road on their way from their pasture to the barn. Dennis held out his arm. We slowed our pickup and stopped. I rolled down my window.
Over the years at this spot we have had many such brief encounters with him. We have found that country people need this regular connection with their friends. Lois and I are always enriched by this sharing. We have tremendous admiration for Dennis. His compassion, intelligence and love for the fascinating natural world is wonderful to observe in another simple country man. He has deeply bonded with the natural world throughout his life farming here in the rugged Brookfield hills and upland valleys.
Unfortunately we can’t talk long on this occasion. We are on our way to Sunday morning church where Lois is the organist. As we drove away I can see a few tears in his eyes. As we proceed into town I keep remembering the anguish in his bearded face.
“Don’t they understand…don’t they understand—what this would do to our land…to our water?” His parting emotional tone and rhetorical questions kept echoing in my head.
For over 33 years my beautiful wife Lois and I have been richly blessed to live in a cluster of old time dairy farmers. Wonderful, many generation men and women who deeply love their land and their lifestyle. Dennis (and his parents and grandparents before him) are true friends who are always there for others, both in good times and the inevitable valleys of life. The Witters, Darrows and Owens’ are the proverbial salt of the earth. Their satisfying way of life is vastly more important to them than the frenzied pursuit of the almighty dollar.
Farming, especially for the small farmer, is a constant struggle to simply survive. Times are very tough and unpredictable. Sadly, to most New Yorkers, the farmers’ precarious plight is all but invisible. While agriculture is a vital cornerstone of New York’s economy, small farmers in reality have very little political clout in Albany. It seems the governmental policies favor agri-corporations and monoculture farming.
The recent opportunities to sell natural gas” fracking” drilling rights on the farmers’ land seem like a “gift from God” to solve their constant financial struggles. At first many farmers were blinded by the huge amount of green “manna” get rich promises. Many farmers signed without hesitation, much to their eventual regret when they discovered how much they had given away, including possibly their land, water and livelihood.
My friend Dennis, like many farmers, spends a lot of time sitting on a tractor seat. It gives him plenty of time to think about many things. He unequivocally loves doing field work, when he can take in the changing sights, sounds and many seasonal moods. Every day there are subtle changes that an observant farmer seldom misses.
His land has been the center pivot of his life. For more than 60 years he has put his trust in the soil, the sun, the rain and the essential pure ground water. In combination they provide with his effort the food for his cattle and eventually our table. His hands-on faith and ingrained optimism are necessary for success.
But Dennis is also a realist. He and the other farmers know that all their time, sweat and calluses are in vain if their water supply is polluted and poisoned. They are completely dependent on a constant source of pure water from the depths of Mother Earth. If his water is permanently poisoned, he is left with nothing—no healthy land, no livelihood and no future.
Dennis loves his land too much to risk the permanent polluting of the water that has sustained his family for nearly a century.
Dennis has read extensively on hydrofracking. He has many questions about it that remain unanswered to his satisfaction. What is in the 500 barrels of chemicals that are added to the up to eight million gallons of fresh water that are necessary to activate a single gas well? Millions more gallons of water will be necessary during the production time of the well. Where will all this water come from? A large percentage of the chemical mix will remain in the ground, possibly forever. Dennis wonders why drilling is banned by the DEC in 15 percent of the Marcellus area, especially the watersheds.
Public interest champion and environmental icon Walter Hang has said the ban in the watershed is “an admission that the practice is simply unsafe.” Dennis has read the many horror stories coming out of Pennsylvania.
With tears in his eyes my bearded, bespectacled friend is deeply saddened by the shortsightedness of others. “Why don’t they understand?”
He and others are committed to fight in whatever ways they can to protect and preserve our God given environment both now and in the future. The other old time farmers up in the western Brookfield hills feel the same way.
But these are only the musings of a simple country man. Thankful that if Albany won’t protect us, we have the power under Home Rule to protect our own community. We can ban hydrofracking here and must before it’s too late. We should never forget Love Canal.
Hobie Morris is a Brookfield resident and simple country man.