Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

This will be the shortest Conservation Corner I’ve ever written. It concerns the fact that we hear lots of statements, rules, and principles, but most of them we do not remember because they really do not matter all that much. But some things that we hear are true, and they do matter, and those we need to put in our brain reservoir.

Twenty years ago, I read a study published by the University of Connecticut about their rivers and waterways. One statement in that book I’ll never forget because of its huge importance for us all: When 10% of an area’s surface is covered with impermeable surfaces, the soil hydrology is changed forever.

Now, look around. Look at a map and see where the devastation from Helene was so awful. Look at the developments at the tops of the mountains and the roads. For us, I-26 from the state line to the Saluda exits is 200 acres of impermeable surface. 

Why was there very little damage on Holbert Cove Rd., but the lower end of Green River Cove Rd. simply slid off and took the homes at the bottom with it? 

One of the first nature lessons that I taught my granddaughter Lucy when she was 5 years old was that water flows downhill and takes whatever is in its way with it.

Now, keep these two very simple truths in your mind as you look around and hopefully we can rebuild our neighborhoods more wisely.