By Ed McMackin, biologist by profession and naturalist by nature
Every season that goes by where the winters average less and less snow and the summers are drier and drier, the subject of water dominates people’s minds increasingly more. The shortage of water changes, not only peoples activities, but the activities of wildlife and the growth, flowering, and fruiting of plants, from the smallest to the largest. People and animals alter their ways of how they get and make use of water. People seek brooks, ponds, public water supplies, and even combine a swimming trip with a trip to tank up with water. Some have turned old trucks into water trucks.
Spring flowers, normally dry up and disappear by the first of July, but to see larger plants, that normally stay green all summer, drying up by the first of August is certainly not the norm. Now, during a year of inadequate water supply, plants “rest” from blooming and producing fruit (seeds, berries, etc.) and a year or two will pass before they do again. It is hard to imagine how, especially in these traditionally wet Kootenay-Columbia Mountains (prior to the 1980s), whole limbs on cedar trees could turn totally brown.
Pure water is the gate to life, not just for the cows or the chickens or the cat. And not just for a subsistent life, but for a comfortable and healthy life. “Ah, that feels good. Was I ever thirsty!” Pure water makes up a large proportion of all body tissues and is absolutely necessary for the optimal function of every body organ and every body system. Of course once water leaves the body, it is no longer pure; it is toxic and needs to be shipped out. We do not store more water than what the body needs for optimal function. I think some people think they are camels, when they haven’t taken on pure water since morning.
If we err on the matter of water, it would be in not drinking enough pure water. Most healthy people when active, drink 6 to 8, 8-ounce cups of water a day. Water any other way, than straight water, is toxic. If one is drinking “crooked water” it will make one “crooked”. If a person drinks a cup of crooked water before breakfast, or any time, than one needs to drink two cups of pure water for every cup of crooked water, one to flush out the toxins and the other to meet the body’s need.
The absence of water in our lifestyles is at the root of a lot, or perhaps most, physical issues. Pure water is an inexpensive (at least right now) remedy. It is good for insomnia, restlessness, sleeplessness, depression, and agitation. Even during an eight hour sleep, one needs a couple of glasses of water to avoid dehydration. It costs much less than blood thinners and laxatives. Crooked water accounts for a lot of our issues.
The use of water by organisms outside is just as important as its use inside our own bodies.
Trees constantly rely on water to sustain them, even in winter. Nutrients and minerals are transported by water into the root system, even in autumn when the leaves are falling. Fruit, berry trees, shrubs need water in late summer to fill out the yield. When ever there are rain showers, trees “have their shower”, get washed down, cleaning out the pores, enabling the tree to “breathe” and give off natural “air fresheners”.
This is all a part of the rain cycle. From the rivers that flow to the oceans and give off water vapor that form clouds, which then release their bounty watering the earth, starting the cycle all over again. The purity level of rain depends on the level of airborne particulate matter from dust and cloud seeding, and chemical contamination from vapor-trails, crop spraying, crop control, and chem-trails.
Conserving water does not mean one should quit using it, as it is essential to all living things.
READ MORE: Out There: Tale of a Lion
