2.13.13    Winter Snow: It's All About The Water Table, for Wildlife, Trees, and Ourselves

Early this morning hardly qualified as winter, by standards here and elsewhere, the air mild, the wildlife well fed and warm, the snow damp and shrinking as beech and willow buds showed themselves shyly, inherently buffered against further winter showiness....and yes there will probably be more storm, more snow, more sleet and freezing cold.

The waitpeople at the small diner, opened in the 40's and continuing today on a side street in Northampton, MA, leaned on the counters, in a line the three of them, complaining about the accumulation of snow that precluded cars able to park, and people able to come in and eat and tip them.

Finally I turned to them, and said "It's all about the water table."

"WHAT?" They replied in unison.

I patiently repeated that it was all about the water table.

That down the street were all the trucks and front end loaders trying to slowly scoop up and carry away the huge accumulation of snow that created a 10 foot divide along the main street, that yes there were no places to park along their main side road, but this was how the trees and plants and farm crops and wildlife and insects and microcosms that create and support our health and life here...this is where they get their lives...from the water table.

 And the water table is created by and large during the winter, when it snows and the snow accumulates in the hills and mountains, and then during spring and summer it flows...downward, fills rivers, fills the water table deep beneath the earth, and then despite momentary droughts, the trees and plants and animals and wildlife and crops and insects and...us....all can survive.

They paused for a moment, watching this 60 year old crone eat her gluten free cheese and avocado sandwich with chips and water.... checking the photos on her iPhone, taking a few panoramic shots of the outside and inside of the old restaurant, and then one spoke to me - "Oh, Okay. I never thought of it that way. I guess it's ok, then, the snow, the no parking ,the less tips. It makes a lot of sense." The others nodded their heads, looking out onto the snow covered sides of the small street, and I nodded, and said, "Yeah. ".