Brazilian scientists tour the Illinois River backwaters with their American counterparts, as part of a program to exchange information on how to protect rivers. Photo by Jonathan Ahl.
The Upper Mississippi River system shares many of the physical characteristics of the Upper Paraguay River in Brazil. The Nature Conservancy has been working for more than four years to get people from both countries to share information on problems including pollution, siltation, and invasive species. After a visit last year, some Brazilian scientists are back in the U.S. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Jonathan Ahl reports on how the two countries are helping each other to help their rivers:
Transcript
The Upper Mississippi River system shares many of the physical characteristics of the Upper Paraguay River in Brazil. The Nature Conservancy has been working for more than four years to get people from both countries to share information on problems including pollution, siltation, and invasive species. After a visit last year, some Brazilian scientists are back in the U.S. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Jonathan Ahl reports on how the two countries are helping each other to help their rivers:
(ambient sound)
A group of scientists are standing on the banks of the Illinois River. The unseasonably warm day has many of them rolling up the sleeves on their denim shirts or fanning themselves with their sweat-soaked ballcaps. They’re watching different ways
researchers use to count the variety and number of fish in the river.
(more ambient sound)
The group includes researchers from Illinois’ Department of Natural Resources and area universities. The other half of the group is a delegation from Brazil – scientists and
government representatives from the Pantanal region. This trip is one stop on a week-long tour through the Minnesota, Wisconsin and Illinois. Michael Reuter is the Director of the Illinois Chapter of the Nature Conservancy – the group that is hosting the Brazilians during their tour of the Midwest. He says environmentalists have long talked about taking a global perspective to problems. He says this exchange helps put that idea into action:
“We’re trying to shift some of our thinking here to a larger level perspective, a more comprehensive approach. My sense is that we are making too many decisions based on a narrow view… too many decisions where we are looking at one piece of the river, only one piece of the problem.”
The major difference between the Pantanal region that includes the Upper Paraguay River and the Upper Mississippi River valley is that Brazil has not yet done the damage to its
rivers that has happened in the U.S. Pierre Girard is a scientist with the Pantanal Research Institute. He says his country has much to learn from the U.S.’ mistakes. Girard says there’s one important lesson he’s already learned from the Americans. That is for scientists to work with land managers to set up programs to stop problems before they begin.
“We must get managers and the science people together right at the beginning. We must talk and really try to understand each other and see what the objectives are and define them. We have broad objectives, but we do not have specifics yet.”
Girard says Midwest scientists are already providing practical advice on how they can convince developers and farmers to take better care of the land near their rivers. They are already looking at the Midwest’s use of buffer strips to separate farmland from the flood plain. While the Pantanal in many ways looks like the Upper Midwest of 150 years ago, local scientists say there is still a lot they can learn from Brazil.
(ambient sound – on the boat)
Rip Sparks is riding on a small boat through the Illinois River backwaters with some of his Brazilian counterparts. The University of Illinois scientist says the Pantanal is kind of like a 150-year-old photograph of the Mississippi River valley. He says having access to
their research can help efforts to clean up and protect Midwest rivers:
“Their soils haven’t been disturbed in the flood plain. They haven’t had the application of fertilizer that we have had here. So we get the chance to see how the soils function in terms of taking up nutrients and cleaning the water.”
Sparks says being able to share information with the Brazilians is a big deal. That’s because there are no large, undisturbed river systems in the U.S. to serve as a model. But even with the free flow of knowledge, scientists from both countries say there is only so much they can do to protect their respective rivers. Mario Dentes is with the Nature Conservancy’s Chapter in Brazil. He says, ultimately, any effort to protect or restore a river will take money:
“Who is going to pay the bills? The people who made the intervention in our highland? The government? Who? We don’t know yet.”
But Dentes and his American counterparts say that will be an ongoing process. For now, they are setting up ways to share information via the Internet, creating joint research
projects, and planning many more trips to visit each other’s countries, and the rivers they are trying to protect. For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Jonathan Ahl.