Home Sweet Kokosing by Jennifer Seeley '16 was originally published in the BFEC Newsletter, Vol. 20/No. 1, Winter 2016.
How did you connect with the Kokosing River? Some Knox County residents enjoy summer kayaking trips with big groups of friends, while others seek quiet alone time, just listening to the water. Some encounter it as they drive on the bridges over the river’s many branches and creeks, while others get in the water as often as they can.
These responses aren’t surprising, so why did I go to the trouble this past summer of surveying 220 and interviewing 27 Knox County residents? I’m an anthropology major at Kenyon, and this crazily broad discipline purports to study humanity in all its complexity, from primates and bones to food and rituals, including how people live in and connect to their environments.
I wanted to learn about Knox County residents’ relationships with the Kokosing River as a prism, refracting the many ways they think about nature. I’ve been working with Professor Murphy and Schortman in Kenyon's anthropology department, and I am currently writing a thesis about the project that will be available on Digital Kenyon at the end of this year.
Survey responses came from those who saw articles about my project in the Mount Vernon News and KnoxPages.com, paper copies distributed through the Knox County library system, and Kenyon employees who took the survey and forwarded the link to friends and family. Of Knox County residents who responded to the survey, two thirds agreed or strongly agreed with the statement "I am an environmentalist." To be honest, I assume that there are as many definitions of environmentalism as there are residents in Knox County, Ohio (about 60,000). Environmentalism is connected with people’s different ideas of how to manage natural resources, as well as how comfortable people feel taking on the label and identity with all of its complex associations.
In thinking theoretically for my thesis, I reflected on the relationship between humans and the natural world and wondered whether there is a difference between them. A broad-minded physicist could point out that at a certain level, everything is merely energy slowed down as matter in an eons-long biogeochemical project of making up dinosaurs, ocean currents, earl grey tea, humans and much, much more. But in our daily lives, it is more useful to think about humans and nature as distinct yet entangled in order to be reflective about how we use and preserve natural places.
I am amazed by how many ways we use the word "natural." The world "natural" can describe old-growth trees, pulpy orange juice, a face free of make-up, a wild rushing river, someone who is good at something without trying or an idyllic mountain lake. Nature often "does its own thing" free of human intervention, like a stream flowing downhill guided by gravity.
Of 27 interviewees, 25 agreed that the Kokosing is currently in a natural state, and nineteen agreed that it is currently wild. Most think the river has been transformed by human action, and fewer think it looks like it has been transformed. For me, the most interesting part of this process was reading between the lines, because though most agree that the Kokosing River is in a natural state, they may not all agree on what that actually means. I didn’t give interviewees definitions of the words, but rather listened to their reasons and beliefs to learn about their personal meanings.
Paradoxically, natural places — seen to be free of human control and intervention — take a lot of sound management in order to stay that way. The Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) State Scenic River designation is an important part of how the Kokosing River is managed, and I learned from surveys and interviews that not everyone knows what it does for our beautiful river.
Because of the designation, publically funded building projects need to be reviewed by the local community together with ODNR before they can be carried out. Program staff make their expertise available to property owners that border the river. And finally, the Scenic River designation holds the quality of discharge from places like the Mt. Vernon Wastewater Treatment plant to a high standard. All of these measures help to tangibly preserve and protect the Kokosing River and its banks, or riparian zone.
Beyond the hard work of the people at the wastewater treatment plant, there are some things that residents themselves can do to protect the health of our river. This summer, I also worked with Professor of Biology Siobhan Fennessy to discern whether there is microplastic, or pieces of plastic smaller than 0.5 millimeters pollution, in the Kokosing River. I’m still trying, because it takes stringent methods to be sure one way or the other. Regardless, I think it’s worth it to be aware of the risks posed by invisible pollutants. Tiny pieces of plastic could be ingested by microorganisms in our waters, which you don’t need a scientist to tell you isn’t the healthiest snack for a tadpole. In the marine environment, microplastics have been shown to release and absorb chemical contaminants and work their way up the food chain.
There are lots of ways that tiny pieces of plastic can sneak into our river, such as polyester fibers from laundry lint, microbeads from facial cleansers, and little Styrofoam pellets that break down from bigger pieces. The good news is that you have control over some of them. Microbeads in face wash were just federally banned, but won’t be off the shelves until 2017 — you can avoid face wash that contains polyethylene or polypropylene.
More broadly, it’s worth considering how plastic litter from the Kokosing, much of which isn’t purposeful, makes its way down to the Gulf of Mexico and affects people downstream.
A question I asked each interviewee was some variation of: How do you help someone become connected to nature? Most spoke of their belief in the importance of environmental education at an early age, like the BFEC’s school field trip program for kids. Becoming connected to nature at an early age can translate into environmental stewardship as an adult.
Lastly, I asked interviewees: How can you create in someone an environmental awareness that impels to action? I take this phrasing from the Sacred Heart School I attended for middle and high school, one of whose goals was to educate to a social awareness that impels to action. Social and environmental awareness are often intertwined, and nationally and internationally, many disadvantaged social groups are expected to bear the brunt of environmental problems like toxic waste, unsafe outdoor work environments, air pollution and, of course, poor water quality.
Awareness of these unequal patterns is the first step toward helping the people working to resolve them.
What does all this mean for you, reader of the Brown Family Environmental Center newsletter? It means come on down to your river! There’s no better place to feel connected to nature. And when you’re not at the river, remember that you haven’t actually left it — in Knox County, you’re always a part of the Kokosing River watershed.