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Springs: Conduits in the Water Cycle

Ouchley
K. Ouchley

In the mid-1970s I lived for a while on an old homestead in the shadow of Driskill Mountain, the highest elevation in Louisiana.  There the sole source of water for drinking, cooking, washing, and life in general was a small spring behind the dog-trot house.  For many people in the hill parishes, shallow hand-dug wells and springs provided water until subsidized community water systems, which relied on deep bored wells, were developed.  Dependable springs, in particular, were a treasured resource on any property.

    

Kelby was a biologist and manager of National Wildlife Refuges for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for more than 30 years. He has worked with alligators in gulf coast marshes and Canada geese on Hudson Bay tundra. His most recent project was working with his brother Keith of the Louisiana Nature Conservancy on the largest floodplain restoration project in the Mississippi River Basin at the Mollicy Unit of the Upper Ouachita National Wildlife Refuge, reconnecting twenty-five square miles of former floodplain forest back to the Ouachita River.
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