In North Central Kansas, in and around Cloud county, many of the creek beds are filled with towering marijuana plants.

Not that familiar with its soil prevention qualities, but wouldn't a NATIVE plant be more suitable for such a task?

(Only two posts in, and the thread has already been hijacked)

Uh-oh, this opens up several cans of worms for me.

For one, the increasing sedimentation of Perry Lake can be solved (partially) by implementation of the Plum Creek reservoir project upstream. The residents directly upstream of the Perry Lake basin are keenly aware of the flood perils they must deal with; it is only the transparent racism of the Nemaha-Brown County Watershed District board and their few constituents they cater to that is preventing this project from happening.

Two, this also ties into my position in favor of legalization of marijuana and hemp as a legal cash crop. The marijuana plant is a weed (that's why they call it weed!); and would be beneficial when planted on, and close to, riverbanks and creekbanks to retard soil erosion.

I remember in the mid-80s there were literally dozens of creekbeds in NE KS infested with zillions of stalks of "marijuana" plants. Those of us that were somewhat knowledgable of the situation knew that the plants were utterly worthless , except to maybe cut a bag of marginal ditchweed. (Although that knowledge didn't deter law enforcement back them from placing a value on worthless ditchweed back then into the hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of "alleged" dollars.)

However, in the Reagan 80's there were hundreds of teams sent out along the ditches and creekbeds of Kansas hellbent on ridding our Great State of the vile devil's weed, even if all the plants were impotent eunuchs that actually served a purpose and assisted in retarding soil erosion. That is a major reason, but obviously, not the only reason why sedimentation is a scourge in most of our lakes in Kansas.

I have more to say, but I'll monitor this thread to hear what other people think. This is an important issue that affects all of us.

(Oh, for the record: I am not a pothead: I don't smoke anything and haven't in over 2 decades, when I did "inhale" a couple times back in the day.)

WHY are these "surveys" only done by Public Sector entities in Kansas. Here is a $60,000 project that should have gone to the private sector.

Socialism in Kansas ... AGAIN!

So Mike in your stellar analysis siltation and sedimentation in Preey Res is caused by eridication of pot (I guess nothing grown back, huh) and racism. Nothing about Physical Geography and geology in that analysis at all. You are a retard.

Lakes in Kansas will ALWAYS slit up, the Kansas soils and river basins are mostly unconsolidated formations and soils. THAT is the reason, nor racism, and definately not wild ditch weed. Building another resivor just moves the deposition upstream.

THe solution? Derdge the resivors, ... or put in causeways and clean them. Causeways should have been installed in all Kansas resivors when they were constructed. At the time that seemed the place to cut costs. THis however reduces the service life of a resivor.

Very good reality check.

"Well, at some point, we have to admit to ourselves the damage that farming causes, and work to mitigate it. But the Kanss Farm Bureau is so powerful, they will fight any such thing unless farmers can be told how it will save them money."

This is an area that is expecially sore for me. KDHE DOES have a stormwater runoff law. However just like this crew from the Kansas Biological Survey doing this project, KDHE does the "consulting" for the agriculture sector as part of their "enforcement and regu;lation". SO we the taxpayers are paying for the work that the farmers are supposed to be doing.

There are other runoff problems in Kansas as well and that is from construction and feedlots. KDHE there also "partners with polluters" and does the work for them there as well. YES, the KFB and the KLA and the General Contractors Association are leading our legislators and state agency personnel around by their noses.

Farmers hopefully are looking for organic matter to plow back into ground as well to make more dirt. Provides food for growth. Need to cut back on chemical poison so folks can eat fish from the river.

Industrial pot is not an off the wall plan for it has a tough root system. Not only that it appears were heading into 2007 with drought conditions @ 2006 Precip: 30.88" (-8.13"). We've probaly been in this situation 2 years previous and it's like never catching up. Industrial hemp can deal with somewhat dry conditions and would provide local family farms with a cash crop that has a multitude of applications. http://everything.hemp.com/

Anyone I know that toyed around with this hemp did not make it back for more. Harsh reaction to the throat. Not a sweet treat apparently. Anyway we are experiencing a lack of fresh water from mother nature at this point.

"Hundreds of millions of dollars in dredging costs" ?

Good god, let it fill in and build another damn somewhere else. Let's not lose sight of the fact that these aren't exactly natural features! All that's happened is that dirt moved from one place to another. Damn good Kansas dirt, I might add.

Socialism? Because a research institution has been hired? Are you kidding? That is why we have research institutions. All of this whining about privatization is extremely annoying. The private sector is good at making t.v.'s, finding new drugs, and banking. There may be some research companies that do this sort of work, but there is not a lot of profit in mapping lakes. The University of Kansas is a top notch biology school, in Kansas, with research capabilities. Hm, Uh, Yeah, hiring the experts to learn about Kansas and utilize its Kansas based research facilities is socialism.

You are kidding, right?

Wait, you aren't...Do you own a boat with the right equipment and some sweet software? Did you over bid the contract and are now smarting with failure as your dream of mapping Kansas lakes has been washed away?

"You are kidding, right?"

NO BunE, I am not kidding. The state of Kansas uses its agencies to do private sector work all the time. Whom is doing the stream monitoring (water quality) and aqua fauna sampling? KDWP and KDHE. They are slow and not very good at it. Whom does the employment safety OSHA surveys? KDOL!

Whom did the stormwater runoff and the Confined anmal feeder operations funoff consulting?

KDHE! Those two things have the greatest impact for the issue at hand and water quality issues. Hell KDHE cannot even manage their UST program nor their SUPERFUND program.

Am I kidding? NO and it is very sad, and costs the Kansas economy BILLIONS and reduces the Kansas quality of life.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++=

"Do you own a boat with the right equipment and some sweet software? Did you over bid the contract and are now smarting with failure as your dream of mapping Kansas lakes has been washed away?"

Never was up for bid. Remember socialism. The private sector in Kansas never gets a chance to even try. It is the goobernment that has all the money and keeps all the money instead of building an economy.

Sound familiar yet? BTW, the State Research orgs, DO NOT HAVE PORFESSIONAL E AND O INSURANCE!!!!! Private engineering and environmental firms DO. ANd YES we DO have the material and the software and the expertise. We can get jobs OUTSIDE OF KANSAS. But Kansas does not allow us to work here.

Socialists? YOU BET!

The ASTRA project website can be viewed at:

http://www.kars.ku.edu/astra

Wow, you are really up in arms about it. I am not sure that you understand the concept of socialism, but I will save that for another day. I also am not sure that you understand how government works. The State of Kansas appoints the proper agency to do the project, and then it is bid out or not, per the parameters of the project. When there are opportunities to create learning moments, the returns will be exponential. That is how education works.

I had a feeling you were feeling slighted about this project. It also seems that you just have an axe to grind against the government. Are you also afraid of black helicopters and jackbooted thugs? Did Gov Sebelius hurt you in some way?

hey, leave my black helicopters out of this!

relax, there is so much equipment for professional work that ku owns it isn't funny. a lot of it doesn't get used that often. however we don't see ku students and staff taking every engineering or science project that pops up.

when I see ku architecture students building a new state building, or ku civil engineers buiding new roads, or ku electrical engineers working on powerlines, then I will give more merit to asbestos' argument.