Dam Mammals

Beavers, that is! Yesterday my favorite librarian and I went with our dog to a café opening in Rutland, Massachusetts. (I'll be posting more on that on GeoCafes.) To make a proper outing of it, I looked for a place to walk the dog in Rutland, and found a section of the Massachusetts Central Rail Trail, appropriately located on Depot Street, where presumably there was once a depot. 

We rightly guessed that our dog Crumpet would enjoy this wide, shady walkway with us. She is shown here on a causeway between two ponds, one of which I later learned is named Thayer Pond. At the western edge of the pond, I noticed what looked like a beaver lodge, but I was confused. 

The pond is large and the railroad folks had built a causeway next to it over a century ago. I was guessing that the pond was about 10 acres, but checking Google Earth, I see it is more like 40. In any case, it seems it is much too big and too old to be formed by a beaver dam -- whose constructions tend to be on a smaller and more temporary scale.

(Note: the café we were visiting was too new to appear on the map. Coffeelands is at 249 Main Street in Rutland; tell them I sent you!)

In any case, that lodge was too far from the path for us to get a good look without some serious bushwhacking, so we stayed on the main path, and a minute later we saw a much smaller pond with a very definite beaver lodge on it!

Dead trees in standing water are another indicator of possible beaver action, since they are most likely to be upright only in the first few years after inundation. 

We could see the lodge pretty well from the main path. The dam was easy to see, but difficult to photograph. In this image, the dam is only evident by the fact that standing water is present to the left and not to the right.

Looking at the map, we can see that the lodge on the bigger pond is very close to an outlet known as Mill Brook, which is also the name of an inlet on its northeast corner. This is not only further evidence that beavers did not build the big pond, but also provides some insight to what this place must have been like a century or so ago. 

It seems that the lodge that first caught my eye is easily accessible from the unnamed pond just downstream of it. Easily accessible to beavers, that is!

Lagniappe: back to that first time

I should mention that my master's thesis involved in-depth measurements of 33 different artificial ponds in the vicinity of the Miami Whitewater River. I measured them on every available map and aerial photograph and I physically measured the sediment in them. So became fairly adept at identifying ponds and their dams, and can sometimes spot beaver ponds with confidence from New England highways, but I was in this region for 25 years without seeing any. 

So I was happy -- downright giddy -- to see a textbook example of a beaver dam in May 2022, when my favorite librarian and I were on the Vermon Inn to Inn Walking Tour. The dam was much easier to photograph.

This was such a treat -- I stood there transfixed for quite some while. 

Siegried in Vietnam

I endeavor to learn something new about coffee every day. *Today I got a very early start. I was grinding some excellent Honduran coffee during the opening seconds of BBC Witness History when I thought I heard coffee and Vietnam mentioned. 

East Germany's Coffee from Vietnam
9-minute radio interview

Đắk Lắk province

I do know a bit about the geography of coffee in Vietnam, but I had been missing a significant chapter of its history. BBC journalist Michael Rossi spoke with Siegfried Kaulfuß, an East German government official who had been instrumental in bringing 10,000 hectares (about 25,000 acres) of land in Dak Lak Province into production in the 1980s. 

I can be forgiven, perhaps, for not knowing about this important chapter in Vietnam's coffee history; even the Wikipedia article on the subject gives it only a brief mention and a link to a separate article. And although the project was huge, it accounts for less than two percent of the land now under coffee cultivation in Vietnam.

The story bears out a few things I knew about coffee in Vietnam -- it is indeed the second-largest producer of coffee, for example, but it was not a significant player in world markets prior to the 1980s. The interview emphasizes the role of a fellow centrally-planned (communist) state in its growth; my understanding is that significant investment from global capital was also involved.

I had a brief conversation a decade or so ago with a fellow who had been somewhat involved but was by then running an art gallery in Nantucket. He averred that the rapid expansion of coffee in Vietnam had been encouraged by the World Bank as part of an effort to reduce the country's political isolation by increasing its trade. 

This was despite the hypsometric and climatic challenges of growing coffee in this location. Although it is well within the global coffee belt, the temperatures are too high and the altitudes are too low for arabica coffee to be grown in most of the country, and even the lower-quality robusta requires an extraordinary amount of chemical inputs.

Back to the BBC. The interview mentions an aspect of Vietnam's coffee history that I did know, but a translation error puts its origins in the wrong century. The Wikipedia article above points to the correct timing. Rossi says that coffee cultivation dates to the French Revolution of 1789 but it really entered around the time of the French Invasion by Napoleon in 1857. This geographer notes that these are opposite kinds of events at opposite ends of the Eurasian continent in separate centuries. 

Another important part of the historic importance of Vietnam's rapid expansion into the global coffee market is that it now sits alongside Brazil as such a large producer that local conditions have global impact. A frost in Brazil has become a cliché as an example of a commodity price disruptor, since such an event can send prices of coffee up throughout the world. 

In 1999,  Vietnam had the opposite effect, with its rapid increase in production cratering prices worldwide and creating a coffee crisis that permanently altered the structure of the industry, especially in Central America. This April, a drought in Vietnam was having the effect as a Brazilian frost, contributing to a dramatic increase in the price of coffee futures. 

I should note that mainstream economists and the journalists who follow them tend to pay attention to the industry only when a rapid increase in price is occurring, even though the industry itself uses futures markets to shift most of the financial risks to farmers themselves. 

*A note about timing: I started this blog post with enthusiasm but it has lingered as a set of open tabs for many weeks. In this context "today" means "about two months ago."

American Quilombo

Woodland Plantation
Photo: Debbie Elliot/NPR

This post is an invitation to learn about the largest uprising of enslaved persons in U.S. history, which took place in Louisiana in 1811. The uprising was organized among workers in captivity in several sugar plantations along the very lowest reaches of the Mississippi River, downstream of New Orleans. 

I learned about this place and its story from journalist Debbie Elliott's interview with twin sisters Jo and Joy Banner. They are descendants of these plantations who led the effort to return this property to black ownership and to launch a new form of plantation tourism that is honest about the terrible history of these beautiful buildings. The story link includes the six-minute audio and abundant links to continue exploring this important history. The Banner sisters and their colleagues are telling a complex and layered history that connects many facets -- up to the present patterns of environmental injustice -- to the original sins of this land.

The revolt was initially successful, with the takeover of Woodland Plantation. The uprising continued, with its participants working their way along the river toward New Orleans. Their progress was soon ended by local militias and the U.S. Army, which was not to fight against slavery until another half century had passed. The brutality of slavery is illustrated by the medieval cruelty of the response.

Despite teaching a course about New Orleans for the past several years, I have not yet been to the city. When I do go, I now know that I will need to spend a couple of days to the south, in the lodgings available at Woodland. 

The word quilombo that I use in the title of this post is somewhat misplaced, but it came to me when I heard the first few seconds of the broadcast story. It is a Brazilian term for the usually small, very remote settlements of people who had escaped slavery. When I first heard that the Woodland Plantation story was about the largest uprising against slavery in the United States, my mind went immediately to these communities in Brazil. Although organizers of this uprising hoped to establish something like a quilombo in New Orleans, it was not to be. 

The pedestrian option in Google Maps gives some sense of the scale of the travel these revolutionaries were attempting. 

Lagniappe

Almost immediately after I posted this, an online friend asked if I had read How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America, the first non-fiction book by New Orleans poet Clint Smith. I am very surprised that I had not heard of this 2021 publication, which has been very enthusiastically received by reviewers on Goodreads, whose description begins:

Beginning in his own hometown of New Orleans, Clint Smith leads the reader through an unforgettable tour of monuments and landmarks-those that are honest about the past and those that are not-that offer an intergenerational story of how slavery has been central in shaping our nation's collective history, and ourselves.

This work spans several centuries and thousands of miles. We are looking forward to reading the audio edition, read by the author himself. Often a professional actor does better readings than the authors can do, but this audio version comes recommended, and I look forward to hearing this important work in the voice of a poet. 

São Vicente Paisagens

 Landscapes of São Vicente 

My colleagues and friends from the Pedro Pires Institute for Cape Verdean Studies at my university recently asked me to collaborate in the development of a travel course to São Vicente, one of the ten major islands of Cape Verde. The course would be an exploration environmental geography, linguistics, and of course music. We had recently completed a very successful course about coffee on the island of Fogo, so I eagerly accepted the invitation and we have begun our planning. 

(Note: I always have extra energy for planning future courses, especially travel courses!)

As with all of Cape Verde's islands, São Vicente is young (geologically speaking) and originated as a hotspot volcano. It is considered inactive, meaning that it has not erupted since the emergence of humans.

Map source: Natural Hazards in Sao Vicente (Cabo Verde) by Bruno Martins et al

As the caption indicates, the elevation map above is from an article about the hazards found on the island; these include various kinds of erosion that are made more likely by the interactions of topography, soil structure, and climate. 

Our course will examine those erosion risks and other climate-related risks common to small islands. and will also focus on the marine ecology of surrounding waters. We will explore both the threats to that ecology and the admirable work being done to protect it, particularly through the efforts of our friends at Biosfera in Mindelo. The work of Biosfera is a major part of A Tale of Two Capes, an online museum exhibition completed by Carolyn King, a recent BSU graduate. 

The other partner in the travel course will be Dr. João Rosa, an accomplished linguist who first proposed this collaboration. He has some interesting ideas about the interaction between Portuguese and Cape Verdean Creole (Kriolu) that he wants to explore in a geographic context. Linguistics was my area of study before I became a geographer and I completed a course in Kriolu with Dr. Rosa a few years ago. So I am very excited to explore the island with him through a linguistic lens.

Music is an important part of cultural geography everywhere, but it seems especially to be the case in Cape Verde, where each island is home both to several distinct musical traditions and to a variety of contemporary artists. Among the former morna is probably the most important genre, and Mindelo was the home of Cesária Évora, its most important performer. We will certainly be making the most of the opportunity to visit her home island.

Among the latter are producers of music videos who really help geography learners by their rich incorporation of the cultural landscape. One example is Khaly Angel and his 2022 production Mindel (Mindelo -- below); another is Ariah by Jenifer Solidade.

We are very fortunate indeed that our other collaborator in offering this course is Angelo Barbosa, who directs our Pedro Pires Institute for Cape Verdean Studies and who also has helped to create the definitive museum of Cape Verdean music, which is fully online.

Brazil Marks a Dire Anniversary

The World is a daily production of Public Radio International (PRI) whose simple name perfectly captures what it provides: an ongoing education about this complicated planet. This week, I was surprised (though I should not have been) to hear a reporter sign off from one of my favorite places: the Brazilian island city of Florianópolis. This was a sweeping, national story, however, set mostly in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. 

Protests in São Paulo, April 2023 Photo: Andre Penner

The story is about the annual commemoration of the 1964 coup, in which the Brazilian military removed President Goulart from office. This began a two-decade period of military dictatorship in Latin America's largest country. Unlike many other authoritarian regimes that were led by a single, outrageous character, this period was characterized by a series of bureaucratic-authoritarian governments whose individual leaders are rarely mentioned.

The immediate past president of Brazil had been complicit in the tyranny of those decades, however, making this anniversary very relevant to the rise and fall of Jair Bolsonaro and his continued relevance, even in defeat.

This blog has several posts with more information about the 1964 - 1985 period in Brazil and the U.S. support for some of those authoritarian regimes. My 2013 post Creative Resistance introduces the song and I discuss the U.S. role in the 2014 Overcoming Condor post.

Lagniappe 

Terry Gilliam's 1985 dystopian comedy Brazil never makes direct reference to the country, but it was released just as democracy returned to the country, and is a satire about bureaucratic-authoritarian (BA) regimes of all kinds, and they ways (known in Brazil as jeito) that ordinary people find to work around them. It is very instructive for those working in more benign BA circumstances, such as universities, state governments, or state universities. 

Modest Relief

NPR's coverage of the latest effort to reduce student-loan debt got some things right: Congress and the courts are making any such relief difficult and such relief programs benefit the entire economy. 

But then the discussion turned toward the "moral hazard" of such programs. Steve Inskeep is a good journalist, so I was surprised to hear him just nodding along with the secretary's nonsense talking points. 

Education Secretary Miguel Cardona

]I was not surprised to hear Sec. Cardona blame universities for the student-debt crisis, but I expected Steve Inskeep to point out the important role of state governments. Instead, he agreed with the Secretary's language of "moral hazard" as if universities just enjoy raising prices. 

Since the days of Reagan and Clinton, public-sector higher education has been under attack by both parties, shifting the 80/20 sharing of costs that people of my age enjoyed to the 20/80 (at best) sharing that exists today. Public universities are public in name only these days; we get a sliver of our budget from public funds, with students paying/borrowing most of what it takes to run a school.

This is why the anti-intellectual language of "ROI" has gained such traction, even among smart people like Mr. Inskeep.

Sir EGGOT

I remember where I was when I first saw this album. Even the name of the album seemed a bit transgressive to the sheltered kid I was at the time.

My father's youngest brother and sister were still teenagers when Elton John released Madman Across the Water. According to my fuzzy memories, my brother and I were in the back yard of our grandparents' home listening to a transistor radio when we learned about the album itself -- I don't remember knowing of any other rock albums before this.

So this morning I treated myself to this jazzy rendition that he had played for BBC television a week after it was released, and presumably a couple of months before I learned about it.

The occasion was Sir Elton's latest honor, this time at the instigation of my country's top librarians. Long after being knighted and shortly after becoming only the 19th person to achieve EGOT status (Emmy-Grammy-Oscar-Tony), the Librarians of Congress have granted Elton John and his writing partner Bernie Taupin its prestigious Gershwin Prize for Popular Song. Named for George and Ira Gershwin, the first honoree was Stevie Wonder. Joni Mitchell was the most recent winner, and the tribute performance of Big Yellow Taxi was captivating.

As of this writing, even the Gershwin Prize page at LOC does not yet divulge the news, which I learned early this morning from NPR journalist Neda Ulaby. who clearly enjoyed telling the story and who gets credit for the EGGOT acronym.

Words & Music: Bernie & Elton
Photo: Loic Venance

Cabo Verde Photos

This embedded slideshow is the best way I know to share all of the photos from my recent travel course in Cape Verde. This is captured from my Fogo 2024 album on Flickr, which is another way to view the same images and to capture them individually (with attribution, please). To view below, simply click < or > and click on the ... at the bottom to expand text. 

As those who know about my teaching are aware, I use coffee as a way to learn more about geography and geography as a way to learn about coffee. As I mentioned to a friend recently, coffee is the wedge -- we are always going to learn about a lot of things when we study it as geographers!

Background: In January 2024, I was delighted to travel to Cape Verde to co-lead my 16th international travel course and my first one since going to Costa Rica in January 2020 just before the world closed. I  always use the term "co-lead" even though I have been the academic instructor of record for all of these journeys. For most of my courses in Central America, I have relied on the expert guidance of Matagalpa Tours. 

For this visit to Cape Verde, I worked closely with experts on my own campus before, during, and after the travel -- just as I had done for the sustainability tour I led there in 2006. This time my colleagues at BSU's Pedro Pires Institute for Cape Verean Studies developed this program with me over the past five years, introducing me to some of the people we were to meet on the journey.

For all of these classes, we have also relied heavily on our Office of Study Abroad to promote the courses, organize the travel, and provide assistance from home during travel. The success of these courses really do depend on many collaborators, especially those who welcome us to their home communities where group travel may not yet be commonplace. 

During the course, I gave public lectures about the geography of coffee to audiences that included our own BSU students, local high school students, local dignitaries, the general public, and some experts who are themselves involved in coffee or coffee research. The idea was to provide some. context for a global industry that many in the audience already understood from an intimate, local level. Slides from these presentations are provided on the Café no Fogo post on my Coffee Maven blog, along with materials presented by Carolyn King, a recent BSU graduate who has done remarkable work on connections between Cape Verde and Cape Cod.

This led to exactly the kinds of exchanges of insights that I was hoping to have, and prepares us for further collaboration in the future. The constraints of our academic calendar caused us to take this trip during a relatively quiet time of the year for local coffee activities; I look forward to returning when the harvest and processing are more active.

Lagniappe 

I have more to say about the background and significance of this journey in a draft article I have written for the Pedro Pires Institute newsletter.

Îles de France

50 Largest Islands of France
(Click to enlarge)

A fellow geographer recently shared this graphic representing the geography of French islands. As with any map, the cartographer has made some choices, in this case depicting shape and size correctly but ignoring distance and location. 

A nod toward location is made, however, by shading the islands according to the oceans. and seas in which they are found. Even though some of these islands are considered "Antarctic Lands," they are not in the Southern Ocean which begins about 10 degrees further south. 

The largest of these islands is a bit bigger than Connecticut; the smallest is about half the size of Manhattan. 

I appreciate this map, but followers of this blog will know that I cannot resist making a Google map whenever I see a spatial list of this kind. The combination of perspectives is, I think, instructive. 

So Goes the Colorado

 

Click to enlarge -- notice the tan hash-marked areas.

I follow the Facebook page Geomorphology Rules because it so often features maps like this one -- maps that tell a provocative story. I also follow it because my master's research was in fluvial geomorphology and I enjoy staying in contact (pun intended) with that quirky discipline that lies at the juncture of geography and geology. Plus which, geographer Kathleen Nicoll runs the site with equal measures of wit and wisdom.

The first thing I noticed about this map is that it identifies the Grand Canyon as a convenient divide between the upper and lower portions of the Colorado River drainage basin. I later noticed that this map (or perhaps it is a map excerpt) has no title or discernible producer.

But the most important thing about this map is that it explains why the Colorado River does not reach the sea most of the time. Most maps show it connecting to the Gulf of California, but in real life this is rare. Where Arizona, California, and Baja California meet, the river is scarcely 100 feet wide; immediately south of that it is not much wider than the small living room in which write this. 

And a few miles south of that, the bridge ("puente") that carries Mexico's Route 2 over the river is bridge over sand most of the time.

I have often explained this in terms of the unfair division of the river's water resources between the upstream and downstream neighbors. Octavio Paz famously lamented, "Alas, poor Mexico! So far from God and so close to the United States!" A century ago, the neighbors agreed to go "halfsies" on the basin's water, with each being allocated 7 million acre-feet of the total 14 million discharged annually. The agreement was made during an unusually wet period, but the U.S. always takes its half, since Mexico cannot come upstream to get it. Agribusiness and urban areas in the basin -- including the one I was living in when I learned all of this -- reduce the river to a trickle.

The maps makes clear, however, that this is not a full explanation of the problem. Rather, it is the interbasin transfers to the relatively small areas that essentially surround the basin. These are small regions to which water that would otherwise be making its way toward the aforementioned bridge is instead crossing the divide to supply cities, farms, or both in other basins.

The most notorious of these arrangements is the focus of the 1974 film Chinatown, but Los Angeles is far from the only culprit at this stage.