Bringing Fish

The Texas County Soil and Water District held their annual banquet last month to recognize farmers that have worked their land properly as well as thanked the rest of the members of their council for all their hard work. I was able to attend since that is where we recognized the winners of our poster and photo contest. At the banquet, they had a guest speaker from the Missouri Department of Conservation in the Fisheries Department. He had the opportunity to travel to Afghanistan, (since he has prior military experience) to help citizens with creating a Fish Hatchery. He showed the human side that we all seem to forget about when we talk about that part of the world. He spoke about the people he met, their living situations and how grateful they were for his assistance. Two things in particular stuck in my mind.

One day, while he was surveying the area, the translator told a group of young men that he was “bringing fish.” One of the teenage boys was so excited he ran to the fisheries man and gave him his fishing pole. Of course the man didn’t accept the gift as he didn’t want to take it away from the boy, but instead asked if he’d help him catch some fish so he could do some research. The community that this gentleman worked in asked a favor of him. They were having big problems with Farrell Hogs (a problem that we have in my own watershed) and wanted to know how they could get rid of them. He promised to come back in a few days to help them out. On his way back to the village, a group of farmers stopped him. The group of people that are against his help placed mines in the road. The military escorts called it in and were going to sweep the area. But before they arrived, the group of farmers found and reoved all the mines so that the man from MDC would be ok and still help them with their Farrell Hog problem. His stories helped me to realize how fortunate we are to live where we do, and to enjoy and protect the natural resources we have.