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 Alvin Alexander Cheyne

January 10, 1921 - June 17, 2005

 

 

 

      

Midges, smelly lake just part of nature in all its glory

 

Besides, those bugs can let people know where you’re from

August 3, 2008

Klamath Falls Herald and News Editorial

News stories about a stinky Upper Klamath Lake and the clouds of midges mean it’s time to reflect a bit on some of Klamath’s natural wonders. Of course you might have to push aside the clouds of smoke to see them. But at least you can’t blame Klamath County for the smoke — it’s coming from California wildfires.

The millions of little green bugs can be a great source of stories. Have you heard the one about  swarms so dense they can break electronic beams and operate automatic doors? Or about how they berm up against curbs like green snowdrifts? The stories are true and so are countless others. Most people who have been in Klamath Falls for more than a year or so have lived the stories as well as told them.

Midges are handy, too. They let people know where you’re from. When you pull into a gas station in Medford or Bend, the attendant doesn’t have to ask. All he has to do is look at the front of the car. If it looks like it’s wearing fur, he knows you’re from Klamath.

A lot of local drivers make sure they’re traveling with extra water and scrub brushes so they can pull over and clean the windshield once they get past the worst of it and that’s a good idea.
But most of the time, the swarms are only annoying. Midges don’t bite, aren’t dangerous, other than to visibility, and the stories can be entertaining. The bugs add to the local food chain, which includes trophy-sized trout in Upper Klamath Lake and lots of birds. Perhaps they wouldn’t be quite so big and quite so prevalent without the midges.

Parts of Upper Klamath Lake stink at times and that’s happening now. That’s natural, too, because of the region’s volcanic origins. That means rocks are high in phosphorous, which encourages algae, which in turn dies and smells bad when it does.

But the same kind of volcanic activity that occasionally gives us a P.U. kind of shoreline also created Crater Lake, the nation’s deepest, bluest lake in the caldera of what was Mount Mazama. A little stink from time to time is well worth being home to that mountain gem along with many other remnants of the region’s molten past such as Mount McLoughlin and fascinating geologic landscapes at Lava Beds National Monument.

Think of such things the next time the lake’s “bouquet” becomes a little overripe. Or when you’re hacking on those little green bugs you accidentally sucked down while walking through Moore Park. Just tell yourself and anyone around you, “Ain’t nature wonderful?”

    Pat Bushey wrote today’s editorial.
 

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