Lamenting The Now Dry Village Creek Bayou & Pondering The Great North Texas Drought

Just a couple days ago there was still water in the Village Creek Bayou in Village Creek Natural Historic Area.

With birds in the bayou.

A couple weeks ago I saw a couple water snakes in the Village Creek Bayou.

Today I saw that the Great North Texas Drought has totally dried out the Village Creek Bayou.

Where have the birds gone, now that the water has gone? Where have the water snakes gone, now that there is no more water?

On a more upbeat wildlife note, today whilst walking amongst the Village Creek, still green foliage, I saw a scrawny raccoon run across the trail ahead of me. A few minutes after that I saw my first armadillo of the year.

The Great North Texas Drought is perplexing me. Something about The Lawn Whisperer, that I blogged about yesterday, has been bugging me.

The Lawn Whisperer makes a big fuss about people wasting water irrigating their lawns. But, that water remains in the ecosystem. It may evaporate, it may make it's way to the Trinity River, wherever it goes, it remains in the ecosystem.

The water taken from the North Texas ecosystem, by the Barnett Shale Natural Gas Drillers, does not return to the ecosystem. If that Fracking water does intersect with the ecosystem, it is a mistake, and hurts the ecosystem.

So, what I was wondering was this. How much of the Great North Texas Drought is being caused by having millions upon millions of gallons of water permanently removed from the ecosystem?

It seems fairly obvious that at some point the level of water removal will have a bad effect. Are we already at that point? If the millions upon millions of gallons of water that have been removed from the ecosystem had not been removed, would we not be in the midst of the Great North Texas Drought?

It's perplexing.