The Sandy River in Franklin County is among the most erosion-prone rivers in the state. As a result, Your Scribe is facing two major events at river's edge.

The depressing development is that a huge spruce street is about to pitch into the river.

The roots are pulling away from the porous earth. Indeed, there is about a three foot widening between the "bank" and the bulb of the tree that is going in with the 50 feet of trunk and branches. It will be submerged within a month.

Naive, I wondered if the state has a program where a forester will come down and remove the tree from the river. But Gary the Energetic Logger says the opposite is true: The state won't touch it and they won't let you either.

"Nature taking it's course, is the way they see it," Gary said.

I lose at least a dozen fish hooks per weekend from snags. I will be doomed when the tree takes its fall.

But being a giddy optimist, I see a positive event about 100 feet to the east. A sandy bank that stands about 15 feet above the river is about to cascade into the water also.

I don't know why. But when it does, it will offer a launching point for the canoe. Right now, we have to lower the 17-foot craft almost vertically, and hope for the best.

Old-timers in Franklin County have many tales about how the river has changed course over the years. And each year we go canoeing, we see major trunks in the water after their roots could no longer keep hold of the bank. So now it's happening to the riverfront of Your Scribe.

(An aside: This isn't really on point, but one of the largest projects of the U.S. Corps of Engineers is keeping the Mississippi River from changing course. It wants to head straight south from Arkansas, and flood the swamplands of western Louisiana. But that would mean it would bypass New Orleans, putting an end to an already ailing city. It could also create havoc for the oil and gas rigs in the Gulf. So hundreds of millions have been spent keeping the Mississippi in line. I wonder if any of that money goes toward a program to fetch fallen trees that threaten local fishing waters).

So that's it. Your Scribe stands to be 1 and 1 when it comes to vying with the small but mighty Sandy River.

I'd much rather be 0 and 0, and enjoy the river bank the way it was.

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