Tonight I stumbled upon the word “Paludology” on the web. I have never heard this term before. After doing a little searching it appears it was proposed as the field of “wetland science” by Gotkiewicz (2005).

Has anyone else heard this term or seen it used?

Have wetland scientists now joined the ranks of other -ological disciplines and can refer to themselves as paludologists along with all the hydrologists, ecologists, and pedologists?

When people ask what we do should we all be saying “I'm a paludologist!”.

If I run around smeared in mud with redox characteristics, am I a paludist?

Paludology?

I think that may be covered under HIPAA?...Don't ask, don't tell?

To be sung with the tune from Palladin.
My apologies to the women wetland delineators for the chauvanism of the words.
Paludist---------------------

Paludist, Paludist, where do you roam
Paludist, Paludist, far, far from home

Have spade, will travel reads the card of a man
A knight with bug spray in a savage land
His fast spade for hire heeds the client list
A soldier of fortune is the man called Paludist

Paludist, Paludist, where do you roam
Paludist, Paludist, far, far from home

He travels on to wherever he must
A wetland cert. is his badge of trust
There are forum legends that still persist
Of the man with the spade, of the man called Paludist


Paludist, Paludist, where do you roam
Paludist, Paludist, far, far from home
Far from home
Far from home

quote:

...Don't ask, don't tell?

Funny...I thought that was the Steven's approach to jurisdiciton.

Pat.

You should make up some t-shirts with that.

Brandon,

Good one. I like Johnny's approach, also known as "Who wants to know?"

And, I agree. Patrict should pursue "paludist" T-shirts. Could be a winner in the paludist community. May need to clear ASCAP with the refrain of Richard Boone's "Ballad of Paladin", though.

Everyone is on their own re: the T-shirt thing. Don't want any lawyer events to get triggered. Just get some of that iron on transfer material and make your own. Do you think that by the time we retire we can join a Paludist colony?

Patrick,

Don't know about the paludist colony. Not sure I feature spending my golden years looking at a bunch of naked wetland delineators! However, your approach to the T-shirt thing perfectly mirrors Johnny Stevens' approach to jurisdictional determinations and the Corps! Ha!

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Matt Reed,

Matt,
I don't know how you come to that conclusion, it is in fact the exact opposite. Instead of participating in risky behaviour by guessing that something is right (not a wetland) when it isn't, I simply avoid the problem (like a wetland), then it isn't an issue, and no lawyers need be hired. Ha back at ya.

Johnny might just call in the lawyers to see if it can be done instead of just avoiding the issue.

Patrick,

Johnny DOES avoid the wetland. He just does it without getting entangled with the Corps. He does it himself! You avoid legal entanglements over copyright by advising others to do the T-shirt themselves. You're right, it's not exactly the same.

And as a result he opens the door for entanglements with the COE. NOT my approach with either t-shirts or wetlands.

Dear Patrick,
For the record, we plan, document and execute our projects to avoid impacts to jurisdictional waters, and have not had any entanglements with the Corps since the Rapanos decision in 2006.

Excellent, be sure to let us know if your string of good fortune comes to an end.

Matt & Johnny,
The Steven's approach ( and I don't mean the Supreme Court justice Stevens)is to guess what is and is not a wetland, and to avoid what he guesses is a wetland and then impact what he guesses is not a wetland. That my friend is called guessing/gambeling, not sound business due diligence.

Dear Patrick,
Our success is not due to "good fortune" but is instead rooted in understanding and complying with the law. The only thing that threatens our "good fortune" is a poor economy.

I disagree, your decision to gambel on what you think is and is not a jurisdictional wetland may work for you so far, but is foolish risk taking in my opinion.

The poor economy is due to a long string of insufficient regulation in my opinion, Enron, WorldCom, Bank foolishness, do those ring a bell? Environmental issues will respond the same way if there is insufficient regulation.

Patrick,

It seems to be a bit unclear from media reports what the Occupy Wall Street(OWS) demonstrators are demonstrating for, but I think that the agenda you've indicated here would align, at least somewhat, with theirs. Is that accurate?

Give up trying to bait me. If you clearly define what you mean by what they stand for then I can say yes or no.

Do you agree or disagree with the constitution of the US? How's that for a meaningless leading question?

I'll take that as a "no". Not accurate?

To answer your question, yes, I agree with the U.S. Constitution as amended. But, I am an originalist. Also, I would support the repeal of Amendment XVII which provides for direct election of the Senate.

The problem is, the Constitution is constantly being reinterpreted, so what you are saying is you agree with something that is not fully defined. That is the same sort of open ended leading question that you should avoid or spend a lifetime commenting on.

It is glib to provide a simple answer to an infinitely complex general question.

That is why I won't provide an answer and reject the answer you provided because it is glib and simplistic.

If you ask a foolish question in the future then you will get this same kind of answer from me. No answer.

Patrick,

A more analogous challenge to me would be to ask if I support the Tea Party movement. The answer would be, yes, in general, I do. President Obama has expressed some sympathy with whatever goals have been discerned for OWS. I don't think that it's too far-fetched to draw some parallel between your concerns and theirs.