Elaboration on the Nature of Woody Debris: An Ethical Snag in the Aesthetic Justification for Organized River Cleanup

Beauty is the symbol of morality, according to Immanuel Kant. We interpret this to imply that by achieving aesthetic pleasure, humankind can somehow replace the need for ethical satisfaction. We apply this idea to the project of constructing scenic waterways in urban areas, and ask “What purpose is served by organizing debris removal along the channels and banks of polluted urban waterways if they become aesthetically pleasing but remain nearly devoid of life?”

A footnote to recent scientific research that measures the effect of woody debris on stream channel processes reveals that woody debris contributes to aquatic habitat. Adding woody debris to a stream can create protected zones and improve fish habitat by increasing pool types and sizes, sediment storage, and local scour. We discuss this current research and its implications in the changing contexts of American history and environmental ethics. The systematic removal of natural woody “snags” (for example the spectacular “Great Raft” on the Red River) that helped open the interior of the United States to commerce once fit the prevailing public morality of American Manifest Destiny. Today, Americans who can find little ethical satisfaction in the condition of their urban waterways yet strive to make them scenic.

We explore the scenic and recreational potentials for “treating” urban streams with the addition of woody debris in order to contribute to aquatic habitat. We also indulge in semantic games and ask why the debris must be woody in order to contribute. This leads to a provocative discussion about wooden pallets, shopping carts, and automobile tires. Perhaps debris removal in urban waterways disrupts and diminishes aquatic habitat, yet results in an aesthetic pleasure that helps make our ethical dissatisfaction with polluted rivers and streams more palatable. If so, the social construction of scenic urban waterways is just an aesthetic movement driven by a political desire for utopia.