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The Singing River has the Blues, Mississippi

As told by Ocean Springs Stories: YES Students
Moss Point, Mississippi

Story Narrative:

During 2018, students from the Ocean Springs School District in Mississippi came to the Pascagoula River Audubon Center to learn about the ecology of their local waterways and the dangers of invasive species. They combined this environmental education with creativity and developed their own performance called "The Singing River has the Blues."

Speaker 1: Students from the Ocean Springs school district in Oceans Spring Mississippi are learning about invasive species in and around the Pascagoula River, our landmark waterway. Today, they've come to the Pascagoula River Audubon Center, in Moss Point Mississippi.

Speaker 2: Or you could walk-

Speaker 3: So this is salvinia minima, and it's harmful to the river because it blocks out the sunlight to fish, animals, creatures, plants, and anything else that lives in the water.

Speaker 4: We did an experiment on it. So we put it in cups, and we filled the cups up with freshwater, and the water got saltier and saltier, and then we figured out that it likes zero salt, likes freshwater, and the saltwater makes it die.

Speaker 2: My prediction of when it was going to die was five parts per thousand, because I knew that even if there's the slightest change in any animal or plant's habitat, it would be hard to live, and eventually they would die. So I guessed five parts.

Speaker 5: And how salvinia minima got into the ocean is some boats and trailers picked up the salvinia minima, and it got stuck to them; and whenever they were driving around or going in the water they spread it.

Speaker 6: Hi there. We're the original cast of The Singing River Has the Blues. We will-

Speaker 1: These young conservationists put together a skit to demonstrate the relationship between invasive and native species.

Speaker 6: Please keep in mind that we have not rehearsed in three months, and our summer just began on May 23rd. After our introduction, we will show you the highlights of our show, The Singing River has the Blues.

Speaker 7: I'm the yellow blotched, sawback reptile, YBSMT.

Speaker 8: I am the bald cypress tree.

Speaker 3: I am the salvinia weevil.

Speaker 9: I am the white-tailed deer.

Speaker 10: I am the gray squirrel.

Speaker 11: I am the popcorn tree.

Speaker 12: I am cogon grass.

Speakers: We are salvinia minima.

Speaker 7: Five, six, five six here we go now.

Group:  YBSMT. YBSMT.

Speaker 7: I'm an olive fella, not just yellow.

Group:  YBSMT. YBSMT.

Speaker 7: I eat bugs and slugs and crustaceans too.

Group:  YBSMT. YBSMT.

Speaker 7: I share the Pascagoula River with you.

Group:  YBSMT. YBSMT.

Speaker 7: I'm the yellow-blotched, sawback map turtle. YBSMT.

Group:  An endemic species.

Speaker 7: That means I'm unique to a specific geographic location, sweeties.

Group:  That specific location happens to be the Pascagoula River Watershed.

Speaker 7: In all the world, that's the only place I rest my head. Lately I've been hanging my head. I've been feeling blue, this awful thing has happened to me and you. My nesting site is in trouble, because cogon grass has more than doubled. My little eggs are floating away. There's no safe place to raise my young, and I only have sleepless nights.

Group:  She's singing the blues.

Speaker 7: Cogon grass, my eggs you harass.

Group:  Cogon grass, my eggs you harass.

Speaker 7: Cogon grass, time has passed.

Group:  Cogon grass, time has passed.

Speaker 7: My eggs want to hatch.

Group:  Your eggs want to hatch.

Group:  Cogon grass, spreads so fast, the winds blows seeds, we will succeed. Fluffy and serrated, we took over, now your nesting sites are ill-fated.

Speaker 7: Herbicide (mightens 00:04:05) your destructive side.

Group:  Oh no.

Speaker 3: Popcorn, who wants popcorn?

Group:  Me.

Speaker 6: Do you have any cheddar?

Speaker 3: Nope.

Speaker 6: Well I'll take popcorn anyways.

Group:  No, you don't want this thorn.

Speaker 3: Popcorn, hot and buttered.

Group:  Me.

Group:  (4:37) This toxic, invasive species makes the river cluttered.

Speaker 11: I am the popcorn tree, or Chinese tallow tree, AKA Triadica sebifera. I'm so terrifica. I am a bright green ornamental tree. I look pretty harmless you see.

Group:  Triadica sebifera is not that terrifica. It's actually scaring me, the poisonous popcorn tree.

Speaker 11: I'm listed as top ten in Mississippi, that is good news indeed.

Group:  You are listed as a top ten invasive weed.

Group:  The popcorn tree, the popcorn tree, pop pop pop surrounding me. Killing plants, destroying their chance, dumping toxins in the soil, causing locals grief and toil. The popcorn tree, the popcorn tree, pop pop pop surrounding me.

Group:  Help stop, help stop the pop. Help stop the popcorn tree. Help stop the popcorn tree from its destructive spree.

Speakers: Zero parts per thousand, that's what I need. Zero parts per thousand, I can take over you see.

Speaker 15: I transfer from boats and trailers.

Speaker 16: I want to multiply.

Speakers: I block out the sunlight, time to say goodbye.

Group:  Zero parts per thousand, that's what I need. Zero parts per thousand, no salinity for me.

Speakers: Zero parts.

Group:  Per thousand.

Speakers: Zero parts.

Group:  Per thousand.

Speaker 6:

Salvinia minima, you've been chained my soul.

Group:  Salvinia minima, you've been chained my soul.

Speaker 6: Salvinia minima, you've been chained my soul.

Group:  Salvinia minima, you've been chained my soul.

Speaker 6: I hope the salinity rises, you have been told.

Group:  You have been told.

Speaker 3: We're coming, are coming after you, with biological control. Hungry weevil can save the day. Count your days, salvinia minima, because Cyrtobagous salviniae is on the way.

Speakers: Oh no.

Group:  Threats to the river and threats to our home, please hear the cries of our wetlands biome. They don't look like monsters yet they cause great turmoil, damaging the river and poisoning the soil. The singing river has beauty and promises anew, yet the trouble she's facing has her singing the blues.

Group:  When I battle my threats I feel alone and blue, but when I open my eyes I see friends in you.

Speaker 7: Spread herbicide, herbicide, herbicide.

Group:  Herbicide.

Speaker 7: Cogon grass?

Group:  Die.

Speaker 11: Got to stop the pop.

Group:  Yes stop the pop.

Speaker 11: Going to stop the pop?

Group:  Yes stop the pop.

Speaker 3: Going to find cyrtobagous salviniae, ey?

Group:  Going to find cyrtobagous salviniae, ey?

Speaker 3: To save the day.

Group:  To save the day.

Speaker 6: Problems of today.

Group:  Problems of today.

Speaker 6: Can go far far away.

Group:  Can go far far away.

Speaker 1: (8:37) It was a cool, overcast day, but our intrepid explorers suit up for a boat trip up the Pascagoula River.

Speaker 1: (8:47) Captain Benny will show them up close what they've learned in school.

Captain Benny: But now whenever they start laying eggs, whenever the female lays her eggs and she starts scenting, she'll do all the nesting. She'll sit on the eggs until they hatch out. And they will actually, when they hatch out of the egg, while she's doing that the male goes out and fishes. He'll go fish, and bring her the fish, feed her while she's doing that.

Captain Benny: When I was a kid, when I was y'all's age here, I'd never seen the ospreys, I'd never seen brown pelicans or bald eagles. And now we see them in good number again. And the reason why, the DDT that we would use, those pesticides we'd use for mosquito control, it would get in the water and all the fish eaters at that time, it would make their eggs real brittle where they wouldn't be able to reproduce. And when we outlawed the use of DDT here in the states, then they all started coming back. So now we have them in good numbers.

Captain Benny: I never thought when I was y'all's age, I'd ever see a bald eagle here again. Now we see them pretty regular. I'm hoping we can get to see one when we get on up the swamp, maybe we'll some then.

Captain Benny: Yeah this right here, actually this is about the tallest grass right here. This is called (rollocade 00:11:04). Let me get you a little bit closer over and then you can feel it.

Captain Benny: (E.R. Wilson 00:11:05), he studied ants. That pretty much-

Group:  I never heard of him.

Captain Benny: You hadn't? Well you look him up. He's very... he's from this area too, and he's been on this river. Actually, wherever y'all have been, he's actually found an ant that lives in this, and they bore a little hole, and they live up and down the stalk. It makes a pretty good home because it's in a shelter.

Captain Benny: Well that ant is a pretty good size. But one thing about that ant that he found out, is one of them got a job that he'll stick his head whenever it rains, or the water rises, he'll stick his head in that hole to keep it from... and when you stick your head underwater, it forms a bubble, and he'll keep the water from coming and and drowning the rest of them. But he'll do that.

Teacher: So he sacrifices himself?

Captain Benny: That's right.

Teacher:Wow.

Captain Benny: Nature is really neat.

Captain Benny: Very good. Okay. You're right. Well all these plants have got to tolerate a little bit of salt, and they have different ways of getting rid of it.

Captain Benny: But you can... it'll get a little seed on it, but it's not...

Captain Benny: It flies like a vulture. Yeah, that's a vulture.

Captain Benny: Ain't these cypress leaves neat? These cypress leaves are neat

Teacher: We have a theory about how they come up with the Latin names. They-

Captain Benny: Oh there is two of them. That other one, that's the yellow blotched sawback turtle.

Teacher: We call it the YBSMT, because that's too much to say.

Captain Benny: Well they used to use that... they call it the tallow tree. They used to use it to make soap out of too. Tallow.

Group:  (singing)

Teacher: Remember your lines? Do it.

Speaker 1: As the day comes to a close, and river explorers return to port, they leave you with this thought.

Group:  And we conserve only what we love. We will love only what we understand. And we will understand only what we are taught.


Asset ID: 8600
Themes: Crossroads, small towns, ports, environment, rivers, invasive species, education, nature
Date recorded: 2018
Length of recording: 13:43 m
Related traveling exhibition: Water/Ways
Sponsor or affiliated organization: Pascagoula River Audubon Center, Mississippi
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