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This Website is Dedicated to Alvin Alexander Cheyne January 10, 1921 - June 17, 2005 |
Response to WSJ article 'Dam
the Salmon'
William
D. Kennedy
Lost River Ranch
Shikha Dalmia has eloquently stated what many of us in the real
world
of natural resource management have faced for the past 25 years. (Dam
the Salmon
Some who claim to be advocating for the environment have limited our
choices in natural resource decisions. Do we want modern, renewable
hydropower or do we want migrating salmon? Do we practice forest
management with selective logging or do we save the spotted owl?
The agenda of the greens or the deep ecologists is not what we see in
their advocacy. In the case of
our infrastructure creates real economic pressure on those identified
as the big environmental problem, the growing human race.
25 years after shutting down timber production on our national forest,
in the name of the spotted owl, the economy of our rural counties hangs
in a state of disaster. While extreme anti-logging interests chanted
“save the owl” their true desire was to create an economy not
favorable
for our communities. We are there.
Our rural counties have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars lobbying
Congress to continue with annual subsidies replacing timber revenue
support for our schools, our public health and our safety.
When we remove our affordable power from the Klamath we will continue
towards the end of irrigated agriculture. With a 90-day growing season,
we will not be able to afford our power to provide drainage and water
delivery.
The reliable water and affordable power in the Klamath also provides
food and habitat for over 400 species of vertebrate wildlife.
The extreme greens that are focused on removal of dams on the
River
infrastructure development. There are two such directions that they
were completely AWOL.
People’s Energy of Chicago proposed building a 1500 Megawatt gas fired
generator in Bonanza,
metric tons of CO2 per year yet not one environmental group came out in
opposition to it. Perhaps this is because such a plant would pay
millions of mitigation dollars to the Energy Trust, which has very
close ties to the extreme greens.
When a multinational company proposed an industrial hog production
facility less than two miles away from a private wildlife refuge, not
one of the deep ecology green groups was to be heard of.
The natural resource producers who live in the Klamath basin prevented
these threats to our environment.
As we continue to resolve our resource issue here, we recognize that
the true stakeholders determine direction. The irrigators, the tribes
and the fishers that are in the water understand and respect each
other. On the outside but struggling to portray themselves as bonafide
advocates are the greens. While we are open to unlimited solutions
that may include high tech hydropower and migrating salmon, the extreme
environmental groups will continue to limit resolution in order to
create economic anarchy in our communities.
(Posted with the permission of the author.)