And now the work begins

Nov 20, 2008

While even we are still flush with the excitement of the recently announced agreement to remove the dams on the Klamath River, this is no time to celebrate.

Obviously, how can we as a community not be excited by the prospect that ecological health may be returning to the Klamath River system? After the last half-dozen years or so, when we've seen the river suffer under the yoke of environmental mismanagement, this is breath of new life.

It gives us hope that some day we may again see a Klamath River that is burgeoning with life and possibility.

But at this point, it is only hope. It is the far off glimmer of possibility, not the hard-edged trophy of reality righteously won. And that continues to be what we're all working and hoping for.

This latest development just means that the real work is beginning, work to craft an agreement that in the end protects the interests of as many stakeholders as possible while never losing sight of the fact that the river, and its health, is paramount.

And work to make sure that the promise of this development, the ultimate removal of the dams, is not lost with the coming and going of presidential administrations and the fickle preferences of an at times schizophrenic American electorate.

So as we applaud the progress made thus far, and wave toward the glimmering destination on the hill, we must keep putting one foot in front of the other so that when we reach the end of this road, we find more than a mirage there waiting for us.