EARTH DIARY
A look at ecomidity, Washington watch and the nature library.
By Tom Turner
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Ecotimidity
Is the environmental movement getting too cautious?
Consider the following:
In west-central Texas, as I mentioned in issue 103, plans
are afoot to build the Stacey Dam just below the confluence
of the Colorado and Concho rivers. There are many things
wrong with the proposal, not the least of which is the fact
that, if implemented, it would wreck most of the remaining
habitat for the endangered Concho water snake and probably
kill most of the snakes outright. In Sacramento,
California, the city fathers have given their blessing to a
big real estate development on the outskirts of town. The
development is in flagrant violation of the city's own
master plan, which calls for building in vacant parts of
town before reaching out to the fringes. The policy was
intended to minimize commuting, cut down on air pollution
and preserve agricultural lands. In the northern Rockies
surrounding Yellowstone National Park are the last remnants
of the noble grizzly bear population in the lower 48.
Habitat for some bears is shrinking as people usurp the
land for roads, gas wells, ski resorts and logging
operations. Yet Montana directly threatens the
grizzly—an endangered species—with a hunting
season.
Classic environmental problems all, but they have something
unexpected in common: The environmental community is
ambivalent about what to do.
In Texas, they remember the snail darter. In the mid-'70s,
the Tennessee Valley Authority commenced construction of
the Tellico Dam on the New River in Tennessee. The dam was
a real stinkeroo: It cost more than it could ever hope to
return, it destroyed valuable farmland and a lovely stretch
of river, and it drove people from land their forebears had
lived on for two centuries.
None of the economic or aesthetic arguments against the dam
had slowed it down one iota. But then a biologist in waders
netted a small fish he later identified as a snail darter.
It was, almost by definition, an endangered species, since
it was so little known in the area. The researcher then
went fishing for a lawyer, the lawyer sued to stop
construction of the dam and the court ordered work
suspended.
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