Pat Munday - July 14, 2005
Clark Fork River Technical Assistance Committee
Failure to Plan
Hi, I’m Pat Munday, with the Clark Fork River Technical Assistance Committee.
My summer reading list includes Jared Diamond’s new book, Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed. Along with chapters about Easter Island, Rwanda, and Greenland is one about Montana. In fact, it’s the first chapter. Diamond uses Montana as a template for societies that choose to fail. Our inability to use water wisely, failed natural resource economy, and takeover by wealthy nonresident landowners are all key factors in our failure to thrive.
Diamond argues our problems stem from disagreement over core values. On the one hand, we appreciate a high quality of life based on our relationship to the environment. On the other hand, we embrace pro-individual/anti-government impulses. In part, this is a battle between unsustainable development and natural resource planning. We value good trout fishing, but we do not want to curb riparian development. We value open space and sustainable ranches, but we do not want to limit subdivision or suburban sprawl. Thus does our “failure to plan” become “a plan for failure.”
This book is a stern warning about how shortsighted gains result in long-term social collapse. As Diamond puts it, "What did the Easter Islander who cut down the last palm tree say while he was doing it? Like modern loggers, did he shout 'Jobs, not trees!'?"
Clearly, Montana is not without hope. We’ve made a few right choices—such as halting cyanide mining, insuring stream access as a public right, cleaning up the Clark Fork River, and removing Milltown Dam. There are some other bright spots: Montana’s Natural Resource Damage Program is funding a major education program for students in the Upper Clark Fork River Superfund site; the Friends of Two Rivers group is exploring the postindustrial future of Bonner/Milltown; and a group of Opportunity residents has come together to demand social justice as their backyard becomes a massive repository for Milltown’s toxic mine waste.
Sadly, though, our public agencies do not always support our best efforts. In April of 2004, CFRTAC asked that specific concerns be addressed by the Environmental Protection Agency in its review of Warm Springs Ponds. Despite this request, Scott Brown of the EPA ignored CFRTAC’s concerns and effectively excluded citizens from the remedy review. CFRTAC was told it would have an opportunity to comment on the draft review, but that we could not play a constructive role. This is unfortunate, as EPA continues to ignore the chronic failure of the ponds. Effluent from the ponds routinely exceeds water quality standards for metals and arsenic. To add injury to insult, the EPA also insists that the same failed technology used at Warm Springs Ponds will be good enough for toxic runoff from the Butte hill. A poor remedy for the Butte hill will ensure the permanent impairment of Silver Bow Creek.
Everyone seems to agree that trout are a good indicator species to measure our success in restoring natural resources in the Upper Clark Fork River Basin. Over the past few years, fisheries scientists have discovered numerous isolated populations of Westslope cutthroat trout – a native species and Montana’s family fish – throughout the headwater streams of Silver Bow Creek. The George Grant Chapter of Trout Unlimited has initiated cutthroat restoration, and has set native trout restoration as a holistic goal for the entire Silver Bow Creek watershed. This is a sound goal based on conservation biology.
Unfortunately, it is not certain how strongly the US Forest Service or Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks support this goal. The Forest Service office in Butte recently cut a full time fisheries biologist from its budget. Though a biologist from a neighboring district is making a valiant effort to continue work already underway, this scientist has his hands full with work on his home district.
With Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks we may be facing a double loss. One full time fisheries biologist assigned to work with the Natural Resource Damage Program has not been replaced. And Wayne Hadley – a state fisheries biologist who worked for many years from the Deer Lodge office – will probably be replaced with a biologist based in Missoula. It’s a long ways from Missoula to Deer Lodge, and even farther to Butte. The conservation community fears that fisheries restoration opportunities in the upper Clark Fork will be lost. This is a sad footnote to the legacy of Wayne Hadley, a tireless advocate for Superfund clean up and restoration in the upper Clark Fork River basin.
Well, as Ed Abbey advised us, be sure to run the rivers and bag the peaks even as you fight for the West. Begin Saturday by joining the Clark Fork Coalition’s 4th Annual Milltown to Downtown float. Put in at the dam at 1:00, party at Caras at 5:00. For shuttle info, call the Coalition at 542-0539. Last year, more than 2,000 people floated to show their support for a clean river.
Also, check out CFRTAC’s website at www.clarkforkoptions.org.
From Butte to Missoula, we deserve a clean, healthy, and accessible Clark Fork River. It’s your river. Wade in, and help make the future.
Thank you, and good night.
|
|
