Some Mixed-Up Ecology Regarding the San Joaquin River Flowing Again

California may be one of the best places in the country for mixed-up ecology because it presents bleeding hearts trying to restore the environment wherever possible and we have mercenary agriculturalists who regard any use of water other than for the fields is wasting the resource.  (L.A. Times:  Even with drought, a California river will begin flowing year-round for the first time in 60 years)

Thanks to Pink for the tip since I had seen that news previously but decided it was worth mention when he showed it's considered worthy of passing from one person to another.


The avaricious farmer view:

Nickel, a fifth-generation farmer working the land along the river, doubts the wisdom of spending money on an intricate system of passages to get salmon around the river's many dams and siphoning off more water from agriculture.

"Most practical folks would look at it and say, 'Impossible,'" Nickel said. "It seemed like a waste."

- L.A. Times

The bleeding heart perspective:

The original plan was to complete the task in 2012.  Now, federal officials expect it will occur in 2022.  And the government's original cost estimate of $800 million has ballooned to about $1.7 billion.

"I think we all had hoped we'd be further along," said Doug Obegi, an attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council, which led the lawsuit that produced the deal with the government to bring back the salmon.  "Restoring the state's second-largest river was never going to be a cakewalk."

- L.A. Times

'It was never going to be a cakewalk?'  Maybe they should find some adults to represent instead of schoolboys.

Now ain't that just ducky.  First we have the prevailing perspective in which anything we don't take and use for ourselves is wasted and then we have the bleeding heart perspective that it's worth anything to try to restore a system which has been so fundamentally damaged for decades and which is facing increasing drought well into the future.

Here at the Rockhouse, we absolutely support environmentalism but only in ways which make sense to do it.  In the example in California, we don't see much beyond ostrichism in trying to recreate a Land of Milk and Honey when in fact it was largely handed over almost a century ago to corporate agricultural interests and climate change is forcing even greater changes which likely will undo the work they're doing here.