CANADA: 'Hydro Power is breaking our hearts'

[Jeffrey Turner]

Bill Bonde ( ``There's sunshine in my stomach'' ) wrote:
> Jeff Strickland wrote:
>>"Fresno Farms" <brutus at u.com> wrote:


>>>  People see "pretty" mountain reservoirs and don't think
>>>much about it.  But building a reservoir results
>>>in 100% habitat destruction.  Typically, reservoirs
>>>(to maximize water volume) are built on rare "flats" and
>>>meadow areas, which are extremely important biodiversity areas.
>>>   Thus due to the rare topography, reservoirs are often
>>>located on critical migration routs (deer and such) and
>>>(say,) fawning areas.  Deer drowning mortality rates alone
>>>can be high enough to wipe out a deer population within
>>>a few years.  And of course, no more timber, into the
>>>foreseeable foture.
>>
>>Deer drowning!? We have a new reservior in our area, it was built similiarly
>>to the scenario you suggested, flat land surrounded by hills. I have to take
>>exception to your assertion that deer drown as a result. We haven't got deer
>>around here, but it took YEARS to fill the reservior, certainly the deer
>>would have migrated away long before they were required to learn to swim.
>>Not only did it take years to fill, it took a decade to build. Surely the
>>deer (if there were any) would have moved on long before they drown.
> 
> I guess you didn't see that Mutual of Omaha "Wild Kingdom" where Marlon
> Perkins spent the show in a canoe visiting tiny islands and dying trees
> littered with clingy, frightened wildlife in need of rescue as the
> waters from the new dam steadily rose. In case you didn't know, the
> average deer isn't smart enough to know about the hydrological issues
> incumbent on someone deciding whether it's safe to make this or that
> now-dry grove of trees and shrubbery safe for the long term. In fact,
> most ungulates don't even bother to show up for the public hearings on
> the environmental impact of proposed hydroelectric projects, so what are
> they complaining about later for anyway?

Bill, that's a classic.  Possibly the best thing I've ever seen you
write.

--Jeff

-- 
Americans will always do the right thing
- after they have exhausted every other
possibility.  --Winston Churchill

Loyalty to the country always, loyalty
to the government when it deserves it.
--Mark Twain

I was against gay marriage until I found
out I didn't have to have one.
--James Carville

Rain on a tin roof sounds like a drum.
We're marching for freedom today-ay!
So turn on your headlights
and sound your horn,
if people get in the way.  --Neil Innes