Uncle Bud makes the
front page on river restoration
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November 10, 2011 |
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By Bud Larsen |
“The difference
between genius and stupidity is that genius has
its limits.”
-Albert Einstein- |
 Back in the harness again … while recuperating
from one of those old-man medical set backs, I
spent the past two weeks reading the “Kootenai
River Master Plan” … I should say I scanned the
plan, as it is a document almost equal in size
to rival Tolstoy’s infamous novel, "War and
Peace."
Is this long in coming Master Plan worth taking
up 13mb of your hard drive space?
Yes, because of the plan's size and the reader’s
need to cross reference several sections while
reading beats going to the expense of printing
out this 400 plus page document.
Allow me to cover the good news first, then I
will summarize with some dead serious heartburn.
You’re going to need the rest of this winter to
get completely through the master plan, and it
will be time well spent, as the author(s) have
put together a fascinating document that will
give the reader an in-depth look at the Kootenai
River's health.
The good and bad aspects of our river's current
health are well documented with candid reports,
supplemented by easy-to-read tables of data. In
fact, the entire plan is written in a language
easy to understand and the biological and
engineering data is presented in simple terms,
sans a lot of gobbly-gook.
You will be impressed with the author's
presentation of factual data and the scoring
given to level of ecological health within each
unique area of our river.
The plan even seems to place less emphasis on
the salvation of the sturgeon and burbot while
addressing the macro, or big, problems of the
river.
I really appreciate this change in focus as I,
for one, have become pretty well fed up with
every report over the past 15 years crying out
for the salvation of white sturgeon and burbot.
It is the river’s health, and correcting the
shortfalls, which will eventually hand us the
salvation of the sturgeon and burbot.
I hate to leave the kudo phase to all the great
people who have worked so hard to put this
tremendous master plan together, as over the
years I have been privileged to meet several of
the principles.
I cannot count the number of times when I asked
a biologist in the field to educate me on what
they were searching for and why. Super people
all.
Now comes the part I have dreaded … Heartburn:
I was just about to crank the old recliner down
another notch and called up the costing detail
section of the master plan just to satisfy my
urge to always follow the money … Phase I.
Wham! Combo of lightning and heart attack hits
me and the next thing I know I’m on the floor
with papers all over the place.
• $9 million to develop and write the Kootenai
River Master Plan …
• $49.7 million estimated to complete the
remaining phases ...
Now, I hope this several million dollars to
complete the master plan covered and/or accounts
for studies, etc. that were not paid for in the
past, due to lack of funding.
Someone said to me the other day … “That is
Bonneville Power money…” I asked the person
where in the hell did he think BPA got the money
from?
Yes, good people, it is our money and we sure as
heck better scrutinize where it goes and what it
will be used for.
I really struggle with this one because in spite
of my Heartburn, this is truly a great master
plan, deserving of your time and effort to read
it.
I’ll go a step further and state that our Senior
students should be required to read it.
We have not seen one page of scientific data
from the heroic, yes, a truly heroic effort by
our local agencies, in support of improvement in
the ecology of our river.
It is not nice to fool mother nature. Remember
that old ad about margarine being marketed as
tasting like “my sweet creamery butter?”
Well, it is true … it's not nice to mess with
Mother Nature.
Well, the money has already been spent for the
master plan and in spite of it's high cost
(which orders on the ridiculous) the plan is a
great one and a true noble effort by all the
authors.
Now, stop any/all work on the next phase and
give our biologist elements a couple of years to
ascertain if their efforts on this first phase
paid off.
Going hog wild to complete the remaining phases
would simply keep a pipe dream going and … lest
we forget it, time nationwide to be prudent with
our major expenditures.
I sure hope this won’t take away from getting
someone to open up a Sushi Bar in Bonners Ferry.
Take care out there, ‘cause we need you at the
table on Thanksgiving. |
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Uncle Bud |
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