| 04/10/2008 |
| Who speaks for the rivers? Many do |
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Who speaks for the rivers? "I do," replied Mike Delaney, of Des Moines, organizer of perhaps the most extensive watershed coalition in Iowa. "I do," said John Wenck, working the Legislature as hard as any lobbyist, and for no pay. "I do," said Jerry Peckumn, of Jefferson, a farmer and co-chair of the Iowa Rivers Revival, meeting this year in Iowa Falls. Their "I do's," echoed throughout the third-annual Rivers Revival, a conference of a couple hundred people from various persuasions - naturalists, farmers, fishermen, biologists, canoeists, conservationists. Their collective voice is beginning to make itself heard. It is none too soon. Iowa's landscape is among the most altered regions in the nation. The vast wetlands and wild rivers that spanned the state created the rich black soil that has become Iowa's hallmark. But it took thousands of miles of drain tile to make it tillable, all draining into rivers that also have been straightened and channelized, moving water off the land. Still, there are 30,000 miles of rivers remaining in Iowa, out of sight and out of mind for most Iowans, who don't think of their state as much of a natural resource aside from a place to grow corn. The Rivers Revival hopes to change that. The revival is a coalition of diverse stakeholders coming together to help Iowans "restore, protect and enjoy our rivers." Among the issues emerging from the revival was a cause for hope, and a cause for concern. This year, the Iowa Legislature is beginning to take notice of Iowa's water resources. A plan to establish a program for creating and sustaining water trails has moved through both the House and the Senate. Lawmakers appear to be on board with the idea. The real test, of course, will be in the funding. Water trails mean establishing access points on rivers, signage and interpretation. Use begets understanding. Understanding begets respect. Respect begets action. Importantly, this legislation also recognizes the dangers caused by dams. There are more than 200 dams on rivers in the state, most of them leftover from previous use. They serve no purpose now but as an obstruction to navigation, and as Iowans are coming to know, as killing machines that claim the lives of swimmers, canoeists and fishermen every year, who are swept over them into recirculating hydraulics below.. Helping to move lawmakers, Sen. Bill Dotzler, D-Waterloo, delivered a message on the floor about the loss of a personal friend to a low-head dam in Iowa. This legislation shows strong promise this year. We urge the House and Senate to provide the money necessary to make it so. Among challenges, river advocates talked at length about another plan to use Iowa's rivers. A development dubbed "Dream Lake" would build a new dam on the Raccoon River in western Dallas County, flooding out existing homeowners, natural areas and a Native American burial ground, to create a 3,500-acre private lake community with 5,000 residential lots. Dream Lake is billed as green and sustainable development. It is anything but. It would inundate thousands of acres of current natural areas, erect starter mansions on the new waterfront, and wall off the resulting lake from public use. This will be a private lake. As for sustainability, the dams already in Iowa tell the tale. Dams become traps for silt. A graphic example was provided to participants in the Rivers Revival right there in Iowa Falls. Once, through the 1950s and 1960s, the impoundment at Iowa Falls proudly hosted water skiers and aquatic shows. Old photos in the boat club along the waterfront display the extravaganza. But no more. Now, the slack water behind the dam has become so silted that power boats can no longer navigate there. The thriving boat shows are gone. All within less than a generation. Dream Lake would be destined for its own demise. It is guaranteed to become a nightmare of a mud hole. This is just one example of why someone needs to speak for the rivers. The Iowa Rivers Revival provides a voice. Iowa needs to listen.
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