Ridecamp: RE: [RC] [RC] Exempts private property, military lands and all plant lifefrom ESA (fw

Three years ago I rode into a place where a stream widened into a swampy
area that was overgrown with oaks, blackberry, reeds, etc. The next year
when I came back it had just been bulldozed completely smooth down to the
bare soil. It may not have been, strictly speaking, sterilized, but on the
other hand if they were going to plant grapes there they probably were going
to put that bromide  sterilizing agent on it, the one where they cover the
ground with plastic sheeting to keep it in and post signs warning of
poisoning in English and Spanish -- "outlawed" now, but still being used
during a multi-year "phaseout". This is standard, widespread procedure for
planting grapes around Sonoma County. I could show you a few other examples
if you'd care to come out and ride with me.

Mike Sherrell
Grizzly Analytical (USA)
707 887 2919/fax 707 887 9834
www.grizzlyanalytical.com


> -----Original Message-----
> From: ridecamp-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> [mailto:ridecamp-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Heidi Smith
> Sent: Tuesday, November 26, 2002 6:33 PM
> To: mike@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx; 'Barbara McCrary'; Ridecamp (E-mail)
> Subject: Re: [RC] [RC] Exempts private property, military
> lands and all
> plant lifefrom ESA (fw
>
>
>
> > Sonoma county sports numerous examples of creekbeds
> sterilized by farmers
> > wanting a few more square yards of crops or churned to mud
> by cattle. I
> > noticed even more of the same in Alberta when we were there
> this summer.
> > All, I'm sure, by agrarians who would be the first to claim
> to love the
> land
> > and be stewards of it. Pardon my cynicism; it's based in experience.
>
> I hope you didn't say that with your mouth full.  Pardon my
> cynicism, but it
> has been my long-standing experience that those with a
> political agenda like
> to throw around buzzwords like "sterilized" when in fact
> there is no such
> problem.  Maintenance work in a streambed does not "sterilize" the
> stream--it may alter the flora and fauna for a short section,
> for a short
> period of time, but no more than that.  The closest thing
> I've ever seen to
> "sterilization" of a stream occurred due to mine tailings on
> the creek where
> I grew up, where the chemicals used to extract ore were
> leeched directly
> into the stream.  This happened in the 20's.  When I was a
> child (late 50's,
> early 60's), the lower part of the stream had recovered
> entirely, the plant
> life was back everywhere but directly on the tailings piles,
> and the only
> noticeable effect was that there were not yet any fish back
> in that fork of
> the stream.  (The lower stream had plenty.)  By the late
> 70's, the fish were
> back in the upper fork as well.  By the 90's, one could still
> make out the
> tailings piles, but there was no other evidence of a problem.  Modern
> agriculture doesn't even begin to do such damage--and yet despite the
> severity of that insult, Mother Nature healed herself
> completely.  BTW,
> there is less evidence now of that problem than there is of
> the sterilizing
> fires in northern Idaho that occurred circa 1910, when too
> much ladder fuel
> had accumulated.  The political climate of the past couple of decades
> allowed the same situation to develop here in central Idaho,
> thanks to folks
> like you who think that everyone is out to rape the land.
> The net result is
> soil sterilization that may well still be evident in 100 years.  While
> mismanagement is indeed undesirable, I would submit that misguided
> non-intervention is just as damaging, if not moreso.  Doctors
> no longer
> practice medicine with 1920's standards; likewise farmers no
> longer farm
> with 1920's methods.  I'm leery of anyone who points fingers
> at an entire
> industry the way you have here, with the insinuation that
> they are "earth
> killers"--I believe that was the insulting phrase you used in
> one of your
> earlier posts.  And again, I hope you haven't eaten today--if
> you have, you
> owe a debt of gratitude to the American farmer, who feeds
> more people than
> any counterpart of his at any time in history, and does so with less
> invasive methods and more efficiency than even a decade ago.
>
> Heidi
>
>
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=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
 Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net.
 Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp
 Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp

 If you are an AERC member - PLEASE VOTE in the Director at Large 
 and By Laws Elections.

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