If I lived in the suburbs, I would be the first person to have what used to be called a "victory garden". My grandmother had one, and IMO, planting a vegetable garden in your front lawn is a much better use of water! We could start an online source for free fertilizer right here on RC!!
I would be surprised if they ever built the Auburn Dam to be honest. They just invested millions of dollars to create a "rapid simulation area" just for the rafters in the immediate area of the long moth-balled Dam Site.
Of course, they forgot to honor the commitment they made to provide an equestrian bridge now that the river has been "restored" and is not safe to cross there any longer!
Courage is being scared to death, but saddling up anyway. ~ John Wayne
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From: bigcreekranch@xxxxxxxxxxxx To: greenwoodann@xxxxxxx; ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: Re: [RC] Auburn Dam Date: Fri, 25 Jul 2008 15:50:30 -0700
I don't live near the Tevis trail, but I know how much
it means to so many people. I find it depressing to think that an
historical landmark such as the Western States Trail could be obliterated by
water inundation. I know the state needs water, and I don't suppose anyone
else wants to offer their homes or land to be inundated, either, but to take
away an historical landmark seems to be against a lot of our country's
policies. Of course, the government doesn't see the Tevis Trail as we
horsemen do. I know how frightening the thought is, because in 1951 and
1952, there was a plan to dam up the Swanton valley and inundate all of
us. At that time, we hadn't even built our house yet, but all the people
here would have had to build upland and roads would have to have been re-built
to take folks out the "back way"; that would have meant a lot of new
earth-moving in the local wilderness.
Core samples of the underlying geology were taken, and
I have to say I am eternally grateful for the percolation qualities of our
local chalk rock (shale). The tests showed that had a dam been built, all
the water would have percolated into the earth, because chalk rock does not hold
water.
If water persists in being scarce, I could suggest we
do away with green lawns and green golf courses, for starters. Couldn't
golf be played on a mowed brown course? There must be huge amounts of
water used for those purposes.
When we sailed up the Yangtze River in 2000, saw the
Three Gorges Dam being built and realized how many thousands of people
were going to be displaced to higher ground, I grieved for the people whose
families had lived on little farms on the mountainsides for generations. Their
whole history was there, waiting to be drowned.
God, I hope we don’t start a big
online war over the Auburn Dam. I will only say that whenever something
is won, something is lost. In this case, we would lose the beautiful
river canyons and trails that we treasure here.
