photo by Daniel Dancer "The care of the rivers is not a question of rivers, but of the human heart."
Tanaka Shozo
At a pristine mountain lake, high in the Canadian Rockies, the Columbia River begins its winding 1,243 mile journey to the Pacific Ocean. Nch'i-wana (Big River) as some Native American tribes called it, still reflects the majesty of ancient times, but its life force and resources, once so plentiful, are seriously threatened. We have dammed it for power. We have used it as a dumping ground for our industrial wastes. We have carelessly allowed poisons to run into its massive waters, perhaps believing its size alone would protect it. Development and logging along its shores and tributaries have destroyed habitat, permanently altering the River's ability to share its life-force energy with fish and wildlife. To continue on this current path is to move toward an ecological disaster that will mean the end of an ancient ecosystem. Tsagaglala (She Who Watches), an ancient petroglyph, still gazes from the banks of the River. Her face, carved into the natural stone, communicates the respect and spiritual attunement that the first human inhabitants had with the River and all of Nature. For thousands of years, the River has been a source of life and sustenance for humans, fish and wildlife. That which was taken was done so with respect; something was always given back. Harmony and balance continued until the arrival of the first white man, in the early 1800s. The River, renamed the Columbia, became just a resource to be used in the name of progress and of human domination over nature.
Extensive dredging, diking and filling of the River's estuary began in the late 1880s, destroying massive amounts of habitat. By 1883, there were 40 canneries operating on the River that packed 35 million pounds of canned Chinook salmon in one year alone. The first pulp mill was built in 1884 at Camas. In the 1930s, the Grand Coulee and Bonneville dams were constructed for hydroelectric power. The River was "tamed" but the abuses continued, through the century and up to the present time.
Today, ecological balance is gone and severe damage has occurred. The wild salmon and sturgeon may soon be gone. But as important as the salmon and sturgeon are, they are merely indicators of the sickness that threatens all life on the River.
Columbia Riverkeeper
724 Oak Street
Hood River, OR 97031
(541) 387-3030
Fax (541) 387-3029
© 2000-2004 CRK All Rights Reserved
