Op-Ed \u2013 Concrete Herald, May 2015 (by Christie L. Fairchild)<\/p>\n
We\u2019ve heard of \u201cmoving mountains\u201d, but what about moving RIVERS? That\u2019s precisely what the Swinomish and Sauk-Suiattle tribes want to do. A dangerous plan to excavate a huge, 300 foot wide channel from the Skagit River into Barnaby Slough has been conjured up by the tribes\u2019 Skagit River System Cooperative (SRSC).\u00a0 Diverting river flow south and west from its main bed, aiming flood waters towards Martin Ranch Road, the south \u00bd of the Martin Road, the Rockport Cascade Road, and SR 530 will pose a huge risk to homes and farms that, until now, have never be threatened by flooding.<\/p>\n
The tribes\u2019 aim is to \u201crestore habitat\u201d and they\u2019ve partnered with Seattle City Light, The Nature Conservancy, and the Washington Dept. of Fish & Wildlife, the large landowners upon which this project would take place. And though the intent is for about 1\/3 of the Skagit River to flow through the sloughs, their own hydrologists have admitted that assuring \u201conly\u201d that amount of flow diversion is impossible.<\/p>\n
Their objective is to improve salmon habitat, but in reality, it destroys an already rich and productive one. Barnaby, Harrison, and Lucas Sloughs need some TLC, such as cleaning culverts, and much of the SRSC\u2019s thinking about removing impediments is laudable. But, having now decided on the \u201cpreferred alternative\u201d, the treacherous notion of diverting the river is beyond belief.\u00a0 In addition to proposing a potentially perilous and unpredictable outcome to area residents, much of this planning has, seemingly, been concocted behind closed doors, adding to the growing distrust and anger by south Rockportians towards the sponsors.<\/p>\n
Dozens of residents living on the south side of the river near Rockport now regularly meet to discuss this deeply troubling project.\u00a0 We\u2019ve tried to be involved as stakeholders with vested interests in how the project is carried out, but so far, requests to be included on the steering and\/or stakeholders committees have been refused.<\/p>\n
Through working together,\u00a0 we\u2019ve learned some disturbing things, such as: 1) private lands have been systematically purchased in anticipation of this project; 2) a number of important and legally required planning protocols have been glossed over and even ignored; 3)the SRSC has dishonestly declared that \u201ceveryone living there supports our proposal!\u201d; and 4) the SRSC did some \u201cworst case scenario\u201d flood modeling which disclosed extreme flooding on Martin Road, etc.,quickly backed off, and excluded any of those findings in its feasibility report.<\/p>\n
Five generations of families still live here, farms and ranches thrive, home-based businesses, a church and cemetery, county roads and a state highway all would be affected by the potential that this over-zealous project\u2019s \u201cpreferred alternative\u201d proposes. And for what reason? To apparently , and arrogantly, attempt to return a portion of the Skagit River to how it may have flowed in the late 1800\u2019s \u2013 a fantasy.\u00a0 Might as well take out the dams, roads, and bridges, too, while they\u2019re at it.<\/p>\n
I am reminded of writer John McPhee\u2019s landmark book, \u201cThe Control of Nature\u201d when I think of this project\u2019s potential.\u00a0 And I wonder:\u00a0 is this eco-meets-ego<\/i>?\u00a0 Let\u2019s work for honesty and transparency in this process and find a reasonable solution that both enhances salmon production AND protects the very people and landbase that supports it. Write to your elected representatives \u2013 it makes all the difference in the world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Op-Ed \u2013 Concrete Herald, May 2015 (by Christie L. Fairchild) We\u2019ve heard of \u201cmoving mountains\u201d, but what about moving RIVERS? That\u2019s precisely what the Swinomish and Sauk-Suiattle tribes want to do. A dangerous plan to excavate a huge, 300 foot wide channel from the Skagit River into Barnaby Slough has been conjured up by the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1318,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46,47,44],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","category-barnaby-project","category-featured"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/skagitupriverneighbors.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1295","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/skagitupriverneighbors.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/skagitupriverneighbors.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skagitupriverneighbors.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skagitupriverneighbors.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1295"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/skagitupriverneighbors.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1295\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1297,"href":"https:\/\/skagitupriverneighbors.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1295\/revisions\/1297"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skagitupriverneighbors.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/skagitupriverneighbors.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skagitupriverneighbors.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skagitupriverneighbors.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}