Reservoir colonialism
Wednesday, 2 August 2006
Reservoirs are a great example of our colonialism of the environment. Here’s a hardy cedar that’s coping pretty well with having it’s forest neighbors on the downhill side totally obliterated. Reservoirs also eliminate human inhabitation, as happened with the town of Rowena, Kentucky, now moved to dry land. Our planners here in the US are pretty arrogant. Long ago, I worked on the archaeology of a lovely pre-horse Pawnee hunting camp (bison butchering site) that was going under the Calamus Reservoir, in central Nebraska. At the time, the Calamus River was the most constant-flowing river in North America. Now it’s dammed up, and the wild, sandhills flavor of this part of Loup County is muted.
Don’t even get me started on the impact of the Three Gorges Dam.