Subject: Re: Nisqually NWR flooding; an alternative view
Date: Feb 14 04:19:32 1996
From: RANIDAE at delphi.com - RANIDAE at delphi.com


Steve, I'm glad you brought up the history about the time in
1975 when the Nisqually dike was breached. There was a
biologist working for the USF&WS in Olympia at the time, name
of Gary Kline, who did a lot of home work to show that a
natural salt marsh would be more ecologically productive than
the diked marsh. He was strongly in favor of allowing the area
to return to a salt marsh. Unfortunately for him and the
delta, the many people who drove by on the freeway were
horrified by the fact that the salt water was killing much of
the vegetation on the refuge and turning it an ugly brown.
The cries of anquish were loud and persistant. The refuge
managers apparently felt that the ecologically sound approach
was not worth the political wrath that was raining upon their
heads, and agreed to repair the dike. And everything turned
green again and everyone was happy. Everyone but Gary Kline.
He was soon 'let go' from the Service, and I suspect that his
refusal to accept the politically correct solution was his
undoing.
Tom Juelson