Jerry, I enjoyed your nostalgic account of life in the Kent Valley
in the 1940s. However, you are wrong when you say "but you know, that
had to be" (referring to the urbanization and paving of much of the
valley).

Here in British Columbia, we have a law called the "Agricultural
Land Reserve Act", which was passed in the early 1970s. It has largely
stopped in its tracks the urbanization of the Fraser Delta and many
other valuable areas of farmland (and thus wildlife habitat) which had
not already been built up by the early 1970s.

My permanent home is located in the city of Delta, which includes
within its borders most of the Fraser Delta. Delta has about 100,000
people, but 80% of them live in areas off the floodplain. (The rest
live in the community of Ladner, which is on the floodplain.) About
70% of the land area of Delta is in the Agricultural Land Reserve
(ALR), where non-agricultural development is almost totally
prohibited. Hence we still have many square miles of delta floodplain
which is used for growing crops and provides habitat for the
multitudes of ducks, swans, raptors, and other birds that winter in
the area.

The city of Richmond, which consists mostly of the huge Lulu
Island, also part of the Fraser Delta, was extensively built up before
the ALR was established. Nearly all of Richmond's 150,000 people live
on the western half of Lulu Island, on the floodplain, but the eastern
half of the island is in the ALR.

The ALR has strong public support from the 2 million urban
inhabitants of Greater Vancouver, and has survived several changes of
government with only minor modifications. Greater Vancouver has grown
almost as rapidly as Metro Seattle over the last 50 years. However,
the effect of the ALR, since about 1975, has been to steer almost all
the development away from the Fraser Delta, into areas less suitable
for agriculture (and wildlife) and more suitable for housing.

Similar legislation could be passed in Washington and other
American states, if the public demanded it and legislators could be
convinced that it was needed. In B.C., where good farmland is limited
in almost all parts of the province because the fertile valleys are
crowded by mountains and high, cold plateaus, it may be easier to
justify an ALR than in Washington. However, I think a strong case
could be made for an ALR at least west of the Cascades in Washington.
I would sure hate to see the Samish and Skagit Flats meet the same
fate as the Kent (or Green River) valley.

It may not be possible to stop or greatly slow down population
growth in the Northwest, without a major shift in public attitudes,
but it IS possible, through appropriate legislation, to steer
development away from the most valuable areas for agriculture and for
wildlife.

Wayne C. Weber
114-525 Dalgleish Drive
Kamloops, B.C. V2C 6E4
Phone: (250) 377-8865
wayne_weber at bc.sympatico.ca


-----Original Message-----
From: Jerry Blinn <avisys at mindspring.com>
To: tweeters at u.washington.edu <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Date: Wednesday, December 15, 1999 7:14 PM
Subject: Kent Valley


>Kelly McAllister remarked on the transformation of the Kent Valley
from
>classic flood plain (of the Green River) to concrete and warehouses.
>
>(I risk looking "old" here...)
>
>For four years, during the late 1940's -- third through sixth
grades -- I
>lived at Briscoe School, essentially a orphanage run by the Christian
>Brothers of Ireland, in the Kent Valley. (Not everybody there was an
orphan
>-- not even most -- but most were "circumstantial" orphans.)
>
>In those years, I could look east, north, and south and see nothing
but
>green, agricultural or natural, vegetation, broken only by the BN
railroad
>and an occasional road. To the west we backed up to the Green River,
ever
>present -- and if you need to know what an "ever present" river is,
just
>wait until the Green floods. The bank was, even then, built up to
about
>eight feet above the first floor of the school -- you climbed ~up~ a
bank
>to get to the river! (I learned to tie flies and catch trout there --
>reason? bullheads don't take flies! <G>)
>
>For a week one year, we all lived on the second floor, and ate only
peanut
>butter and honey sandwiches, which the brothers had brilliantly
decided at
>the last moment to carry upstairs as the river was rising -- big cans
of
>honey and peanut butter, and boxes of loaves of bread, baked at the
last
>moment to save the flour from becoming just more river sludge. I can
>recall to this day the wonderful smell of that freshly-baked bread as
I
>hauled boxes of it up the stairs -- and could not to this day --
ever --
>eat a peanut butter and honey sandwich again.<G>
>
>The Army came in with amphibious jeeps to resupply us with food and
fresh
>water in Jerry Cans -- my introduction to the smell of Jerry Can,
recalled
>on later occasions and remembered to this day.
>
>In the summers we husked corn from the fields to supply us the rest
of the
>year, and in the fall we went out into the fields to dig potatoes
with our
>bare hands after the field had been turned with horse and plow. Boy!
Did
>we eat a lot of potatoes and corn, and drink a lot of milk, in that
place!
>Home grown milk, watching calves drop...
>
>The Kent valley, with the ~village~ of Kent as simply a little
necessary
>interruption, was a virtual example of habitat and agriculture, and
>literally "atremble" with creatures because the "modern" insecticides
were
>yet to be transformed from Nazi chemical plants to American
agrichemical
>concerns, and used to kill everything "not useful." (I don't intend
to be
>radical here, but that's simply fact!)
>
>I left the Western Washington at Uncle Sam's call in 1960, after
finishing
>high school and a few years working in Seattle, not having looked
down upon
>the Kent Valley since leaving it in 1949. In the late 80's I
returned --
>"OH MY GOD!" as I drove up I-5 past 200th to 188th. Kelly is not
>exaggerating. it is concrete -- that's all that's left. And, Boy!,
do they
>have that nasty river under control!
>
>But, you know, that had to be. The problem is not so much what
people do,
>as the fact that we ~are~. My personal feeling is that "Kent
Valleys" will
>recur as long as our population continues to grow -- those places are
>simply a necessity to support populations. You can't control that
which is
>required to support humans -- you must some how control the human
>propensity to breed (for lack of a better word). (I know this will
upset
>some -- I don't wish to participate in that "everybody loses"
argument.)
>
>No wonder there are only about six Red-tailed Hawks in the valley...
>
>Jerry Blinn
>EMail: <jerry at avisys.net>
>Web site: <www.avisys.net>
>