Saturday, February 20th, I lead a field trip to bird a couple of the
habitat management units along the Snake River above Ice Harbor Dam
northeast of Pasco. It was a great day to be in the field, these areas
were full of birds and other critters, the weather was mild and we went
home with a species count of 44, including Northern Saw-whet Owl,
Bohemian Waxwing & Harris's Sparrow - pretty good for the area, time of
year and the time we spent. Afterwards I got to thinking that I should
share our experiences with the birders on my two favorite e-mail list
servers, so I sat down and banged out a quick note. In that note I
explained that these HMUs had been created as partial mitigation for
habitat deemed lost when the dams were constructed on this section of the
river and that if the dams are breached that this habitat would then die
and be lost because the irrigation water that sustains them would be
stopped since there would no longer be any justification for maintaining
them. I made things worse by ending my note with a tongue-in-cheek
remark alluding to salmon worshippers but forgot to include a little
smilely face to tip off the humor impaired as to my intent. What a
mistake that turned out to be. Before the weekend was over I had
compounded my mistake by participating in a nasty little public e-mail
skunk fight with someone who took major umbrage with me and made it clear
before he was done that he thought I was a greed head and a morally
challenged ideolog. And to make matters even worse, I am now informed by
others that what I thought was my spirited defense against a bullying
personal attack, was viewed by some as the rantings and ravings of a
village idiot. This information cuts me to the heart, for to have my
most deeply held convictions and concerns for the future of my family
dismissed as the ravings of a madman, particularly by a body of people
with whom I had thought I shared a great deal in common, is a painful
rejection to endure. I hope none of you are subjected to a like
experience.


Dennis K Rockwell
Kennewick, Washington
denniskrockwell at juno.com



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