OCR Text |
Show Life and other trivialities . . . Mighty rivers vs. mighty man By Steve Christensen Express Assistant Editor Lester Natter, from Salt Lake City, drowned in the Green River below Flaming Gorge Dam last week. He was a volunteer on a scout rafting outing when the raft he and six scouts were floating in became entangled with a tree overhanging the river and capsized. Natter was the first person to drown while wearing a life jacket on that section of river since the Flaming Gorge Dam was completed. Five other people have lost their lives on that section sec-tion of river, but none of the others had been wearing life jackets. Natter's death is just another in a long series of recent reminders of how powerful nature is. For the first time since the series of dams along the mighty Colorado River was completed, com-pleted, that river will reach the Pacific Ocean. Usually the entire river is drained for irrigation before it reaches the ocean. This year, enroute to its destination will reek much havoc. The network of dams along the Colorado, including Glen Canyon, Hoover, Davis, and Parker, was built to keep the river in check. That was the major reason for building the Hoover, Davis, and Parker Dams. The Glen Canyon Dam was added later, mostly for electricity generating purposes. But 1983 proved man's accomplishments have not been able to keep mother nature in check, and perhaps points to the fact that man never will. As some people learn in one way and some in others, the power of nature is incredible. We look back on volcanoes, earthquakes, and floods that have wiped out in a few minutes what it took man years to build. This was graphically illustrated several years ago with the catastrophe of the Teton Dam collapse in Idaho, and again more recently with the Thistle mud slide, and just the other day with the collapse of the DMAD Dam near Delta. For the first time in memory the Sevier River lived up to its name. The 30 foot earthen dam gave way and allowed water to inundate the small farming communities of Deseret, Oasis, and Sherwood Shores. Already the vast majority of that water is gone, and people in those communities are cleaning up, but the wrath of nature isn't nearly over. Some 70,000 acres of farm land depended on the DMAD Dam to supply irrigation water. Without that water the land is almost useless. If left without water for just a few years the land would soon be overgrown with sagebrush, just like it was before farmers cleared it to plant crops. The 30 foot DMAD earthen dam will be rebuilt, and although it is doubtful doubt-ful this year's crops will be saved, things should be back to normal next year. But we cannot control nature, we can simply borrow' from nature until it decides to punish us for whatever reason. It is little wonder ancient man worshipped the Gods of Nature, and hoped to stay in their good graces. Ancient man did not attempt to control con-trol nature like modern man does. He was incapable of building huge dams control mighty rivers. He could not even build small dams to contain irrigation ir-rigation water for later use. When the floods came he merely moved to higher ground and waited. Today we stay and fight the water with bulldozers, rip rap, and sandbags, but ask anyone who has done that, you cannot really win. Even if you are so lucky to keep your home from floating away, you have not won, you have simply fought off the wrath of nature for the time being. So many of us go and play in nature, and love it, usually not p-: dangers a second thought A makes us stop and take ttej" thought. The river can ts perhaps as thrilling as any one can spend. Any many of sr be discouraged by one persx ing. We would rather take ttei and perhaps die, than not gc;: it makes us think again abocj-people abocj-people who go with us. ffhos; make such a decision for;;-else? for;;-else? For ourselves, we maT--consider the consequences s'j tions. We may contempt i dangers consciously and fc ourself if the danger can be r. : then we plunge in fully recog. potential dangers. Natter cokl. took that chance and lost. Birr we to make that kind of decki: meone else? The same kinds of argumei made about building dams:; tempt to control the water s'r Right now there are manyfr Arizona and Colorado who r-. flooded for the first time ever . the network of dams will do; L. the extremely high water of:.', tificially man has contrclr: waters of the great rivers, c And now-, not-so-artificiarh'.p:: being flooded because somen: tempt to control the waters !L-essence !L-essence we made the decisis : someone else in order tt :." flooding in some other loca::: pie have already died for our & effort to control mother na: though it was they who d; tragic mistake of being in tfc; It would be hard to im world without hydroelectric ? and without doubt the fargre--ty in life has come from bufc dams, but that may bediffic-plain bediffic-plain to the families who ha- ed ones because the might)' t failed to control the mighty: WVT fnrmm . -m-.m- -,s--- .... . , .... k1 t7T'yf"" . .. . ' ..' a, CINDERED CAMPGROUND is squirted with water to dowse the smultering re- mains of a fire that claimed 10 campsites of the Green River Campground. e 3r |