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Show Wildlife Groups Told Of Propaganda Members of wild-life and conservation con-servation organizations were warned warn-ed recently to be wary of attacks by so-called conservation groups on the legitimate development of the Upper Colorado River Basin. "Whatever the noble intentions of the leadership of these groups, the net effect is to grind Southern California's ax," Dave Brinegar, executive secretary of the Central Arizona Project Association warned, warn-ed, "to the peril of Arizona, Colorado, Colo-rado, New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming Wyom-ing and Nevada." Brinegar said he was pointing nis warning particulary to members mem-bers of the Sierra Club (of California), Cali-fornia), the American Forestry Association, As-sociation, the National Parks Association, Asso-ciation, the Isaak Walton League, the National Wild Life Fedcrrtion and other groups attacking full development de-velopment of the Colorado River. Brinegar recalled that many conservation con-servation groups supported California Cali-fornia when Arizona was seeking approval of the Central Arizona Project bill before Congress in 1949 and 1950. Speaking of the Upper Colorado River Basin Storage project, which comes before Congress this spring, Brinegar said many people in Arizona Ari-zona think the fight has nothing to do with Arizona. "This is not true," he said. "This right involves Arizona as well as the rest of the Upper Basin states. "It also involves Northern California, Cali-fornia, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, North and South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas, If you follow the principle that reclamation states are entitled to the legitimate benefits resulting from development of their water resources." Brinegar appealed to basin states members of conservation or-jganizations or-jganizations to notify their national leadership that they staunchly oppose op-pose the taking of sides with California Cali-fornia in the proposed development of the Colorado River Basin, "The Council of Conservationists (which in my opinion misappropriates misappro-priates the word conservationist, since many sincere conservationists conservation-ists are for the Upper Basin project) proj-ect) is pursuing, either by accident acci-dent or by design, the same line of attack on full development of the Colorado River that is pursued pur-sued by the Colorado River Association Asso-ciation of California, the Metropolitan Metropoli-tan Water District of Southern California, Cal-ifornia, and other California organizations," or-ganizations," Brinegar said, Brinegar recalled that one of the early attacks on the Central Arizona Ari-zona project came from a national conservation society magazine. "I went' to the office of that association in Washington and asked ask-ed for a copy," Brinegar said. "I was told I could have reprints by the thousands, paid for by the vice president of a large mercantile firm in Los Angeles." True conservation of the Colorado Colo-rado River Basin calls for the development de-velopment of the resources of the Colorado River for the benefit of all the states in the basin, not just for Southern California, Brinegar Brine-gar said. The Upper Basin project poses no threat to dinosaur beds, sets no precedent for "invasion" or destruction of the National Park System, and will open a remote region so that millions of Americans Ameri-cans can see it. "We believe in parks for the millions, not just for .the few," Brinegar said. Less than 500 peo ple, for instance, ever went down the Green and Yampa Rivers before be-fore 1952, but millions of people visit Lake Mead every year. Conservationists in the basin states should be wary of the statements state-ments of organizations like the Sierra Si-erra Club of California, the Council Coun-cil of Conservationists, the Coordinating Coordi-nating Council of Natural Resources, Re-sources, the National Parks Asso ciation, the American Forestry Association As-sociation and the Isaak Walton League, Brinegar said. I "Each of these organizations has a worthy job to do in its own field," he said. "For any of these organizations to gratuitously joki in the nasty job of helping Southern South-ern California in its efforts to chop off the economic heads of Arizona, Ari-zona, Nevada, Colorado, New Mex- ico, Utah and Wyoming is wrong." Residents of the basin states can help overcome the propaganda of these organizations by writing I friends, newspaper editors and congressmen in states outside the Upper Basin area and telling them . for the need of development of the upper half of one of America's great untamed rivers, the Colorado Colo-rado and its tributaries. f-'r.. ' ' ' ' ? ' ' "J . ' ' ' " ' . (kv'-; ' - . ..- .? ' " " - , - ' , i ' . jr ' ' ' 6 ' ' - " ' -''w . ' - - . , ir .. .... - 2 . .4J., . . . ... . .. '.- V 1 " ' . .. . A ' J. . 1 .: . - : i . .- v. , i J"', , .... ,. . . v , ..... - .. - .-.'... ' -; ... - ... .. .. i U - . - - V . A . f - ,u y - - - 4 OASIS IN THE DESERT The value of water for irrigation is shown here In the Grand Valley of Colorado; the desert bluffs contrast sharply with the irrigated orchards and fields of the valleys, where water makes farming possible. |
