Halfordian Golfer wrote:


You don't think I get this? Sometimes you talk to me like I'm a
child.

Well Tim, when communicating with you on usenet, it seems you ignore
what other people post. You don't address their points, you just go off
on YOUR agenda. It sure seemed to me that you DIDN'T get it (or you
acted like you didn't). Cutthroats CAN'T be part of of the EIS because
they don't exist in the area being considered. Now it seems that you
just don't like the EIS process. (which is an entirely different thing)


I have lived here since 1960 and caught my first trout out of the
Poudre. I inner tubed in the hughline canal when farmers were still
using DDT. I have read Fradkin's "A RIver no More" so many times, the
binder is warn.

One thing is certain...this thing, "wilderness", it slips,
inextricably, out of our grips with each of these EIS approvals to
further erode it. Another dam is built. Another subdivision goes up.
Another road is built. The possibility of returning to wilderness gets
further and further and further out of reach withe each one. It is
highly ironic. Like the hatch of mayflies always flies upstream to
conserve the species man seems to always fly down.

I disagree with this, but Fort Collins is far from a wilderness.
However, there has been alot of restoration in Fort Collins with the
addition of lots of open space, ponds, wetlands, parks etc. There are
more "wildish" places now than when I moved here 30 years ago (and a
WHOLE lot more people).

Yet, in the false
safety net of an 'EIS' we fool ourselves that we are protecting what
we have.

An EIS is a tool (just like C&R ) . This is the first water project in
CO that even included an EIS. It's not perfect but it's a step forward
and it's a WHOLE lot better than not having it. It does offer SOME
protection.


I ask again: What is the baseline environmental conservation you want
to establish in the rivers of Colorado? I say we work our asses off.
Cutthroat and Whitefish or nothing.

As much as I agree with you on this, you know that's not going to happen
except on an incremental basis. Even Rocky Mountain National Park is
having a hard time doing this because of all the opposition, much of it
from anglers. Restoring a watershed as massive as the Poudre won't
happen in our lifetime.

Have YOU done any volunteer work in this area?

Willi