Patrick Koepele: Don’t disturb Wild & Scenic designations on our rivers
Re “Open the closed door and let us see the water deal” (Our View, Nov. 18). The Tuolumne River Trust is certainly in agreement with The Bee on the larger points of this editorial, especially the need for an open process and “forward thinking” in developing any drought legislation for California.
However, we disagree with The Bee on what specifically constitutes “forward thinking.” Notably, we strongly believe that altering federal Wild & Scenic designations for rivers such as
the Tuolumne and Merced is, in fact, backward thinking.
When the Tuolumne River Trust objected to the proposal to alter the Wild & Scenic designation for the Merced River in 2011 as setting a bad precedent and opening the door for modification to other river protections, The Bee pooh-poohed our concerns as exaggerated (“Water storage needs to rise above the fuss,” April 5, 2011). Now that the water bond has passed, The Bee and others have caught dam-building fever and it’s obvious our concerns were very legitimate.
Wild and scenic rivers are akin to national parks and were set aside by Congress so that future generations would have natural areas to enjoy. Simply put, there are other and better options to enhance our water supply, while the Wild & Scenic Tuolumne is irreplaceable.
Patrick Koepele, Executive Director, Tuolumne River Trust
This story was originally published November 26, 2014 at 12:42 PM with the headline "Patrick Koepele: Don’t disturb Wild & Scenic designations on our rivers."