Ruining A River

osted on 10/31/2014 | 1 Comment

Material possessions are a positive hindrance to the elevation of mankind - Henry David Thoreau
(This article first appeared in Multinational Monitor and is part of Chapter 3: Chiapas via Alaska: The Grateful Unrich…)
A century of mining and decades of clear-cutting have taken their toll on Western Montana’s formerly pristine Blackfoot River.
Once a world-class trout stream and the subject of Norman McLean’s classic novel A River Runs Through It, the river has been transformed into a muddy concoction of heavy metals and silt flowing west from the Continental Divide into the Clark Fork River just east of Missoula, Montana.
There are virtually no fish in the river now. The Blackfoot drainage has been so badly denuded by Wall Street robber barons that when Robert Redford came to Montana to produce the recent movie based on McLean’s novel, he chose to film on the Gallatin River instead. In April 1992 American Rivers listed the Blackfoot among the ten most endangered rivers in the United States, noting that the river may not be able to withstand another industry onslaught. It now appears this day of reckoning is just around the bend.
READ MORE: http://hendersonlefthook.wordpress.com/2014/10/31/ruining-a-river/