 Summer of 2001 ment hard times in the resort town of Detroit, Oregon. Months of drought, in the Pacific Northwest, brought low stream flows. Detroit Lake is a reservoir impounded by the large Detroit Dam. Rather than turning off generators and saving as much of the precious lake water as possible, the region's hunger for electricity and down stream salmon habitat took priority. Water was kept flowing through the dam thus dropping Detroit Lake to extremely low levels. This spelled economic problems for a lake side town dependent on fishing and boating. One would see "Save Our Lake" signs all over town. Hard to say if they could ever convince the rest of the world to use less power, from the dam, so more water could be saved in their lake during dry years. It seemed like a case of the needs of one small community pitted against the thirst of a large region. Someone from the fairy conference, that I had
just been
to at Breitenbush, suggested Detroit could have an economic boom if the
stores would stock old clothing supplies for drag queens headed to the
conference. "This boom could happen, two times per year, while
conference
people pass through." "Maybe drag supplies could be kept behind
cat
food down at the store." If you want to enlighten people about the preservation of nature, be sure to show them your pictures. You can talk about that poor creature covered in oil all day long, or you can just show a wounded animal picture and drive your point home. People need to see bird photos and nature shots before it's too late. If you have a beautiful sunset photo or nature photo, please share it with the rest of us! |
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