Along with the travesty of Shasta Dam flooding an ancient Winnemem Wintu burial ground on the McCloud River, the salmon are also exposed to a toxic dosage of cadmium, arsenic, selenium and other dangerous levels of metals from the Iron Mountain Mine diversion dam, far below functional ability to control the flooding of negative pH acid mine drainage. Salmon are a life providing a stable food source for the Winnemem Wintu for at least 10, 000 years. The salmon are treated with upmost respect and are intertwined with the religious beliefs of the Wintun way. Now the few remaining salmon that can manage to bump their heads against the massive Shasta Dam concrete monolith are also bioaccumulating toxic metals from an early age..
Restoration of a river can happen when we focus our attention on cleaning the hazardous acid mine water of IMM before raising an already oversized Shasta dam. We need to conserve water instead of wasting it on inefficient monoculture systems that only benefit short term corporate interest. Health and nutrition requirements of humans are better met by growing permaculture gardens with multistoryed crop diversity. Less water is needed when trees release moisture brought up from their deep taproots, usually innaccessible to small garden root webs. Seasonal flooding cycles replenishes the groundwater table every year for the next growing season..
Drought tolerant crops like tepary bean and jojoba can replace thirsty alfalfa (cattle feed 4 beef ranchers) yeilding more protein in tepary than soy. Jojoba is an excellent liquid wax with properties like oil. Both plants are indigenous to the southwestern desert/scrub climate and require little water. This is especially good 4 the Klamath basin where the Klamath River dams can be decommisioned in 2006 when their FERC liscence expires. All indigenous peoples of California y Turle Isla have a right to healthy river conditions and salmon populations regardless of federal BIA recognition..
We need to work on removing all the large concrete dams, replacing them with smaller beaver dams that are accessible to salmon and also provide a small holding resivoir for human drinking and bathing needs. For the greater good, nuclear and/or military weapons productions in the US/SoCAl region (Howard Hughes/Lockheed Martin/Boeing/etc.) needs to cease (alto). We cannot justify rio water being used to make weapons that are capable of killing millions of humans..
Bike nomads can displace SUV drivers as we consume less energy for our body weight and are also preventing smog formation, the leading cause of asthma and respiratory illness of inner city children. Our lives are more important than their petroleum addictions. We desire to ride our bicycles up the river and place our mouths on the flowing water and quench our thirst with unpolluted agua..
love, peace and justice,
luna moth
http://www.sacredlands.org/index.htm