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Feeling the drain: Hypocrytical and nonsensical ecopolitics of SPAWN
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Recently, the forces of the absurdist wing of the environmental movement have been at work in Marin: SPAWN. They are the Salmon Protection And Watershed Network, a West Marin-based organization dedicated, beyond most reason, to re-establish a thriving, Coho-centric riparian community.
Clearly, having a healthy environment is important and in an ideal world, the creeks in Marin would be universally healthy enough to support a robust Coho population. But things just ain't that way. Their most recent ideas have included demolishing illegal housing within a given perimeter of the Lagunitas Creek, getting rid of paved driveways in the San Geronimo Valley, having residents build catchment basins to collect water for private use and taking out all non-native species from the creek area and replace them with native species.
Each one of these proposals is foolhardy, if well-intentioned (if indeed all these points are well-intentioned). Illegal housing is endemic in the Valley, and to demolish it would certainly prove detrimental to people's lives and likely also hurt fish. Add the fact that SPAWN's executive director, Todd Steiner, is seeking to exempt his own new creekside development from the prohibitive mandates he and his organization are working to create. It's a case of having your cake, eating it, and taking away everyone else's slices of frosted deliciousness.
Ridding the Valley of paved driveways, a move intended to limit seeping chemicals into the water table, would only pick up dust and increase the silt they want us so badly to limit. And though Marin receives its fair share of precipitation, residents can not reasonably be expected to find a terribly useful volume of rainwater, and even if catchment basins were created, what good would that serve the Coho? What good would ripping out plants from creek sides do? Yes, having native plant species along our creeks would be lovely, but what does that have to do with fish? It seems that SPAWN is reaching beyond its statement of purpose.
Certainly, they cannot be faulting for trying to help. But they can be blamed for harmful ideas, well-intentioned though they may be.
