Farmers’ Market Musings

The United (Watershed) States of America
The recent rain measured a mere one tenth of an inch between the orchard and the chicken coops here in Alexander Valley, but it felt like much more precipitation than that to those of us…grass, fish, frogs, farmers, ranchers, fishermen…thirsty for rain. Once again, we are reminded that we live in an arid land. We survived a similar drought in the 1970’s, but California’s population in 1976 was half (22 million) of what it is today (38 million in 1213). Which reminded me of the wisdom of John Wesley Powell. His plan was to have the state boundaries of the west defined by watershed ridges. In his “Report on the Arid Regions of the United States” to Congress in 1879, Powell recommended that the watershed boundaries were more important than the arbitrary political boundaries that were being drawn then, and that exist today.
In an arid climate, there would always be the temptation to transfer water from one water rich region, to another that has more money and political clout. Powell anticipated this, and suggested that populations of a watershed must learn to live within the limitations of their own snowmelt, rainfall, and aquifers. It was a plan that took into account the dry years. Instead, water in rivers has been divvied up based on average or even high flow years, and then contracted to counties outside their natural watersheds. In times of drought, with rivers over allocated, the water wars begin. You can find a copy of Powell’s map at http://communitybuilders.net/the-united-watershed-states-of-america/.
Gaye LeBaron recently wrote about a plan to change the political boundaries of the state, “A techie investor with billions to play with is offering an initiative that would split the Golden State six ways.” I Googled the scheme, hoping to find that his motivation might be driven by a need to live within the limits of natural resources. What I learned made me want to trade my Google for a set of encyclopedias. Tim Draper, venture capitalist behind such successes as Hotmail and Skype, is planning to spend as much as it takes to make his anti-government, anti-regulation fantasy come true to divide California into six states. It is interesting, and probably just a coincidence, that five of the states would nearly follow Powell’s boundaries, but his main goal would be to carve out the Bay Area as a sixth state called “Silicon Valley.”
If only a conservationist like John Wesley Powell had the resources to determine the course of history. And just in case someone out there is yawning, wondering if my turning back in time is outdated, or thinking that I am stuck in the past, I will have you know that my Goddaughter, age 24, graduate of the University of Denver, applied to continue her summers as an ARTA river guide — this time on the Green River — and in the required essay she wrote about the life of, as she likes to refer to him, JWP. She was hired and spent the summer in the company of many like-minded, well-educated, river guides who probably shared many a story about the adventures and vision of JWP while sitting around a campfire on the banks of the Green.
Powell’s rite of passage in his youth was to explore the wilderness of his home state of Illinois, and his adventures included navigating the Mississippi from her headwaters to her delta. He studied geology, lost an arm in the Civil War, and then ventured west to lead a small band of the first white men to navigate the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. He was the second director of the US Geological Survey, and as he raced to survey the west and assess the limitations of water beyond the hundredth meridian, venture capitalists of his era were racing to lay railroad tracks and extract resources. Powell fought to defend, or at least record, the already disappearing native people and their pristine wilderness, but the forces of greed were stronger than he. Congress, influenced by lobbyists of the time, dismissed his proposals.
So instead of watershed boundaries, we have the political boundaries that exist today. Water flows in pipelines and canals to the counties with the greater populations and political power. One of our more recent leaders in the building of dams and aqueducts in the west, Senator Barry Goldwater, admitted before his death that the Central Arizona Project was his biggest mistake and was ruining the beauty of Arizona. It seems our best hope for untangling the mess of water misallocation is for a few water policy revisionists, such as Goldwater, to step forward. Maybe somewhere there is a venture capitalists who might take time for a river trip, to sit around the campfire, and find inspiration in stories about JWP. Or maybe it won’t be a Lone Ranger who will save the rivers, but a multitude of well-informed citizens who will consider what- in the long run- is best for the United Watersheds of America.
Mary Kelley is the manager of the Healdsburg Farmers’ Market. The Saturday morning market begins at 9 a.m. The Wednesday afternoon market is from 3:30 to 6 p.m. in the Cerri lot on North Street (next to SHED)..