Wanting some more curiosity
EDITOR: In the SoCurious article about the old concrete bridge by Badger Park, some opinions and recollections were offered that claimed the river is worse off without gravel mining. Let me remind the community that commercial gravel mining was phased-out, litigated out and no longer occurs because it has turned our river into a ditch, robbing it’s health and cost the community millions annually in lost ecosystem services. The idea that gravel mining is good for the river has been debunked by science and what we thought was good for river’s decades ago has dramatically shifted as the impacts from manipulating our river became more obvious and severe over time. Now we realize we built too many homes, vineyards and other things way to close to the river and that is the problem not a lack of mining the river. Today we are working with mining firms to undo the damage mining and channelization that restrains the health of our river and our ability to endure climate change.
We have evolved.
Don McEnhill
Healdsburg
