The river I live by has been affected by diking and dewatering of its estuaries, diking and channelizing of its main stem cutting off all sloughs and side channels. Every tree along its entire length has been cut down. Run off from farms, roads, developements, city streets, parking lots and anything else you can think of flowing into the river untreated; containing just about every chemical and polutant you can think of. Both the main stem and tributaries dammed changing the flow, temperature and chemical make up of the river forever. Its fish have been assaulted by nets and over fishing for about a century. Gee, I wonder why the fish are having such a hard time? Its about the habitat stupid.

And the people that live along it can only think about getting flooded. Dumb %&&$, don't build next to the river and you won't have to worry about it!

Same old story.

When the white man first moved to the Skagit Valley he asked the indians where he should build his house so he wouldn't get flooded. The indians told him to build above the high water mark on the trees. So, what did the white man do? He cut the trees down.