Editorial Watersheds are individual communities which, in concert together, form the larger bioregion. All life forms make up a watershed community; when one is depleted or harmed the entire community suffers. Everything we do has some effect on water quality, soils, fisheries, weather, air quality and all the living creatures within our watersheds. Only the human component of the watershed has the power to preserve or destroy. We all have responsibility for our downstream neighbors, whatever species they might be. This responsibility extends to the future inhabitants of our watersheds. What will we leave the still unborn? We can choose a future of clean air and water, intact forests and fisheries, and viable soil. Or we can continue to use it up now, for short-term profit and greed.
In this issue we explore watersheds. What are they? Where are they? What's their condition? Who and what deplete and destroy them? Who and what preserve and repair them? We find dioxin still dumped in our waters by the paper industry. New offshore oil leases are opening up. Bureaucrats are electric shocking endangered fish for a more accurate count. Mendocino Redwood Company continues to degrade their already depleted forestlands, tearing a GAP through our watersheds.
On the positive side, there are eleven watershed groups working to preserve our future. There are creek restoration projects that will help reestablish natural habitats. The Russian River Watershed Council is bringing all concerned parties to the table to plan for the future. Brave people are speaking and acting on behalf of all species.
Albert Einstein once said, "We must widen our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty." To the flyers and swimmers, the creepers and crawlers, the four-legged and two-legged, the trees, lichens, mosses, ferns, spores, molds and the myriad invisible life forms who are all part of our watershed communities: This newsletter is dedicated to you.
We lead with an overview of the larger bioregion (of which Mendocino County is just a part) because it clearly describes the environmental problems faced by watersheds, the obvious solutions to widespread degradations, both ongoing and past, and the economic obstacles to those solutions.
In our centerfold, we provide a map entitled "Our Local Waterways" which shows how the creeks, rivers, lakes, dams, power stations, etc. are distributed in our area. Use the map as a guide to articles about many different local aspects of the regional watershed issues addressed below.
Copyright Mendocino Environmental Center 1999
Permission granted to excerpt or use this article if source is cited