Dear HCN,
Alan S. Kesselheim’s lead
story on the Yellowstone River hits the nail on the head (HCN,
3/27/00: The last wild river). A classic, one-of-a-kind,
free-flowing river gets ruined because of greed and stupidity. The
fact that anyone can build anything in a 100-year floodplain is
insane. Look at the Mississippi if you want to see what happens
when a natural river is channelized with nowhere for the water to
go during floods.
Also, a friend of mine saw a
fisherman pull a pike out of the Yellowstone River last week. Add
that to the problems with whirling disease and you have another
problem of immense proportions.
David
Haines
Phoenix, Arizona
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Besieged river.
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