Dear HCN,
Thank you
for the copy of your story about the Catholic Church’s pastoral
letter to help people appreciate the sacred and divine nature of
the Columbia River watershed (HCN, 9/11/00: Holy water: The
Catholic Church seeks to restore the Columbia River and the
church’s relevance to the natural world).
I fell
in love with the Snake River watershed, its river being a major
tributary to the Columbia, when I worked for the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service in Idaho for 16 years. I hunted and fished the
Snake’s tributaries; passed up an easy shot at a trophy elk I’d
called from the brush at sunset because he, his cow, and calf were
just too beautiful to kill; had my own near-death experience when
my raft flipped in a steep Salmon River rapid; bicycled along the
roads up the Boise and Salmon rivers with my 14-year-old daughter,
now 20, from Caldwell, on the western edge of Idaho, to the town of
Salmon; picked cherries with my family in Emmett Valley; took my
10-year-old son on a two-day horse pack trip near McCall that he,
now 25, still talks about; participated on the federal-state team
that prepared the Idaho State Water Plan; wrung my hands when the
Bureau of Reclamation built Teton Dam on a blue-ribbon trout stream
in eastern Idaho and I witnessed more destruction when the dam
broke and sent tons of water careening downstream; saw the
devastation wrought by clear-cutting and past and present mining;
realized the incompatibility between anadromous fish and big dams;
and, as Aldo Leopold said, felt the deep frustration of a doctor
who understands the cause of his patient’s decline, but can do
little to stop it.
I’ve managed, with some
difficulty, to make the transition from nearly pristine Idaho to
decidedly urban and very busy California. Just before I moved to
Santa Cruz, I sold my rifle and gave away my fishing gear. I knew
the often idyllic life I’d enjoyed was behind me; I didn’t know
what was ahead.
In California, my attitude about
the environment changed. I concluded that sport hunting, while
fostering a positive attitude toward nature, nevertheless limits a
much more rewarding appreciation of God’s creatures and their
habitat. I realized that as a hunter I was selfishly exploiting the
animals and their environment, a little like miners and dam
builders.
In a sense, my change of attitude
mirrors the change the Catholic bishops seem to be seeking with
their pastoral letter. They want people to know that when, in
Genesis 1:28, God says, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the
earth and subdue it …” (King James Version), God meant for man to
be a steward, not a destroyer, of God’s creation. The Columbia
River watershed is an example of God’s creation in desperate need
of stewardship. The bishops are asking members of the deeply
entrenched opposing sides to focus on the health of the whole
watershed, not on their parochial, and often selfish, interests.
It’s a huge job.
Thank you again for bringing
this issue to my attention and for renewing my love for the
Columbia River watershed. I’m now a little homesick for Idaho, but
tomorrow I’ll be fine. I’ll ride my bike along the ocean shore and
into the redwood forest. I’ll watch black-tailed deer feed in a
meadow, see gray whales migrating north past Santa Cruz to the
Bering Sea, and ride the oldest roller coaster on the West Coast,
and I’ll be fine, really.
James A.
Nee
Santa Cruz, California
The writer is a member of the San Agustin Catholic Community in Scotts Valley.
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Pastoral letter resonates.
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
