Thursday, October 14, 2004

Telling it like it was ... and is!

Rick Van Noy

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Van Noy is associate professor of English at Radford University and a member of the Friends of the New River.

In his Sept. 29 commentary ("Nature? What nature? Which nature?"), Josh Blount unpacks the word "natural" to make a point about environmental management and restoration. No environment, he rightly observes, is completely free from human modification, and humans are a part of nature. But to present his case, he uses a poor example, the slogan seen on many New River Valley bumpers, "The New River ... like it is!"

The "like it is" sentiment underlying the slogan, he points out, would remove the traces of human presence, "returning the environment to a more natural state," when in fact such a state may never have existed and is not possible to re-create. Which New River are we preserving, he asks, "that of 2000, 2004, 1990 or even 1900?"

To understand the phrase, we need the historical context that created it. The slogan originated in the 1970s when two hydroelectric dams (one of the ways we "manage" rivers) were proposed on the New that would have made today's Galax an underwater Atlantis. Some 42,000 river valley acres would have been lost. Some people were eager to sell lakefront, but others wanted to fight.

On Sept. 11, 1976, some of those who chose to fight were invited to the White House Rose Garden, where President Ford signed a bill protecting the New. "This majestic and beautiful river," he said, has been "preserved for future generations. I hope the New River will flow free and clear for another 100 million years." After signing the bill, he declared: "When a decision has to be made between energy production and environmental protection, you must ask what is the will of the people involved. ... It is clear in this case the people wanted the New River like it is."

"Like it is" did not imply removing human presence. Quite the opposite, it meant keeping it. In a 1999 National Geographic article on the New, attorney Edmund Adams was quoted as saying "this was about people, not endangered species or trees. This was about preserving a way of life."

But what if it were about preserving endangered species or trees? The phrase "like it is" means not that we turn back to the past but quite simply that we hold the line, not lower our standards. Our tendency to "manage" rivers means that the salmon in the Pacific Northwest's Columbia River are in decline. The Mississippi is so relentlessly ditched, dammed (never was a finer pun) and culverted that flooding and erosion have worsened, leading to declining water quality and habitat.

The "environmental philosophy underlying" Blount's own comments is the same that says our forests are not "healthy" unless trees are cut. In light of a recent victory for the New River, Duke Energy's announcement that it will withdraw its application for a power plant near Foster's Falls, the phrase resonates. But you have to spell it right to get the full effect. The balance and symmetry of the three word "The New River" followed by a dot-dot-dot pause to a rising three word climax "like it is" exclamation point. And always should be.