A River Lost: The Life and Death of the Columbia by Blaine Harden - Book Report/Review Example

A sense of historical perspective research paper After his long and continued absence from his home place in the Pacific Northwest, Washington post journalist Blaine Harden gets back and gives a narrative of the rise and fall of river Columbia. Once, it was a revered place to live because of the massive irrigation schemes which existed in the hometown. His father who was a welder helped to build dams along the river and worked in the secretive plutonium plant. Now, these patriotic dwellers were considered pollutants and responsible for killing the river. Blaine in his book, A River Lost turns his journalistic talents to explore his very own heritage of exploitation. He shows the history of the river and the current state of exploitation to the Native Americans, of endangered salmon, nuclear damage and how the once overflowing river now stands as puddle remains (Harden, pg. 10). The river meant a lot to the various groups of people who resided along it and it is the mixed group interests that Blaine talks about. These groups relate to the Native Americans who fish salmon, dam workers and barge pilots, environmentalists who protect the river, power companies, farmers and the northwest residents who use the electricity produced by hydroelectric plants (Harden, pg.40). Blaine describes the political and economic battles that arise when all people value the river differently. The natural resources embedded here are narrated by a person whose family was involved in the construction of the largest dams along the river in 1930s, the Grand Coulee. He tells of the issues relating to this and the players involved. Description of Columbia River The Columbia rivers follows a square mile basin across seven territory states relating to Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Wyoming, and Utah and through one of the Canadian provinces. Originally the river was argued to be the most important life force in the Pacific Northwest regions in United States of America (Bottom, pg.45). It flows from the bottom of the Canadian rocks in southeastern Columbia to the Pacific Ocean. The sources of this river are two lakes found between the Continental Divide and Selkirk mountain ranges in Columbia. The river flows for several miles calculated to be more than 1200 and its course is convoluted. The course followed for the first 200 miles is northwards before winding southwards and heading to the international boundaries (Bottom, pg.61). In the United States, the Columbia river winds southwest through the Columbia plateau’s lava flows and again turns southeast where it cuts a gorge to the junction with the Snake river. At the junction, the river takes a westward flow to the Pacific Ocean. The Columbian river basin constitutes a mixed ecology relating to a rain forest and semi-arid plateaus. Rainfall level ranges from one hundred and ten to six inches per annum (Cosens, pg. 78). The river is snow-charged and fluctuates seasonally with the highest volume appearing between April and September. The river has ten tributaries namely: Kootenay, Okanagan, Wenatchee, Spokane, Yakima, Snake, Deschutes, Willamette, Cowlitz, and Lewis. The snake is the most important of these and runs across a semi- arid plain and through the deepest gorge in North America referred to as Hells Canyon (Baron, pg. 45). A scenic part of the river goes through the Cascade mountain range and creates the Columbia River gorge. Originally the river ran across basalt cliffs and rapid in the gorge before several dams were constructed along it. Today, the river has a near sea level pathway through the range up to Washington. The lower section of the river falls less than one half foot per mile and are generally flat (Baron, pg.56). It encompasses the largest river islands in North America, the Sauvie Island. Uses of the Columbia River In the world, the river is basically the most hydroelectrically developed. The several dams that were built along its channel provide large reservoirs as well as reducing floods. They also provide adequate water for the various irrigation schemes and plantations on the plateau (Lashnits, pg78). A series of slack water lakes were constructed to allow barges that travelled for more than 465 miles from the ocean to an inland port in Idaho constituting transport means. The hydroelectric projects the whole area through a series of relay stations into a power grid system which is international and interregional. In the 19th century, interest groups living along the river and commercial fisheries harvested several pounds of fish and mostly the five species of the salmons. Most of the catch arose from the lower river and the estuary where seines and gillnets were used. At the river center, the fishers used hooks, dipnets and setnets (Lashnits, pg.104). However, in the 20th century, several factors led to the deterioration of the river and the damage to the habitat of the salmon. These factors include the construction of the dams, increased ocean fishing, deterioration of streams and rivers and changes in river conditions. Channels in the lower part of the river and slack water lakes in the middle part provide routes for transport of materials to the interior. This constitutes a means of employment to the ocean freighters. The river also provides sufficient water for the various irrigation schemes that have existed in the region since 1870s. These schemes require massive pumping locations, several canals and enormous sprinkler systems for the production of such crops as beans, mint, beets, , orchard fruit, potatoes and wine grapes. Blaine explores how fishing for salmon was an integral part in the society and a culture. Most of the people reconcile their appreciation for the land on the numerous fishing trips that they had. He explains that the salmon was worth the time, energy and the risk to the fishers (Williams, pg.50). It is thus troubling when years later; the local noticed that the number of salmons caught was diminishing gradually. Alarm was raised by the tribes living along the river and whose survival depended on it in the 1960s. At that period in time, the tribes lacked political motivators and leaders to back them up and fight against the decline (Williams, pg.48). He notes the conflicting issues that arise when the environment is not well controlled and protected. Blaine compares the past with the present state. Today, the tribes are organized in doing all that they can to ensure that the salmon return to as many as possible. For most residents, the remembered fishing expeditions shape their appreciation for the land, the waters and the salmon fish (Lashnits, pg.156). Good amount of resources are being poured to safeguard the salmon survival and the youth have greatly influenced the effort. Every year, several tribe members join this fight to become fish biologists, environmental engineers and other areas to protect the salmon and consequently, their traditional lives. Moving along the now depleted river that once was severely revered by the people, Blaine narrates of the effects of this depletion. For instance, he sites how the tribal cultures in the Columbia River basin adored the salmon. The fish shaped their culture, religion, diet and society. He explores his visit to the Celilo Longhouse that lies on the banks of the Columbia River in the course of their yearly first Salmon feast (Nicandri, pg.40). The salmon is highly revered and several ancient songs of thanksgiving are sung during this feast. Several fishnets are laid on the ground and stories of tribal fishers are repeatedly told perhaps to denote how the salmon are the center of this feast. They form the most important aspect of tribal culture in the region. The Manhattan project The book by Blaine Harden, shows the contribution of the Columbia River to the development of the atomic bomb and appreciates the contribution of the river in bringing nuclear contamination to downstream communities. The development of the Manhattan project as a research center after the construction of the several dams along the river was a setback to the river flow and a contributor to the depleted state of the river resources (Nicandri, pg.67). This was a research and development project that led to the production of the first atomic bomb during the World War II. It was pioneered by the United States in 1939and grew to accommodate thousands of employees with its cost running up to about two billion US dollars. Most of this cost involved factory constructions and fissile material production. The project came up with two types of atomic bombs (Williams, pg.74). A simple gun-type fission weapon was developed using uranium 235 and employed three methods of uranium enrichment relating to thermal, gaseous and electromagnetic. Besides this another parallel program to produce plutonium was adopted. Reactors were embedded in Oak Ridge and Washington where uranium was transmuted into plutonium. A chemical process was then involved to separate the uranium from the plutonium. The gun-type design which was developed by using plutonium was impractical to use and therefore, another implosion-type design was developed in the laboratories in New Mexico. The first nuclear devices were detonated in 1945 where a gun-type weapon and implosion-type atomic bombs were used in Hiroshima and Nagasaki respectively. In 1975, twelve dams stood in the mainstream of Columbia River and several others on its tributaries. These were used to produce hydroelectric power to the region in the Northwest Pacific. The electricity produced here played a big role in waging the World War II (Baron, pg. 82). The electricity generated and set up in large power grids was used to power the aluminum plants, the shipyards and Hanford engineering works near Richland, Washington where the plutonium atomic bombs were being developed. Waste produced in these factories was released into the river which eventually destroyed the habitat for salmon and consequentially the heritage of the Native Americans (Nicandri, pg. 89). The proper relationship between the environment and the people was lost. Similarly that of the Americans and Europe was broken during the war when atomic bombs were deployed. In conclusion, the book is a continued narrative and a speculation of how important natural resources are and the need to preserve and protect them. Harden demonstrates how a society can also bring into productive capacity any wasteful resources by promoting conservation. In his travels along the once revered Columbia River and a source of his own heritage, he notes not only the damage that human action brings, but also, how such action promotes a loss of culture and extinction. He relates the contribution of the river to the development of the atomic bombs used in the war and the consequential loss of relationship between the natives and the river due to contamination. The river serves a lesson to other nation states on the need to conserve the environment for future production. He elucidates how productive the region was previously and contrasts it to the current state. As much as industrialization promotes development and growth, it poses a danger to the natural habitats if not well controlled based on the book, A River Lost. Works cited Bottom of Form Baron, Jill. Rocky Mountain futures: an ecological perspective. Island Press. 2002. Print. Bottom, Daniel L. Salmon at rivers end: the role of the estuary in the decline and recovery of Columbia River salmon. U.S. Dept. of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Marine Fisheries Service. 2005. Print. Cosens, Barbara. Transboundary river governance in the face of uncertainty the Columbia River Treaty : a project of the Universities Consortium on Columbia River Governance. Oregon State University Press. 2012. Print. Harden, Blaine. A river lost: the life and death of the Columbia. W.W. Norton. 1996. Print. Lashnits, Tom. Columbia River. Chelsea House Publishers. 2004. Print. Nicandri, David L., & Clay Jenkinson. River of promise: Lewis and Clark on the Columbia. Dakota Institute Press of the Lewis & Clark Fort Mandan Foundation. 2009. Print. Williams, Richard Nicholas. Return to the river restoring salmon to the Columbia River. Elsevier Academic Press. 2006. Print. Read More