PRM 380 - Blog #4: Conservation & Preservation

Juniper Dunes Wilderness Area - Franklin County, WA

First off, let's review the principles of conservation and preservation:

Conservation

* Began as a reaction to the Big Raid

* Goal: protect and develop natural resources for the greater good, and greatest number of people, for the longest time

* Fundamental belief in rationality and science; lead to the US Forest Service

Preservation

* Rooted in transcendentalism & romanticism

* Goal: protect and preserve natural resources in an unaltered state

* Ultimate philosophy behind the National Parks and Wildfire Refuges

There is an issue that is taking place in Washington regarding water usage that features the conflicting interests of conversationists and preservationists. North of the Juniper Dunes Wilderness Area in eastern Washington, a livestock company has proposed to move in. It has been well documented that the company (upstream from the wilderness area) and companies like it, have been responsible for polluting the water supply, and consuming too much precious water (eastern Washington is much drier than the west side). The Cascade chapter of the Sierra Club has joined the lawsuit to protect the river and drinking water from Easterday Ranches Inc., which will pump more than one million gallons of water per day from the Columbia Plateau, home of Juniper Dunes.

This is a very good example for the differing thought processes regarding conservationists and preservationists. The Sierra Club, founded by preservationist John Muir, is entering the fight to keep the wilderness area in a pristine condition. The attorney general of Washington cleared the way for livestock producers to use unlimited amount of groundwater with no permit required. The Sierra Club will strive to get the rancher to relocate their planned facility, achieving preservation, but the result of a subsequent lawsuit will probably be more conservation-based. I believe that an agreement of the lawsuit will result in a permit for groundwater use, conserving water for use in the wilderness area.

For more information on this issue, visit http://cascade.sierraclub.org/node/2214.