Damnation

[Chief Grey Bear]

And that is just fine with me. We have enough people on the rivers!

[Al Agnew]

I agree on the good points of lakes that they keep plenty of doofuses off the rivers that are left. I just wish the lakes would have been put on less valuable rivers, or at least not piled right on top of each other on the White River.

[jdmidwest]

But if there are more rivers, it would help thin out the numbers of drunken floater more. Instead of concentrating on a few streams by the thousands, they would be spread out over many streams by the hundreds.

It was only a wish. A little time machine that would take me back to Schoolcraft's days with all of the advanced equipment today to explore the Ozarks would be a great wish too.

If drained today, the streams would be bordered by miles of barren wasteland for many years. And it would take many years for the channels to scour out the old courses

[ollie]

I noticed this was sponsored by Patagonia. The old man who started the company is a big believer and contributor to taking out some of those damns and he is dang proud of it! He is an interesting man and if you ever get the chance to watch some of the stuff he is involved with it will move you for sure. Yvon Chouinard is his name.

[Fishingmill]

I will have to check him out. And I did notice that Patagonia was a sponsor.

[Jeff Behrns]

Chouinard is certainly a visionary. Can't say I agree with everything I've heard from him, but he definitely advocates minimizing human impact on the planet which is commendable. Dams and fish ladders can really stir up emotions. If you want to get pissed off, go watch "Into the Tsangpo Gorge" which documents an amazing kayak expedition in 2002, then read about how China is currently daming the hell out of that river in the name of big hydro. They're actually diverting it north in to Chia where it would normally flow south to India. I remember watching something about the Lake Powell dam and its constant leaks / seeps / risk of failure. The guy being interviewed said (paraphrasing) "It is the river's way of telling the dam; I was here long before you and I'll be here long after you."

[Chief Grey Bear]

On rivers that have been negatively impacted by dams, I would agree with their removal.

I agree with Al that I would love to have been able to float the White River. But I can't say that the fishery has necessarily been impacted in a negative way.

You could probably make the argument that the dams have actually made a positive impact to the fishery.

Let's not forget that Jim Owens was a newspaper writer. It was his job to romance the Ozarks to sell his service. And he did a fascinating job of it obviously.

In talking with the old rivermen over the years that got to float the White before the dams, they loved fishing the White but they didn't seem to hold it in as high esteem as Jim did. But again, they weren't selling it out either.

Jim did such a great job of that even the railroad promoted the area in their brochures. Jim made a great living from river. Rumors still circle around that he was instrumental in the building of T-Rock and secretly bought a lot of land that eventually became the lake.

Jim was a super business man and I think he is responsible for putting that area on the map and making it what it is today.