Opinion - Letters to the Editor

POSTED: Friday, Jun. 19, 2009

Some creek damage will last generations

Let's not forget it was fuel for cars that burned Whatcom Creek.

Remediation experts were quoted saying Whatcom Creek is returning "better, cleaner, and more natural than before," but habitat that existed before the burn will not return for generations.

The ravine Whatcom Creek flowed through was a cool, dark, moist crack in the earth, shaded from the sun by a dense canopy of leaves which every fall became a thick carpet of fresh soil-making mulch.

Without that leaf cover, new soil is not generated and our streambed and sandstone bake in the sun like so much pavement, becoming too warm for fish to tolerate. Saplings struggle to gain a toe-hold in such hostile conditions. Just days after the fire, 32 dying trees hundreds of years old were cut down along the creek.

No amount of fines or "restoration" can return what was destroyed that sad day. It will require several decades. Saying the creek is better, cleaner, or more natural is perverse.

Let's get kids on to bikes early, before they believe cars solve our problems. Take them to natural areas that remain, like upstream from the burn. They will explore and learn values and we can learn our hard lessons.

Darol Streib

Bellingham