Daniel Weintraub's Restoration Offers A Sprinkling Of Hope

At the end of the Civil War slavery was outlawed by the 13th Amendment to the Constitution and the blacks was finally free. In the South there was a sense of anger and shame in losing the war. The Reconstruction era was put into effect by Congress in 1866 and lasted until 1877. Reconstruction was aimed at reorganizing the Southern states after the Civil War. The reconstruction plan granted the means for readmitting the southern states into the Union, and tried to come up with the methods by which whites and blacks could live together in a non-slave society. However during reconstruction the United States government took actions to protect freedman and with each action the south countered with actions that would try to eradicate the laws put in place by the winning northern forces for example, the infamous Jim Crow Laws. The law segregated the whites and the blacks, thus can be commonly heard as “separate is not equal.” The Reconstruction was still seen as a success towards the United States as a whole in many ways as it unified the nations.

McEwen and Weintraub both state evidence on the information on their articles. They both give support which makes me believe them both. In McEwen’s article “River Plan Too Fishy for my Taste Buds” he states that their is to many problems with legislation and their is no funding, but at the same time everyone els wants to restore the river. In other hand Weintaub in his article “River Restoration Project Offers a Sprinkiling of Hope” he is all for it and he wants the changes.

The article “Down go the dams” by Jane C.Marks aim to provide an informative view on the current pending issue on Dams. The article starts out my mentioning the important nature of dams in our society. For example, Jane C.Marks states that today about 800,000 dams operate worldwide as well as the fact that most were built in the past century, primarily after World War II. Furthermore, the author lays down informative facts about dams such as the fact that dams control flooding and their reservoirs provide a reliable supply of water for irrigation, drinking and recreation which are all very important to society. In an economic standpoint, although it is very high maintenance dams provide jobs for people. The

The Grand Coulee Dam, located in Eastern Washington, was one of controversy, risk, and a point of no return. While the water captured made the desert area blossom in agriculture and it powered some large cities, it created a sense of accomplishment, that humans can control Mother Nature. While many people were very excited for this new construction – which gives power and resources - at the time, some thought it should not be allowed, they are not proud of containing the Columbia River. In this analysis, I am going to focus on the economic and social effects that the Grand Coulee Dam created in its build.

In the third section of John McPhee's Encounters with the Archdruid, the author observes the discourse between conservationist David Brower and Commissioner of the Bureau of Reclamation, Floyd Dominy, on the merits of dams in the southwestern United States. Brower "hates all dams, large and small," while Dominy sees dams as essential to our civilization. The Glen Canyon Dam and Lake Powell, which Dominy created, are the main issue of debate between the two men.

McEwen supports these claim with examples, quotes from professionals, and reasoning. The purpose of his article was so he could make readers be aware that the river restoration plan won’t work.

The Reconstruction time period, 1865 through 1877, was a complex time for America. The southern part of the nation was in need of governmental, economical, and social repair after losing the Civil War. Radical Republicans, Democrats, and newly freed African Americans all were influential in the age of Reconstruction. Historians have struggled to put into words exactly what Reconstruction incorporates and precisely what the motives of the different groups of people were. Renowned American historian, Eric Foner, is a professor at Columbia University. He has written many books concerning the Civil War and Reconstruction eras. Eric Foner’s Reconstruction theory

Two of the projected plans include keeping things the way they are and allowing more of the water in Friant Dam to flow into the river to bring back the former environment that was once there as well as improve the conditions for west-side farmers. The two plans contrast drastically with each other but both have positive and negative consequences.

Yet, humans have limited control on natural events, so this only reinforces the importance of managing water wisely. Recently California’s government has begun to focus more on sustaining and restoring the water supply. Dale Kasler (2016) articulates in his article some of the steps they have decided to make to solve this serious issue. The government has made the following investments: “$415 million for watershed restoration and other environmental aid for Lake Tahoe; up to $335 million for two proposed reservoirs in California, including the Sites reservoir north of Sacramento; $880 million for flood-control projects on the American and Sacramento rivers in Sacramento; and $780 million for flood-control projects in West Sacramento” (para. 10). This could be the first step to restoring the water to California. But these

The Artificial River, a well thought of 177 paged book written by the author Carol Sheriff whom at the time was an graduate at Yale University and finished it off while an assistant professor at William and Mary. This compelling book captures and emphasis the success and downfall the Erie canal has brought to the people. Sheriff has a clear notion that “progress” viewed differently through the eyes of conflicting people and status. What one envisioned the Canal turn out to be fluctuated from another. Progress to them meant in large part men and women take apart an active role in the community that they are in which the construction of the Erie canal consisted of people doing just that. She apprehended that whomever supported the canal had some dream and hope to actively be apart a wider range or market exchange. In Sheriff words she says that progress would play a central role in defining Northern sectional identity in decades. The book will explore six topics which are titled Vision of Progress, The Triumph of Art over Nature, Reducing time and distance, Politics of land and water, Politics of Business and The Perils of Progress all of which I will touch on throughout the paper.

In 1923-1947 Arkansas Power and Light (AP&L) constructed several dams on two Arkansas lakes, Hamilton and Catherine. AP & L obtained “flood easements” on property adjoining the lakes. AP&L sold lake side property and kept the easement in force. These flood easements permitted AP&L to “clear of trees, brush, and other obstruction and to submerge by

In this section, the text talks about the various findings and how they all point to the fact that a levee system is needed to divert water straight to the Gulf of Mexico from the Mississippi River through the Morganza Spillway. I have only lived in the Southern Louisiana region for past two years so I cannot begin to even gauge the levels of reaction when the plan was proposed. Some of my neighbors have been farming sugarcane fields and growing soybean for last 5 generations. And I believe they would be infuriated if their land was part of the buyout of the land needed in the project area. The section goes in detail what role does the Morganza Spillway plays into preventing major flooding in Baton Rouge and New Orleans area. The part that

Illinois is where the dam would be built if approved, but Illinois state legislature is refusing to build the dam. Their concern is the alteration of the water flow and access to the river. They feel that the dam would decrease overall revenue in Illinois and surrounding states and that the flow of water would be altered, resulting in damage to surrounding ecosystems and economies. Michigan and Minnesota state governments have been pressuring Illinois to build the dam in hopes of halting the spread of the carp. Kim Fleming also stated that, “When looking at these types of issues, it always comes down to money… When you’re a governor or you’re a state representative… you are looking at [the ecological] issues in part, but the main thing is money. If you change… access to water, you start to change a lot. [There] are things like industry that depend on that water, or shipping. When you start to block stuff off… you start to affect the midwestern states’ access to that water.” (Fleming

One thing that was interesting was White’s idea that workers dangling from cliffs are much like rock climbers doing the same (p.61). This idea leaves one with the impression that the workers were still very much attuned with nature. Again it circles back to the idea presented in the first chapter, the idea that the river can be understood through the labor of humans. Although the labor drastically altered the river, understanding the river was essential in doing so. The issue that is presented though is that the workers are often overlooked, which seems counteractive if they are the ones truly attuned to the river. Their understanding provided the most important step in making sure the dams were built in ways that were beneficial, both for producing power and maintaining the flow of the river. The centralization of hydrological power under the BPA helped this attitude manifest its self in the Pacific

Natural flow regimes are being altered through the management of rivers for anthropogenic services (Poff et al., 1997; Bunn & Arthington, 2002; Lytle & Poff, 2004; Magilligan & Nislow, 2005; Murchie et al., 2008; Mims & Olden, 2012). These services include hydropower, freshwater, flood control, irrigation and recreation (Murchie et al., 2008), all of which can modify the natural river flow. The most significant construction that provides these services are dams which are able to “capture both low and high flows” (Poff et al.,