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What The River Taught
by Lindsey Case
Silence. An ethereal calm transcends the music on the radio as a quarter mile stretch of river suddenly transforms from turbulent rapids into a sheet of glass. As we drive upriver the glass reflects everything: moss, trees, clouds. The waters reflect with such precision that the line between reality and mirror image becomes blurred, yet beneath this placid mirror travels such an immense volume of water as to fuel the turbulent rapid just passed. Guised in a bed of motionless tranquility, this sheet of glass delivers an immeasurable power.
In many ways the subsurface movement of the river mimics successful change in our world. The inertia behind social change requires a multitude of forces working towards a common goal, focusing power beneath the surface, fostering movement of thought undetectable to the masses, until the idea has become one of merit-- a rapid which breaks the calm of the mirror pond. To succeed in any environmental endeavor we must change the culture of our society by following this pattern of hidden movement.
Along the many winding roads of the West I found these deep moving waters manifested most accurately in collaborative groups. In the best of instances Western collaboration unites unlikely political groups, placing conservationists in bed with ranchers, and environmentalists holding hands with Republican school districts. In a small side office of the public library in Missoula, Montana the most powerful rapid of my life walked through the doorway on the legs of three women. These women represented the Clark Fork Coalition. Tracy Stone-Manning, an environmental studies graduate from the University of Montana, spearheaded the group, working with Chris Brick a geologist, and Heidi D'Armande, a former meatpacking employee. In 1985, the Coalition formed in response to the designation of the Clark Fork River as a superfund site by the US Government two years prior. 2100 tons of arsenic, 13,000 tons of copper, and 1500 tons of iron compose a small portion of the pollutants floating in the Clark Fork waters. Clearly the consequences of heavy mining in the 1800s now affect every community and individual down stream from Butte, Montana all the way to Missoula. The river flows through the lives of each environmentalist, each rancher, each school teacher in the watershed-the trick lies in getting these equally invested people to talk with one another.
Back in the Missoula Library, Tracy Stone-Manning describes what it takes to heal a heavy metal tortured river. "Four things." She holds up her fingers. "First, you need to have your science right to fix a river. Second, you need to get the culture of ranchers to want to fix that river. You also need to get the ranchers to want to learn how to fix it. Third, you need to get your law right. Finally, you need to get a large amount of community engaged." In this way, Tracy wanted to use the Coalition as a catalyst for the communities along the Clark Fork Watershed, filtering in each person's narrow vision of proper fish passage, water quality, and riparian ecosystem health in order to achieve a holistic picture. Not only did Tracy wish to achieve a holistic picture for improving the watershed, but her method of inspiring environmental ethics into the community mirrored that holistic approach. Tracy moved swiftly beneath the radar of social change by hiring individuals who spoke the language of each field necessary to bring politically polar opposites together, such as Chris Brick and Heidi D'Armande. By hiring Heidi from the slaughter industry to sell environmentalism to the ranchers, Tracy gently pushed the community downstream towards the foaming rapids.
In the pasturelands of Montana, conservation equals a threat to native ranching culture, but when Heidi saunters onto the ranch authoritatively speaking about the differences in taste between a grass or grain finished piece of beef, the ranchers begin to take note. A woman like Heidi engenders trust in the ranching community and because of that trust, she can discuss environmental problems and suggest ways to improve ranching through conservation. Heidi acts as the calm surface masking Tracy's powerful force pushing ranching society downstream.
The success of the Clark Fork Coalition directly relates to Tracy's method of utilizing the right people to foster communication. One person cannot and should not attempt to speak the necessary languages of law, of science, of ranching and of conservation. By working beneath the surface in this way, Tracy broke down the barriers of antagonism, of distrust, and of pride created by previous attempts in the environmental movement. These previous attempts were endemic of an environmental community caught up in their own arrogance. The stereotypical environmentalist attempts to force change through lecture and defamation of their opponents' way of life. These environmental movements act like a river flood. A movement focused on violent, catastrophic periods of litigation, boycotts and the likes of tree spiking, which only serves to tear apart the river channel, further degrading the watershed of the environmental movement.
The Clark Fork Coalition taught me that you have to channel your passion to save the environment into one that equally cares about the communities living in that degraded environment. The Coalition taught Ari that empowered women are sexy. The trick lies in fostering communication. The argument for a healthy environment does register with all people in all walks of life; you just have to learn to speak each individual language. We must channel our power unseen, deep beneath the surface, peacefully pushing our communities towards the white, foaming rapid of change.
And in this way, change will always occur from these depths of motion because even if the original goal of your movement does not succeed, the minds of the general public will never be the same.