9298

• UCREFRP Catalog Number: 9298
• Author: Water Education Foundation.
• Title: Colorado River Project
• USFW Year: 1999.
• USFW - Doc Type: Symposium Proceedings.
• Copyright Material: NO

THE
BALANCING
ACT

Another point I would make is, I also don't know
that you ever get a true balance because of the
dynamic nature of ecosystems and the dynamic
nature of human cultures in the way they continue
to develop. So, I don't see balancing as a teeter totter.
I don't see it as a pie that has six or seven equal
pIeces.
The way we would know if we were in balance at
anyone time is if at the end of the day, the system is
sustained, preserved, in some cases enhanced, and
allows human and those
non-development uses.
The approach is very
much an approach that
is adaptive, as Bob has
mentioned. Again, you
have to start from where
we are. I think this
notion that you go back
to pre-man is probably
not realistic. That's a
given. So within that,
you try to work so that
you don't tear down the
very system that you're a part of because every piece is
so integral to making it run.

Values change

over time and so

what is balance in

balance in another.

one time is not

SYMPOSIUM
PROCEEDINGS
SEPTEMBER 1999

o

- S. Clayton Palmer

s. CLAYTON PALMER, MANAGER OF

ENVIRONMENTAL PLANNING,

WESTERN AREA POWER AsSOCIATION
I think the issue of balance is a difficult one. The
reason it's difficult is because attitudes with respect to
the environment and with respect to development
change over time. And not only do they change over
time, but they change over place, over geography.
Not long ago, during the Glen Canyon Environ-
mental Impact Statement process, the press was
interviewing the manager of the dam, who worked
for the Bureau of Reclamation. He was asked this
balance question, and he said, "I thought we had
achieved balance, that's why we built the dam," or
words to that effect. But values change over time and
so what is balance in one time is not balance in
another.
Balance changes over geographic place. Also
during a time when I was working on the Glen
Canyon Environmental Studies, I was in a van
driving to Peach Springs, Arizona, with a couple of
economists from the University of Wisconsin. And
we came across a bucolic valley, nice looking country.
And in the middle of the valley were a couple of
trailer homes and a house or two. And the two
economists from Madison, Wisconsin, said, "You

know, I wish a brush fire would come here and just
burn these houses out so that the valley would be
pure and natural and have no blight on it."
The notion of what one thinks in Madison,
Wisconsin and what one thinks in Utah of balance
are two different things. In the Uinta Basin there's a
controversy right now in the state of Utah over how
much wilderness to designate ofBLM land. Some
advocate 2.1 million acres and some 5.2 million acres
or more. I can tell you that the residents of Uinta
Basin think the issue of wilderness is out of balance.
They prefer to have more development. So the idea of
balance changes from place to place.
Finally, since the U.S. is a pluralistic society; there
isn't ever an agreement on what is balance. One
person in a place and a time differs in their opinion
from another person in a place and a time about what
is balance.
I can't tell you the way to go, other than perhaps
to look globally. Globally, I could tell you what
balance is. When every person on earth has met the
recommended caloric intake standards of the United'
Nations and no additional resources are being
withdrawn from the earth because they're all recycled
back, that will be balance for the earth. But that's a
hard thing to apply to the Colorado River.
It seems like political balance is all you can hope
to achieve at any particular time. If you can bring all
affected parties together - not un-affected parties,
like two economists from Madison, Wisconsin - and
ask them to work on a compromise and ask them to
come to an agreement and there is no threat of
litigation and no one-upmanship in terms of the
parties involved, then when they shake hands and
walk away, you've achieved political balance.
That sounds idealistic but I can tell you, just
recently, in the Upper Basin Recovery Implementa-
tion Program, a group of diverse parties is shaking
hands and walking away from a piece of legislation
that has been introduced in Congress. I don't know
whether everybody will like it, but I can tell you that
all affected parties have come together and have put
together a mechanism and set of controls for the
Upper Basin Recovery Program, and they've walked
away shaking hands. So in a certain respect, a balance
has been achieved.

PAMELA HYDE, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR,

GLEN CANYON INSTITUTE

Clayton just gave us a lot of thoughts about
balance. I want to talk about needs for a minute. This
question goes to balancing human and environmental
needs. The needs part of this is actually a good