Bureaucracy Vs. Rewilding

“Federal officials have called for killing about 30 sea lions near Bonneville Dam each year to keep them from gobbling a rising share of Northwest salmon that the government spends millions of dollars to protect.”
– The Oregonian Friday, January 18, 2008

Dear salmon. I have a confession to make. When I worked as a production assistant for television commercials, a friend called me for a job… on a political campaign advertisement.

The conversation went like this:

“Hey Peter. I’ve got a job for you if you want it.”

“Yeah, sure. I need some work right now,” I say.

“Great. Well, how do you feel about political ads?”

I think for a second and ask, “Does the person belong to the democratic or republican party?”

He pauses, “Does it matter?”

I laugh, “…Nope.”

“Let’s just say, the guy doesn’t look pretty.”

The job felt as horrible and revealing about my former line of work as you can probably imagine. We drove around the state for two days shooting the local political candidate (just some billionaire business tycoon) “talk” with “people” about issues. Of course, he didn’t really talk about anything because the footage would serve as “b-roll” for the voice over and text that would narrative the commercial. We drove to Molalla where he had some farmer buddies to show him talking with farmers. We went to a shipping room for one of his business clients to show that he cares about businesses (that business happened to have all kinds of plaque awards on the wall for their donations to anti-abortion organizations).

At lunch the topic of politics came up. Some people all agreed that Al Gore lost the election because his posture felt too stiff. I wanted to say, “Actually, he won the election. Bush stole it, remember?” But then I remembered that I didn’t give a shit who “won” or stole anything. It all looks like a shame to me anyway (I voted for Nader, Ha!). I had worked on many commercials at this point and never had the crew eaten in complete silence with the occasion glance of recognition that the people talking sounded insane.

As the tension built on that shoot, things just kept getting more and more revealing. We traveled to the political candidate’s mansion for the last location for the shoot. His backyard had a vineyard that ended at his own personal dock on the Willamette river in yuppieville Lake Oswego. When we got to the house he said, “I really only intended it to reach 4,000 square feet, but I just couldn’t stop building! (yuck yuck) All together now I think it stands at 11,000 square feet.”

Out back we set up some gear for the shoot on his dock. Two of his fishing buddies showed up for part of the video of him talking with fishermen. The producer felt like they needed a third person, so he hired an old Asian man with a long white beard who had coincidentally come to the house to clean the guys pool.

Down on the dock the pressure felt high. Not just because the sun would soon set and we raced the daylight, but because of all the bullshit I had seen and experienced in the previous hours. They began shooting the b-roll of the political candidate talking to the fisherman. The director suggested that the man talk about fishing policy, even though they wouldn’t actually record it, but just to “set the mood.” So off he went. He begun saying that reason the salmon runs have depleted involves the endangered sea lions who hunt them. He suggested killing sea lions, endangered sea lions, as a solution to declining salmon populations. He argued that environmentalists, by protecting the sea lions, which disallowed them from receiving the death sentence, indirectly held responsibility for the declining salmon populations.

Stop for a minute. We all know that the dams killed the salmon by not letting salmon return to their spawning grounds. A few years (depending on the life span of the particular salmon) without a fish latter and you have no more salmon runs up river from the dam. Dams killed the salmon. We all know that logging killed the eggs of those salmon who did make it past the dams by silt run-off from clear-cuts burying the eggs and by removing trees that shaded the river making it hotter than the temperature that salmon eggs need to mature. We know that those salmon who survived to make it back out to the ocean died in fishing nets from commercial fishing companies.

At that point I turned away from the crew and started to cry. I thought about the discussion I had with Derrick Jensen the time I rescued him. He said that when you kill something you make an agreement that you will take responsibility for the continuation of said killed something’s species. This political commercial paid me $200 a day for two days, a grand total of $400. During the Nuremberg trials, they sentenced Julius Streicher, editor of the weekly Nazi newspaper to death. What about the writers of the paper? What about the paper boys (and girls)? They all played a part as good Germans. I stood on that dock, keeping my mouth shut and playing the part of the good civilian.

I couldn’t escape the fact that in some way, my work contributed to the success of bullshit politicians and the continuation of a civilized system of programmed environmental devastation. Whether republican or democrat, whether the guy won the election or not (which he didn’t). The simple fact that two years later “federal officials” have called for the death of sea lions shows that it doesn’t matter which person gets in office, but the cultural momentum of civilizations destruction.

I knelt down and looked into the murky waters of the Willamette, wiping the tears from my eyes. I began to speak to the salmon. “I promise you, I will do whatever I can, use the tools I have to help your species survive. Please hold on. Please.”

A few weeks earlier another article came out about the death of salmon at the hands of the good citizens.

“Salmon survived massive dams and fishing fleets, but now they’re feeling the heat of global warming — and it’s likely to hammer them as hard as anything they’ve faced.”
– The Oregonian Jan 6th, 2008

Salmon did not survive the dams and fishing fleets as the above moronic Oregonian writer says. An endangered species looks more like someone who has cancer; you don’t know if they will survive or not. The salmon populations would not have declined to near extinction without the logging and dams and over fishing.

I have a genius idea. Let’s pour thousands of tons of concrete across a river and stop the fish who spawn in it from having the ability to come back next year. After a few years, most will no longer live. Dams (a product of civilization) decimated the salmon, logging (a product of civilization) kicked them while they lay on the ground. And now, mysterious global warming (influenced heavily by civilization) lifts the club to the sky threatening the final blow and taking credit away from the obviously civilized dams and logging. How convenient for the Hydro-Timber industries. Than when fisherman complain we blame the deaths of the salmon on the endangered sea lions (who became endangered when the dams killed their main food supply, the salmon) and kill them. Who fucking came up with this idea? No, serious. Who fucking came up with this shit?!?

Humans lived in the Northwest coast of this continent for (at least) 8,000 years in a sustainable manner as hunter-gatherer-horticulturalists. Civilization has occupied (after stealing) this land for a mere 200 years. How many more do you think it will take to destroy every life here? How long do you think before civilization puts humans on the endangered species list. Do you honestly think that corporations will allow the government (with all its bullshit laws and loopholes) to dismantle the dams?

How long before the rest of the oceans have no more life in them? Oh yeah… 40 years.

“Unless humans act now, seafood may disappear by 2048, concludes the lead author of a new study that paints a grim picture for ocean and human health.” National Geographic November 2, 2006

In order for the salmon to survive they need to make it up the river. The dams need to go. In order for salmon to spawn they need cool and silt-free places to do so. Logging needs to stop. In order for the mature salmon to make it back to the ocean, we need commercial fishing to stop. The amount of paperwork and lobbying and funding and time needed to do that adds up to an impossibility. It feels hard enough just to get a couple of friends to agree on what movie to go see. Bureaucratic means will not save the salmon. They take too long and the salmon don’t have the time. A marine biologist in the Oregonian actually gave the best (and possibly only) way to save the salmon.

“‘We want to be very careful to be very sure we are removing the right animals,’ said Garth Griffin, a marine biologist with the fisheries service in Portland.”
– The Oregonian Friday, January 18, 2008

Don’t you find it funny that I actually agree with this biologist!? I think we need to think very carefully and make sure we remove the right animals. If by removing the “right” animals they mean removing those animals who destroy the most salmon and by removing them we will see the most impact on improving the restoration of salmon populations. Following this line of thinking… Sea lions don’t come to my mind when I think about the “right” animals to remove.

I have a better idea. How about people dismantle 30 of the real salmon gobblers, the dams, logging & fishing industries, every year? 30 of those salmon gobblers a year. Of course, this may prove difficult to use bureaucratic means… We’ll have to think up some new ideas, outside of civilizations box… if you know what I mean.

Say it with me:

CIVILIZATION OUT OF CASCADIA NOW!

—

Show your support and appreciation for Urban Scout