Dams Quotes

By erecting thirty thousand dams of significant size across the American West, they dewatered countless rivers, wiped out millions of acres of riparian habitat, shut off many thousands of river miles of salmon habitat, silted over spawning beds, poisoned return flows with agricultural chemicals, set the plague of livestock loose on the arid land--in a nutshell they made it close to impossible for numerous native species to survive.

A dam tears at all the interconnected webs of river valley life.

Patrick McCully

In the 1940s dams were synonymous with progress, and the rivers were to be conquered with the fervour of a pioneer wielding an axe.

Dams also tend to be built in remote areas which are the last refuge for species that have been displaced by development in other regions.

Patrick McCully

A dam is monumentally static; it tries to bring a river under control, to regulate its seasonal pattern of floods and low flow.

Patrick McCully