That river...

I keep thinking about that river in Albania. Big, fast moving, and chocolate brown. And the Albanians wading through it with their fishing nets. When I say big, I mean big like the Snake river in Oregon.

The last forestry grant I wrote in California was for a little stream in No. Cal. It was about 20 feet wide, ran clear and was filled with trout and salmon. It was considered impaired, because the banks were steep and prone to erosion-- extremely common and completely natural in that area (and all over California, since it's so tectonically active). The only way to stop erosion is to stop plate tectonics. There were also quite a few cattle crossings. So the rancher got $40k to build 100 feet of cattle fencing and set back the banks in a few places. What a ridiculous waste of money and time. The only reason we wrote the grant in the first place was to get on the good side of the Department of Fish and Game so the guy could have another vineyard.

I've read up a little more on the Albanian forestry situation. During Hoxha's time the government logged a lot and didn't replant, due to lack of resources. There was (and is) still a lot of illegal logging, and logging for firewood. The peace corps did some forestry programs there but it's not clear how much they accopmlished because the projects were stopped six years ago when anarchy broke out after the economy collapsed.