Healthy creek, lake can co-exist in Bella Vista

Thank you for printing my earlier letter in the Democrat-Gazette concerning Bella Vista Lake. From the Aug. 30 article in The Weekly Vista, I feel we can now have an informed discussion. The lake was established in 1915 because, as Mr. Chris Fuller said in the article, it's in a lowland area. It doesn't matter if it is a lake or creek, the water will congregate there. Do we want an organized gathering of water or a chaotic approach? A dam keeps a consistent level of water in the area. The creek will swell with rain but afterwards it becomes a low-water stream with ponds of stagnant, algae-covered water around it, which is what is happening now.

There is an accumulation of sediment also, which comes with the water settling there. I understand a bottom-fed dam will help to alleviate that concern. My fishermen friends tell me there's good fishing is on the other side of a bottom-fed dam as the water is always cool, even in the summer.

Then there are the ducks and geese. They are always there! Dam or creek, the waterfowl are there. We had a hundred-year flood; the waterfowl remain. We've had some bitterly cold winters, but the birds remain. All attempts have failed to lessen the number of cute ducklings or adorable goslings following, single file, their mothers into the water. Do the waterfowl hatched at Bella Vista Lake know migration is an option?

I hope the Bentonville City Council did not behave dishonestly to the people of Bella Vista. We gave that area to Bentonville with the assurance a new dam would be built. Did the folks of Bentonville think they could let the lake become a mess and then use it as an excuse to renege on their promise to us? We can't make decisions about the lake in its current condition. It is a disaster and unhealthy. There is no real dam there, just jammed logs and debris. We should envision what the lake could be with better landscaping practices, a new modern dam, and well, no one wants to mention hunters and waterfowl in the same sentence.

I ask Bentonville not to judge the lake option by what we see now. We in Bella Vista know we can have both a healthy creek and lake. Take a negative situation and make a positive out of it. Follow the imagination of those who planned Beaver Lake and Crystal Bridges lake.

Donna Hutchinson

Bella Vista

Economy driven, one way or other, by climate change

"I don't think it takes a rocket scientist to know that further damage is imminent," said Inspector Frankie Thomas of the police force of Antigua and Barbuda, as reported in the Sept. 9 article of this paper covering Hurricane Irma. Mr. Thomas, however, was talking about Hurricane Jose following close behind Hurricane Irma. But he might as well have been talking about climate change in general. The profound catastrophic events of Harvey and Irma are unprecedented in U.S. history. The meteorologists are saying that climate change does not necessarily cause a hurricane, yet at the same time they say the warmer the ocean temperature, the stronger the hurricane. They also report the warmer the ocean temperature, the more rain a hurricane is likely to produce. Harvey produced 50 inches.

It also doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that the Arctic ice is melting at an unprecedented rate. If you want evidence, shipping lanes are opening and tankers and naval ships are moving through otherwise unavailable waters. It just goes to reason that if we combine rising sea levels with stronger hurricanes, we ultimately have more catastrophic events occurring.

Donald Trump decided to exit the Paris Climate Change Agreement because the U.S. would be paying too much, "more than our fair share." It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that climate change will devastate the economy, not only of the U.S., but of any country that must deal with it continuously. POTUS has poised himself as the defender of all the devastation that has occurred in Texas and Florida. He has signed the bill that will provide the relief funds. But what president would not do that? Still, in the wake of all the devastation to thousands of people, no one is saying anything about Trump's decision to exit the Paris agreement!

Let's make one thing clear. Climate change is going to be the No. 1 mover of the economy in the future. But it doesn't have to be economics after the fact, where the government spends billions on natural disasters. It can be that we move to release ourselves of fossil fuels, we build a green economy, we invest in the future without denying it. POTUS is still in denial. Are the people of Texas, Louisiana, and Florida, who have had to endure so much pain and tragedy, still standing by a president who is denying that the forces of nature are being affected by climate change? Are you?

Steven Trulock

Fayetteville

Commentary on 09/22/2017

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