River Talk
T
he McKenzie River quietly bubbles
up from cool, blue-green springs at
Clear Lake, high in the Cascades,
then tumbles down the mountains, fl owing
stronger and deeper as rain, tributaries
and runoff add to the fl ow, fi nally passing
through Eugene to spill into the Willamette
near Green Island.
“It is an incalculable amount of water
that comes down the river,” says nature
writer Barry Lopez of the river that fl ows
past his home. It is “a sonic landscape, the
most animated part of the landscape.”
“Watching that river over 40 years I can
tell from the speed of the water, the pulse
of the rapids, the color of the water, what’s
going on,” he says.
Lopez is a well-known fi gure among
lovers of literature and lovers of nature
worldwide, but “I guess my tendency has
been to be more or less invisible in this part
of the world,” he says of the McKenzie
River valley where he had made his home
for so long.
From the cold north of Arctic Dreams
to the heat of the islands in Light Action in
the Caribbean, Lopez writes intimately of
people and landscapes from the barren to the
lush. But only rarely does he make himself
known near what has become his home
place, his quiet retreat near Finn Rock, and
the McKenzie River that runs past it.
What drew him out, and brings him
to speak at the Hult Center this Friday, is
the 20-year anniversary of the McKenzie
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River Trust (MRT), a non-
profi t land trust that seeks to
protect critical habitat and
scenic lands on the McKenzie,
Siuslaw, Long Tom and the
Coast and Middle Forks of
the Willamette Rivers. MRT’s
work protects the river and
its dwellers, from salmon to
birds to people.
Joe Moll, MRT’s executive
director, used to work with
grizzly bears, but now he has
a more diffi cult task. He and
the staff of MRT try to bring
together the full spectrum of
people who live on and use the
river, from conservationists to
hunters, landowners, farmers
and businesses, to protect
what he calls “the wealth of
our community.”
“Wealth is such a loaded
term,” Moll says, “but you
don’t live in Eugene because
you think you’re going to
make money.” He says, “As
I see it; the wealth of this
community isn’t money, it is the cleanliness
of the McKenzie River, the open spaces
and the forests.”
To preserve the rich natural resources
of the McKenzie and other rivers in Lane,
Douglas and more recently Linn and Benton
counties, Moll and MRT develop long-term
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Barry Lopez
NANCY CRAMPTON
Barry Lopez and community on the McKenzie River
relationships with landowners. Moll says it
can take a year or two from when they fi rst
contact someone to when they reach an
agreement to either put land into trust or allow
a conservation easement. “The kinds of deals
we work on with people,” says Moll, “are
going to have an impact for generations.”
In addition to managing and acquiring
lands, like the 1,000 acre Green Island
at the confl uence of the McKenzie and
Willamette rivers, MRT works to restore
lands, both what is owned by MRT and
lands managed by watershed councils
and landowners. “You can recycle all you
want,” says Moll, “but you don’t really see
any immediate impact from that. When
you do restoration, you see the impact.”
It is both the Trust’s willingness to take
the middle ground and work with diverse
groups on both sides of the political spectrum
and their restoration work that drew Lopez
to do the Hult Center talk in support of the
MRT’s work. “If you take care of the place, it
will take care of you, psychologically as well
as in the physical sense,” he says.
Lopez says “People have been talking
about restoration in a formal sense. Not
very much has been written about what
healing can take place when you put
plants, forbs and trees into the ground —
fi guratively and literally on your hands and
knees in the physical earth.”
“The middle is also a position,” he says,
speaking not only about environmental
protections, but of recent political events,
such as the election of President Barack
Obama. “I think what the Trust can do is knit
this community of people that lead separate
lives. We all have a stake in this.”
Lopez will speak on “Nature and
Community on the McKenzie River” at 7:30
pm Friday, May 8, at the Hult Center (www.
hultcenter.org). To participate in upcoming
MRT restoration efforts, go to www.
mckenzieriver.org and to read the works of
Lopez, visit www.barrylopez.com or head
over to your nearest local bookstore.
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