IS OROVILLE SAFE?
Rex Burress
Since the Oroville Dam spillway failure and the evacuation scare, there is various degrees of apprehension for those living downstream from the reservoir. Is Oroville safe?
Safety though, is a fugitive term when you consider all of the hazards in the world. Accidents of all kinds, diseases, and even an asteroid crash on earth are possibilities no matter how remote. Blame much of it on man's brain and imagination, both considered a big advantage among living things, but the ability to make mountains out of molehills produces a certain tension.
When abundant rains were filling Lake Oroville, I couldn't help but think about the movie, “Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?” where a flood of water filling a newly dammed river rather swooped in and covered up a lot of earth! A lake's surface is like the surface of snow and sand --a clutter of details is smoothed into simplicity. Art critics and photography judges quite often advocate simplicity as superior composition, and you can feel that sense of simple free space by going into the desert in springtime after the confinement of winter...or even up on the open plateau of Table Mountain when the flowers bloom.
The free feeling is more one of fear up above Oroville at the dam's spillway. Free flowing water made quite a hole into the hillside when it got off the concrete chute and terrorized authorities and people into the evacuation. Thus we live in hope that calamity doesn't strike...and that engineering technicians and their machines can hold it all together. Is Oroville safe? You could say reasonably so, but you know, tornadoes and hurricanes and downpours and rockfalls and earthquakes and fires are wild and free...and keep in mind that nothing on Earth lives forever. Be a good scout and be prepared!
The swarm of people working on moving the mountain of eroded earth beneath the shattered spillway must feel some fear of being below the lake level. There's a lot of water backed up behind the dam spillway, water held at bay by concrete and dirt. When will what happen? A river through Oroville is wonderful for river watchers and residents in spite of the potential peril of flood. Think of the levee.
What do wild animals think about safety in a flood plain? The truth, possibly, is that they don't think about it, since they are seemingly locked into the present and directed by inner instincts. One day one hour one minute at a time is more their mode. They are surrounded by danger in a wild life realm where things eat things, and to eat things you must kill things. Sorry vegetarians; you have to kill the carrot in order to eat it.
Bird watchers and hunters will notice how nervous and alert the sparrow and the rabbit are in the woods. The little critters know that constant danger lurks in the shadows, and to live they must watch for the hawk or fox and take cover from those carnivores. The predators are equally alert watching for prey that keeps them alive.
It seems that the songbirds are continually twitching their heads, watching for trouble or treats, as any bird photographer knows. Some outstanding modern bird photographers, such as Joe Galkowski and Maren Semler, have benefited from hard-wrought experience and modern lenses and equipment, but the perfect pictures they present are created through pain-staking details, laborious stalking, and far-ranging exploration. A wildlife photographer becomes an excellent naturalist, too, sampling a variety of environments and habitats in the pursuit of their subjects.
“As soon as there is life there is danger.” --Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Someday we will die, Snoppy; true, but on all the other days we will not.”--Peanuts
“To treat your facts with imagination is one thing, to imagine your facts is another.” --John Burroughs