Many years ago Ogden created the Presidents' Park, looking at the river that flows into and out of Ogden. The river was nice, but trashed. So now we are concerned and going to use fed. dollars to clean up.

Hurrah.

Truthfully, the original work concerning the water quality and fish and making a "Presidents' park" was done in... 1972. I know, I originated the idea. Good to see that the work is finally being done. Only 37 years later.

ah progress............

poor saps?

We need to use trout to entice people to choose the right thing? Having a clean rivers flowing through a city isn't a great enough thing that we must have something within the river to exploit as a resource?

Having trout is nice. Having endemic species of trout would be nicer. What is it culturally, that nature has to be viewed in economic returns?

I first entertained this question as a kid in Utah. My father was an artist born in Ogden. Artist have strange values. My father told stories about how many in his family who had entered Utah in 1847, saw his talents as a novelty but not of much utilitarian value.

Little wonder the art school my father and Lee Parkinson started failed in Ogden.

The idea that beauty is intrinsically valuable still evades many Utahans. Little wonder you rarely see a mountain that isn't vandalized with ski runs, deserts devoid of scaring ATV tracks or meadows that have remained condo free near Park City.

What difference does it make why the restoration project is being done. It seems like some get hung up in the ethics and timing of the thing. What really matters is that it is being done, it is being done right and all will benefit. Even ivory tower folks.