YOU MAKE THREE THOUSAND DOLLARS MORE

In the Spring of 1989, I visited Alkali Creek, in western Colorado, accompanied by a colleague, a biologist who worked for a federal agency. My objective was to observe the watershed restoration project that had been accomplished in the 1960s by the Forest Service. Eventually, I published a paper entitled: "Management of baseflow augmentation: A review," in which I documented this and other similar projects of watershed restoration.

After we had observed several of the more than one hundred check dams that were still standing, and having suffered the inclement weather for a couple of days, my colleague said to me, pointedly: "Victor, as I can see, the only difference between you and me is that you make three thousand dollars more."

Two of the 133 dams built by the U.S. Forest Service in the Alkali Creek watershed, White River National Forest, near Silt, Colorado.