It is a gastropod the size of the tip of a ballpoint pen; it has genital pores and anus on the right side of its body; it spends most of its time clinging to the undersides of rocks in the seemingly inhospitable habitat of remote ponds where predator pressures are low. It has been around since at least the Pleistocene age. Its name is Acroloxus Coloradensis, or if you prefer to be familiar and use its “common name,” the Rocky Mountain Capshell Snail.
There is no record of it ever posing a threat to humans until there was a proposal to list it as an endangered species, and then, as with the legendary snail darter fish and spotted owl, it appeared to threaten the future of human activity—in this case at Eldora Mountain resort in Colorado, which depends on the waters of its home for snowmaking.
We urge you to read the feature on Page 74, for in the specifics of this intriguing story lies some innate wisdom—the sensible and effective way that Eldora dealt with a significant threat to its well-being.
The instinct might well have been—and understandably so— to man the battlements, cry “Foul!” appeal for congressional intervention, seek court injunctions and other such visceral reactions and splutterings.
Eldora took a different course: it harnessed science in its cause and then summoned the sun to shed light on it. It didn’t travel alone; rather, in seeking truth, it made common cause with those who might otherwise have been seen as its tormentors.
Our industry is beset by no-growth opponents who successfully use bad science—or no science—in hypothesizing horrors that we supposedly visit on the environment. Our very real environmental challenges are quite enough, thank you, without our having to cope with the cynically contrived and phony ones that are all-too-often posited by the no-growth elements.
Eldora’s story is a very specific and particular one. But it bespeaks an approach that is as effective as it is sacrosanct: The truth shall set you free.
It is unlikely that Eldora will ever get an appropriate, “Oops, we goofed!” from the Sierra Legal Defense Foundation, but who needs it? De facto vindication will do quite nicely.
—A SAM editorial
