Richard Norgaard

by Richard Norgaard

The Stan just felt like the place to be in the early 1970s. it provided a rich combination of beauty, excitement, and shared meaning. And I was there as often as possible. I had been rafting for more than a decade. I had witnessed the Glen Canyon go under Lake Powell in the early mid 1960s. And I participated in the successful fight to stop the dams in the Grand Canyon. I had also rafted and kayaked the stretch of the Feather River that was inundated by Lake Oroville. Now I was focused on getting people down the Stanislaus River. There was a sense, something stronger than just a hope, that we could stop New Melones Dam. That sense connected Stan aficionados and was conscientiously conveyed to new river adventurers. Mark Dubois was a frequent special feature on the river who radiated hope. I found great joy on the water and in the canyon, but I especially liked getting first-time river runners to this magical place. I even learned the new multi-limbed approach of paddle rafting, accepting the loss of control using oars for the joys of working as a team. I loved the Stanislaus. The river culture was especially considerate and friendly. My best people experiences were on the Stan.   

 In the early 70s, I was an avid and dedicated rafter and river leader, but also a conflicted one. I was the father of young children and I was starting a career as a professor of environmental economics at the University of California, Berkeley. I kept my multiple lives loosely tied together, in part, by taking faculty and students down the river. My multiple selves worked together by critically assessing the economics in the benefit-cost analysis that had been undertaken by the Bureau of Reclamation to justify the dam. I identified the tricks used to grossly exaggerating the benefits while underplaying the economic costs, let alone the environmental costs. In 1972, I testified against the dam in Federal Court in EDF vs. Armstrong as well as before the State Water Resources Control Board. Thomas Parry, an undergraduate student at the time, turned my testimony into a coauthored article published in Environment Magazine (January 1975) titled “Wasting a River”. A decade later, In 1982, Prof. E. Philip LeVeen and I organized Economists for Proposition 13: The Water Resources Conservation and Efficiency Act and were able to bring famous California economists – Kenneth Arrow (Nobel Laureate), Jack Hirshleifer, Julius Margolis, and Richard Musgrave – onto the steering committee. We sought the support of other economists and made teaching materials, including my article with Tom Parry, available.  

As my children grew older, they shared in my goal of getting faculty and students out on the water. In the late mid 1980s, Friends of the River sold raffle tickets to raise money. The grand prize was a new Avon Pro. With my life jackets labeled “Academics Adrift”, my now high-school aged daughter, Kari, a graduate student Andrew Cohen, and I were taking Berkeley students rafting on the S. Fork of the American several weekends a month from early spring well into summer. The trips were “free”, but students were also asked to buy FOR raffle tickets. Collectively over the season, they probably bought around two hundred tickets. Andrew Cohen won the raffle and graciously gave the raft to me. I upgraded the standard Pro that was offered for the new self-bailing model. More than three decades later and after multiple trips down the Grand and all of the canyons of the Colorado Plateau that can still be run, plus the Tatshenshini, and numerous trips on the Tuolumne and many more on the south Fork of the American, the raft is in almost perfect condition and admired by all. Thank you FOR. 

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