Watching the television show Sunday Morning on CBS recently, brought back memories of working to help save the Red River Gorge area of Kentucky. We moved to Henderson, Kentucky in the early 1970s, but the efforts to dam up the Red River of Kentucky and flood the gorge had started in earnest in the mid-1960s.

Years of downstream flooding was a clarion call to the Army Corp of Engineers. They simply love to build dams!  Don’t get me wrong, there are often some big benefits associated with the building of dams, but there are also often huge ecological outcomes as well. And often those outcomes are very bad.

I have always been a proponent of sustainable resource management. To me, that means that we must use natural resources in ways that benefit the present generation, but also leave resources in conditions that will allow future generations to meet their own needs. However, it is also my opinion that there are places of such ecological, historical or cultural significance that humans should simply keep their hands off!

It was my opinion back in my younger days that the Red River Gorge region of Kentucky was such an area. The short “Moment of Nature” piece on Sunday Morning made me feel happy to see that the Red River Gorge is still just as beautiful today as it was several decades ago. It took a long time and lots of meetings, but it was a good day when President Clinton signed the papers making the Red River Gorge part of the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System of the United States.

Enjoy the video below to see for yourself.