My website this year is on the Hetch Hetchy Debate. I began looking at topics in October. I was trying to find a topic that related wholeheartedly to this year’s theme. After careful consideration, I had narrowed the choice down to three top choices: the SALT treaties, the Louisiana Purchase, and the Hetch Hetchy Valley. I began doing brief research on each topic and was intrigued by the Hetch Hetchy Valley Debate. The valley is located in the Yosemite National Park by the city of San Francisco, where my family lived for 6 years. I had visited the park on several occasions but never visited the Hetch Hetchy reservoir. Finding my dad’s old Environment History book closed up some of the questions that I had on the topic before detailed research.
After deciding my topic, I went to the Pasadena Central Library and the San Diego Public Library. There I discovered several Hetch Hetchy related books. I also went on different organizations’ websites to help add to my understanding of the topic. Newspaper articles published then and now, added to the balanced opinions of the subject. I also obtained permission from certain organization's websites to use their photographs or interviews. I interviewed Professor Nash and Dr. Brechin, who were two of my most valuable interviews. They both offered an extensive history of the issue. Through my sister, who presented a desalination poster at a water conference, I was able to contact several people from the EDF and from the Metropolitan Water District for interviews such as Mr. Hasencamp and Mr. Rosekrans.
I chose to do a website for several reasons. Websites are interactive projects that intrigue viewers’ minds. Websites can also make a strong visual impact while still conveying the event in detail. Using Weebly you can edit the website from any computer that has internet. This is very useful because I worked on my website from home and from school. Using the Weebly editor is very simple. These elements allowed me to put content, primary sources, and audio/video on the website which helped illustrate the topic. I also learned to use PowerBullet Presenter to make flash animations.
My project relates to this year's theme in numerous ways. Much debate was involved during the negotiations of this event in history. Diplomacy was involved as well. As the debate matured, the conservationists realized that they needed to use diplomacy to convince people that wilderness matters, but in this case civilization takes top rank. The preservationists fell behind because they did not use diplomacy. The second part of the theme was also very evident after this debate. Although the conservationists argued that large success would inevitably come from the damming, they were proved to be incorrect as time progressed. The preservationists had also failed to protect the sanctity of the valley.
Hetch Hetchy ignited the modern environmental movement and allowed us to understand basic principles of conservation and preservation of nature.