Usually, whitewater kayakers circle the globe chasing first descents. Whether it's bagging a Class V+ scare-fest in a remote corner of the planet, or hucking a monster drop that no one else has, notching up a "First D" is a sure path to paddling notoriety.
Yet for three intrepid paddlers and film makers from California, it's The Last Descent that matters. That's the title of a forthcoming film from pro paddlers Scott Ligare, Charlie Center and Katie Scott. Not only are they three of the hottest kayakers in the country right now, they're on a mission to save some of the planet's greatest – and most threatened – rivers.
Over the last half-year, and with the help of sponsors Dagger, KAVU and Keen Footwear, the trio dragged their boats and camera equipment through Nepal, India, Uganda, and yes, even the U.S., to draw attention to rivers that are slated to be dammed.
With hydroelectric projects booming in power-hungry regions like Asia and Africa, and hydro generation enjoying a resurgence as a "green" energy source in the West, these paddlers set out to complete the potential last descents of rivers that will disappear under colossal reservoirs if plans to dam them don't change.
You can view the trailer for The Last Descent, which is slated to premier at the Wild & Scenic Environmental Film Festival in Nevada City, Calif. In January, here.
I caught up with Scott Ligare earlier today as he edited some clips for the film in his living room in Sacramento, where we talked about kayaking, the push for more hydropower, and this burgeoning threat to the world's remaining free flowing rivers.
FanHouse Outdoors: Tell me about The Last Descent. What is this project, and why did you decide to take it on?
Scott Ligare: It's a documentary film whose goal is to raise awareness that some of the world's greatest rivers are being dammed, or are threatened by large-scale hydro projects. We set out with a group of paddlers on a five-month adventure to some of the world's greatest rivers so that we could film them, and paddle down them, potentially for the last time.
FO: What were some of the river's you paddled?
SL: We paddled on the Marsyangdi River in Nepal, the Brahmaputra River in India, the White Nile in Uganda and the still free-flowing sections of the Toulumne River in California.
FO: As I understand it, this film isn't just about the rivers themselves. It's also about the people who will be displaced if these dams are built, is that right?
SL: Yes, throughout the film, we interview the people who live there to get their stories about these projects, and how these dams will affect them.
FO: India, for one, seems to be building dam projects at an alarming rate. Tell me about your experiences there.
SL: We were in the Arunachal Pradesh province, which is a pretty amazing place. It is one of the most pristine areas of the Himalayas, with these huge rivers that come off of some of the world's highest peaks. They get pounded by the monsoons, so the rivers are just gigantic.
The state of Arunachal Pradesh has plans for 168 major hydro projects. These things are huge -- bigger than many dams in the U.S., much bigger than Grand Coolie Dam, for example. India is looking at the Arunachal Pradesh province as being the future powerhouse of India. So they are looking to generate a lot hydropower in the state.
We went to some spots where you just can't get to these places except for by kayak. The whitewater -- which can be 30,000 cfs -- is too big to go in rafts, and there are no roads and no trails.
But there are people living back there. Most of them had never seen video cameras or anything like that before. They had certainly never seen a TV. There were places where I don't think they had ever seen a Caucasian before.
FO: What was it like meeting those people?
SL: They were incredibly friendly. They would laugh at us, and I don't think they ever felt threatened by us, they were all just welcoming and friendly. They would see us floating down the river and they would yell and scream and wave at us to come over. They were curious about our boats, about these brightly colored kayaks.
They gave us this kind of homemade beer, a homebrew, and oranges.
FO: Sounds like great hospitality. So what's going to happen to these people?
SL: Pretty much everybody who lives there, all of these native tribes who have retained their culture throughout the centuries, are all going to be displaced.
The ironic thing is that in the Western world right now, there's this big push to become more sustainable. Well, looking at these people in these remote areas, they are sustainable already. They grow their own food. They fish. They're in these little small villages, totally disconnected from the outside world, without electricity, but they are as happy as can be.
The question we kept asking different people throughout our travels, such as the engineers that were building the dams and the power companies and government officials, was what is going to happen to these people? In general, the typical response was that it would be easy to displace and relocate them.
FO: That seems pretty terrible.
SL: The thing is, they're looking at it as a country that has one billion people. When you look at a few hundred thousand people that they're going to displace, it's not that many people. But these people, in these sustainable villages, they don't want electricity, they don't have anything to gain by it. They are just the ones that are losing out.
FO: The message of your film brings up a larger point about hydroelectric power. It seems like there are competing issues at play here. As you point out, with the environmental movement and the West trying to become more sustainable, hydroelectric power is looked at as a clean, renewable energy source. Yet when you build one of these dams, you displace thousands of people, and you obviously drown out a river and a region. How do you think we should use hydropower, if at all? Is this a green power source, or should we be tapping other resources for our energy needs?
SL: That's the central question that we asked ourselves -- and people all over the world -- throughout the whole project. There are definitely benefits to hydropower, and there are definitely uses for it. And I think there are definitely places where it is really valuable.
But, if you look at a place like Arunachal Pradesh in India, where they are building 168 large dams and damming every single stretch of river in the whole state that has any type of gradient, that seems a little extreme. Actually, it's ridiculous.
FO: So, what should they do instead?
SL: Basically, in places like Arunachal Pradesh, our goal is not to save all of these rivers, and not to say don't build any of these dams. But we are saying maybe we should save the Siang River corridor, for example, and protect a specific stretch and biosphere. It's really about doing it in a way so that there are places for these people to live still, and so that there are some free-flowing rivers remaining.
FO: How do you do that?
SL: It's about doing it with a little bit more of a plan, as opposed to just going in and damming everything, like they're doing in India and Africa and other developing countries. They look at it as meeting their power needs for the next 50 years, without considering whether rivers are something that perhaps should be protected as well.
What we're saying is that maybe there should be some consideration about which rivers should be dammed, and which rivers should be protected.
FO: So, then it's just like kayaking: it's all about balance, right?
SL: Exactly.
