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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Ronnie Pierce was an insightful,
bright, knowledgeable, no-nonsense person who worked on the Trinity
River in the past, representing various Tribes and BIA at different times on the
former Technical Coordinating Committee of the Trinity River Task Force.
She was really good at cutting through the baloney and getting down to the
issues. We'll miss her.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Tom Stokely</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>Eureka
Times-Standard <BR></FONT><A
href="http://www.times-standard.com/Stories/0,1413,127~2896~2716685,00.html"><FONT
face="Times New Roman"
size=3>http://www.times-standard.com/Stories/0,1413,127~2896~2716685,00.html</FONT></A><FONT
face="Times New Roman" size=3># </FONT></DIV>
<P><B>Klamath River icon dies</B> <BR>By John Driscoll The Times-Standard
<P>Thursday, February 17, 2005 -
<P>One of the great figures at the heart of Klamath River issues, Ronnie Pierce,
died Sunday <BR>in her McKinleyville home.
<P>Known as a tireless advocate of salmon, the biologist and engineer put her
shoulder into <BR>her work, winning the respect of friends and opponents alike.
Her influence rarely <BR>surfaced in the media, but was greater than most of her
more vocal counterparts'.
<P>Small, quiet and brilliant, Pierce was a realist, intolerant of laziness,
underhandedness <BR>and classism, according to those who knew her. While often
frustrated by the <BR>bureaucracy surrounding the Klamath River, she nonetheless
worked doggedly on <BR>stubborn issues for years at a time.
<P>"She was absolutely tenacious," said Humboldt County Supervisor Jimmy Smith.
<P>Smith said it was Pierce who held people working on the Klamath -- especially
in state <BR>and federal agencies -- accountable with her vast knowledge of the
process.
<P>Pierce was born in Nevada City on May 12, 1942, to May and Ronald Pierce. She
was a <BR>decedent of Russian and native Squamish pioneers in British Columbia,
and moved <BR>constantly while she was growing up.
<P>Pierce graduated from Healds Engineering College in San Francisco, the first
woman to <BR>earn a degree in structural engineering from the institution. She
later earned bachelors <BR>and masters degrees from Old Dominion University in
Virginia.
<P>Her father was also a structural engineer, who, ironically, helped build
dams.
<P>"She said, 'My father built dams and I'm trying to tear them down,'" said
Pierce's partner <BR>of 22 years, Elizabeth Finney.
<P>One of Pierce's great frustrations was how the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and
Klamath <BR>dam owner Pacificorp persistently said the other was responsible for
meeting flow <BR>requirements to the lower Klamath and its struggling salmon.
<P>Pierce worked most closely with the Yurok and Karuk tribes on tribal rights
and <BR>restoration efforts.
<P>Environmentalist Tim McKay of the Northcoast Environmental Center said Pierce
was <BR>set apart by her long history on the river, and her understanding that
most easy issues <BR>had been tackled, but the toughest struggles remain.
<P>"It's a great loss for all the people on the lower river," McKay said. "She
was an icon, <BR>without a doubt."
<P>Even those she sometimes struggled with had high praise for Pierce.
<P>U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Area Manager Dave Sabo in Klamath Falls, Ore.,
called her <BR>a greatly respected institution with a gift for portraying what
was valuable to her.
<P>"She certainly brought her own perspective," he said, "and no one can
diminish the fact <BR>that she was very bright. She'll be thoroughly missed."
<P>Finney said Pierce's integrity was the same both on and off the job.
Personally, Finney <BR>said, Pierce was loyal, insisted on honesty and liked
people to have clear opinions. Those <BR>qualities, Finney said, were developed
during a life during which she pulled herself up <BR>from her bootstraps,
including recovering from alcoholism before moving to Humboldt <BR>County in
1979.
<P>"Ronnie was simple," Finney said.
<P>Another habit, though, led to her death. Pierce loved to smoke and was
stricken with <BR>lung cancer. She refused treatment in light of a requirement
that she would have to <BR>quit, Finney said.
<P>For many who knew her, Pierce's death came too soon.
<P>Local river advocate Denver Nelson said Pierce was a formidable force in the
push to <BR>restore the Klamath, a no-nonsense conservationist who knew more
about the Klamath <BR>than the legions of newbies who have recently joined the
struggle.
<P>"She was one of the reasons people know how to spell Klamath," Nelson said.
"If it weren't <BR>for her early efforts the Klamath would have been lost long
ago."
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