Rip Rap fortification of river bank

It was a real shock to see so much of the river's banks covered in rip rap. Where chunks of concrete were dozed

over the river's bank apparently for flood protection, the river and its riparian forests are all but dead.  I

could see no logical reason for doing this other than to protect a small portion of the adjacent landowner's

property form erosion.  In my mind there is no clear public benefit from these activities and I would be

ashamed to find out that taxpayer money was spent destroying the river's banks. This rip rap fortification

activitiy has apparently created a mindset that it is OK for anyone to dump anything on the shore of the river

and there was evidence this is still occuring today. Walt says he has seen hundreds upon hundreds of miles of

rip rap that have destroyed the character of the river, and calls the engineers that undertook this effort

"Geniuses! Spending our taxpayer money to destroy our river."