Let's start with who is involved in this Southern Chile drama. On the one side there is Douglas Tompkins and his private nature reserve Pumalin Park. On the other side is the Spanish power company Endesa. Caught Somewhere between the two are the good people of the local townships such as Futaleufú and Chaitén Southern Chile. We also can not forget the fourth actor in this drama, the Chilean government; however much they have tried to pretend not to be involved, they are very much at the center of this environmental disaster in the making.

First some background. The most important economic issue being for the people in this part of southern Chile is the road. There is no direct road connecting Chile South of Hornopiren to the rest of Chile. Across the region, you see cars and houses with signs that say "Carretera a Chile Ahora!" (Road to Chile Now!). This seems a reasonable demand, being as the gap to connect the highways involves about a hundred kilometers of missing road.

Well, the road happens to be missing where the largest private park and nature reserves in the World is located. Pumalin Park with many endangered species of plants and animals is owned by an association started by the retired U.S. Businessman turned environmentalist Douglas Tompkins. Well, that too seems it would be reasonable to want to protect this natural resources of Southern Chile. Much of the local population supports the park and what it has done for the local economy and understand the importance of preserving such a World treasure.

Well, if that was the end of the story it would seem that their needs to be some balance struck allowing a road through the park, while carefully attempting to protect the parks fragile ecosystem. Besides, as bad as a roads are, they do exist in national parks all over the world. Nature reserves and highways can coexist on some level. In fact, Douglas Tompkins has plenty of people building and maintaining roads and airstrips all over his park. He is not against building a road or two of his own.

This is where things get complicated. It turns out that Endesa supports the road so that it can put in transmission lines along the side. Also not great for the park, but power lines can also get along with nature reserves when done right. More importantly, do to the rugged terrain in the Pumalin Park they will for the most part be restricted to where the road goes.

The terrain will obviously help control some of the damage that the transmission lines would do to the park. However, because transmission lines are expensive and every kilometer counts, Endesa wants a road that goes straight across the park. Tompkins has wanted the road to follow the coast line. The coast line would effectively more than double the length of the road as it winds back and forth. So, Endesa and Tompkins obviously have some issues to sort out.

What gets left out of this controversy is the reason that Endesa wants the power lines. Endesa is not bringing power to the local area, but instead taking power out to growing cities like Puerto Montt, Temuco, and ultimately Santiago. Endesa has the rights and plans to build a Hydroelectric Dam on the upper Futaleufú river and another further south.

So, not only is Endesa advocating laying waist to a big chunk of land across the middle of a nature reserve, but doing it so it can flood a pristine valley with some of the best trout fly fishing and white water rafting in the World. But that is what big power companies do. Right? Well, at least that is what a European power company do because it would never be allowed back home in the EU with the stringent environmental rules (bad Endesa! bad Endesa!).

Obviously, with such deep pocket controversies, a lot of lawyers are going to make a lot of money and a few will make a career out of it. Where does that leave the good people of Futaleufú, Chaitén, and the area? Well they have no direct road access to the north of Chile; along with a huge part of their land that is going to be flooded. Strangely, it also seems very hard to find out exactly what is going to be flooded and when. Where is the Chilean government?

In part II of this article we will take a look at the potential future impact to all parties concerned, and what the local people have to say about the issue. It is after all their future at stake. We will also take a look at the political position everyone is currently taking, and how this involved the new presidential election in Chile of Michel Bachelet.

In the mean time, we are not expecting a whole lot of calls from Endesa to buy advertising on All Southern Chile and Patagonia.