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News from BDSJS and Facing Climate Change
Old tools and new tools
Our new Hozomeen story has been getting some play, and we wanted to share a couple of favorite blog posts about it. The first is from our friend, Eric de Place at Sightline Daily. Check out his review and read a passage about Hozomeen from Jack Keroauc’s Desolation Angels, “Hozomeen, Hozomeen, most beautiful mountain I ever seen. . . ”
Next, Tim Matsui interviewed Benj about our new story for his blog, The Chronicles. I love the connection Tim makes between old tools, like the ones made out of Hozomeen chert, and new tools, like the ones we used to create this story.
You can also read about Hozomeen on North Cascades Institute’s Chattermarks blog, Nau’s The Thought Kitchen, Aurora Select’s email newsletter, and North Cascades National Park’s video page.
A big thanks to everyone who’s helping to share this story!
New multimedia: Hozomeen
Hozomeen chert is a locally abundant and distinctive tool stone found exclusively in the northern Cascade range of Washington and British Columbia. Over the last two decades, archeologist Bob Mierendorf has studied quarries near today’s Ross Lake reservoir that reveal a 10,000 year long record of indigenous involvement with this rugged, high-mountain landscape.
The Skagit Environmental Endowment Commission (SEEC) first approached us to tell this story last winter. They had recently hosted an event called the Hozomeen Gathering, which brought together Washington tribes, British Columbia First Nations, archeologists, anthropologists, agency representatives and others to share knowledge and honor the long history of indigenous involvement with the upper Skagit watershed. Having completed a documentary video about that event, they wanted us to select one of the themes from the Gathering and tell a more focused story, a short piece that would capture the essence of Hozomeen: the place, its people and their intertwined history.
The challenge was selecting a single access point to such a monumental landscape and narrowing down the many voices that share a common interest in Hozomeen. When we learned about park archeologist Bob Mierendorf’s work with Hozomeen chert, we were excited by the tool stone’s ability to connect people with the landscape. We also thought that it would provide a good opportunity to explore the complex relationship between archeology and oral histories. So, with Bob as our main character, we selected other voices and perspectives to support our story: Canadian archeologist, Dave Schaepe; Sonny McHalsie, cultural advisor for the Stolo First Nation; and Larry Campbell, historic preservation officer for the Swinomish Tribal Community.
Having narrowed the focus and identified our characters, it was time to begin the fieldwork. Between June and September we spent three days with Bob. One of the many highlights was photographing artifacts from the archive in Marblemount and then visiting some of the sites where they came from. We also spent an afternoon with Larry, one day in British Columbia, and one day shooting aerials with help from LightHawk pilot Linda Chism — a total of six days of fieldwork for a seven-minute story.
Once we had all of these assets, we worked with Benj’s brother, Nick Drummond to compose a musical score. This was the first time we’ve worked with Nick on a client story. It’s very rewarding to use music that’s specifically designed for a story in terms of tone, scale, and even theme. In some places Nick used rocks that he found in his backyard for small percussion.
SEEC was created in 1984 when the High Ross Treaty prevented the further raising of Ross Dam and potential flooding in the American and Canadian Skagit Valley. Our newest multimedia story will help them achieve their unique mission to promote education, research, collaboration and cross-border stewardship of the Upper Skagit Valley. It currently appears on their website and will be featured on National Park Service’s website and in live presentations.
1/12/11 UPDATE: Tim Matsui posted an interview with us that includes more details on how this story came together, here.
New project partner: Cascadia
We’d like to welcome our newest project partner for Facing Climate Change, Cascadia Consulting Group. Cascadia works with clients to develop and implement solutions to twenty-first century environmental challenges, including waste, climate change, and natural resources. They are providing fiscal, technical and distribution support for our new series.
Climate Change and Asthma
“What’s it like to try to breath on a high pollution day? Do ten jumping jacks, hold your nose, and breath through this.” Aileen Gagney from the American Lung Association handed me a thin bar straw.
For the human health story from our new Facing Climate Change series, we’ve been exploring how climate-related air pollution impacts people who have asthma. As temperatures rise, researchers project an increase in the number of days where ground-level ozone concentrations exceed regulatory standards. The ozone is created when sunlight reacts with emissions from vehicles and other sources, and it makes people who have asthma suffer more attacks. Those most likely to be hit hardest by health consequences like this include low-income families and seniors, another opportunity to consider climate equity.
We’ll be working with the King County Department of Health over the coming weeks to bring this issue to life. Check back soon for updates on our new stories.
Sagebrush, potatoes and wind farms
It seems like we are spending a lot of time in windy places for our new Facing Climate Change stories. We recently visited 25,000 acres of abandoned farmland above the Snake River to learn about how and why it went from sagebrush to potatoes to wind farms in one generation. The agricultural development is called Bell Rapids and one farm owner told me he’s seen the wind blow sugar beets up out of the ground.
In 35 years the State of Idaho went from selling this land for around $1/acre, basically begging farmers to make the desert bloom, to buying the water rights back for almost $1,000/acre. What’s left is a sort of post-apocalyptic landscape of sheet metal barns with telephone numbers still scrawled on the doors, houses with boots under beds and paystubs in kitchens, four million pounds of dry steel pipe that used to carry Snake River water, and some enormous new wind turbines.
Benj and I worked long days, photographing at sunrise and sunset and interviewing farmers in between. We spent nights in the back of our truck up on the plateau, just us, the wheatgrass and wind. Except for the first night, when we woke up to find a pair of tiny headlights making their way across the empty space. As the vehicle got closer, the driver flipped on a spotlight and we knew someone had called the police. After a few minutes of questioning, a second officer arrived on the crime scene. Once we convinced them that we were taking pictures, not old farm equipment, they turned into the friendliest cops we’ve ever met.
We spent a lot of time chasing light down straight dusty roads laid out in a one-mile grid. (Bell Rapids Road becomes the 400 road. If you follow that to the 5600 road over to the 300 and up to the 5700, the light will inevitably be better back down the 400 to the 5500.) 25,000 acres is a lot of ground to cover — for us and for the Snake River water that once made these fields green.
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