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Dick Goin said, "A river, it doesn’t want to be tethered, it wants to run around, it wants to be sinuous." Here's a great visual example of just that: an aerial time-lapse of a river in Peru meandering over 25 years. Many rivers can't move like this anymore due to the construction of dams, levees, roads, railways and houses.
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Two out of three Americans get their drinking water from rivers. Our nation's water infrastructure, like dams and water treatment systems, received a D grade from the American Society of Civil Engineers. It's time to invest in healthy rivers.
American Rivers is asking presidential candidates to commit to clean water. Read full article here.
“The crisis in Flint is a stark reminder of the critical importance of clean water supplies to our health and our communities. The disaster in Flint comes on the heels of other high-profile water crises – the mining waste spill in Colorado’s Animas River, the drinking water ban in Toledo, Ohio, and the chemical spill in West Virginia’s Elk River. Flint is not an outlier. Communities across the U.S. face similar threats. Americans are wondering if their communities and water supplies are next,” said Bob Irvin, President of American Rivers.
Image: Ryan A. Herring
Dick often said that listening for fish was just as important as looking for them.
Co-producer Emma Jones spent hours recording Elwha River sounds.
Here's a transportive clip that will take you near the river's mouth.
The National Park Service turns 100 in 2016! There are 58 national parks in the US and the Elwha River flows through one of them – Olympic National Park.
Yes, I see where your head is going. It still seems crazy, right? The Glines Canyon Dam on Elwha was in a national park.
Let's celebrate the last 100 years by looking to the next century of conservation. The National Park Service invites you to find your park and discover the national parks and programs in your own backyard at FindYourPark.com
Artist Jill Pelton connects the dots between salmon and glaciers. Climate change was something that Dick wrote about in his journals and worried about a lot. A warming planet changes how rivers and streams flow, making conditions stressful for salmon with lower water levels and warmer water.
Dick always said that there were two keys to getting anything done: observation and persistence.
“Big things can happen if people persevere… Back in 1990, you ask somebody in Anywhere, USA, about dam removal, they would have told you that you were nuts,” said Mike McHenry, biologist with the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe. (Reported by Lynda Mapes for The Seattle Times)
The Elwha River runs from the Olympic Mountains northward into the Strait of Juan de Fuca. These satellite images by the Advanced Land Imager (ALI) on NASA’s Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) show Elwha from above. The removal of Elwha's two dams would be the largest dam removal in US history and the biggest controlled sediment release. The Elwha and Glines Canyon dams trapped an estimated 19 million cubic meters of sediment. Researchers say that's enough dirt to fill 11 football fields the height of the Empire State Building.
Dick's office was a magical place, a small space that felt like a top secret room at the Smithsonian. This chest held his supplies to make fishing flies -- feathers, fur, hooks, linen and silk line, you name it. Most everything he created from scratch or sourced himself, oftentimes with the gun he made and the bullets he hand poured. The Odd Feather drawer was a production favorite.
This 1994 newspaper clipping has been a North Star for The Memory of Fish. And it's true. Dick Goin knows the when-where-why-how of rivers and fish.
Peninsula Daily News , February 10, 1994.
Dick Goin was rarely seen without suspenders. Filming with him made scene continuity easy.
Photo: Marie Goin
Post-production is moving along. Next up: making music with the extraordinary Gil Talmi. Gil is a composer and recording artist with a passion for socially conscious films. Wait until you hear what he's cooking up for The Memory of Fish. Learn more about Gil here.
The New York Public Library has released an incredible digital collection available for public use. A search for 'salmon' led to some gems.
American Rivers works to protect the legacy of healthy, wild rivers. We're proud to have them as an organizational partner with The Memory of Fish. Spend some time on their site and learn how to take action for rivers. American Rivers provides information on dams and dam removal here.
This classic photo is by Mikal Jakubal, the activist who painted a crack and the words "ELWHA BE FREE" on the Elwha Dam in 1987.
Photo: Mikal Jakubal
This is an awesome visualization by Nelson Minar of all rivers in the US. The rivers really do look like veins running through the human body. Read more about Minar's river mapping work here. The map is available in interactive vector-based form and in high-resolution images. Dive in!
Don't forget to check out the growing list of people working hard for healthy rivers on our Good Stuff page. You'll also find a list of suggested films to watch, including one of the earliest about the Elwha River -- Unconquering the Last Frontier (2000) that tells the story of the Elwha River's dams and the struggle for the Klallam Tribe to survive in their shadow.
While Dick Goin's passion was fish, he had a wicked sense of humor and made having fun a priority. Co-producer Emma Jones spent countless hours scanning thousands of Goin family photos, many of which were taken by the love of Dick's life, his wife Marie. This photo's always been a production favorite.
Photo: Marie Goin
Post-production has been based at the inspiring studio of Thoughts in Grey Circles/Konsonant at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Our view of the East River keeps the creative juices flowing for the Elwha.
