2012 – Ongoing
A common misconception of a watershed is that it’s all about the water. While water does play a large part, the land plays an even larger role by directing the water to a common point, such as a river or ocean. Thus, human impact on the land directly affects the water that runs over it. In The Watershed Project, I am highlighting the relationship between land, water, and man within the Mississippi River watershed, the largest watershed in North America.
Documenting the development and use of the watershed, the project begins at the headwaters of the French Broad River in Western North Carolina and continues into Tennessee, where it joins with the Tennessee River, and then follows the river on to the Midwest where it feeds into the Mississippi River. These rivers form the arteries of the American landscape. Our tenuous and unsustainable relationship with these waterways is examined...by documenting the rivers of the watershed, the landscape of industry and control, as well as the citizens who use the rivers and work to protect them.
The first chapter of the Watershed series focuses on The French Broad River Basin. In the 1950s The French Broad River was one of the most polluted rivers in the country. A local writer Wilma Dykeman described the condition of the river as having “white scum that caps the water’s blackness for mile after mile.” The river was beset with pollution from erosion, which was caused by deforestation, pollution from heavy industry, and the rapid development of the cities within the watershed.
This work shows the constant change that occurs within the watershed of the French Broad River due to man’s presence, as well as natural causes such as floods and erosion. Beginning at the headwaters of the French Broad and following the river through Western North Carolina into Tennessee, where it joins with the Holston River to form the Tennessee River, this project documents the development and use of the watershed. It is my hope that by documenting the rivers of the French Broad, its citizens, and environs, this project will bring attention to the importance of the growing sustainability movement in this watershed and beyond.
Continuing down the system of watersheds that make up the southeastern quarter of the Mississippi River Basin, the second chapter of the Watershed project examines the Tennessee River. The Tennessee River Basin is a system of rivers that sits in the heart of the South. Covering portions of seven states, this project traces the path of the rivers from the prominent dams and vistas of Appalachia, though the Tennessee Valley to the industrial landscapes of the Cumberland Plateau, and ending at the Ohio River. This path reveals how 80 years of the Tennessee Valley Authority, the New Deal era government organization created as a multipurpose agency to provide flood relief and produce electric power, as well as spur economic development through agricultural programs, has ultimately changed the nature of the Basin. The rivers of the Tennessee Watershed, once unpredictable and wild, have been developed into controlled reservoirs ready for recreation, commercial barge navigation, and power production. The TVA’s effect on the region is all encompassing, from the drowned towns and resident relocations spanning the 20th century, to the largest toxic coal ash spill in US History in 2008.
On the Mississippi River the Watershed Project is currently focusing on the Army Corps of Engineers, which manages the flow of the river in spite of the constant cycle of drought and flooding through the use of a complex system of levees, dams, and locks. The documentation of The Mississippi is in progress and is at the very beginning of the process.
Entrada actualizada el el 06 sep de 2017
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