AsRA brings 3rd Annual Wild & Scenic Film Festival to home screens
Oct. 16—WILMINGTON — The Ausable River Association (AsRA) hosts the virtual-on-tour, "Wild and Scenic Film Festival, " on Friday, Oct. 29 from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.
The evening of visual storytelling through inspirational films celebrates the beauty and significance of wild places throughout the world, and the important work being done to protect them.
The festival is a natural extension of AsRA's work to inspire people to become more involved in conservation efforts in their local communities.
INTERNATIONAL TOUR
The Wild & Scenic Film Festival, curated by South Yuba River Citizens League, premieres every January in Nevada City, Calif.
Now in its 19th year, the home festival kicks-off the international tour to communities around the globe, allowing other environmental organizations to foster the science, advocacy, activism, and education that are crucial to keeping our wild places healthy and beautiful.
NINE FILMS
AsRA has chosen nine films from the on tour festival that will be shown on a virtual platform.
Each film is a visual tapestry that highlights the people and organizations making a difference by recognizing and embracing the processes and natural elements essential to all living things.
"We had over 200 viewers join us virtually last year for our second annual film festival, and we're excited to present a fresh line up of visual gems this year," Kelley Tucker, AsRA's executive director, said.
Feature films include: "A Fisher's Right to Know," a look into the anglers who rely on the mighty Coosa River in Alabama for food, recreation, and a family pastime, all the while wondering if they and their families have a right to know which fish are safe to consume.
"It's about a community down on a river in Alabama, and the mercury pollution that is present in that water there, and educating the community, the people who rely on that resource, for fish, for food and for family and fun recreation to actually know about what's exactly in that fish," Tyler Merriam, donor outreach manager, said.
"In the Adirondacks, a
challenge that we've had here for decades now, that we've really started to make some significant progress on, is acid rain and the mercury pollution that arises out of that.
"That's another parallel that folks living in the Boquet Watershed or the Adirondack region as a whole can relate to some of these challenges that other areas are experiencing outside of our region."
"Feathers In Flight" follows researchers from all over the Americas who have come together to use cutting-edge science in an effort to protect the birds that tie the Western Hemisphere together.
"That's about scientists and researchers from North, Central and South America, who are all working together to use environmental DNA and genome mapping to better understand the migratory patterns of our birds in the Americas — North, Central and South America," Merriam said.
"That is directly related to our work as well here because we use environmental DNA to learn about our fish species, predominantly. It can be used to learn about just any species of wildlife.
"We are using it to learn about our native brook trout in relation to brown trout and rainbow trout, which are both stocked and are not native to the area, and also to learn about Atlantic salmon, which are native."
The salmon live in the lower reaches of the Boquet and the Ausable River.
"We're working with, again, other organizations like the DEC, Trout Unlimited, to learn about the behavioral patterns of the salmon and how we can better protect and understand their ecosystems and their spawning habit and so forth," Merriam said.
"Farmscape Ecology" is an exploration into the co-existence of farming and wildlife in New York's Hudson Valley that serves as backdrop of studies into soil, water, wildlife, and native meadows throughout the United States.
Tucker and Merriam will introduce the films and their relationship to our local natural community.
Along the way, they'll share more about work being done in the Adirondacks, and how it fits into larger conservation efforts across the globe.
"A few of the films in particular speak to some of the challenges that we face in our Adirondack region," Merriam said.
"One example of that is the film called 'Common Ground.' It relates to how farmers, ranchers and Indigenous tribes and the government are working together to distribute water and restore streams and rivers in the mid-West so it can be more sustainable for farmland. It can be healthier for the land's ecosystem and just be better for the community and the environment all around."
The association in partnership with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and a few other partners are doing the same kind of work here in the Ausable River.
"Primarily the East Branch but also to some degree the West Branch of the Ausable River," Merriam said.
"We are using natural stream restoration techniques to enhance the health of the river and its ecosystems, which benefits the the wildlife and the fish and so forth that rely on it, but it also enhances community flood resilience. That makes the roadways and the human infrastructure safe for communities with the increasing challenge of climate change and frequency and intensity of storms up here."
The festival films transport viewers as far away as 4,000 to 5,000 miles.
"But they are directly applicable to this area because the same type of scientific knowledge, the same type of environmental projects and so forth are being used to help conserve those various species, to help community flood resilience, and enhance habitat for community members and so forth," Merriam said.
"That's what exciting for me with these films, too, is that the Ausable River Association doesn't work in a vacuum. We partner with a variety of different municipalities, government organizations, private landowners etc. and those folks can see that the direct success and benefit of our work. But I think many times they don't know a lot of this work is interconnected across the country and the globe in many fashions. Much of what we've learned, we've learned from other areas of the country, from other areas of the Western Hemisphere, and took those restoration techniques and scientific processes and applied them in our own backyards."
Email Robin Caudell:
Twitter:@RobinCaudell
