[Awclist] Rio Grande Project

[Sara Traub]

Nat Stone <nat at natstone.net> wrote:
Date: Wed, 25 May 2005 13:01:59 -0600


Dear Friends of the Rio Grande, Rio Bravo,
 
It is with reluctance but also an attempt at efficiency that I am sending one email to all.  Some of you I have met, some I have written with, and others I have read about, all with a common interest in the Rio Grande and its future.  I am writing to let you know about a project I began last spring and which has now resumed.  I hope that it may be of relevance to your work along the river.
 
Since I first moved to New Mexico in 1994 I have been taken by thoughts of the Rio Grande running such a long course through arid valleys and canyons to the sea.  My initial interest stemmed simply from a love of boats and water, and the prospect of floating through the southwest.  Eventually, however, I began to think of the Rio Grande not just as an unusual challenge to navigation, but as a multi-focal lens through which to observe fragility and resilience in relationships between people, water, and land.  
 
Last year my friend Chad Odom and I hiked from the Continental Divide down through the upper basin of the Rio Grande watershed, and upstream from Creede we launched two kayaks.  With a video camera and notebooks we paddled southward, headed for the Gulf of Mexico.  We stopped frequently to talk with people along and near the Rio Grande about its importance, the issues it faces, and solutions people have for managing their reliance on a river that, prior to the last five hundred years of settlement, had supported a high desert bloom of life for eons. 

 

This trip was not completed last year.  As the summer passed the river fell too low for paddling, and we learned there are only so many distractions one can follow with cameras and still reach Brownsville on a single snowmelt.  With regret we pulled our boats out for the season at the upper bridge at San Juan Pueblo.  



I had hoped that the trip would lend itself naturally to the interests of individuals and organizations who work on behalf of the Rio Grande and its sustainable use, and that the trip in turn would be given an added sense of purpose.  Last December the project was adopted by Audubon New Mexico, which at the same time was lobbying successfully for the selection of the Rio Grande as a primary initiative of the National Audubon Society.  Unfortunately Chad will not be able to join me on this leg as he has returned to school and other obligations.  Meanwhile I am pleased and motivated by my association with Audubon New Mexico, and on May 21 I began once again to head toward the gulf. 



I will continue to film the river and those who care about it, whatever the point of view, and plan to produce a documentary film and a book.  I know just enough about the range of interests along the Rio Grande to understand that pueblo Indians, farmers, real estate developers, and wildlife ecologists -- to name only a few interest groups -- each value the river in different ways.  My aim is for the continuation of this venture, and the film and the book that will come out of it, to represent a broad range of thought about the Rio Grande, and serve as useful references for those who continue to work on behalf of the river, its balance of life, and the people who choose to live along it. 
 
I would be grateful for suggestions and advice about how to think about the Rio Grande as I head for Brownsville and salt water.  What metaphors illuminate the entire river or any of its facets?  What photographs from the river's point of view would be useful?  Whose knowledge and memories of the river, particularly among the older generations, should be prompted and recorded both for posterity and ongoing research?  What questions should be asked, and what existing answers and assumptions need to be reconsidered? 
 
Your response and input will help to diversify and deepen the scope of this project, and I hope this email will be forwarded to anyone whose address I missed and who may find it of interest.  I can be reached by email while traveling down the river, and also by cell phone at (505) 350-4501.


Thank you,
 
Nat Stone





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