August is National Water Quality Month — a time to recognize the vital importance of clean water for our health, ecosystems, and communities.
At SYRCL’s Wild & Scenic Film Festival, we believe storytelling has the power to inspire action. This month, we’ve curated a special playlist of prior Wild & Scenic Official Selections that explore the beauty and value of our rivers, estuaries, and watersheds, while highlighting the people and solutions working toward a cleaner, healthier water future.
These films remind us that protecting our waters starts with local action and the choices we make every day.
Enjoy the films, and join us in celebrating National Water Quality Month.
Blue Carbon (2019 Official Selection)
West Portal Creek (2022 Official Selection)
The Fall River, Northern California’s Cold Water Oasis (2013 Official Selection)
Benjamin Drummond, Sara Joy Steele | 2018 | 6 min.
“Blue carbon” is carbon that’s captured and stored by coastal wetlands, helping to mitigate climate change. This film is about mud and the multiple benefits that estuaries provide for us. “You never go into a wetland and just restore one benefit,” says wetlands ecologist John Rybczyk. It improves water quality, provides salmon habitat, protects our shorelines, and also benefits our climate.
Kate Geis | 2021 | 24 min.
West Portal Creek features farmers, conservationists, scientists, and federal agencies working together to solve the complex problem of water pollution. By focusing on one stream, and using pioneering DNA technology to target water quality improvement projects on two farms and a nearby school, this partnership was able to reduce bacterial contamination in the Creek by 97%, above their goal of a 93% reduction.
Darren Campbell, Hunter Sykes | 2012 | 9 min.
The Fall River is California’s largest spring-fed wild trout fishery. Located approximately 50 miles to the east of Mount Shasta in a big, flat, agricultural valley, the river generates up to one million acre-feet per year of cold, clean, nutrient rich water. The water is used for hydro-power, agriculture, municipal supply, and outdoor recreation, but the river itself faces some serious problems. The Fall River Conservancy (FRC) formed in 2009 to address invasive aquatic species, over sedimentation, and water quality issues affecting this extremely valuable resource.
