Archive for April, 2012
Hudson River Project
James Bowthorpe has been busy lately. Known for his 2009 record breaking circumnavigation of the globe via bike, he has been working on multiple projects lately with filmmaker Antony Crook. (Including a recent Rapha film, Knock for Knock).
Now, they are turning their attention to the Hudson River, building a boat from scrap materials and navigating the Hudson from headwaters to city. Here is the description for the Hudson River Project:
Hudson River Project: Build a boat from a city’s waste, take it to the source of the city’s river – the river without which the city would not exist – and row the boat back.
This story connects the source of the Hudson River to NYC, the great city that sits at its mouth.
The film follows a man as he makes a boat from NYC’s waste, the detritus of a modern megalopolis, and takes it to the source of the Hudson River high in the Adirondack Mountains, at Lake Tear of the Clouds.
He rows the boat back to NYC, through wilderness, countryside, farms, towns and industry, all of which rely on the mighty river that flows past, all of which are threads of the river’s story.
Hudson River Project from Hudson River Project on Vimeo.
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Good MPG Lately.
A little smug maybe, but I’ve had some run-ins with vehicles lately that have made me a little bitter.
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Antiquities Act “Handcuffed”
Since it was enacted by Congress in 1906, the Antiquities Act has helped preserve some of North America’s most valued, well-visited, and beautiful natural treasures. Now, with the passage of HB 4089 (4/17/12), this important legislation could be made essentially toothless. While proponents of the bill argued that the legislation was in defense of hunter/fisher access, the consequences of the bill will more likely promote short-term “development” (extraction) and other ecologically damaging activities on the last remaining wild treasures in the U.S.
Republican Teddy Roosevelt was the first to exercise the Antiquities Act, forever protecting the Grand Canyon (at the time, as a National Monument) from mining development and likely subsequent degradation. It is impossible to know, but I would wager tourism revenues from that particular invocation of the Antiquities Act are more widely distributed and outweigh the short-term profits of a mine. In the end, can anyone imagine the Grand Canyon as an open pit mine? Do you want to?
Ironically…“[The] language drew the support of groups including the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership (TRCP), but it failed to mollify environmentalists and Democrats, who warned the term “intended” would not stand up in a court of law.”
Critics said the bill was carefully crafted to split sportsmen and conservationists, two constituencies that have aligned on many natural resource issues.
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Horse Feathers – Cynic’s New Year
Portland’s Horse Feathers are back with a new album (their fourth). Check out the first single from ‘Cynic’s New Year’, Fit Against the Country. Doesn’t get much better than this. You can also stream the entire album right now at NPR.
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Van Diemen’s Land
Rapha keeps upping the production value on their Continental project, with this stunningly well-crafted gem. It captures the tonal journey of a ride beautifully, with a mixture of the relaxed joy and the surprisingly frightening bitterness of a “wild” ride. I am looking forward to this year’s Continental films, particularly if this sets the precedent for what’s to come.
Van Diemen’s Land from RAPHA on Vimeo.
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Bear Country
“While we’re out there, I remember something Andrea said to me in the car, about why Yellowstone is so powerful. ‘Doug’s theory is that the element of risk is what’s important. It’s what makes wilderness wild.’ We’re so quiet I can hear my own quick, scared, rabbity breaths, and as I revel in my own fear I realize they’re right.”
Having lived in Wyoming for the first 18 years of my life, I came to understand the proximity to danger in the wild…rattle snakes, bears, the occasional moose charge. The concept of “the wild” in Wyoming is very interesting…it is, indisputably, why many people choose to live there, particularly near Yellowstone, about 60 miles from which I was born.
Grizzly bears, for example, have a different status than wolves, to many Wyoming residents. Some say it is because wolves “kill for sport.” Or “they are pure evil”. Something about wolves, and their proximity to the places we choose to live (in the “wild” areas), sets people off in a different way than grizzlies.
Federal vs. state management, ranching (economics), and personal political persuasions regarding both come into play in force when faced with situations both particular and abstract when it comes to the wild. But I think the simple question is always the same and always relevant…do you want to live in a world that has some wild left? Or not?
This article from Slate lays out a brilliant case regarding grizzlies in Yellowstone. It is long, but a must read for those interested in National Parks and management concerns.
Photograph: James Yule
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