This film offers a front row seat to “water wizard” Bill Zeedyk and his proteges who are transforming degraded wetlands and drylands into more resilient ecosystems – girding against the ravages of drought and climate change.
(Production Phase 98% Complete)
Thinking Like Water offers a front row seat to the pioneering work of 86-year-old “water wizard” Bill Zeedyk, and his proteges and allies, who have continually devised ways of transforming degraded wetlands and drylands into more resilient ecosystems that help gird against the ravages of drought and climate change.
One project at a time, these frontline nature enthusiasts are helping the West’s forests, grasslands, meadows, semi-arid deserts and working landscapes to thrive. Through partnerships and collaborations, more communities are learning how to live in alignment with nature rather than against her…by Thinking Like Water.
Today, Zeedyk is a legend in the ecological restoration community. But when he began this work 25 years ago, after retiring from the U.S. Forest Service, his ideas were considered almost heretical.
Building on the work of Luna Leopold (son of famed conservationist Aldo Leopold) and the river guru Dave Rosgen, Zeedyk coaxes straightened streams back on their natural meandering course, lifts the creek, raises the water table and recreates lost habitats. All while using simple restoration techniques he designed or innovated upon. These constellations of “Zeedyk structures” have slowly gained favor and now his methods have even been institutionalized.
This story hopes to celebrate and capture the philosophy and creativity at the root of Zeedyk’s decades long history of revolutionizing a field of restoration in a compelling, and sometimes humorous way, that leaves viewers enlightened, entertained, and inspired!
– Maryann McGraw, Wetlands Program Coordinator, NM Environment Department Water Quality Bureau
– Joan L. Bybee, Mesteno Draw Cattle Co, Mountainair, NM
– Mollie Walton, Comanche Creek Project Director / Quivira Coalition
It takes energy and resources to tell a story as big as this one. For the past three years, we’ve been filming Bill and his working partners and communities across the West. Your support will help us tell the wider story.
As we head into the final production stretch, your donation will make a huge difference!
“The work we’ve been doing in neighborhoods inspired the City of Tucson to establish a Green Street policy, where new road construction or major renovation must include spillways that direct water to adjacent landscaping – satisfying much of the irrigation demand while also reducing flooding.
In the old paradigm, street runoff would flow down this pavement directly to the storm drain, kicking it out of the system, dehydrating an already dry environment.”
With adequate funding and support, we hope to harness the power of ESRI StoryMaps to create immersive learning modules where online viewers can dive and wade in various ecosystems at their own pace. Exploring how landscapes are responding to treatments. Getting one step closer to those monitoring the results. Using tools that allow us to learn from wild lands and working lands even if they are hundreds of miles away.
By combining maps, remote sensing, and before/after photo points with multi-media stories of historic, cultural, economic and geographical significance, we hope to elevate the practical knowledge gained from these cutting-edge practitioners.
Got less than a minute? Watch this short animation on upland slope treatments. Treatment Design by Bill Zeedyk and Steve Vrooman, Implementation and GIS by Keystone Restoration Ecology in partnership with Los Amigos de Valles Caldera, Funded by Wildlife Conservation Society. Cartography and Video by Renea Roberts, R3 Productions. Pictured location at the entrance to Valles Caldera National Preserve in Northern NM at Hwy 4 Main Entrance.