Anna Garleff, Communications Specialist, and Shannon Frank, Executive Director of the Oldman Watershed Council, presented to a full house at a recent SACPA / Lethbridge Public Library evening event. The topic of the night was an update on Anna's work on the Film Project with videos, land use heat maps going from 11,000 BCE to 2060, and her historical timeline work taking us back in watershed history to 60,000 BCE!
There are 2 timelines loaded on the back of our website, ready to be released. They are NOT the final versions but are there to give you an idea of what's coming. We will be releasing those in a new blog just before Christmas. So, while you're as snug as a bug in front of the fire during the holidays, you can curl up with friends and family and have a sneak peek at the wonders of history, culture, irrigation, science, farming, floods, culture and more, all in the Oldman watershed. Watch this space—they'll be announced via the blog.
In the meantime, many of the videos are already out and in circulation (educators also please take note, they are all available for use and sharing via our YouTube channel) and the documentary is in production with the core message that “We are all downstream”. The OWC would like to thank SACPA and the Lethbridge Public Library for hosting and also thank Jonathan Blackwood at My World Photography (myworldphotography1@gmail.com) and Karen Manuel, GIS Expert, for their time, effort, and expertise in helping Anna bring this project to life! Aries Casteel helped out this evening by running the visuals—much appreciated!
Lori Brave Rock and William Singer III have been great resources and sources of support throughout the project—it was great of them to drive in for the presentation! Jonathan Tallman and Mark Brave Rock were also there—they are working on some drumming tracks for the film work; Ryan Heavy Head was also in the house and supporting us with the early Blackfoot history. There are more people involved in various aspects of the project work—we will be telling you more about them and their involvement in a later update.
None of this would happen without sponsors. It's how we involve the community and how they learn about the importance of watershed work. Thanks to: Real Estate Centre, Canadian Institute of Resource Law, University of Calgary Environmental Law Centre, South Central Welding in Nanton, and Alberta Irrigation Project who are the 5 Founding Partners. They each chipped in $1,000 at the beginning of the project to ensure we could at least start. Since then, the City of Lethbridge has joined us as a Collaborative Partner (their 3 videos are now complete and ready to view, all about municipal watershed management and health). Our next Collaborative Partner, the Potato Growers of Alberta, presented their first video at their 50th anniversary AGM just a couple of weeks ago (that video is so hot-off-the-press it wasn't included in the SACPA evening) and their next 2 videos are currently in post-production.
For Collaborative Partners, 3 videos about their watershed stewardship are produced. OWC gets to tell its story, and the Collaborative Partner gets to showcase their innovation, expertise, and social license. One video is about science, another for the general public, and one for kids.
To everyone who attended, a heartfelt thank you for taking the time out of your busy evenings to join us. It means a great deal to us that our OWC family comes out to support our hard work.
