ASLO 2016 Summer Meeting to Include Public Lecture by Peter Mcbride

As ASLO meets again in Santa Fe this coming June, we are very excited to announce that we are planning an amazing public outreach lecture to which all conference attendees are invited. This year we plan to reinforce the importance of freshwater (and thus, what ASLO scientists do!) to the general public through this not-to-be missed lecture by Peter McBride about his documentary work on the Colorado River, the major source of drinking water for Santa Fe. The lecture will be on Wednesday evening, 8 June, at the Santa Fe Community Convention Center. McBride is an award-winning photographer, writer, and filmmaker who spent over four years documenting the Colorado River. His work focuses on watershed issues and related stories around the world to raise awareness about freshwater challenges. McBride has spent two decades studying the world with a camera. A self-taught, award-winning photographer, writer, and filmmaker, he has traveled on assignment to over 70 countries for the publications of the National Geographic, Smithsonian, Outside, Esquire, Audubon, Stern, and GEO and companies like Patagonia, Microsoft, The Nature Conservancy, and more. After a decade working abroad and completing a John S. Knight Journalism Fellowship at Stanford University, McBride decided to focus his cameras closer to home on a subject closer to his heart. Combining his passion for aviation and his belief in conservation, he spent over four years documenting his backyard river—the Colorado. This journey culminated in a coffee table book: The Colorado River: Flowing Through Conflict, and a series of short films “Chasing Water,” “I AM RED,” and “Delta Dawn.” He now focuses his lenses and energies on watershed issues and related stories around the world to raise awareness about freshwater challenges. His work as a photographer, writer, and filmmaker have garnered awards from the Banff Mountain Film Festival, North American Society of Journalists and Lowell Thomas Travel Writing and many more. American Photo Magazine named McBride as one of the top five water photographers in the nation and in 2014, after he completed a story following the length of India's Ganges River, The National Geographic Society named him a “Freshwater Hero.” When not lost on assignment or doing public speaking, you can find McBride exploring the creeks and mountains in the Rocky Mountains or practicing mandolin on his back porch in Colorado. The Colorado River is the seventh largest river in the United States, supplying water to over 40 million people. It is also one of the most diverted, silted, and heavily litigated rivers in the world. The farmers and residents of the rapidly growing western states rely on the river for irrigation, drinking water, and electricity. This demand has permanently altered the river's ecology. The Colorado River: Flowing Through Conflict shows us the river's entirety—from its headwaters in the Colorado Rockies to the dry riverbed that once reached the Sea of Cortez—in an oversized, full-color, photo essay format. To bring awareness to these issues in a unique way, McBride shot much of the book's photography from the air. As he explains, “The aerial perspective shows where we as humans have been, how we connect to the earth, and how nature relates to itself.” Jonathan Waterman, at times joined by McBride, spent approximately 100 days paddling the river's 1450 miles from its source in the Rocky Mountains. He completed the final leg of his journey, accompanied by McBride, with a 10-day walk, carrying pack rafts over the 90 miles of dried up riverbed. He lends his valuable expertise and personal experience to the book with informative text that illuminates the water debate from all sides. Native Coloradan Pete McBride has spent two decades studying the world with a camera. Photo by Pete McBride. Water conservation is a way of life in Santa Fe. The concern surrounding the Colorado River's stability becomes an ever growing issue. The river delivers almost half of Santa Fe's drinking water, which is a concern if this water resource becomes unreliable. With water conservation efforts already in place, Santa Fe is putting forth its own attempts to help alleviate some of the Colorado River's growing water demands. His work in documenting and exposing the alterations of this massive water highway shows that our dependency on the Colorado River is beyond what the river is capable of delivering. Native Coloradan Pete McBride has spent two decades studying the world with a camera. Photo by Pete McBride. Clouds and red wall reflected in Marble Canyon, Arizona. Photo by Pete McBride A Cucupah fishing boat sits in the dry Sonoran Desert delta of the Colorado River, once the largest estuary in North America. Photo by Pete McBride. A Cucupah fishing boat sits in the dry Sonoran Desert delta of the Colorado River, once the largest estuary in North America. Photo by Pete McBride. Clouds and red wall reflected in Marble Canyon, Arizona. Photo by Pete McBride As the Colorado River dwindles, Santa Fe has outfitted the community to reduce water usage through public education and other water conservation initiatives. With as many as 40 million people in seven Western states depending on the Colorado River, the stakes are substantial if conservation efforts are not successful. Of those 40 million people, 1 million New Mexicans and 100,000 acres of farmland are at risk of seeing their water resource disappear. McBride's work sheds light on how broad the concern should be. He has made an everlasting impact and an important contribution in helping bring awareness to the challenges the Colorado River faces and the communities it serves. This event is sure to be a special one that we will remember for years to come. It is one of several planned events that will make the 2016 ASLO summer meeting in Santa Fe a very special one! We hope to see you there in June. Beatrix Beisner, University of Quebec at Montreal; beisner.beatrix@uqam.ca Tammi Richardson, University of South Carolina; tammirichardson@gmail.com

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