River Restoration Northwest is back in Seattle at Northwest Film Forum for the 5th annual Stories of Our Watersheds event. Twelve entertaining, educational, and inspirational short films will highlight a wide range of river systems and the work of conservation organizations, tribes, watershed councils, agencies, and filmmakers across the Pacific Northwest and beyond. See the selected film synopses below.

A 15-minute documentary about how the Lummi Nation put their treaty rights on the line and protected natural resources for everyone.

Sanctuary. There are two primary definitions. One meaning a place of refuge or safety. The other more specifically defined as a protected natural space. Ninety-five year old World War II veteran Frank Moore knows that the two definitions are not mutually exclusive, that sanctuary as a protected natural space is also a place of refuge, safety, and even healing. After the war, Frank found healing by fly fishing the North Umpqua River. He and his wife, Jeanne, have spent their lives as stewards to the North Umpqua, instilling a legacy of conservation to preserve and cherish our natural sanctuaries for the health of the rivers and the fish, and for our own human mental health.

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. Restore America’s Estuaries recently lead a first-of-its-kind study in the Snohomish estuary to quantify the climate benefits of estuary restoration. Set in the Snohomish, this film helps to build awareness of blue carbon as a climate mitigation tool and to encourage more investment in wetland restoration at local, state and federal levels.

Featuring an emerging scientist from the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe, Renewal is a heart-warming story of transformation and restoration. Supported by HHMI and Tangled Bank Studios, this short film is part of HHMI’s “Think Like A Scientist” series. It is also a follow-up to a feature film by the same Producer, chronicling the largest dam removal in history.

Paddlers and conservationists Adam and Susan Elliott set out to explore the wild rivers of the Olympic Peninsula. The Olympic Peninsula’s wild rivers give us clean water, world-class recreation and unmatched opportunities for inspiration and solitude. They bring jobs and economic benefits to local communities and provide critical habitat for salmon, steelhead and a variety of other fish and wildlife. Wild and Scenic designation–the strongest protection a river can receive–ensures that the free-flowing character, water quality and outstanding values of these rivers are protected for generations to come.

In a far-away pocket of Oregon’s Crater Lake National Park, a small, stunted population of endangered, native bull trout — isolated for more than a century — may once again produce migratory giants when their creek is reconnected through a cattle pasture to 15,000 square miles of waterways.

Video depicting the fall 2017 implementation of the White Creek large wood placement project in the Klickitat River Basin. The White Creek salmon recovery project was implemented by the Yakama Nation sponsored Klickitat Watershed Enhancement Project (KWEP) with funding from the Bonneville Power Administration Fish and Wildlife Program. White Creek, a tributary of the Klickitat River, provides important spawning and rearing habitat for Middle Columbia River steelhead listed under the Endangered Species Act. The White Creek watershed is likely the most important steelhead spawning and rearing tributary watershed within the Klickitat subbasin. The Project will restore channel complexity through the construction of multiple large woody debris (LWD) jams along roughly 4 miles of stream. These treatments will enhance stream bed structure contributing to pool formation (rearing and holding habitat) and sediment sorting (spawning habitat).

Meet Venice Williams, executive director of Alice’s Garden, a community garden in Milwaukee. Venice shares her connections with rivers and water, and shows how the garden is using innovative water solutions that are a model for other communities nationwide.

In After the Smoke Clears we visit the stunning landscapes that burned in the Eagle Creek fire in the Columbia River Gorge and hear from local residents, firefighters and scientists about living with fire and threats to the future recovery of our wild and scenic forests.

Pine Barrens Tree Frog are a threatened frog species in New Jersey. Save the Source is a campaign by Pinelands Preservation Alliance to protect the 17-trillion gallon Kirkwood-Cohansey Aquifer, a vast reserve of fresh water that underlies southern New Jersey and all of the Pinelands. The Kirkwood-Cohansey is one of the cleanest aquifers in America. Yet it is threatened by overuse, pollution and degradation.

There’s a disconnect between the people of Portland, Oregon and the river that is central to the city. This film calls attention to an organization trying to bridge this gap: the Human Access Project. Film by Atlas Finch, Theo Morris, and Moira Peterson.

A summary of work conducted through the Hoonah Native Forest Partnership that engagement multiple agencies and private land owners.