The sounds you are hearing now are excerpts from a series of field recordings I made in August of 2007 just outside the town of Winlaw in the Slocan Valley region of British Columbia, Canada. These recordings became the building blocks for my soundscape composition entitled Winlaw Watersheds (15’38” - 2009), a piece designed to encapsulate a brief moment in the life of the watersheds of this region.

In August of 2007 the area experiences a drought, and forest fires blaze amidst the devastation of the pine beetle epidemic.  As helicopters fly low through the valley channel to bring water to the affected areas, their pulsating reverberations serve as reminders to everyone living on the banks of this natural amphitheater that the rain is long in coming.  In seeming contradiction to the drought, the region is blessed with a vast network of fresh creeks and streams that serve the population within its reach.  Yet like the trees, the region’s water systems are also under threat of devastation: new hydroelectric power projects designed to plug California into British Columbia’s supply have positioned many of the region’s creeks in line for future damming.

This composition is intended as a portrait of an environment threatened with extinction, and is structured to explore the spatial and aesthetic connections between water, surrounding forest, and the properties that have been developed on these lands.  It is a meditation on the constantly shifting balance between nature and industry in British Columbia’s interior.  Moving from the heart of the creeks that feed the Slocan River to the farmland sprinkler systems that draw their water, and from the helicopter blades of summer to the rain that finally came on August 19th, this is an exploration of the connections between water, land, air and fire within a single ecosystem. Without biased commentary on the situation facing the watersheds, my hope for this piece is that it will open up a space of reflection where the relationships and contradictions inherent to this environment and its inhabitants can be contemplated.  With a minimum of processing, these recordings are presented essentially unadulterated, subject only to a structuring hand designed to guide the listener into associational thinking across the region’s disparate yet uniquely entwined spaces.  And with a light touch of self-reflexivity, this piece is ultimately as much about the tenuous relationship between artist and subject as it is about the current state of BC’s wilderness and its shaping by industry.

          

The recordings were made on Koch Creek, Hird Creek, and other areas around Perry Ridge near Winlaw, BC. As of this writing, a permit is under consideration to harness Koch Creek using the run-of-river hydropower process, as are permits for dozens of other creeks in BC.  You can track the status of all BC creeks under consideration at ippwatch.info. The Perry Ridge area is also being slated for logging which will have an effect on the creeks that provide water for the area.  There are also mining talks under way.  A lobby to turn Perry Ridge into an ecological reserve has been under way for some time, but so far the idea has been consistently turned down by the provincial government. For more information about Perry Ridge, a detailed record of the proposal, and the government’s responses to it, visit perryridge.org. For more information about the situation facing British Columbia’s fresh water supply in general, visit: saveourrivers.ca.

Winlaw Watersheds premiered at the World Forum for Acoustic Ecology, March 23-27, 2009, in Mexico City - just after World Water Day (March 22nd).

    

Special thanks to Randy Kenny for inspiration, information, and transportation.

       © 2009 by Randolph Jordan