The returning salmon counts were alarming low, and the residents saw a need to make important changes in river management using good watershed planning. They formed a council and invited all watershed residents, from long-term ranching families, to foresters, to young back-to-the-landers to develop a plan that would invite returning salmon back to their native waters, the beautiful The Mattole watershed.
It is safe to say that almost everyone lives in a habitat that has been damaged by modern industrial life. The extent of that damage varies greatly – urban areas are mostly developed for human living and working, while suburban areas often retain some of the characteristics of the pristine landscape. Rural communities usually look the most like the original landscape, and can still support the plants and animals that were part of the original ecosystem, unless the land and rivers have been damaged by careless logging, mining, agriculture, or other human activities.
As awareness of environmental issues grows, more people are becoming aware of the extent of the damage done to their local environment. As they start asking questions about why the natural landscape around where they live is the way it is and how it got that way, the question eventually arises: What can be done about it?
Thinking Like A Watershed explores what the citizens of one rural community in Northern California have done over the past twenty years to restore the natural world in which they live. It shows how they initially discovered the environmental problems in their valley, which was heavily logged in the 1950s and 1960s, how they initiated efforts to restore habitats, and what they are continuing to do today.