THE Official Magazine of the OCEANOGRAPHY SOCIETY

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CITATION Dybas, C.L. 2012. Ripple marks—The story behind the story.Oceanography 25(1):8–11, http://dx.doi.org/10.5670/oceanog.2012.31.

DOI http://dx.doi.org/10.5670/oceanog.2012.31

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downloaded from http://www.tos.org/oceanography Ripple Marks The Story Behind the Story by Cheryl Lyn Dybas

A River Raged Through It: Through the Lens of Vermont’s In-Sight Photography Project, A Confluence of Art and Science

Torrential rains from Hurricane Irene in and Round Mountains. It gathers force of Photography at Vermont’s Marlboro August 2011 closed northeastern US parks from Halladay and Ames Hill Brooks, sluices College. He was recently awarded a and wilderness areas, washed out roads, through West Brattleboro and Brattleboro Guggenheim Fellowship for his contributions swept away homes and businesses, and and—after dropping 380 meters in eleva- to the art world. changed the face of interior New England. tion in just 11 kilometers—empties into Two decades ago, he co-founded In-Sight They also brought people together, from the Connecticut River at a mere 75 meters with Vermont resident Bill Ledger. “We scientists who study flooding, to citizens of above sea level. conceived of it as a way of fostering sustain- Northeast river towns, to photographers The Whetstone Brook watershed covers able cities and towns, and encouraging their who captured the storm in all its havoc and almost 72 square kilometers in southern citizens to develop a sense of place, and beauty. Near—and in—the Connecticut Vermont. Whetstone, as its cutting-stone of self, through photography,” says Willis. River’s overflowing tributaries stood the name suggests, and its tributaries have sliced “Photography is a wonderful means of artists of the In-Sight Photography Project in straight down into granite bedrock to form understanding one’s own and other commu- Brattleboro, Vermont. Their vantage point has narrow waterways. But bucolic flats along nities.” In recent years, In-Sight’s efforts have set, literally and figuratively, new high water their bends beckon kayakers and canoeists, expanded from Vermont to states across marks for art and for science. swimmers and hikers and birders. the country. Since the project’s beginning Usually. 20 years ago, a river of several thousand Deep in the Green Mountains that ring The brook John Willis saw on the morning students has flowed through its doors. Brattleboro, Vermont, rises Whetstone of August 28, 2011, was a whetstone gone In-Sight offers teenagers from ages 11 to 18 Brook. It springs to life more than four and wild. “It was a raging river,” says Willis, the opportunity to learn photography—from half meters above sea level, in Hidden Lake “pure whitewater.” the mechanics of how a camera lens works on the flanks of Central Mountain. Out of Willis is the In-Sight Photography to developing an artist’s eye—regardless of Hidden Lake and along Church Hollow Road Project’s Executive Director and a Professor their ability to pay for classes and equipment. the brook cascades. A sharp right turn, and the Whetstone parallels Vermont Route 9, BELOW LEFT | View of flooded Flat Street from Elliot Street, downtown Brattleboro, VT. Photo credit: Christina flowing by MacArthur Road and Hamilton Bernales. BELOW MIDDLE | View of Whetstone Brook during the 2011 flooding. Photo credit: Annie Flanagan. Road and threading between Richardson BELOW RIGHT | Route 9 eroded by flooding of the Whetstone.Photo credit: Ferne Johansson

8 Oceanography | Vol. 25, No. 1 Courses cover such topics as introduction to brook to a river to a watershed. the shutter. Through photography, In-Sight’s black and white photography; digital photog- “River is a beautiful word, beloved for the students learn about the world around raphy; social activism and photography; and lyrical impetus of those magic two syllables,” them—from the local to the global.” people, places, and things. writes W.D. Wetherell in Where the Great Every week In-Sight’s students explore new In a class called Exploring Southern River Rises: An Atlas of the Connecticut River photographic methods, including working Vermont, participants captured “on film” the Watershed in Vermont and New Hampshire. with long or short shutter speeds and using stone-laden West River and nearby mossy “Valley is a rhythmic word, too. But water- filters. “As young people fill the classroom paths of the Retreat Meadows. The course shed tops all its competitors, embracing the corkboard with images of landscapes, cities, fostered deeper views of a river ecosystem meaning of those two smaller words and and towns, we see the wonderful results of and of outdoor photography. flowing outward. To use the word watershed their dedication,” says Mack. “Students hiked and canoed to reach is to pay tribute to a force of linkage, togeth- The project is all about community, says beautiful wooded areas,” says Stephen Dybas, erness, interconnection.” Dybas. In the spring of 2010, for example, Director of the In-Sight Photography Project, Like a watershed, In-Sight encourages In-Sight launched a Digital Mobile Program “then photographed them in changing students to become an active part of a in southern Vermont. Instructors travel to light and environmental conditions, while larger life experience, says Dybas. “There’s rural towns, carrying digital cameras, digital learning about equipment like cable releases, a lot more to photography than showing projectors, and laptop computers loaded tripods, and filters. They discovered new someone how to point a camera and click with Adobe Photoshop. Junior high and high ways of understanding and appreciating the wonders of the natural world.” Although some In-Sight students have prior photographic experience, many have never watershed boundary d

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Oceanography | March 2012 9 school students in these areas otherwise One student remembers that “living with photographers captured Whetstone Brook wouldn’t have access to photography classes. the staff and facilitators really broke down as it spilled over, rushed down main streets, “The Digital Mobile Program is a strong the barrier of what the word ‘teacher’ means. and left behind floating debris from tires to step forward for In-Sight as it continues to Not only did I learn about photography milk jugs to cars. Motorcycles washed away. develop innovative ways of engaging teens of during the workshops, I learned about the Moving trucks were themselves moved— all backgrounds and abilities,” says Willis. larger world.” several hundred yards downstream. Similarly, the project’s Exposures Cross- “Spending every day with new people By late that flooded week, In-Sight’s staff Cultural Youth Program is a confluence helped me realize that cultures may be members and students needed Wellington of students and photography instructors, different,” recalls another In-Sight student, boots and special permission from law linking Vermont with inner-city Chicago and “but that people are the same.” enforcement authorities to enter their office South Dakota Native American communi- Last fall, the Dine Southwest High building and its downtown Brattleboro ties. “Participants interact with each other School of the Navajo Nation in Arizona neighborhood. Student Ferne Johansson had through in person and online exchanges, and became the newest member of In-Sight’s her camera at-the-ready. “I was biking down share both their unique and their common Exposures Program. Route 9 after the rain fell, and at first I didn’t experiences,” says Erin Barnard, who runs In-Sight may now be a watershed, but its think it was that bad.” the Exposures Program. mainstem remains in Brattleboro. There, Then she saw roads cracked open under Early last summer, teenagers from the Whetstone Brook is a stone’s throw from the weight of the floodwaters, leaving gaping Lakota Pine Ridge Reservation in South In-Sight’s office doors along the aptly holes so wide they might have led to the Dakota, from Chicago, and from Vermont named Flat Street. center of the Earth. Highways across Vermont converged on Pine Ridge for three weeks to In Whetstone Brook’s headlong race from and throughout the region broke apart and explore their cultures through photography. Hidden Lake to the Connecticut River, it fell into pieces, landing in Connecticut River “They portrayed their sense of where they borders Flat Street before making its final run. tributaries like Whetstone Brook. were from, of ‘home,’ then collaborated to “It almost claimed all of us on Flat Street “Life in a river town is something of a convey their understanding of life on the during Irene,” says Willis. “The brook jumped dance,” says Mack. “The music has long reservation through photo and multimedia its banks and poured down the street, periods of quiet waters, then all of a sudden, projects,” Barnard says. leaving everything in its path under several the crashing of flooding brooks. The trick is Students camped in South Dakota’s feet of water. In-Sight escaped with mostly to know when the latter is about to start— Badlands, where they took part in activities minor damage, but only because its offices and to get off the dance floor in time.” that included sunrise photo shoots. “Days are five feet above the road.” Enter the US Geological Survey (USGS) were filled with interviewing community In-Sight’s fall session was just gearing up, New Hampshire-Vermont Water Science members, going on impromptu photo but administrators, teachers, and students Center and hydrologists like Kenneth Toppin. adventures and cooking group dinners, while already in for the season poured out of the “Flooding in places like Brattleboro is often learning about other cultures,” Dybas says. building, cameras clicking. Waterlogged linked with the intense rains of hurricanes or

LEFT | Whetstone Studio's building partially swept away as Whetstone Brook overflows its banks.Photo credit: Christina Bernales. BELOW | Comparison historical photo- graph of Whetstone Brook from the mid-1900s. Courtesy of Brattleboro Historical Society

10 Oceanography | Vol. 25, No. 1 ABOVE | Flooding near the Branch School House in 1936. Courtesy of Marlboro Historical Society. RIGHT | Comparison view of the former Branch School House after Irene flooding in 2011.Photo credit: Bobbi Angell

other major storms,” says Toppin. “If there’s a up the bank in a photo in 2011.” aquifers, maintains surface water quality, hurricane or tropical storm warning, watch During Irene, new record peak river stages and revitalizes soil.” out for flash floods.” and streamflows were recorded throughout Indeed, cascading water in Brattleboro Whetstone Brook overran its banks in Vermont and New Hampshire, says Toppin. wasn’t always a bête noire. August “because it flows down such a steep “Where there weren’t stream gauges, we’re In 1887, the Brattleboro Board of Trade slope over a short distance,” Toppin says. collecting high water mark information issued a promotional booklet extolling the “The water starts moving faster and faster. from trees, buildings, and bridges at sites virtues of “Brattleboro: Its Attractions as a By the time it reaches even ground, it has where indirect determinations of water flow Home, Its Advantages as a Center of Business gained tremendous force. It’s bound to flood need to be made.” and Industry.” Its cover featured the poem when it hits flats.” Comparisons like those between In-Sight’s “Chase’s Cascade” by Thomas Wentworth Major floods have occurred several times photos and pictures in historical archives Higginson. Chase’s Cascade is a waterfall over the past century in Brattleboro and are a big help. along Whetstone Brook. other river towns in Vermont. In 1936, From the results, Toppin and other USGS “My eyes are entranced in beauty; soft two storms collided over the state. Within hydrologists will work with the Federal young leaves, moist mossy rocks and spar- 45 hours, almost 23 centimeters of rain Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to kling sunlit water. Magic Cascade! The green- had fallen. Over the next year, workers determine whether the current 100-year and wood’s loveliest daughter.” built bridges to replace those that were 500-year floodplain lines should be moved. A larger and longer magic cascade, destroyed—1,329 of them. Their efforts are The 100-year floodplain means that, in any Whetstone Brook itself, curves around the preserved in historical photographs. particular year, land within that area will In-Sight Photography Project’s building. In-Sight faculty and students recently have a one percent chance of flooding; the In-Sight’s students, after passing through its matched up flood photos they took in 500-year floodplain equals a two-tenths of courses, flow out and into the world. 2011 with images from 1936 held by the one percent chance of flooding. Wherever their own brooks may lead, they Brattleboro Historical Society and neigh- “Flooding is a natural event, but we often take with them a sharpened view, one that boring Marlboro Historical Society. “We see the effects as negative when waters inun- encompasses not one stream nor one river, looked at the high water marks on buildings date homes or wash out bridges,” according but an entire watershed, say Willis and Dybas, like schools and houses, and on bridges and to The Whetstone Brook: Flooding Happens, and beyond, they hope, to encompass the trees, in 1936 and 2011,” says Dybas. “The published by the Windham County Natural human experience of the planet we call Earth. local Branch School House, for example, Resources Conservation District. “However, For more on the In-Sight Photography was flooded in 1936 and again in 2011. A flood damage only happens when we build Project, please see: http://www.insight- tree to the left of the school is holding the within the hazard areas of floodplains [too photography.org/The_In-Sight_Photography_ riverbank in place in a picture taken in 1936. close to a river]. Floodwaters are a neces- Project.html. Amazingly, the tree is still there and holding sary part of a natural system that recharges

CHERYL LYN DYBAS ([email protected]), a contributing writer for Oceanography, is a marine scientist and policy analyst by training. She also writes about science and the environment for Natural History, Canadian Geographic, Africa Geographic, BioScience, National Wildlife, The Washington Post, and many other publications, and is a contributing editor for Natural History. Oceanography | March 2012 11