A River Runs Through It By Marci Janas Photos by Michael Dwyer '97
	back to the main story		Scenes from a watershed: Amish Wheat Scenes from a watershed: East Falls (click for a larger image) The taproot for Black River Suite is the publication Explorations of a Watershed: The Natural History of the Black River, a major undertaking of the Black River Watershed Education Project, which explores the history geology, and beauty of the Black River. The project is a partnership between Oberlin's Environmental Studies Program and Seventh Generation, a Lorain County-based environmental organization. Brad Masi '93, project coordinator for the environmental studies program and editor of Explorations, began work on the publication in June 1998, along with Manda Gillespie '97, Nicole Palmer '00 and Jessica Toubman '98, when he initiated the research and writing. Last summer, Daniel Bush '99 conducted oral histories and contributed a section on local agriculture. John Katko '72, president of Friends of the Wetlands, a local organization, wrote an essay on Lorain County's wetlands. Michael Dwyer '97 took most of the photographs. Masi expects that Explorations will be available for sale to the public sometime this summer. Scenes from a watershed: Filter Strip (click for a larger image) Culling from Explorations, Masi wrote a chapbook, Water Song: The Story of the Canesadooharie, which will be available, for free, to those attending the concert this Saturday. The book is illustrated with a few of the photographs that appear in the longer book, including some taken by Masi and Cheryl Wolfe, facilities manager for Oberlin College's Lewis Center for Environmental Studies and watershed project coordinator for the College. Canesadooharie, the aboriginal name given to the river by the Wyandot Indians, means "stream of freshwater pearls." And, like an endless strand of pearls, European settlers staked their claims along the lake, the river and its tributaries. They also renamed the Canesadooharie, calling it the Black River. Scenes from a watershed: Riparian (click for a larger image) Award-winning poet Lynn Powell wrote the libretto for the Black River Suite based upon the text of Explorations. A section of the libretto, also called "Water Song," was excerpted from an original collaborative poem written by area schoolchildren under Powell's guidance. Masi is enthusiastic about how the various strands of disciplines--poetry, history, geology and music among them--came together in this project. "It reveals the possibility of interdisciplinary collaboration," he says. "It provides an effective means of using music to teach youth and the general public about the unique natural history of our area. For Oberlin College, it sets a great precedent for directing the resources of the College and the Conservatory to better the Lorain County community."
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