Environmental Singles « Weyland Photography

Environmental Singles

It seems efforts to shape Mother Nature to our own needs are often short sighted, riddled with mismanagement and loaded wih unforeseeable consequences. These images represent my evolving investigation into our ‘management’ of the natural world.

: Salmon in 'mobile aquarium'. Oroville, CA.

: Corn is irrigated in Fresno County with an overhead-pivot irrigation system.

: Employees of the Feather River Fish Hatchery wait for a holding tank to be filled with fish before beginning salmon spawning operations on September 26, 2009.

: Catch basins in Border Fields National Park trap sediment and trash as it flows downhill from Tijuana Canyons, towards the Tijuana River Estuary and the Pacific Ocean. August 18, 2010.

: A tree rises from Indian Valley Reservoir, Lake County CA. November 8, 2009.

: Taking off waders after the Bio-Blitz event in Jamaica Bay, Brooklyn, June 11, 2010. The Bio-Blitz connects New Yorkers to their nearby wild areas.

: A secondary plant currently under construction at the Internation Border Water Comission's waste-water treatment facility will treat waste water in a biological process in addition to the chemical process currently in use. Curtis Howard unloads Ferrous Chloride, used in the chemical treatment process of the primary plant.

: Maria del Rosario Urias, community leader in Colonia Los Laureles, Tijuana, MX.
Colonia Los Laureles, population approximately 80,000, is a shantytown settlement of mostly factory workers in the steep canyons along the US Border near Tijuana. A major source of pollution in the Tijuana River estuary below, community groups are partnering with US Agencies such as NOAA to clean up the canyon and prevent erosion. Maria del Rosario Urias is a leader of one such grassroots group that is planting trees along the cliffs.

: Farm Technology, Fresno County
Red Rocks Ranch in California's San Joaquin Valley has invested in the latest water-saving technology, such as this center pivot overhead irrigation system. Investment in such technology may be a necessary part of future farming.

: Early morning sport salmon fisherman on the Sacramento River. Knights Landing, CA.

: Water is released into Putah Creek from Lake Berryessa, in Solano County, California.

: Pedro Garcia moves siphon tubes to flood irrigate a field of Alfalfa near Discovery Bay, in the San Joaquin Delta, on April 29, 2009, Flood irrigation is the least efficient method of irrigating, in terms of both water consumption and crop yield.

: Steve Smullen, Area Projects Manager for the International Border Water Comission San Diego, poses for a portrait at the IBWC waste-water treatment facility near the Mexican Border. August 18, 2010.

: A passing construction truck kicks up dust along the Owens Dry Lake. In 1913 the Los Angeles Department of Water & Power diverted the Owens River to provide drinking water for the rapidly growing metropolis. Ten years later the Owens Lake had completely evaporated, along with any hope of heavy development in the region. Now DW&P is entering the tenth year of a dust mitigation project on the lake, part of a lawsuit settlement between the utility and the residents of the valley, whose health was being damaged by particles blown off the lake by the constant winds.