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Note: Due to the intense schedule of ongoing expeditions, the team has not had time to post more recent field notes. Please check back in late October for further posts.
Expedition: Columbia River Basin
Date: Thursday, May 30, 2007/Entry 1
Location: Seattle, Washington
Subject: Departure
Reporter: Alison M. Jones
Hello from the sunny and unseasonably warm Pacific Northwest! Our No Water No Life (NWNL) team is setting forth Saturday, June 2, from Seattle in “The Gold Bug,” our biodiesel buggy. We head for the Canadian headlands of the Columbia River in NWNL’s first source-to-sea expedition. Now, we are three: Robin MacEwan, who is NWNL’s Project Coordinator and a restoration ecologist; Fritha Pengelly, who is doing video and field notes; and myself, principal photographer.
Two expedition flags were awarded to NWNL last week. The Explorers Club red, white and blue Flag #93 went previously to Colorado’s Salmon River in 1939, eastern Libya and Semliki in Uganda. Green and white Flag #13 is from WINGS WorldQuest, our fiscal sponsor granting us our 501c3 status. (To support this expedition, go to SUPPORT US! on this website).
The Columbia Wetlands, including Lakes Columbia and Windemere, will be our first area of documentation and my first sighting of Columbian waters. We will be meeting and boating with local environmentalists, scientists and representatives from the K’tunaxa tribe. There are hoodoo’s, dams, wetland grasses, hot springs, The Selkirks and The Rockies, and – if we’re lucky – painted turtles, big-horn sheep, bear, bald eagles and elk.
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