Allee, let's start with you, since you're in the studio here. First of all, remind us briefly of where KS Wild is headquartered and what its mission is.
KS Wild stands for Klamath-Siskiyou Wildland Center. We are your local environmental nonprofit right here in Ashland, Oregon. We are defending ancient forests in southern Oregon and northern California and your clean water. We do this work through advocating, through science-based and water conservation. We also do this work by mobilizing communities to take action, like all of you listening today. And lastly, we are honored just to be the stewards and guardians of this place we call home.
And I do have to share real quick that we just recently won in court to stop the IVM project by the BLM, and we're so thrilled about this because this saves our last old-growth forests here in Southern Oregon in the Siskiyou Mountains, protecting the nesting and foraging habitat in these old growth ecosystems that species depend on, like the northern spotted owl and our mascot, the Siskiyou salamander. So this is just a really big win for us, and we're still kind of relishing in this monumental moment.
Congratulations on that! By the way, I recently went to an art showing at your house that was donated to you by a long time volunteer, I believe, on A Street in the railroad district.
Yes, Gary Powell.
Wonderful. Well, how long has KS Wild been hosting the Wild and Scenic Film Fest?
This is KS Wild’s biggest outreach event of the year, and at the center of this festival, we aim to inspire activism through film and KS Wild and Rogue Riverkeeper — we've been hosting this festival for this tradition for 23 years now. And I have to bring up our previous Festival, which was called the Siskiyou Film Fest. This was started by a beloved environmental activist, Barry Snitkin, but now we have partnered with the South Yuba River Citizens League to bring the Wild & Scenic Festival to Southern Oregon.
This is an on-tour festival, from their five-day flagship festival where they host 100-plus films. It's from these 100-plus films that our volunteer film selection crew of nine sifted through to find the 11 films that will be shown at the film festival. So it's these 11 films you don't want to miss, so be sure to get your tickets after this show today to secure your spot.
Okay, so it's like the Banff Film Festival. It goes on tour. This has a headquarters down in California, and then it goes on tour... So we're broadcasting from the campus of Southern Oregon University, and I was reading that you graduated from SOU with a Bachelor of Science degree in communication with an emphasis in environmental studies, and you live here in the Rogue Valley. What can you tell us about the importance of the wildlands and the rivers of the Klamath-Siskiyou region?
Yes, well, go Raiders! It's good to be back on campus. Oh my gosh. This region has some incredibly vast and rugged mountain ranges. The Siskiyou Mountains are unique in their fashion, where they run east to west, connecting the coastal ranges to the much younger cascade ranges just to the east of us. This area, all encompassing, is known as the Klamath-Siskiyou region, and it is worth protecting, especially the last old-growth forests that remain here. So, I did grow up spending my adolescence and teenage years on the Rogue and Illinois Rivers and spending many nights in the Kalmiopsis and Red Buttes Wilderness areas. And now, I'm just so lucky to form my appreciation with these outdoor spaces and turn them into environmental activism with KS Wild. And so that's what we value at KS Wild, biodiversity in the Klamath-Siskiyou region. We believe in wild lands that remain wild and remain in public hands. We value clean rivers, rich with native fish, and the strong interconnected ecosystems that can withstand climate change.
And if somebody wants to help protect those public lands and waterways, what can they do?
It's easy! Sign up for our E-News at kswild.org to stay connected and updated and to also, most importantly, take action with us.
And they can go to the Wild and Scenic Film Festival, your flagship fundraiser. On that note, let's talk to one of the filmmakers we have on the phone, Jeremy Monroe. He's the director of Freshwaters Illustrated, which is celebrating 20 years of mission-driven, educational storytelling around freshwater, ecosystems, biodiversity conservation and culture. His short film, “Judy's Creek,” will be featured at this year's Wild and Scenic Film Fest. The film takes viewers into the world of aquatic insects through the eyes of an inspiring and joyful biologist, Judy Li. Let's play a clip of “Judy's Creek,” then we'll hear from the director.
[film clip with Judy Li’s voiceover]
“I think what lives in streams is kind of hidden until we look just a little bit more. When you pick up a little sample, you can see this incredible variety of adaptation to living in flowing water. I got a kid fish on this one. I've always liked insects, small things. I like looking at the very fine detail. When I was a little girl, I loved dinking around in the streams and in the forests. I liked being able to identify what I was looking at. It's just curiosity.”
So Jeremy, who is Judy Li, and how did she come to your attention?
Well, as you heard there, Judy is this very inspiring, dedicated, passionate biologist, and she's been an old friend for a long time. In fact, she’s actually on the board of our nonprofit organization Freshwater Illustrated. So she’s very much in our inner circle and shares the passion that we have of aquatic life, freshwater biodiversity, creatures like aquatic insects and caddisflies, which the film really zooms in on.
And so for years, we'd worked with Judy in a lot of ways, but it was actually during the pandemic when we were not traveling as much for our projects further afield. We were doing a lot more work in our backyard, here in Oregon, with people in our sort of bubble.
And this was a project that just worked out perfectly to just not only celebrate Judy's knowledge, passion and joy, but really celebrate these wonderful backyard streams we have here in the Northwest and in Oregon, and some of these creatures that maybe some of us have seen, but maybe we haven't got to learn as much about, that are there the bottom of these streams, doing what they do, living their beautiful lives. And Judy was right there, just to take us into that world.
Why don't you tell us briefly, the importance of these aquatic insects and the caddisfly?
Well, you know, if you like being around rivers, these aquatic insects and caddisflies, in particular, are a really, really big part of that. So maybe you've seen them. And of course, Oregon streams are a great place to sort of look on that bedrock. And maybe you see a snail moving around. Or maybe you look a little bit closer and say, “Oh, this little guy's got a little rock case that they've built,” and that's actually what caddisflies do.
But what's really remarkable is, like a lot of aquatic insects, caddisflies live in the water for part of their life, and then they emerge and become these winged insects that fly around. And in both parts of that life cycle, they're contributing a lot to the food web, the ecosystem. And so, for example, our beloved salmon, trout, amphibians, those salamanders ... and of course, birds and spiders and lizards, when we get out on our stream banks, a lot of those are insect eaters.
So caddisflies, not only when they're in the water but when they emerge out as those winged adults, are part of this big food web, and scientists who’ve studied this, like Judy, have shown just how much of a difference these insects make to building these thriving river and riparian ecosystems that Allee was telling us are so important, that, of course, produce for us clean water and beautiful streams.
Okay, so we have a beautiful-looking short film, that's also an educational tool. We have another filmmaker with us joining us from the Olympic Peninsula: Jessica Plumb.
She's an award-winning filmmaker and writer, as well as the principal and creative director of Plumb Productions, which specializes in short films, focused on the environment, people and place. She's currently a guest lecturer at the Seattle Film Institute on media and the environment, her film “Managed to Extinction” poses the question, “Can indigenous knowledge and science save Northwest orcas and salmon?”
[film clip with voiceover of Jay Julius]
“We're hungry for what once was. Now we all face the same struggle, right? The Southern residents, the salmon, the people of the sea, the people of the islands. How do you blend that spirit and ceremony from Indigenous people and that relationship-based living with nature with science?”
[voiceover of Dr Deborah Giles]
“Whales have always been my favorite animal, and amongst all the whale species, killer whales have always been at the top. I think they're asking for our help.”
Jessica, we heard in that clip of “Managed to Extinction,” someone you call an Indigenous visionary and an orca scientist here in the Pacific Northwest. Tell us more about their joint work to address this extinction threat.
Sure, and thank you for inviting me to join you. And first, a big thank you to Allee for your good work at KS Wild, and congratulations on your recent win protecting old growth. Thanks also for bringing the Wild and Scenic Film Festival. It's a real honor to be part of it. So, “Managed to Extinction” is a 15-minute film that pairs two people who know each other (and) who have worked together in real life here in the Pacific Northwest, in the Salish Sea. One of them is the former tribal chairman of the Lummi Nation, Jay Julius, who has really been a visionary voice here in our region in western Washington.
Jay made national news when he helped lead the Lummi Nation in blocking the construction of the largest potential coal export terminal in North America, and he's been a powerful voice for protection of both water and land resources here around the Salish Sea, which Washington State shares with British Columbia.
Jay's also a fisherman. That's his first love, and he spends a lot of his time in the San Juan Islands, and as a result, is passionate about the health of the marine life of the Salish Sea. And that has brought him together with one of our leading orca scientists, who is Dr Deborah Giles. She goes by her last name Giles, and Giles is one of the many people working to protect southern resident killer whales, who are a small and endangered subspecies of orca who share our waters.
Unlike many other orcas around the world, these orcas prey specifically just on salmon, and not any salmon; they love Chinook salmon or king salmon. And king salmon or Chinook salmon have been in great decline in our waters, which, in turn, has led to the decline of this subspecies of orca. So these two people have been collaborating together to address the issues around Chinook salmon and our resident orcas.
The Wild & Scenic Film Festival will be at the Historic Ashland Armory, 208 Oak St., on Saturday, April 12, and at the Grants Pass Performing Arts Center, 313 NE Olive St., on Saturday, April 19. Both events run from 5 to 9 p.m.
Tickets are available in advance.
This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.
