Welcome to the AFS Virtual Film Festival! This is a bring your own popcorn and watch at your own leisure event but we encourage you to form watch parties on social media or on our Slack workspace. Click film titles to start watching!
Session 1: Restoration and Stewardship
| Film Name & Link | Description | Organization – Website |
| Our Story – The National Fish Habitat Partnership | The National Fish Habitat Partnership at 10 Years in 2016. Where we started and what we are doing to protect, restore and enhance fish habitat through partnerships across the U.S. | NFHP – http://www.fishhabitat.org/ |
| Science and Stewardship: Keys to Restoring Kachemak Bay | Located in Alaska’s southern Cook Inlet, Kachemak Bay supports important recreational, subsistence, and commercial fishing. The bay provides a remarkably fertile environment for both fish and shellfish and the area is also important for marine transportation, tourism, and threatened and endangered species. The Bay’s ecological richness is vulnerable to development activities in Cook Inlet and the region has experienced significant declines in shrimp and crab that have not recovered despite fishery closures. NOAA and partners are bringing together science, shellfish restoration activities, and the community to better understand and address challenges from changing conditions. | NOAA Fisheries, Office of Habitat Conservation- https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/topic/habitat-conservation |
| Hoonah Native Forest Partnership Spasski Stream Restoration 2019 | This film shows the efforts of a local workforce using hand tools to thin a young growth riparian area. The thinned trees were moved into the stream and used as large wood to retain flooding resilience and maintain fish habitats. The restoration is part of an all hands-all lands partnership building land stewardship in Southeast Alaska. | Hoonah Native Forest Partnership (HNFP) |
| 3 Crabs, 5 Salmon, 30 Partners | Learn the story of a large wetlands restoration effort at the mouth of the Dungeness River in Sequim, WA. Elements of the project include removing 950 feet of shoreline and streambank armoring near the existing bridge, removing 800 feet of tidal dike to restore connection to estuarine habitat, removing shoreline armoring and a dike. The project also included rerouting 3 Crabs Road and Sequim-Dungeness Way.The rerouted roads are part of an approximate $3 million project from state and federal funds to revert the area back to a more natural state improving the ecological function of more than 40 acres of coastal wetlands and restoring a half-mile of stream channel. | North Olympic Salmon Coalition |
| Shore Friendly: The Benefits of Natural and Restored Beaches | Shoreline homeowners want to protect and enjoy their properties while also protecting the fish, wildlife, and shoreline habitats that make living on the water so attractive. In this film, Puget Sound residents and a coastal geologist share about the environmental, recreational, and aesthetic benefits of natural and restored beaches. | Island County Department of Natural Resources – https://www.islandcountywa.gov/Health/DNR/Shore-Friendly/Pages/Home.aspx |
| The Power of Partnership | The story of collaboration to help save the Warner Basin Sucker and the Warner Lakes Redband Trout. | Wahoo Films – https://wahoofilms.com |
| Moving Earth: Restoring Idaho’s Fish Habitat | Idaho Fish and Game works with many partners to protect and restore fish habitat across the state. Biologists, engineers and landowners work cooperatively to help improve habitat for native salmon, steelhead and trout. Improving fish habitat is a critical step in conserving healthy fish populations across for all Idahoans. This film provides an overview of our Fish Habitat Program and shows off some of the spectacular locations where we are working on to conserve Idaho’s fisheries resources. | Idaho Dept. of Fish and Game – [email protected] |
| ROOTS: Bringing Back the Bull River | A healthy river is lined with diverse vegetation which has varied root systems that hold streambanks intact (in addition to providing important shade, cover, forage, and habitat for many fish and wildlife species). Much of the Bull River today is bordered almost exclusively by dense mats of reed canarygrass, which forms a dense rhizomatous mat in the uppermost layer of soil, but does little to protect or stabilize the soil underneath. This leaves much of the exposed streambank underneath exposed and prone to erosion. Once underlying soil has been washed away with the river, large clumps of reed canarygrass often fall into the river as well. This film documents a large-scale, multi-partner re-vegetation effort along the banks of the Bull River. | Lower Clark Fork Watershed Group – www.lcfwg.org |
| The Future of Conservation: Partnership | The Desert Fish Habitat Partnership uses the vast knowledge and skills of our conservation partners to protect, restore, and enhance habitats for native desert fish species. By partnering with federal, state, and tribal fish and wildlife agencies, non-governmental organizations, research groups, engaged individuals, and private landowners across geo-political boundaries, DFHP is able to pursue effective actions to support the conservation and recovery of these imperiled species and their habitats. Without our partners, DFHP wouldn’t survive, just as the Texas hornshell couldn’t survive without species like the gray redhorse. This video highlights the importance of partnerships, both in the natural and habitat restoration worlds. | Desert Fish Habitat Partnership |
Session 2: Migration and Connectivity
| Film Name | Description | Organization – Website |
| Love Flows | Once upon a time, massive fish migrations were observed yearly around the globe. Civilizations and wildlife revolved around these natural wonders and depended on them for survival. For millennia, we have relied on rivers as a source of food, recreation, and energy. Unfortunately, many of these natural, free-flowing rivers have deteriorated as generations pass. Love Flows brings to life the challenges that voiceless rivers and fishes face against threats, but more importantly, it focuses on what we are doing to help improve the situation. | World Fish Migration Foundation – https://www.worldfishmigrationday.com/documentary |
| Undamming the Hudson River | “Undamming the Hudson River” is a short documentary film by National Geographic filmmaker Jon Bowermaster showcasing Riverkeeper’s efforts to restore natural habitat by eliminating obsolete dams throughout the Hudson River Estuary. Many fish use tributaries to the Hudson River as pathways to move between feeding, nursery, and spawning grounds. Unfortunately, thousands of dams – many built in the 19th and 20th centuries – are blocking those pathways and dramatically shrinking accessible habitat area, causing declines in fish and other wildlife. As the years have passed, these dams often no longer serve the purposes for which they were originally built and many have fallen into disrepair.Working collaboratively with communities, state and local agencies, landowners, conservationists, and other stakeholders, Riverkeeper is committed to restoring aquatic life to the Hudson by ridding the river and its tributaries of the hundreds of deadbeat dams that now serve only as impediments for the river’s fish. Dam removal is critical to restoring biodiversity and abundance of life in the Hudson River.Founded in 1966, Riverkeeper is a watchdog organization dedicated to defending the Hudson River and its tributaries and protecting the drinking water supply of millions of New Yorkers. |
River Keeper |
| Removing the Booth Diversion | Removing the Booth Diversion tells the story of coalition of partners coming together to remove a very large push-up dam and replace it with an engineered structure that continues to deliver water to the water rights holder, but allows fish including native Bonneville Cutthroat trout to migrate upstream. | Western Native Trout Initiative on behalf of the Open Rivers Fund and Resources Legacy Fund |
| The Ballad of Ceratonova shasta | A music video exploring the relationship between myxozoan parasites, Ceratonova shasta, and salmon living in the Klamath River Basin of southern Oregon and northern California. The song describes how the balance of this host-parasite system has been affected by alterations to the river system, cultural significance, and the parasites life cycle. The song was produced in collaboration with Dr. Jerri Bartholomew, Oregon State University. | Music of Science – [email protected] |
| Just Keep Swimming | Since 1946, scientists from the University of Washington’s Alaska Salmon Program have been spending every summer in Bristol Bay, Alaska gathering important data about an iconic fish species, the sockeye salmon. A keystone species, sockeye play a vital role in the health and vitality of the ecosystem in which they live. With a spawning migration that spans hundreds of miles and nearly guarantees low chances of survival, their story is an example of perseverance and commitment in the face of overwhelming odds to fight for the next generation. As humans grapple with their own fight to leave Earth’s ecosystems in good health for their offspring, we can look to the sockeye for inspiration and remind ourself to just keep swimming. | Waterlust – http://www.waterlust.com |
| Getting Attached – Understanding the Plight of Pacific Lamprey | A short video on the unique biology and precarious status of the West’s native migratory lamprey, the Pacific Lamprey. Produced by Freshwaters Illustrated in partnership with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and in collaboration with the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission. | Pacific Lamprey FHP – http://www.fws.gov/pacificlamprey |