The basic equation of conservation is that RESOURCE MANAGEMENT=REGULATION + EDUCATION. In today's political and social climate of deregulation, defunding of government and nonregulatory management tools, education is assuming the pivotal role. Environmental and especially experiential or outdoor education has largely been in the nonformal sector, where parks, camps and nature centers have long known that activities must be both enjoyable, participatory and community-building in order to be effective educational tools. "Saving the planet is hard work -- if it isn't fun, what's the point?" (Jane Elder, Midwest Sierra Club)
Today's conservation relies on informed and active public participation, which can be hard to achieve. Public outreach is not well served by a token effort, and too many "public information" displays feature elaborate graphics, stacks of glossy publications, and a bored civil servant hiding behind the coffeemaker with a book. When success is measured by a head count, or by signatures and pledges, turning out the crowd is they key, and this means giving them a reason to turn out: such as a festival with strong person-to-person contact as well as community entertainment.
Watershed education depends on creating a durable and complex "sense of place" of an entire watershed: an area of land that drains to a common point. A personal relationship with place, a sense of where the individual fits both geographically, historically, and socially, is the foundation of active stewardship. Motivation for such stewardship is intensely personal, often driven by a deep "topophilia" or attachment to place.
Rivers and watersheds are complex systems, with overlapping and often conflicting land and water uses. "The definition of genius is the ability to hold multiple truths in the mind at once," and both individual and collective genius, aided by the genius of place, are essential to the co-operation that successful watershed stewardship entails. Ability to see, accept and appreciate different viewpoints with an open, nonjudgmental mind is essential to good communication and thus to cooperation for conservation.
One gap especially difficult to bridge is the nature/culture split at the core of the American conservation movement. Are humans a part of the natural environment and thus acceptable agents of landscape change, or is wild nature something distinct and apart from human activity? Does that question change when the humans in question are native or European, rural or urban, agricultural or industrial, Eastern or Western, historical or acting today? "There are no answers to life's great questions. One can only live them out, making of one's life a leaning into the light." (Barry Lopez) Literature and the oral tradition are the products of such living inquiry.
The arts, especially music, are a proven and effective tool for public awareness and especially for river conservation. Music, drama, storytelling and the performing arts can be participatory, entertaining, hands-on community builders. Song is especially effective as it requires no instruments and no special training (contrary to popular belief). When a group of people sings together, they are voicing a common thought, as well as performing one of the most difficult communications tricks: simultaneous sending and receiving. When the song is a round or in parts, they are experiencing, and creating, harmony. When harmony is a concrete, achievable thing, the concept can be extended into the abstract of social or ecological harmony where many different threads create a larger whole.
The message is reinforced when the subject is rivers and the method is music. The distinctive features of a river are sound and movement: these make flowing water unique in the landscape. Direction is also central to a river's meaning, as it is to language and the spoken word. Song combines the narrative direction of the text with the sound and movement of the melody, recreating the experience of a river in the "river of air" that flows from the breath of the singer to the eardrum of the listener.
Can any song make one think of rivers? Perhaps that is why there are so many river songs. Virtually every aspect of rivers and watersheds has been captured in song, but some themes are particularly effective for teaching about rivers and their basins. Songs in this collection have been chosen as the "Voice of the River" because they speak of the experience of rivers and of human life in, along and around them. Differing points of view cast lights and shadows in different directions, guiding our way as we "lean into the light" of human inquiry. This nonjudgmental perspective is one of the most valuable uses of the arts, which allow the presentation of multiple points of view for the audience's choice and reflection. Sung with integrity, the songs are honest communication that speak for themselves alone. Sometimes, in the singing, one is privileged to enter another being's world view. In our efforts to heal the nature/culture split, it is useful to remember that while not all songs are about humans, only humans can write and sing songs. Are we in the picture or outside the frame? This is the artist's choice, and the citizen's.
Six chapters are organized into the layers of landscape defined, among others, by the National Geographic Education Commission and the scientific community: the lithosphere and atmosphere (Earth and Sky); the biosphere (Water Critters); human geography in trade and transportation (River Travelers) and in settlement patterns (Valley Settlers); and in two categories of my own making. RiverKeepers and River Lovers share a core of topophilia, which in "RiverKeepers" translates into distress at a problem and outward action toward a solution. "River Lovers" is less self-aware and more inward-looking, combining modern expressions of love for rivers with more traditional love songs that use the river as both meeting place and metaphor. River celebrations across the country have been founded on music, most especially song. Clearwater on the Hudson, Mississippi River Revival, Ohio's Always a River, festivals on the Rio Grande and the Colorado, and Riverfests that spring up anew every year: all are tributary to the rich tradition of river music. Yet despite this, there are few songbooks that focus specifically on rivers, and even fewer that combine environmental concern for natural heritage with conservation of the songs themselves as part of our cultural heritage. Who speaks for the river? "Voice of the River" sings out in an invitation to join.
Most importantly, songs such as these feed our creative spirit. They are invitations to the possible, inspirations of breath and of imagination. Watershed management, and resource conservation, are ultimately creative acts: the act of creating a common landscape, of articulating a vision on the ground. "We can only create what we can imagine," and without imagination, we are unable to create the future. Since we will live the rest of our lives there, the future is a valuable house to build and a garden to tend. Like "drawing on the right side of the brain," singing, playing and writing teach us to integrate both hemispheres of our brains and inspire us to creative action for community and conservation. If we are to integrate nature and culture for a healthy planet, can we do less than start with ourselves?