I directed and produced several video stories for Tuolumne River Trust in 2024, such as these on-the-ground glimpses of the La Grange Floodplain and Salmon Habitat Restoration Project, Phase One.
I prioritized high-quality video content as a strategy to reach new social media audiences and to generate audience awareness about slow, but deeply impactful, landscape-scale restoration projects. To produce these two pieces, I consulted with program leads, conducted independent research, and then scripted, filmed, and edited content. I also wrote a River News article called Rocks, Riffles & Floodplains: Restoration Creates Salmon Habitat on the Tuolumne.
Going Fishing!
Video media catches an emotional response. I included these inspiring and ready-made pieces in press outreach and social media storytelling, earning a story-rich feature on KQED’s California Report and interest from notable fly fishing clubs inspired to get their members involved in the work.
The La Grange Floodplain and Salmon Habitat restoration project is a landscape-scale habitat recovery project situated along the Lower Tuolumne River in the Central Valley. Here, gold and gravel mining changed the makeup of the river, reducing Chinook salmon populations down to 1% of their historical numbers. This project achieves two important things for migrating salmon populations: it restores floodplains into food-rich nurseries for young Chinook salmon, and reconstructs in-stream rock riffles that are critical for spawning adult salmon.
