About the Project

The Platte River, including its North and South forks, provides precious water to major portions of three western states: Nebraska, Colorado and Wyoming. The river as it exists today is the result of geologic processes caused by retreating glaciers 600,000 to 700,000 years ago and, perhaps more importantly, the water management activities of humans that have taken place in the past century. The resulting dams, reservoirs, irrigation canals and power plants were built primarily as a way of promoting agriculture and settlement in arid areas of the basin and to provide for municipal water, power and flood control. As we are now moving further into the 21st century, the Platte River system is serving the growing demands of several competing constituencies: agriculture, municipalities, power generation, recreation and wildlife.

During the last decade of the 20th century, representatives of these constituencies were poised for lengthy conflict over the Platte’s water sparked by the federally mandated relicensing of Kingsley Dam in Nebraska and driven by the demands of the Endangered Species Act to provide adequate habitat for four federally endangered species that depend on the river. Negotiations ultimately resulted in a co-operative agreement between the three states and the federal government to study and recommend new “adaptive management” practices, the results of which went into effect in January of 2007. For the next thirteen years, during the first increment of the project, the river is to be managed in new ways and, in part, for the benefit of wildlife. “The overarching goal of the program is to utilize federal and state provided land, water and scientific monitoring and research to secure defined benefits for the target species and their habitats in the central Platte River.” (from the Platte River Recovery Implementation Program website)

Beginning in 1803 with the Louisiana Purchase, the Platte River Basin has been in the control of the United States. From that beginning we have attempted to learn about the nature of the river and the wildlife and habitat associated with it. As our ability to control and shape the fundamental nature of the wild river grew, so did our ability to understand its complexity. Yet for all of the millions of citizens who depend on the river for all of the uses to which we have put its waters, very few of us have working knowledge of the natural or manmade forces at play in shaping the river. Most of us have never seen where our water comes from.

Now technology exists that will allow us to see and understand the river system and its workings in new ways never before experienced either by the scientific community or by the lay person. Customized digital camera systems can be installed at key locations (photo points) throughout the basin to record time-lapse images of the river’s cycles. Recording in timeframes based on a variety of cyclically occurring natural or manmade events, we will be able to see the river’s complex and intriguing “story” as it unfolds over days, months and even years – all compressed into “screen time” durations of minutes and seconds. The resulting imagery will form the core of The Platte River Basin Time-lapse Project.

Imagine the impact of seeing the annual snow accumulation building up during the fall and winter months on the peaks above Lake Agnes in North Park, Colorado near the Continental Divide, then watching as that snow melts into the lake and runs downstream over the course of a summer – compressed into three or four minutes. Or being able to observe the fluctuations in river flow at the power station downstream from Pathfinder dam deep in Fremont Canyon, Wyoming during a summer month of peak power and irrigation demand – compressed into a minute. Imagine being able to observe a complete growing season from multiple vantage points in the North Platte and Central Platte valleys of Nebraska as irrigation waters flow through a series of canals and laterals watering fields of sugar beets, corn, and beans – all compressed into a few minutes. Or consider the thrill of being able to observe the annual spring migration of Sandhill cranes in the central Platte valley recorded in classical cinematic “wide shots, medium shots and close-ups” – compressed into a few minutes.

We are proposing to originate a project that not only will allow for this sort of compelling visualization of river processes that can’t be perceived in any other comparable way, but also to provide these images to the public via digital delivery systems (first through a website and later through the developing handheld technologies) that will offer a forum for a variety of other journalistic, research and policy content. So, over the coming decades, as the Platte River Basin undergoes further demands on its water and habitat and as the inevitable pressures for increased use and new development grow along with new understanding of its natural and manmade systems, we will provide a forum for information, education and engagement. That forum will be centered on the ability to see compelling imagery of the Platte River “at work” but also will include, as appropriate to the topic, photo essays, print reportage and analysis, audio casts, traditionally shot and edited videos, graphics, aerials and maps.

In addition the project will incorporate direct teaching and learning opportunities for students and grad students and professional development for faculty and staff. The project will need a cadre of field trained time-lapse photo-journalists as well as writers, editors, traditional video producer/directors, graphic artists and web developers, many of whom can be students working for credit or as paid interns or assistants.

The project also offers opportunities for the development and dissemination of K-12 curriculum resources for both formal and informal education in the areas of science, natural history, geography and cultural history.