Photographic and sound Investigations

Rennie's River

Rennie's River pours out of Long Pond and three kilometers later it empties into the Quidi Vidi Lake. It meanders through some of the most affluent neighbourhoods in the city. A trail runs along the river and around both lakes. The entire walk is just over 12 kilometres long.

Since the beginning of this pandemic I have been walking along that river every day and making photographs. Here is the lot of them - over a hundred. Some of these were a part of an essay and a CBC Radio documentary, others appeared in other places.

The trail along the river is likely to change over the next few years. The City of St. John’s, as a part of the Bike Master Plan, is planning to widen and pave sections of the trail and remove some trees and vegetation in the process. At the same time, a flood mitigation plan may further degrade the biodiversity along the river banks. On top of that, the construction of a new mental health hospital in the middle of the Rennie’s River watershed, on a flood plane, will have a massive impact on the riparian zone. In a letter to the editor, The Salmonid Association of Eastern Newfoundland pointed out all of these problems. A comment under a social media post about that letter said: “Ah yes. When salmon are more important than people,” and it struck me that right there is the crux of our current climate emergency. We do not see the salmon, the trout, or the river itself as having any say at all in this conversation. It’s always about us and that needs to change.

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