Value and Vigilance: Protected Lands

"When it comes not just to nature but to questions that concern humanity in general I think there should be no borders... " Rok Rozman, Slovenia.

Climbing in Bears Ears National Monument, Utah 

 Certain people we meet have the ability to challenge, inspire and shape our world view. Sometimes it just takes one sentence to suddenly trigger this deeper awareness. Are we listening?

"When it comes not just to nature but to questions that concern humanity in general I think there should be no borders... " Rok Rozman, Slovenia.

I listened to many individuals on my trip through the Balkans last month. History in not an abstract there. It is alive for them. The Ottoman Empire, Communism, World Wars, Yogoslav Wars, Bosnian Conflict. This region has been through more than most in terms of conquesting. There is a deeper awareness of shared value here that I have not experienced so directly before. 

A sense of pride over a tiny stream and an open sharing of what it means to keep it healthy. I know this awareness is alive and well throughout the globe, but so many of us have yet to open our eyes, experience what is there and what it means to lose it before we can know the value. Now we are about to lose much of it in the West... 

I came to the Balkans wanting to hear the human stories, the struggles. To listen to the rivers, to float on them, to climb above them. 

The people in Balkans' communities around rivers are united against political agendas and development interests that are working to quickly destroy their backyards for a quick return on investment. An investment that disregards the balance of nature and in many cases a sustainable future that is finally being realized after generations of war. They are organizing and asking for accountability of their governments through lawsuits. They are starting their own NGOs dedicated to protecting the environment. Communities are beginning to help others and share knowledge and resources against developers.

Value is something that transcends money. Value is having clean drinking water for you and 100,000 of your neighbors. Maybe we only know that value after months spent sleeping at the source with guns and grenades as happened in 1993 in Kruscica. 

This value is certainly understood by native cultures in the US as well. Being so transient, so nomadic, consumers, as most of us are in the so-called First World, how do we adopt and share this understanding?

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I am hopeful that NGOs and companies are now stepping into the fray in the US over Utah's public lands. But it is the force of all of us that is needed to push back against shortsighted government and development. It is a universal struggle. Worth defending, worth protecting.

all images ©Bennett Barthelemy

Balkans Rivers... October/November 2017

Residents of Omis listen to experts describe what would happen to the Cetina River if a proposed gas plant is built. The river water would be used to cool the plant and it would raise the temperature of the water and have disastrous effects on fish and other wildlife.

A raft on the Mura River in Northeastern Slovenia. This river is part of a river system called the Amazon of Europe. If the proposed dams are built the rafting will no longer exist and with the changing of the microclimate within a few years the vineyards and the wine industry here would suffer catastrophically.

Albania and a day in court calling the government out for grantubg concession for hydropower in Valbona National Park in the Albanian Alps. Construction is ongoing as the court threw the case out saying that the people had no right to bring a case against the government. Appeals will be filed along with criminal charges by local Valbonans and Toka-Albania.org 

Women of Kruscica that are guarding a bridge 24 hours a day in peaceful protest to keep trucks from arriving to being work on the river again. Some of these women told me that they would die to protect this river. They have already faced off and suffered violence at the hands of Bosnian special police.

A man from the US climbs a two month old via ferrata above the Cetina River and Omis in Croatia. An area that relies on tourism but is currently dealing with a gas plant that wants to build at the headwaters. The river will heat up killing fish and other wildlife and jeopardize freshwater as well as the tourist economy the region survives largely upon.

A local activist shares photos showing before, during and after of a realized hydropower project from a nearby village. The village came forward to share what would happen if they let hydropower interests have their way. Rivers are diverted and all but disappear. Over 100,000 people depend on this river for drinking water and the locals fear that the construction could sacrifice the flow and quality.

A climber in Valbona National Park. The river is just below and the region has vast potential for climbing, kayaking, fishing and many other outdoor pursuits with tourism being the mainstay for sustainable economic viability in the region.

All images and video ©Bennett Barthelemy

The last three weeks I spent in the Balkans. 

I floated rivers in kayaks and rafts and cut brush to help fish habitats - I met with NGOs and river activists and explored 6 countries in this region that is little-known to much of Europe and the West. I crossed country borders 17 times and without fail was met with incredible hospitality from the locals. 

Currently governments and developers are pushing to realize 3,000 new hydropower projects that will or are already drastically challenging sustainable livelihoods as the rivers are dammed, re-channeled and drying up. The diverting or damming of rivers destroys wildlife habitat, alters life-ways people have had for centuries, compromises drinking water and tourism opportunities. 

One positive outcome this struggle is realizing is a sense of community - bringing together diverse individuals in defense of rivers and promoting natural resource awareness and goals for long-term sustainability. Rivers express little regard for borders, nationalism, political corruption, corporate greed or religions affiliation. It seems that when individuals begin actively promoting the health of a river that they will engage this reality as well.

With this groundswell of local activism in the Balkans the rest of the world might begin taking notice to what is happening and what is clearly misnamed as "Green Energy." Perhaps pressure will be put on politicians and governments from not only the inside but from the outside as well to stop these hydro projects and to more fully embrace other energy alternatives like wind and solar and let the rivers run free...

Mass Shootings, Human Rights, Community Healing

Honored to be present among some amazing photographer/artists this year...

I received two International Photography Awards for work in Orlando, Florida this last June for the one year acknowledgment of the lives lost at Pulse Nightclub - at the time it was the worst mass shooting in modern history - now superseded by the Las Vegas event. 

You can see the Orlando gallery and read about it here.  

I spent a week with my sister, Melissa Barthelemy an activist and academic within LGBTQ+ and public history, visiting memorial sites and meeting with community members as well as attending events via non profit advocacy groups. It was one of the most powerful experiences I have had as a human in terms of perspective building and solidarity.

An expanded gallery and captions can be found here at Social Documentary Network.

Images ©Bennett Barthelemy

Public Lands: A photo essay

Interesting times regarding the future of not only the planet with climate change - but also here in the larger backyard of the American West with the renewed and vigorous threats to public lands.

I have spent the better part of my existence outside walls and beyond the concrete jungle. I still prefer the stars as roof and am most often beneath sky.

The cycles of sun and moon transit through my days as blood and I believe I can yet feel as part of the pulse of the earth while on dirt trails, rock faces, swimming in pools deep in wilderness... Avocation became vocation long ago with the sharing of these more wild places. I feared that without awareness of them they would become more compromised with humans inexorable march of "progress".

So my personal path as wilderness guide, photographer and writer allows me a continued access to these wild places, and selfishly it turns out, has become central to my well being. This simple connection to the Earth is quickly becoming less simple. The Earth needs more people with lived awareness to effectively raise a collective voice in its defense. Please feel free to start now if you have not already.

It shocks and frightens me that in only a short span of months an administration and president can undo and compromise what little ability we still have to connect to these wild places, challenge our deep heritage to an indigenous past, call into question even more severely our ability to keep something more pristine for future generations.

There are now much smarter ways to procure energy, simpler ways to live - that use less energy - that are slowly being rediscovered...

I am heartened that Patagonia is stepping up to raise awareness and challenge our currently myopic federal government. A good piece of reporting here via The Guardian today...

Here is a gallery of a few images from public lands that share a bit of the magic and mystery that still is out there to be shared, explored, protected...

all images ©Bennett Barthelemy

Eastside: Photo Gallery

Toulumne and the Eastside just keeps giving, such a powerful place to be. Old and new friends, epic weather...