Stories from Apalachicola: An Endangered River

Film screening and conversation with the filmmaker

Stories from the Apalachicola is the result of an interdisciplinary effort called the Apalachicola River Project.  The project is a collaboration between students in the Digital Media Production, Media and Communication Studies, English, and Environmental Science and Policy departments.  They partnered with Apalachicola Riverkeeper.

Students interviewed oystermen, beekeepers, legislators, historians, biologists, and the Riverkeeper.  Each has their own perspective on this critical time for the Apalachicola. Freshwater flows on the Apalachicola have been altered for decades.  The Army Corps of Engineers has restricted flows during droughts, and modified the river channel create a shipping lane for barges. This has caused a decline in tupelo and other trees in the floodplain forest.  And in 2012, during the lowest flow period ever recorded for the river, the Apalachicola Bay oyster fishery crashed.

Communities along the river and bay look towards a future where the river might not provide for them as it did in generations past.