On Saturday, September 13, local community group Conservation North will be hosting a screening of the new film, Trouble in the Headwaters, a hard-hitting 25-minute documentary by filmmaker Dan Pierce, which examines the disastrous 2018 flood in Grand Forks, BC and the hydrological connection to clearcut logging in the Kettle River Watershed. The film will be followed by an in-depth discussion of watershed issues in the Omineca.
Pierce’s film features the research of Dr. Younes Alila, a civil engineer and professor of forest hydrology at the UBC Faculty of Forestry, who has studied the connection between forestry and flooding for decades. His groundbreaking peer-reviewed science has exposed how government and industry have wildly underestimated the risk of flooding caused by clearcutting. Pierce and Alila will both be in attendance at the screening event, alongside former MLA Mike Morris and Conservation North’s Michelle Connolly.
This screening is part of a larger film tour being hosted by grassroots community groups across BC who are engaged in trying to preserve what’s left of their community watersheds and primary forests in their own backyards. Events will be taking place from September 4th–17th in Kelowna, Grand Forks, Nelson, Penticton, Vernon, Prince George and Roberts Creek, with more dates being added throughout the year. (Here is a full list of community screenings.)
Doors open at 6 pm on Saturday, September 13 at the Canfor Theatre at UNBC. Come early to enjoy food and refreshments.