"I was taught at a young age, if you make a mess, you clean it up" - Yvon Chouinard

The world premier of Damnation took place yesterday at SXSW.

This powerful film odyssey across America explores the sea change in our national attitude from pride in big dams as engineering wonders to the growing awareness that our own future is bound to the life and health of our rivers. Dam removal has moved beyond the fictional Monkey Wrench Gang to go mainstream. Where obsolete dams come down, rivers bound back to life, giving salmon and other wild fish the right of return to primeval spawning grounds, after decades without access. DamNation’s majestic cinematography and unexpected discoveries move through rivers and landscapes altered by dams, but also through a metamorphosis in values, from conquest of the natural world to knowing ourselves as part of nature.

We like to fish.

We like to eat.

We like to get outside.

Free flowing, healthy rivers support this.

Make your voice heard by signing the petition calling on President Obama to crack down on deadbeat dams.

Patagonia DamNation Trucker Hat Now In Stock

80,000 dams, 51 interviews, one film – and now one hat.

51 Dams Removed to Restore Rivers in 2013

Communities in 18 states, working in partnership with non-profit organizations and state and federal agencies, removed 51 dams in 2013. Outdated or unsafe dams came out of rivers in Alabama, California, Colorado, Idaho, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Vermont, Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming, restoring more than 500 miles of streams for the benefit of fish, wildlife, and people.

American Rivers will add the information on these 51 dam removals to its database of nearly 1,150 dams that have been removed across the country since 1912. Most of those dams (nearly 850) were removed in the past 20 years. Dam removal can have many benefits for communities including restoring river health and clean water, revitalizing fish and wildlife, improving public safety and recreation, and enhancing local economies.

See the full list over at American Rivers.

LINK (via: National Geographic)

Dam awesome

Felt Soul Media's new film DamNation will make it's world premier at the prestigious SXSW film festival in March.

Latest blast whittles the Glines Dam to about 35 feet in height

The formerly 210 foot Glines Dam on the Elwha has been reduced to just 35 feet.

LINK  (via:Peninsula Daily News)

Watch the blast video on John Gussman's site.

Patagonia DamNation Trucker Hat

Dam removal is no longer the work of a fictional Monkey Wrench Gang. It's real, upon us, and a cornerstone of the modern environmental and cultural movements. Starting in the summer of 2011, filmmakers Ben Knight, Travis Rummel and Matt Stoecker began a series of road trips across, up and down the United States. They accessed remote rivers by air and floated some of our country's critical waterways to research and chronicle a growing movement to tear down obsolete dams. Over the next two-plus years, the crew traveled from Maine to California and Alaska to Arizona to document some of the concerns about America's 80,000 dams and the reasons behind the increasing number being removed annually. The result is the film DamNation: 80,000 dams, 51 interviews, one film – and now one hat to commemorate the filmmakers' efforts. The DamNation™ Trucker Hat is made of 100% organic cotton canvas and polyester mesh.

Currently showing as SOLD OUT but stock on the way.