
USFWS Pacific Southwest Region via Flickr, Licensed Under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License
Rentner describes how River Partners might implement such environmental solutions in Thiebaud’s landscape, such as regrading the land around the canal at the top of the painting to make a larger wetland. “Dozens of shrubs, trees, and grasses could be planted in that area, where we could rely on the variability of the stream to periodically dry out that triangle of land. That change would provide a variety of houses for all the wildlife activity there—resting, nesting, rearing. If River Partners were engaged in doing a project in this painting, it would be in that triangle, bringing back life to those animals, and bringing back vegetation.”
Rentner continues, “In this landscape, natural processes have been muted or controlled, and giving new life to landscapes like this is simply about a recognition that we’re learning a lot more about our own reliance on ecological processes to keep ourselves and our families healthy. This image is a representation of what we used to think was necessary for economic growth, to manage water in a way that wouldn’t harm people, but what we know now is that we need the landscape to look really different to sustain people in healthy ways and make us more resilient to what is coming down the pipeline. This is the landscape that we work in. We give new life to river landscapes, so we empower people with proven solutions for resilient communities.”
Sustainable Conservation supports collaborative solutions to meet the water needs of California’s environment, people, and economy. Massell frames Ponds and Streams by reminding the viewer that “Everything depends on water, and the earth is drying up. Groundwater is plummeting, snowpack is shrinking, and even the ground beneath our feet is sinking. In our dreams of endless progress and efficient order, we have forgotten the wildness of our origins—but it still emerges mercilessly in drought, fire, and flood.”
Thiebaud’s painting explores the geometric textures of the land as it has been shaped and tamed into plowed furrows, planned orchards, and controlled canal systems. “When I look at this painting, the water is very contained,” Massell says. “The irrigation canal may have once been a river, which in its natural state may have been rather messy, had a lot of meandering curves and vegetation all around it. Rivers tend to form and reform their channels year after year, so they need room. This is a very orderly view of a “disorderly” environment, but that’s California. The Central Valley is volatile and vulnerable in its abundance it is a highly variable landscape upon which we impose human order.”