Removing obsolete, local and not-so-local dams and restoring streams will be the topic of a Friday, December 2 film screening hosted by the Foothill Conservancy. The featured film, DamNation, starts at 7:30 pm at the Sutter Creek Theatre on Main Street, Sutter Creek. DamNation chronicles how removing obsolete dams allows rivers and their native fish stocks to recover, provides opportunities to revitalize local economies and increases watershed resiliency. A short film on the recent removal of East Panther Creek Dam in Amador County will also be shown.Tickets are $15 in advance and $17 at the door. Tickets can be purchased online at Brown Paper Tickets.

“We’re excited to show this important film to a local audience while we celebrate the recent removal of the East Panther Creek Dam,” said Foothill Conservancy Vice President, Pete Bell. “In Amador County and across, the nation, dams that have outlived their useful life are being removed to restore rivers and streams for people, fish and wildlife.”

DamNation is a powerful film odyssey across America that 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.

For questions, please contact the Foothill Conservancy office at 209-223-3508 or by email.

Watch film trailer here.