The next screening of the “Thinking Like Water” series will be held Thursday, Nov. 12, at the Liberty Theatre at 7 p.m.
The episode, titled “Fire and Flood,” highlights the increasing need for prioritizing catastrophic wildfire mitigation and planning for post-fire effects, including flooding, in the Southwest.
The event will begins with a second screening of “Beyond the Embers,” which chronicles the 2025 Oak Fire and flooding.
Local experts working at the intersection of fire and flood will join us after both films to discuss their work in the region. Bill Trimarco from Wildfire Adapted Partnership and Matt Ford from the San Juan Headwaters Forest Health Partnership will offer insights on their work and answer questions from the audience.
The five-part docuseries “Thinking Like Water” follows “water wizard” Bill Zeedyk and his collaborators as they work to restore meadows and streams by working with nature.
Their methods are foundational in low-tech process-based restoration (LTPBR) practices, which involves using natural materials such as rocks and logs to slow water down in a drainage, decrease erosion, increase water storage and reconnect a drainage with its floodplain for increased fire and flood resilience.
LTPBR assists in raising local water tables, which keeps wet meadows, floodplains and stream margins green and moist, creating natural firebreaks that have up to three times higher plant survival rates during wildfires.
LTPBR can also be beneficial post-fire. As burned soils are hydrophobic, heavy rains on these soils can create catastrophic runoff events, disrupting municipal water supplies, recreational areas, homes, infrastructure and wildlife habitats. Rainfall that is normally captured and stored by vegetation can run off almost instantly, increasing the speed at which a drainage or creek will flood. LTPBR structures capture ash, sediment and charcoal and slow down the water in a post-fire landscape.
Join us to learn more about these practices and hear from local representatives about the intersection of fire and flood in our region.
Reserve your tickets at pagosamovies.com/movies. The doors will open at 6:30 p.m.
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