Restoring the flow: East Texans ‘spring’ into action
In partnership with The Tyler Loop
Garrat Carson, a field biologist, dug out a system of pools near his parents home into the hillside following a steam bed that’s now a thriving spring feeding into a nearby lake. Carson was photographed in Flint, Texas, on June 09, 2021. (Ben Torres/Deep Indigo Collective for The Tyler Loop)
Watershed stewardship at the hands of one person can have a meaningful impact on the health of an ecosystem. The benefits of habitat restoration and water preservation within a watershed range from increased biodiversity and water filtration to flood and erosion control. In partnership with The Tyler Loop, our latest collaboration looks at the work of some East Texans to preserve water sources in their communities through this report by Govinda Dass.
June 14, 2021: Govinda’s reporting informs readers of the natural history of East Texas’ waterways, the risks involved without watershed management and the actions of some East Texans as they supervise the water sources within their purview. We get to know Garrat Carson, who took a “wet spot on a hill” and turned it into a series of springs now rich with flora and fauna. Readers are introduced to a couple that let a creek form downstream from their dammed pond and a community that restored a spring-fed lake allowing beavers to conduct natural watershed management. The reporting includes with what could happen to structures when natural waterways are removed. The incredibly talented Dallas-based photojournalist Ben Torres brought the audience into Carson’s springs and the landscape of the community-rehabilitated lake. Furthermore, Ben recreated a 1930s family photograph of a home in Tyler where a creek was filled in by the city fifteen years ago.
While fulfilling the coverage needs of story, Ben created a dynamic collection of images that discloses life in these ecosystems, the position of the waterways within the landscape and the people caring for the springs. Wrapped up in this story is a great reminder that what happens upstream has an enormous impact on life downstream. We hope you will read the story and check out additional visual coverage below. Please reach out to us if you are interested in collaborating on similar coverage within your community. We always look forward to creating visual coverage specifically for the original reporting of our current and future editorial partners.
-Andy Jacobsohn, Executive Director
(Rights to these images belong to Deep Indigo Collective. Please contact the nonprofit to license this content.)
An egret flies from the north end of Hidden Hill Lake where the HOA allowed beavers to build dams to collect and filter water in Tyler, Texas on June 09, 2021. (Ben Torres/Deep Indigo Collective for The Tyler Loop)
Garrat Carson, a field biologist, holds a brown skink after finding it near one of his natural pools he created outside of parent's home in Flint, Texas on June 09, 2021. (Ben Torres/Deep Indigo Collective for The Tyler Loop)
Hayden Horn pulls a tree branch from Hidden Hill Lake in Tyler on June 09, 2021. (Ben Torres/Deep Indigo Collective for The Tyler Loop)
A shallow pool of water that flows into a nearby lake outside of Garrat Carson's parent's home in Flint on June 09, 2021. Carson dug out a system of pools into the hillside following a steam bed and now it's a thriving spring that feeds into a nearby lake. (Ben Torres/Deep Indigo Collective for The Tyler Loop)