I am a Senior Research Scientist at the Paul Smith’s College Adirondack Watershed Institute and this is one of several pieces made for a project called Wool and Water.

Wool and Water is a data art project that blends fiber art with scientific data to create visual representations of changing water quality conditions in the Adirondacks and Lake Champlain Basin. In association with the 50th anniversary of the Clean Water Act, the project is supported by the Champlain Valley National Heritage Partnership and the Lake Champlain Basin Program and its purpose is to showcase the legacy of protecting clean water in the Lake Champlain Basin and beyond.

This piece depicts the legacy of protecting water quality as told through the story of the Cuyahoga River. On the left is the river, getting healthier. On the right are markers of major events in the timeline of the river:

Before 1600 - River formed 10-12,000 years ago with retreat of the last glacier across what is now Northeast Ohio. White bass, catfish, and yellow perch common in the diet of Indigenous communities who fish the river. European fir trade arrives in the end of this period.

1800s – Cleveland a hotspot for manufacturing; iron furnaces, oil refineries, chemical factories, lumberyards dominate the riverbank, Cuyahoga River is a trashcan. By 1830s, overhunted beaver are gone. Kent dam is constructed in mid 1800s.

1900s – River catches fire at least a dozen times, Gorge dam built for hydropower. Fire that catches the world’s attention and spurs a series of actions occurs in 1969.

1948 – Federal Water Pollution Control Act passed.

1970s – EPA is created, upper portion of the Cuyahoga designated a Scenic River, Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement signed, Cuyahoga Valley National Recreation Area created (now a National Park).

1972 – Amendments to the Federal Water Pollution Control Act become the Clean Water Act.

1990s – Ohio and Erie Canalway designated a National Heritage Corridor, Cuyahoga designated an American Heritage River.

1991 – Clean Water Act reauthorized.

2000s – Fish caught on the Cuyahoga deemed safe to eat. Pinery Feeder and Brecksville dams removed, monumental for fly fishing community. Cuyahoga River named USA Today’s best urban kayaking destination.

2022 – April; otter return to the river in downtown Cuyahoga Falls after more than 100 years.

This one is outside of the project region but a personal piece for me, having spent time often in Cuyahoga Falls as a child because my grandparents lived there. This was done with Tunisian crochet in a million individual pieces I then crocheted together, labor of love