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West Portal Creek

A film by Kate Geis

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West Portal Creek features farmers, conservationists, scientists, and federal agencies working together to solve the complex problem of water pollution.

By focusing on one stream, and using pioneering DNA technology to target water quality improvement projects on two farms and a nearby school, this partnership was able to reduce bacterial contamination in the Creek by 97%, above their goal of a 93% reduction.

West Portal Creek is in a rural landscape, and could be anywhere in America. It shows how people worked together to build trust, form relationships, and work together over more than twenty years to reverse a stream’s water quality problems.

However, a tragic soap spill killed the fish in the Creek. After dealing with the loss of fish in the restored Creek, life comes back.

The film project was supported by the William Penn Foundation, a Philadelphia-based foundation funding collaborative restoration projects in the Delaware River Watershed, home of the largest undammed major river in the East.

The Musconetcong River, into which West Portal Creek flows, is the largest tributary to the Delaware River, and is a National Wild and Scenic River.

The film was developed by the Musconetcong Watershed Association, Trout Unlimited, and North Jersey Resource Conservation and Development – three of the partners that restored West Portal Creek.

West Portal Creek is an official selection of the 2022 Wild & scenic Film Festival.

Festivals and Press, contact: Karen Doerfer, Communications and Development Associate, karen@musconetcong.org

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Funding Provided By

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