I would like to document how dams and increased land use and urbanization have changed local watersheds and, specifically, fish populations in the Delaware and Lehigh rivers and Bushkill creek. My planned focus is the shad population in the rivers, their decline and subsequent restoration, and how human interference has altered their ecosystems. This will be accomplished largely by interviews with people in a variety of fields: those who do research with the shad and other fish in the area, assisted with the restoration, constructed the dam, think the dam should be taken down, local fishermen who have witnessed all of this, geologists from institutions such as Lafayette who can explain scientific issues behind the story, and likely more of yet that I do not know. I hope to use this story that is on a local scale to bring to light how this occurs on a more global scale as well.
