"What Do You Love About the Deerfield River?"
Co-created by Phyllis Labanowski
and Jane Beatrice Wegscheider
with help from community volunteers.
During RiverFest, community members of all ages wrote comments on ribbons reflecting what they loved about the river. These are part of the installation to [metaphorically and physically] show that what we love also impacts the species
in the watershed.
Over four hundred colored ribbons spanned the entire length of the Iron Bridge in Shelburne
Falls during the Deerfield RiverFest in 2013.
​
Common and Latin names of the flora and fauna found in the Deerfield River Watershed
were written on the ribbons -
highlighting the biodiversity of the river.
Included in the installation are color-coded ribbons:
yellow with species on the special concern list, orange with those on the threatened list,
red with those on the endangered list,
and black with those on the invasive list,
reminding viewers of the watershed’s fragility.
