Learning to Make Running Water Walk

Oral Narrative Project

The Learning to Make Running Water Walk Oral Narrative Project is a partnership between CCCWC Inc., UW-Madison faculty, undergrads, and graduate students, and the UW-La Crosse Oral History Program to record oral narratives with watershed residents about the past, present, and future of conservation and flooding in the Coon Creek Watershed.

The project aims to learn from the experience and expertise of watershed residents, to build on the watershed’s history of conservation leadership, to grow community around shared stories, to understand current practices, concerns, and hopes, and to support the development of a Coon Creek Watershed Plan.

From fall 2022 to spring 2023, 70 community residents shared their stories with the project, which will be permanently archived and publicly shared through the UW-La Crosse Oral History Program.

At the May 2023 watershed council meeting, the UW-Madison team shared lessons learned from the oral narratives, with an emphasis on the history and present of conservation in the watershed, hopes and concerns, women’s labor, grief and loss, and community relationships. In summer 2023, UW-Madison faculty and students are working together to develop a set of four mixed media booklets, or “zines,” titled Process, Place, Practices, and Potential, featuring content from the narratives.

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