Many years ago, I was at an art show selling my photographs when a met a fellow nature photographer doing the same. Joe Cook is from Georgia and he had some great photographs of nature and a book about a journey he took down the Chattahoochee and Apalachicola Rivers named River Song. We got to talking about his journey he took in the 1990s, the environment and photography. I eventually ended up buying his book because of the great photography but more importantly, the message.

The message is about how we need to take care of the environment and our rivers because it is the water we all depend on for our food and drinking water. I thought what a great idea to get the word out about how we need to be responsible with our resources in nature.

Soon after, my daughter was born and I became a stay-at-home dad. Everything else became secondary to my daughter. Then the fish started dying in large numbers in the Shenandoah River. Development of subdivisions and shopping malls began chewing up the land at an alarming rate. I began to think that maybe with my camera and a canoe, I could in some way help protect and preserve the Shenandoah River and Valley. Now that my daughter is five and I am not getting any younger, now is the time.

Joe Cook is the riverkeeper for the Coosa River and the executive director for the Coosa River Basin Initiative, a grassroots environmental organization dedicated in protecting the Coosa River Basin. You can visit the webs of Joe Cook and the CRBI to get a better understanding of there mission. www.coosa.org and joecook.net