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San Clemente Dam Rebar Sculpture Coming to Life!

6/14/2018

It has been almost three years since the San Clemente Dam came down. Now, the rebar I collected from the dam is coming to life in the sculpture.
Below are some photos of that process.

Wayne Bounds of Granite Construction helping with gathering cement and rebar from the dam

Rebar and other metal collected from dam at my home. The flat metal on the left side is what Richard Schrader is using to create the steelhead trout, red-legged frog and dragonfly.

Fred Saunders of Sculpture Works collecting rebar to create sculpture

Fred unbending rebar

Richard Schrader unbending metal plate to create fish.

Metal plate now flat with fish templates

Marking metal to cut fish out of metal plate

Richard cutting out first Steelhead from metal plate

Rebar laid out with fish..first time to see the drawing of the sculpture coming to life!

Rafael Payan, General manager of the MPRPD holding one of the fish

Fred Saunders, Rafael Payan, Jackie Nelson, Education Supervisor MPRPD, Richard Schrader

Thank you to all who have made generous donations to make this sculpture happen! Truly an historic endeavor. Stay tuned for more blog posts showing the progression of this creation. The sculpture is planned to be installed and ready for the dedication of the new Palo Corona Regional Park (former Rancho Cañada) on September 28, 2018.

Red-legged Frogs - State Amphibian

3/1/2018

Young Red-legged frog at my home pond

Mature Red-legged frog at my home pond, 2011. The red-legged frogs have been breeding and living here for at least eight years.

On June 28, 2014, the CA Red-legged Frog became the official State Amphibian. This came about through the persistent efforts of Save the Frogs! organization and Assemblymember Pérez and his staff; the students, teachers and administrators of Sea View Elementary School in Salton City; all the legislators who voted in support of this bill; and SAVE THE FROGS! supporters who sent in letters of support on behalf of the California Red-Legged Frog!
(Click on the green text to learn much more about their multi-year efforts to make this happen.)

Crosspollination

12/8/2017

Monterey County Arts Council Executive Director, Paulette Lynch interviewed me for the Access Monterey Peninsula Your Town program. The focus was Passion for Place and the importance of bringing the arts and sciences together. The more we can cultivate this in our lives, the more creative we can become in our lives. Watershed Arts is all about supporting the cross-pollination of the arts with ecology and vice versa. The images in the video are all aspects of my work from various explorations along the river. You can watch the interview here.

Explore your watershed wherever you live, develop your sense of place and protect what you can!

Swimming with the Steelhead!

11/5/2017

Carmel River Steelhead Photo © 2017 Paola Berthoin

Fast moving Carmel River Steelhead Photo©2017 Paola Berthoin

I have been exploring the river by walking upstream in the river...and sometimes swimming with the steelhead! With the recent heat waves, it made it an inviting proposition to fully immerse myself in the river. When I did, with goggles on, I found young-of-the-year Carmel River Steelhead there! So invigorating to capture the images and feel refreshed in the cool water.

Painting at former dam site

8/9/2017

This was a very complicated painting to execute with all the rocks and wanting to be as accurate as possible and the changing morning light... The river was rearranged quite a bit by the immense flows of water from the winter's rains. Really amazing to see the power of water!

Painted on June 28, 29 and July 3, 2017

Former San Clemente Dam site June 2017 photo © Paola Berthoin

Thinking Like a Watershed

6/17/2017

Patrice Vecchione, noted writer and author of Step into Nature, and I took a walk in the Carmel River about a month ago...and from that outing she has written a beautiful article...you can read it here. How can you live your life thinking like a watershed?

Carmel River at Former Dam site

4/8/2017

It's been a long while since I have been up at the former dam site. After all the rain we have had, the river has certainly rearranged the boulders that were so carefully engineered in place last year! The intense flow of water during the heavy rains in February washed a lot of soil away to expose the base rock. The flow, at its height, was 7,000 cubic feet per second! In other words, visualize 7000 basketballs passing by at a certain point in one second!! and then another 7000 the next second etc...

I plan to get out and paint there soon!

In May, I will be part of a team of docents for the Carmel River Watershed Conservancy that will take the public to the restoration site to learn about the project and see how the restoration is progressing. The tours will be listed in the MPRPD Let's Go Outdoors program guide coming out soon.

Another Victory for Fort Ord Wildlands

1/16/2017

The proposed Eastside Parkway was being planned to go through this land (painting above) and cut down approximately 11,000 oaks and associated habitat. Thanks to Keep Fort Ord Wild/Michael Salerno and Molly Erickson, lawyer, a decision by Judge Lydia Villarreal has determined that "FORA and the county lent "political and financial assistance" to a specific route for a proposed roadway in violation of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). " (excerpt from Monterey County Weekly) You can read the whole article here.

Hopefully the County will see that this decision is correct and that this habitat will be preserved forever.

January 8th, 2017

1/8/2017

Carmel River raging...
Check this link out for the San Clemento Rancho facebook page showing videos of the Carmel River raging through the restoration site of where the San Clemente Dam used to be. Time will tell how all the restoration of step pools and native plantings are holding up under such an intense flow...

Fundraising for Historic Sculpture

1/4/2017

History has been made for the Carmel River and California now that the San Clemente Dam
is gone.

The image above is a steelhead trout made by Richard Schrader, master blacksmith, and Paola Berthoin from the rebar that was sealed away in dam for ninety-four years. Never has such a sculpture been made like this!

When the dam was coming down, the idea to collect rebar from it to make a commemorative sculpture came to me. With the help of Granite Construction employees, we collected three truck loads of rebar. The metal awaits in my driveway to be forged into an art piece to then be installed at a Monterey Peninsula Regional Park District
parkland in the Carmel River watershed. Through this commemorative sculpture, the public can come to learn about this multi-faceted, monumental project—the largest dam removal in the state of California.

In order for this large sculpture to come into being, I am raising $12,000 for the labor, additional materials as necessary, and an educational sign to accompany the sculpture. The small sculpture above took thirty plus hours of our time alone.

With your generosity, we look forward to creating this historic sculpture to be unveiled in the Fall of 2017! Also, you can make your suggestions of what the rebar can be turned into by making a suggestion when sending in your donation. See suggestions below. Donors will be recognized on the sign that accompanies the sculpture.

Your donation can be made to the Carmel Valley Forum. Please return it to Paola Berthoin, 25440 Telaraña Way, Carmel, CA 93923. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me at 624-9467 or through this website contact page.

The Carmel Valley Forum is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization EIN # EIN # 01-0696867. They are acting as the fiscal sponsor for the project.

Art is not alone for the 'talented', nor is it a luxury for humanity." Pedros J. de Lemos

It would be inspirational and educational to see this rebar from the San Clemente Dam turned into....

☐ A fish
☐ A bird with fish
☐ A mobile of different animals of the watershed
☐ A bench in the form of a fish

☐ Or something else?
_______________________

Donations at whatever level works for you!
☐ $50.
☐ $75.
☐ $150.
☐ $250.
☐ $500.
☐ $1000.
☐ Other ____________

Thank you!

Author
Paola Berthoin is the designer/creator/publisher of Passion for Place: Community Reflections on the Carmel River Watershed. Her focus is inspiring and educating people about the natural world through the arts. She is available to design your book, create (illustrate and write) interpretive materials for your watershed community, consult for healthy gardens, paint a commissioned painting of your favorite place in the Carmel River Watershed and beyond!

When we allow wildness, our own spirit, to flourish within, we can also respect and allow nature’s spirit, the wild outside, to exist.
- Paola Fiorelle Berthoin

Blog photographs, land art, and text © Paola Berthoin, unless otherwise noted.
All Rights Reserved.

Photograph © Marie Butcher

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Passion For Place is exquisite. You can feel the River coming off the pages. And the wisdom of the people who belong to it.
Barry Lopez, author, Arctic Dreams

The book is really a testimony of the immense power of human creativity, in this case a collective demonstration of creativity in honor of love for place.
David Cavagnaro, author, Living Water