Riverkeeper, a nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting the waterways and drinking water in New York’s Hudson Valley, is hosting a special screening and panel discussion of two new films from National Geographic filmmaker Jon Bowermaster. The event will take place from 5:30 to 9 p.m., March 5, at the Newburgh Brewing Company.

The film Source to Sea explores how Riverkeeper’s Water Quality Program answers the question “How’s the water?” Undamming the River, produced with funding from Patagonia, focuses on Riverkeeper’s efforts to restore natural habitat by eliminating obsolete dams throughout the Hudson River Estuary.

The films will be followed by a panel discussion with experts from Riverkeeper as well as local leaders who have been fighting for clean water in the Hudson Valley. They will include John Gebhard of Quassaick Creek Watershed Alliance; George Jackman, Ph.D., habitat restoration manager for Riverkeeper; Dan Shapley, director of Riverkeeper’s Water Quality Program; and Ophra Wolf of the Newburgh Clean Water Project.

The discussion will be moderated by Bowermaster, who is the executive producer of Oceans 8 Films and president of One Ocean Media Foundation, chairman of the advisory board of Adventurers and Scientists for Conservation and a board member of Mark Ruffalo’s Water Defense.

A resident of the Hudson Valley, Bowermaster is a writer and adventurer as well as a filmmaker. He is a six-time grantee of the National Geographic Expeditions Council and was named one of the National Geographic Society’s “Ocean Heroes.” His first assignment for National Geographic Magazine was documenting a 3,741-mile crossing of Antarctica by dogsled. He has written 11 books and produced and directed more than 30 documentary films.


Attendees are encouraged to stay after the screening to ask questions, meet other water lovers, have a beer and enjoy complimentary light refreshments. There will also be a cash bar. Those who support Riverkeeper by making a $10 donation at the door will receive a Riverkeeper Koozie.


Cost: Donations encouraged. Location: 88 South Colden St., Newburgh, NY. For more info, visit Riverkeeper.org.