Did you know that a snowpack is considered a reservoir of water? Snow that accumulates in cold mountain ecosystems slowly releases water as runoff when it melts. Lowland areas are dependent on mountain snowpacks during the warm season; this slow release of water is essential for irrigation and soil moisture. However, climate change is affecting winter conditions, causing snowpacks to dissipate quicker and earlier. This creates a larger mismatch between the timing of water availability and water demand. What does it mean for human-ecosystem relations when we alter the timing of snowmelt?

This piece articulates how our current agricultural systems tie us to the effects of changing snowmelt. Using a combination of frozen black India ink and food based pigments, we illustrate how our food systems and watersheds are stitched together. Together, both artist and scientist dyed or washed each section with either frozen or food based ink. When left outside in weather below freezing, a wet wash of ink on top of a thick paper will freeze and dry. This freezing leaves an ice structure specific to the weather in which it was made. These washes show the critical balance between precipitation and temperature.

We combine our ways of seeing water through these pixel-like structures. These are the foundation of both a hydrologic model structure and remote sensing image, as well as pieces of evidence from our day-to-day lives. Both are needed to understand water as the bridge between the perceived urban to rural or agricultural divide. We see water not as an isolated resource, but instead as a connecting current that runs through all of us. With this more expansive depiction of the living world, we begin to imagine a shared future where humans understand and care for their part of the system.