The Boardman River Mural is Finished!

Whew!  We did it!  Around 11 am this morning the last bit of paint went up on the wall and we called it quits.

I could not get far enough back from the mural to get it all in one shot, so I did my best to shoot it in pieces and put them together in Photoshop.  Thanks to the wide angle lens there's some distortion so some things don't line up quite right, but this is pretty good.  (There is also a version of this that John at the Nature Center did on their website:
http://natureiscalling.org/river-wall-mural-at-the-boardman-river-nature-center/

The mural was designed to be educational and interactive.  One side shows the pressures we put on river systems through things like urban run-off and poor agriculture and grazing practices.  When we don't create a natural buffer between these areas and the river, pollutants run right into the water.

Also primarily on the left side we showed invasive species--in this area is purple loosestrife and phragmites.  The blackbird is of course native.

 

But it was not all doom and gloom. Here a fly-fisher lands a catch.

Overhead an Osprey hovers, watching fish.

In the center of the mural there's a stand of trees on the far shore, with a Barred owl keeping watch.  This encompasses part of the magnetic area, and there are lots of magnet critters for kids to play with.  Not yet, though, as the paint needs to cure!

Below the owl is a cut-away of the river, and swimming below the surface are salmon, a grayling, leopard frog, some water insects as well as the invasive sea lamprey.  There are more magnets for this area too.

On the right side we showed people using the river, with kayakers, campers, birdwatchers and hikers.  In the distance are a home and city with natural buffers between them and the river.

And above it all soars the majestic Bald eagle.

All of the species were requested by the nature center staff.  There are over 40 animals/insects, as well as native and invasive plant species.  It was a challenge to get everything into the mural but we did it, and the folks at the nature center are thrilled.  We hope this mural will get some good exposure and more jobs in the future!