The Nooksack River runs from glacial peaks to the Salish Sea, feeding salmon, farms, and whole communities. Now, as summer runoff dwindles and lawsuits threaten to pit neighbor against neighbor, the future hangs in the balance.

But something else is happening here. Instead of retreating to sides, people are showing up—tribal fishers, berry farmers, civic leaders, skeptics. They’re sitting down together, not to erase their differences, but to face them. Sometimes it’s tense. Sometimes it’s awkward. Sometimes, it’s the only way things change.

Water Wars (how to avoid) isn’t about easy answers or smoothing things over. It’s about building the grit and trust to stay in the room when things get heated. It’s about letting the river’s story, and everyone’s story, be heard—even when it’s uncomfortable.

Through real gatherings, raw storytelling, and a film still in the making, this isn’t just a story being told. It’s a story being lived, in real time, by everyone willing to show up as themselves.

You’re invited. Not to watch from the sidelines, but to help write the next chapter for this watershed—one meal, one story, one tough conversation at a time.