Book Review: Idylls Along an Urban Stream

Title: Idylls Along an Urban Stream

Author: Rich Bergeman

Pub. Date: 2020

I am a photographer who lives in Corvallis on Cloverland Park and have been watching the seasonal changes in the portion of Dixon Creek that flows through my neighborhood ever since I moved to this location about 20 years ago. In recent years I’ve gotten interested in infrared photography, and enjoy how it turns relatively ordinary landscapes into dream-like scenes of light and shadow.

Idylls Along an Urban Stream is a photography monograph of Dixon Creek Watershed from the spring of 2020. My intention with the book was to present an intimate collection of views along a battered urban stream that harken back to its pre-urbanized days, when it flowed unfettered through the hills and meadows from the Northwest Hills to the Willamette. Rather than document evidence of human misuse or neglect, I looked instead for hidden hints of wilderness along the creek that, when seen in infrared light, would reveal Dixon Creek as more of an urban refuge than a storm drain.

A copy of the book is available at Benton SWCD’s office. Please email office@bentonswcd.org to arrange a viewing. You may view a preview and order your own copy online here.

Additional Resources: Benton SWCD participated in a series of urban creek tours for about ten years. The first urban creek we toured was Dixon Creek back in 2008, and again in 2013, so we created two brochures on Dixon Creek, available here.  For information about some of Corvallis’ other waterways, visit our blog post with links to a number of creek brochures. We didn’t create a paper brochure for the Mill Race, but you can view the series of blog posts about the Mill Race here.