The objective was to record the present ecology of Towanda and its surroundings in three senses suggested by Edward Ralph in "A Sense of Place" and proposed by the philosopher and psychologist Felix Guattari; environmental ecology, social ecology, and mental ecology.

 

The resulting archive is a series of photographs depicting environmental ecology. Environmental Ecology describes what we normally think of in terms of ecosystems; flora, fauna, etc. Given the likelihood of large-scale gas extraction industry development, the documentation of those aspects of Towanda and its surroundings that can be constructed as a 'wilderness' is of special interest. By wilderness, we mean an uncultivated place beyond the boundary of an ordered societal environment - what lies apart from regulated conservation and development. 

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Towanda, PA, the economic, social, and political center of Bradford County, is situated along the Susquehanna River, which flows through a valley in northeast Pennsylvania's endless mountain region. Formerly an extraction region for timber and oil, now natural gas, Towanda stands as a prime example of how a town undergoes change and deals with environmental, social, economic, and cultural effects of natural resource extraction. It can set a standard by which to judge what small towns in Ohio, New York, and other states where gas reserves exist as hydraulic fracturing continues to grow as the technology of choice for extracting gas reserves in the U.S.