To Save a River, an exhibit of photographs by Dennis C. Shultz depicting the extraordinary beauty of Maine’s Ducktrap River, opens today at the U.S. Department of the Interior Museum.

The 32 platinum prints celebrate the success of a coalition of 26 groups that is working to conserve the river, where at-risk populations of wild Atlantic salmon spawn. The exhibit remains on view at the Interior Museum through July 15, 2003.

Shultz photographed the ponds, hemlocks, and riverbanks of the Ducktrap Watershed in various seasons over a three-year period, using a large format camera. His platinum prints evoke the river’s beauty which, he writes, “flows from its subtlety, its quietude, its isolation.”

A recently published book of the same title, To Save A River, reproduces 75 of the photographs, including all those on display at the Interior Museum. The exhibit marks the beginning of a 12-month, four-part series on Art, Collaboration & Conservation at the U.S. Department of the Interior’s headquarters building.

The Coastal Mountains Land Trust leads the coalition of local, state, federal, and non-profit members that has permanently conserved 82 percent of the land adjacent to the Ducktrap River through conservation easements and outright purchase.

The coalition’s members include a local planning board; Audubon and Nature Conservancy chapters; a 4-H camp, the Atlantic Salmon Commission, Trout Unlimited; state departments of Fisheries and Wildlife, and Environmental Protection; in addition to the Interior Department’s U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Commerce Department’s National Marine Fisheries Service.

The Interior Museum is open to the public Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. (except federal holidays) and the third Saturday of each month from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Admission is free.

Adult visitors must present a form of photo identification (such as a driver’s license, student ID, or employment card) when entering the Main Interior Building which is at 1849 C Street, N.W., in Washington, D.C. Wheelchair access is available at the 18th and E Streets entrance. For more information, call 208-4743.