Comments on: Evaporate

By: Refill - AfricanKelli

Refill - AfricanKelli — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 16:25:18 +0000

[...] news — as of this morning at 7:01 am, Tempe Town Lake is being refilled. Remember when one of the bladders burst earlier this summer? After watching the workers during countless runs around the lake over the last few months, they [...]

By: Julia

Julia — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 00:49:19 +0000

I have been on family vacation and have not checked your blog in about a week. After a quick catch up let me say that your photos this past week are amazing.

By: Girl from Mozambique

Girl from Mozambique — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 02:13:13 +0000

Nice! We were hoping to catch “the empty lake” on a drive by but could not. These pictures are perfect.

By: atpanda

atpanda — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 18:35:24 +0000

One of your reader’s comments prompted this thought: actually, the fish are meant to be there. We stopped the river that naturally ran through here long ago. If you go to Monte’s La Casa Vija you’ll see pictures of people swimming here in the river before we created our other lakes and the riverbed dried up. Then we filled it again. And now it’s dried again. It’s shocking to drive past it all empty though.

By: Amy

Amy — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 16:32:18 +0000

“More than once, when I wanted no one else to see me upset, I laced up my sneaks for a teary jog.” I hear ya. I always thought that ‘lake’ was so out of place when I lived next to it, but, man, did I appreciate a hard run around it when things were going downhill. Your photos really capture it well. And, as always, I’m amazed what you pack into your busy life!

By: Tina

Tina — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 15:45:55 +0000

Your pictures are fantastic!

When we lived in Tallahassee, a very large bass-filled lake drained almost completely – it happens about every 25 years. There is a sinkhole under the lake that causes the natural drain. Isn’t that wild? The Bass Club had to fish elsewhere until the lake filled again.

By: MIni

MIni — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 15:42:01 +0000

So they didn’t bring in alligators to eat the fish, but they DID feed the fish to the alligators? I was trying to explain the twitter convo between you and Adam and Juliann last week about this to my parents and they were like ‘wtf’?

By: jt

jt — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 12:36:18 +0000

Little known fact: I lay claim to being the last person to circumnavigate Tempe Town Lake (at the bottom of the lake). The day before they began to fill it, I drove over and ran the loop *inside* the lake, running clockwise on the bottom. Just because I wanted to be able to say I did it.

By: Tricia

Tricia — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 07:48:21 +0000

Sorry the blow up pool popped. I have not spent much time on it, but ironically it was this time last year I turned down a boating gig on the lake. Sadness for the creatures that had come to know it as home.

By: Candace

Candace — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 05:11:14 +0000

It’s beyond sad. I really felt so bad for the fish that I didn’t want to go have a looksee until I was sure I wouldn’t see any flopping around. I just think it’s wrong, on many levels, to make a lake where one shouldn’t be and stock it with fish that aren’t there naturally, and attract a lot of other wildlife and then, poof, it’s the poor animals that suffer when the bladder breaks. More fish will be stocked when the lake is refilled, more wildlife will come, and then it might happen all over again next time the big tire springs a leak. Of course, the lake needs to refilled–now there are too many other things dependent upon it but I still don’t understand why the dam had to be rubber to begin with. Animals always suffer at the hand of man’s stupidity and people just think it’s funny.

Your photos are poignant.