Published August 12. 2021 02:45PM
Grasslands have been a key part of healing the once-barren slopes of the Lehigh Gap.
A new art project on the grounds of the Lehigh Gap Nature Center uses those same grasses to beautify the area and celebrate the natives who once called the area home.
“Savannah Echo,” by Seattle-based artist Sarah Kavage, is an outdoor art installation. With help from three local assistants, Kavage wove grasses into long braids at the crossing of the LNE trail and Bobolink trail. The project is located about a mile north of the nature center’s Osprey House.
“My hope is to open people’s eyes to something that is ordinary, and all around but they may not notice,” Kavage said.
Over the past three years, Kavage has completed over a dozen projects at nature centers which make up the Alliance for Watershed Education of the Delaware River. Her projects are part of an initiative known as Lenapehoking Watershed, which honors the Lenni Lenape people who lived along the Delaware.
Instead of paint or clay, Kavage does her art almost entirely with the grasses which grow at the project sites. Each project is different based on what grows at the site.
The grass at Lehigh Gap Nature Center helps tell the story of the reclamation of the mountain. Twenty years ago, no vegetation grew in that area of the Kittatinny Ridge, due to contamination from industrial operations in the area. In 2003, the nature center seeded grasses along the landscape. Those grasses have helped create new soil which helps prevent erosion and keeps heavy metals from entering the food chain.
Kavage has used braided grass in other projects, and she particularly likes the idea of working with vegetation which is playing a…
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Curtis Zunigha is an enrolled member and cultural director of the Delaware Tribe of Indians. (Courtesy of Curtis Zunigha) 
