“A Creek Reborn: What Lynchburg Lost and Gained by Removing College Lake Dam”

This week, host Dutchie Jessee welcomes Lynchburg reporter Emma Malinak to the show to talk about her in-depth reporting on the decades-long effort to restore Blackwater Creek. For nearly a century, the College Lake Dam held back this tributary to the James River — until public safety concerns, climate pressure, and a vision for ecological restoration changed everything.

Dutchie and Emma dig into what’s at stake when a city removes a beloved landmark like a lake, the environmental and political debates that have unfolded, and what the future holds for this stretch of rewilded waterway. It’s a conversation about legacy, landscape, and the tension between human engineering and the natural world, and it’s one you won’t want to miss.