The Anacostia River, which runs 8.7 miles from Bladensburg, Maryland, to the District of Columbia, has endured centuries of abuse. Once teeming with fish and clear water, the river is but a bedraggled ghost of its former self. But it’s a ghost with the potential to come back to life. To encourage this conservation and document the complexity of the task, photographer Krista Schlyer has brought her talent for visual storytelling to the front lines. In the process, she reaffirms the importance of looking at one’s own backyard for ways to make a big difference through environmental stewardship. “We don’t have to travel far to work on an important conservation issue: We can look in our very own backyards.”