“Without this river, we would not be able to survive,” says Vicente Fernandez, acequia mayordomo and community leader in New Mexico.   New Mexico is the state hardest hit by a recent Supreme Court ruling that left virtually all of the state’s streams and wetlands vulnerable to pollution. This federal action opens the door to potential harmful downstream impacts to the Rio Grande, Gila, San Juan, and Pecos rivers.   It threatens Vicente’s livelihood, and so many others across New Mexico.   This is why the Rivers of New Mexico are #1 in America’s Most Endangered Riv ..read more

“Green divided by white rapids.”  “The shivering soul-reaching shock of the water. The beverage of the animals.”  “Drowning not in water but in a sense of belonging.”  “The water’s writing engraves the rocks like the graphite from my pencil engraves this paper.”  “It says meditate to throw away your anger.” Middle school students from Missoula, Montana penned these words after drawing inspiration from some of the area’s storied free flowing rivers. Since time immemorial, nature has been the inspiration for art, literature, film, and other creative outlets. Cave painti ..read more

For Women’s History Month, Katie Schmidt, Associate Director of the National Dam Removal Program at American Rivers, reflected on what motivates her to continue advocating for healthy, free-flowing rivers nationwide. I want my grandchildren’s grandchildren to be able to enjoy clean, free-flowing rivers. I want a world where they hear the birds sing, see fish swimming in the rivers, and enjoy the blooms of spring and the vibrant colors of fall. I want clean air for them to breathe and clean water for them to drink. As a whitewater paddler, I have developed a deep connection to rivers and a d ..read more

President Joe Biden on Saturday signed a $460 billion package of spending bills approved by the Senate in time to avoid a shutdown of many key federal agencies including EPA, NPS, NOAA, and DOI. The legislation’s success is met with mixed reactions as cuts to key programs will make it more difficult for agencies to improve river health and fully address climate change.   President Biden signed a budget package for water, environment, and energy agencies that includes earmarks for water projects and an EPA spending cut. Across 64 river health programs, less than half of the programs m ..read more

Though a century of damming has had one of the largest impacts on the health of the Klamath River, its ecosystems, and the fish and wildlife that depend on them, they are not the only obstacles the river faces on the road to recovery. It is difficult to understate the ecological significance of the four dam removals on the Klamath River: with over 400 vertical feet scheduled for removal in 2023 and 2024, its sheer scale is why dam removal is such an important start to the river’s recovery. Now that the dam removals are underway, we are shifting our focus forward to improve the health the of th ..read more

In her anthology Black Nature: Four Centuries of African American Nature Poetry, writer and editor Camille T. Dungy sheds a light on nature writing by African American poets; a genre that has not commonly been counted as one in which African American poets have participated. She has noted, “Because of erasures from so many narratives about the great outdoors, the idea that Black people can write out of a personal relationship to nature and have done so since before this nation’s founding comes as a shock to many people.” I’m excited to share the work of “water writers” as I call them, from the ..read more

When it comes to wild rivers, Idaho is among the richest within the lower 48 states. But the Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forest is about to abandon protections for some of the state’s most cherished free-flowing gems.   The Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forest is neither the pan nor the handle of Idaho; it’s in between. This area boasts the headwaters of the Lochsa, Selway, and Salmon rivers, renowned for their big whitewater and multi-day river trips. The Clearwater River’s middle, north, and south forks are well-known angling destinations for steelhead, westslope cutthroat trout ..read more

As many have heard by now, 2023 was a major milestone year for dam removal in the U.S., with the initiation of the largest dam removal project in the country on the Klamath River in California. However, you may not have heard about the 79 other dams that were removed, reconnecting 1,160 upstream river miles. These projects reestablished migration corridors, made natural and human communities more resilient to climate change, improved access to habitat to promote biodiversity, eliminated safety hazards and maintenance costs, enhanced access to rivers for local communities, reestablished natural ..read more

Giddy smiles and stomping feet. We stood next to the Klamath River and watched muddy water rush out from the tunnel under the Iron Gate Dam. The twenty-degree weather couldn’t freeze out the excitement of our group; even as we tried to kick feeling back into our toes, an energy pulsed through us as we watched part of the largest dam removal and river restoration project in history take place.   Our American Rivers dam removal team visited the Klamath River on Thursday, January 11, 2024. This was the first day water was released from the Iron Gate Dam reservoir in preparation for remo ..read more

Giddy smiles and stomping feet. We stood next to the Klamath River and watched muddy water rush out from the tunnel under the Iron Gate Dam. The twenty-degree weather couldn’t freeze out the excitement of our group; even as we tried to kick feeling back into our toes, an energy pulsed through us as we watched part of the largest dam removal and river restoration project in history take place.   Our American Rivers dam removal team visited the Klamath River on Thursday, January 11, 2024. This was the first day water was released from the Iron Gate Dam reservoir in preparation for remo ..read more