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What Floats Your Boat - Or Not

Posted on July 31, 2007 | Filed Under Clean Water, Global Warming, Healthy Waters, Northwest

Katherine Baer, Director
Healthy Waters Campaign

Clean water doesn’t come from nowhere. And Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer gets this - as part of his Congressional testimony in support of the Clean Water Restoration Act last week he stated:

“Clean water isn’t necessarily a place you can float your boat.”

As I’ve discussed before, the many small streams that flow into our namesake rivers in Montana and elsewhere represent the majority of stream miles across the country. Scientifically, we know that clean water and a consistent water supply absolutely depends on the natural filtering and buffering ability of our small streams and wetlands, and scientists similarly recognize the need for strong protections of these waters.

Fortunately, Members of Congress understood this scientific relationship when they wrote the Clean Water Act back in 1972, by making it clear in their discussions that the Clean Water Act would broadly cover our waters because “[w]ater moves in hydrologic cycles and it is essential that discharges of pollutants be controlled at the source.” Unfortunately, the Supreme Court, federal agencies, and polluters would like to turn back the clock to an era of dirty water.

Now, more than ever, facing an uncertain future shaped by climate change, small streams and wetlands are critical to ensure a consistent and clean water supply and to mitigate downstream flooding. That’s partly why Gov. Schweitzer and 33 of his state counterparts supported broad protections of all our waters to the Supreme Court.

The good news is that the Senate just introduced a companion version of the Clean Water Restoration Act that would reaffirm the intent of the Clean Water Act and make clear that clean water is a vital asset - regardless of whether you can float your boat on it!

“Far and away the best prize that life offers…” - Theodore Roosevelt

Posted on July 31, 2007 | Filed Under Quotes

Lindsay Martin, Web Editor
River Quotes: Your Daily Escape

“Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.” - Theodore Roosevelt

*Register now to participate in this year’s River Action Day on September 24-25! Registration is still open, and applications for travel stipends are due tomorrow. River Action Day really does make a difference, as seen in the recent decision to remove the Mike Horse Dam on the Blackfoot River. Learn more

River Quotes are posted weekday mornings. Want to see your favorite river quote here? Email it to lmartin@AmericanRivers.org.

Help Preserve Connecticut’s Eightmile River

Posted on July 30, 2007 | Filed Under Alerts

Lindsay Martin, Web Editor
River Alert

The Eightmile River in Connecticut is one of our nation’s last great rivers and we need your help to preserve this gem for present and future generations.

This week, the U.S. House of Representatives is scheduled to vote on a bill that would designate the Eightmile River as a National Wild and Scenic River. However, this designation is under attack by people outside of the state who oppose river protection even though this bill is supported throughout Connecticut by conservationists, local communities and officials, the Governor, State Legislature, and the entire Congressional delegation.

The Eightmile River needs your help. Please call and urge your Congressman to support the Eightmile River Wild and Scenic River Act. The vote could come at any time, so please call today!

“The movement for the conservation of wildlife…” — Theodore Roosevelt

Posted on July 30, 2007 | Filed Under Quotes

Lindsay Martin, Web Editor
River Quotes: Your Daily Escape

“The movement for the conservation of wildlife and the larger movement for the conservation of all our natural resources are essentially democratic in spirit, purpose, and method.” — Theodore Roosevelt

*Congressman G.K. Butterfield of North Carolina recently introduced legislation to protect the Perquimans River under the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act. Learn more

River Quotes are posted weekday mornings. Want to see your favorite river quote here? Email it to lmartin@AmericanRivers.org.

A long month’s swim

Posted on July 27, 2007 | Filed Under Events, Great Lakes, Outreach

Chelsea Lane-Miller, Associate Director of Outreach
Outreach Events and Activities

I’ve done my fair share of long distance activities - the most notable being a non-stop 50 mile hike on the Appalachian Trail from Hanover, NH to the Moosilauke Ravine Lodge.

But this woman’s 100-mile swim down the Huron River tops anything I’ve ever even thought of doing. And, not that age matters, but she did it at 60, which is pretty cool. I think I’d better start training now if I want to swim that far when I’m 60!

Liz Elling and the Huron River Watershed Council organized the swim to inspire people “to learn more about the river system and all of our fresh water resources.” A great idea, though I’d also like to learn more about the anti-wrinkling products Liz must have used to keep her body from turning into a raisin!

Liz has a blog, which talks about the different legs of the trip (or perhaps they’re more appropriately called arms of the trip) and the life lessons she learned while swimming.

These long distance trips to help raise awareness about rivers are pretty neat. I wrote earlier about a group of highschool students following the path of New York City’s water from start to finish. And I’ve heard about a trip down the Green and Colorado rivers, which I plan to blog on later.

Let me know if you have any long distance trips planned — or share your ideas for a good one with me! I think I need to do one of these sometime soon….

“We all drink somebody else’s sewage.” -Kenneth E. Boulding

Posted on July 27, 2007 | Filed Under Quotes

Lindsay Martin, Web Editor
River Quotes: Your Daily Escape

“We all drink somebody else’s sewage.” -Kenneth E. Boulding

*American Rivers’ Chelsea Lane-Miller and Eileen Fretz tabled at a recent John Mayer concert in Hersey, Pennsylvania, where concertgoers took photos and left comments to show how they felt about sewage pollution. Learn more

River Quotes are posted weekday mornings. Want to see your favorite river quote here? Email it to lmartin@AmericanRivers.org.

Real results from River Action Day

Posted on July 26, 2007 | Filed Under Dam Removal, Events, Outreach

Chelsea Lane-Miller, Associate Director of Outreach
Outreach Events and Activities

If you weren’t sure about whether participating in River Action Day can really make a difference for your hometown river, this news from Montana should help to convince you.

Just this week, the U.S. Forest Service decided that the Mike Horse Dam on the Blackfoot River should be removed. The weakened dam is holding back siginificant amounts of toxic materials, which easily could be washed downstream with a big flood.

Now, the mining company that used to own the dam will have to pay for removal of the dam and the toxic sludge behind it, which is a big victory for the Blackfoot and for all of the people that live below the dam.

You can read more in this article and op-ed, or visit the Clark Fork Coalition’s website.

So, how does this relate to River Action Day (formerly River Lobby Day). Here’s what a participant from 2005 said:

“The Forest Service has decided that Mike Horse Dam should be completely removed and that ASARCO, the mining company that formerly owned the dam, should pay for the removal. These are the exact remedies we recommended at River Lobby Day 2005. River Lobby Day introduced the issue to Montana’s influential former Senator Conrad Burns.”

We hope you’ll consider joining us for River Action Day on September 24-25 this year. Registration is open and the deadline to apply for travel stipends is August 1.

“A land of rivers lies along the Pacific coast…” - Tim Palmer

Posted on July 26, 2007 | Filed Under Quotes

Lindsay Martin, Web Editor
River Quotes: Your Daily Escape

“A land of rivers lies along the Pacific coast from San Francisco Bay northward, a region blessed by abundant water and by a topography as rugged and wrinkled as any in America. Rainfall and rivers, mountains and forests - these are synonymous with the Pacific Northwest.” - Tim Palmer

*Watch a rough cut of our short film about dam removal and river restoration in the Pacific Northwest, which features the Sandy, Elwha, and White Salmon Rivers. Read more

River Quotes are posted weekday mornings. Want to see your favorite river quote here? Email it to lmartin@AmericanRivers.org.

Shredder takes on the Yough

Posted on July 25, 2007 | Filed Under Cleanup, Mid-Atlantic, Outreach, Stories

Chelsea Lane-Miller, Associate Director of Outreach
Outreach Events and Activities

I’m probably going to embarass myself a little bit here, but when I found out that I could rent a ’shredder’ (pictured to the left) to take down the Lower Youghigeny River, I immediately thought of the bad guy in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I may have even started humming the theme song, “When the evil Shredder attacks, those turtle boys don’t cut ‘em no slack.” (I bet you know the next line, don’t ya?!)

Anyways, I decided it would be worth a try since I’ve never been on a shredder before. (I almost bought the Darth Vader style kayaking helmet that was on sale at Wilderness Voyaguers, the outfitters who rented us our vessel. If those fish had seen me wearing that helmet, they wouldn’t have known which way was upstream!)

After guiding 8 person rafts before, the shredder felt like a sports car. Turning was like a dream - we could wait until the last second to make a decision, and then still change our minds about which way to go around a rock.

We had a lovely time on the river — it was reasonably quiet since it was a Monday. The water level was low, but it was great to be out on such a beautiful day. We survived Dimple Rock and Cucumber Falls, and I only swam at the end to cool off. The picture is of me and my boyfriend, Dave. We’re standing on the bridge over the Yough at Ohiopyle, PA.

A highlight of the trip was the number of guides who asked me about National River Cleanup Week. I drove the National River Cleanup Subaru, and lots of people thanked me for cleaning up rivers (I told them I couldn’t take all of the credit), and also mentioned that they have regular trash cleanups on the Yough. Wonderful! I hope they’ll participate in National River Cleanup Week next year!

In the meantime, I’d recommend getting out to western PA and the Ohiopyle State Park for some quality time on a lovely river. If you’re not up for testing the shredder, you can take a guided trip, or even swim or bike along the river — there’s a great path that follows it for 28 miles.

“If a man fails to honor the rivers, he shall not gain the life from them.” - The Code of Hammurabi

Posted on July 25, 2007 | Filed Under Quotes

Lindsay Martin, Web Editor
River Quotes: Your Daily Escape

“If a man fails to honor the rivers, he shall not gain the life from them.” - The Code of Hammurabi

*American Rivers’ Chelsea Lane-Miller has been writing about a trend of dead zones this summer, where fish turn up dead on the water due to low oxygen levels. This is precipitated by water pollution. Read more

River Quotes are posted weekday mornings. Want to see your favorite river quote here? Email it to lmartin@AmericanRivers.org.

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