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- Meet Amy our Northwest river expert
- Meet Betsy our national water policy extraordinaire
- Meet Chas our social media and technology evangelist
- Meet Darcy our Washington state water policy expert
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- Meet Gary our video and stormwater guru
- Meet Jamie our blue trails expert
- Meet Jenny our Southeast water efficiency expert
- Meet John our Hydropower Reform Coalition director
- Meet Katie our Great Lakes stormwater management expert
- Meet Katherine our river advocacy director
- Meet Lindsay our daily river quotes and web editor
- Meet Matt our our Southeast blue trail & hydro guy
- Meet Rebecca president of American Rivers
- Meet Serena our dam removal expert
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Slowly it moves… — Mary Stinton Leitch

Posted on December 31, 2007 | Filed Under Quotes

Lindsay Martin, Web Editor
River Quotes: Your Daily Escape

“Slowly it moves, and in mystic silence, it draws me wondering, out through its shadowy portals to the ocean where sails are blossoming.�? — Mary Stinton Leitch

*Our nation’s last, remaining wild rivers give us clean water, world-class recreation and unmatched opportunities for inspiration and solitude. More

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

Blog Round Up: December 21th - December 28th

Posted on December 28, 2007 | Filed Under Northeast, Weekly Round Up

Chas Offutt, Director of Internet Strategy
Technology & Rivers

It has been a quiet and short week here in the office, much like on the blogosphere. Our own Gary Belan has used the quiet time to catch up on the discussion of storm water. He found a post on the Sustainable Stormwater Management blog so important that he posted on the subject on our blog too.

The river round up for 12-21 to 12-28:

The Maine Owl reports on the money appropriated to restore the Penobscot River.

The Garden Rant looks into rain barrels and wants to know about your experiences with them.

Somewhat off topic for our blog, the Gristmill has a post on the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. The point of the post is the incredible amount of pollution that athletes will have to deal with. I was particularly interested in the fact that water is being diverted, because of a drought, for the rowing competition.

The flow of the river is ceaseless… — Kamo no Chomei

Posted on December 28, 2007 | Filed Under Quotes

Lindsay Martin, Web Editor
River Quotes: Your Daily Escape

“The flow of the river is ceaseless and its water is never the same. The bubbles that float in the pools, now vanishing, now forming, are not of long duration; so in the world are men and their dwellings.” — Kamo no Chomei

*A generous American Rivers board member has agreed to match during December — dollar for dollar — every contribution we receive up to $50,000. This allows you to double the impact of your year-end gift to American Rivers. More

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

Stormwater Wars

Posted on December 27, 2007 | Filed Under Green Infrastructure, Healthy Waters, Rain Gardens

Gary Belan, Director of Healthy Waters Campaign
Healthy Waters, Catching the Rain

Well, I hope everyone else had a good holiday. I’m back in the office this week, and as is usually the case right after Christmas, it’s a little quite. So I’m taking the time to catch up on some reading, and as such I was catching up with the Sustainable Stormwater Management blog. The one entry I found particularly important was one written on the Envrionmental Site Design (Green Infrastructure, LID, take your pick of terminology. For the purpose of this entry I’ll call it ESD) debate in Maryland.

The SSM blog makes a good point in how “industry” folks line up against ESD in a very “knee-jerk” way whenever it is proposed. Of course, I’m sure I do the same thing in favor of ESD. But to be honest, I’m at a bit of a loss for an answer to there question “Is there a middle ground.” I would like to say yes, but it’s so hard to get to a middle ground when industry groups and traditionalists are so resistant to trying new things, or at least suggesting ways that traditional stormwater approaches and ESD can be used together. In my view, ESD is the next generation of civil engineering tools which we all need to embrace if we want to better protect our valuable water resources. I think that ESD proponents are trying to reach a middle ground, but because so many traditionalists (not all but many) are opposed to the idea or not willing to familiarize themselves with the concept, many people get stuck in the middle, and ultimately our water resources lose. Can we reach a middle ground? I think eventually we can. But can we reach a middle ground before all of our streams and rivers are damaged beyond repair? Only time will tell.

Where there is freshwater… — Robert Hass

Posted on December 27, 2007 | Filed Under Quotes

Lindsay Martin, Web Editor
River Quotes: Your Daily Escape

“Where there is freshwater, there is abundant life.�? — Robert Hass

*Rivers are dependent on their watershed for a consistent supply of clean water. Read Gary’s recent post to learn about some recent storm water legislation that will help save our rivers. More

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

I have never seen a river that I could not love… — Roderick Haig-Brown

Posted on December 26, 2007 | Filed Under Quotes

Lindsay Martin, Web Editor
River Quotes: Your Daily Escape

“I have never seen a river that I could not love. Moving water…has a fascinating vitality. It has power and grace and associations. It has a thousand colors and a thousand shapes, yet if follows laws so definite that the tiniest streamlet is an exact replica of a great river. �? — Roderick Haig-Brown

*At a time when our nation’s natural splendor is facing a rising tide of threats, securing Wild and Scenic designation for our last, best rivers is a powerful way to preserve their beauty, health and wonder for current and future generations. More

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

If there is magic… — Loren Eiseley

Posted on December 25, 2007 | Filed Under Quotes

Lindsay Martin, Web Editor
River Quotes: Your Daily Escape

“If there is magic on this planet, it is contained in water.” — Loren Eiseley

*A gift of membership - for your family, friend, or collegue - will help protect endangered rivers, wildlife, and the communities from the growing threats against them. More

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

Find some long river… — Greg Brown

Posted on December 24, 2007 | Filed Under Quotes

Lindsay Martin, Web Editor
River Quotes: Your Daily Escape

“Find some long river and follow it down.” — Greg Brown

*Clean water is the cornerstone of healthy communities. It is impossible to overstate the value and importance of clean water for people, fish and wildlife. More

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

Blog Round Up: December 14th - December 21th

Posted on December 21, 2007 | Filed Under Weekly Round Up

Chas Offutt, Director of Internet Strategy
Technology & Rivers

‘Tis the season to have a Christmas tree. Do you have a real tree or a fake one? Over at the Huffington Post there is a very enlightening post about the environmental effects of Christmas trees. Will you have a ‘green’ holiday? Happy Holidays, a brief round up for this quiet time of year.

The river round up for 12-14 to 12-21:

The governors in the southeast are stilling trying to negotiate their water supply, Peach Pundit has the story.

Horeticulture just installed a rain barrel, and it is already full.

Urbanworkbench has the consequences of poor storm water management.

Good enough for government work?

Posted on December 21, 2007 | Filed Under Government Affairs, Green Infrastructure, Healthy Waters, Policy Review

Gary Belan, Director of Healthy Waters Campaign
Healthy Waters, Catching the Rain

Actually, I’d say pretty good for government work. My colleague Katherine Baer and I got a message yesterday from Nancy Stoner over at NRDC that this language made it into the new Energy Bill (on its way to the President for signing as I type).

We had a talk with Nancy about this when it was in the early stages and we actually contributed some language. The part I’m most excited about is the inclusion of temperature. Most stormwater requirements only refer to rate or volume and rarely to temperature, because temperature is a harder requirement to meet particularly if you’re using detention ponds. With temperature included, I hope that this will lead to more infiltration based practices, which cools the water naturally and filters it too.

Thanks a bunch to Senator Cardin and the Clean Water Network for all the work they put into getting this passed. I’m pretty excited about this making it through.

SEC. 438. STORM WATER RUNOFF REQUIREMENTS FOR FEDERAL DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS.

The sponsor of any development or redevelopment project involving a Federal facility with a footprint that exceeds 5,000 square feet shall use site planning, design, construction, and maintenance strategies for the property to maintain or restore, to the maximum extent technically feasible, the predevelopment hydrology of the property with regard to the temperature, rate, volume, and duration of flow.

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