For more than 50 years, the Endangered Species Act has protected species from going extinct and disappearing from our planet forever. Animals and plants alike have benefited from these protections, and many are thriving today. One of the most crucial aspects of the Endangered Species Act that has led to such success is ensuring that no “harm” can be inflicted upon them or their habitat.
Disappointingly, in the last month, the administration changed the definition of “harm” to exclude “habitat”, leaving crucial areas that these species depend on open to destruction. Without habitat protection, it is easier for extractive industries to degrade protected areas that serve as a lifeline for entire ecosystems. Habitat loss is already the leading cause of extinction, and freshwater species are going extinct at a significantly higher rate than land or ocean species.
When the Endangered Species Act was first written and passed with an overwhelming bipartisan majority in Congress, preserving habitat was part of the original intention. The Supreme Court has previously upheld the Fish and Wildlife Service’s definition of “harm” due to the known scientific importance of a species’ habitat. The Administration’s decision to eliminate this foundational and commonsense element of the Endangered Species Act goes against decades of precedent and work to protect these crucial species.
One group of species at greatest risk of extinction in the United States is freshwater mussels. Freshwater mussels are fascinating species that have a complex life cycle. Baby mussels even hitch a ride on fish to move upstream. They also play an important role in keeping streams clean and healthy since they are filter-feeders.
Some individual freshwater mussels can filter 30 gallons of water a day! And they can remove harmful pathogens such as E. coli from the water. Sadly, freshwater mussel populations are declining, and American Rivers is working with partners to identify the cause. This change in the Endangered Species Act is now another challenge. How will mussels be saved from extinction if the rivers they live in and depend on are being destroyed?
With proper protection, we can save species. The Roanoke logperch was recently delisted after almost 36 years, largely due to the locally supported removal of 4 obsolete dams, reconnecting hundreds of miles of its habitat in Virginia and North Carolina. Recognizing the importance of habitat under the Endangered Species Act, agencies funded and coordinated the work to reconnect river habitat and restore the Roanoke logperch.
Approximately a quarter of the world’s freshwater wildlife is already at risk of extinction due to loss of habitat. It is possible to bring more species back from the brink of extinction if local, state, and federal agencies all come together with a common goal of saving their habitat. Show your support for endangered species below!
On June 11, dozens gathered in the early morning light at Great Valley Grasslands State Park outside of Merced to celebrate a milestone 15 years in the making — the reconnection of the San Joaquin River with more than 220 acres of historic floodplain habitat. The energy was palpable as scientists, Tribal leaders, state officials, nonprofit partners, and community members came together to witness something that had taken the better part of two decades to achieve.
The Grasslands Floodplain Restoration Project, completed in February 2026, is one of the most significant floodplain restoration efforts in California’s San Joaquin Valley. The project will improve habitat for threatened and endangered fish and wildlife species, support groundwater recharge, and restore one of the last and largest undisturbed expanses of wetlands and native grasslands in the region.
American Rivers led the project implementation in close partnership with CA State Parks, River Partners, and Flow West. The celebration was timed to coincide with California State Parks Week and was one of five spotlight events held across the state.
A Morning Worth Celebrating
The morning featured an inspiring lineup of speakers, including California Natural Resources Secretary Wade Crowfoot, Director of CA State Parks Armando Quintero, Chairperson of the Northern Valley Yokut Ohlone Tribe Kathy Perez, and Central Valley District Superintendent Danielle Gerhart. American Rivers’ California Regional Director Ann Willis delivered a particularly moving reflection on the power of partnerships, reminding the crowd that restoration is neither a sprint nor a marathon — but a relay. The partners that worked to restore the landscape are passing the baton on to the next generation to care for the land.
After the speeches, everyone walked together along the San Joaquin River to the site where the levee was notched — the precise point where the river will now flow onto its historic floodplain for the first time in over 75 years. The crowd cheered as a large red ribbon was cut across the new channel, a fitting symbol of a river finally finding its way home.
We were also proud to celebrate our partnership with Cox Enterprises, whose team traveled from Atlanta to see the completed construction firsthand and advance their commitment to replenishing groundwater and restoring habitat across the region.
Why This Restoration Matters
The benefits of reconnecting the San Joaquin River to its floodplain extend far beyond Great Valley Grasslands State Park. Floodplains are among the most productive ecosystems on earth — they filter water, recharge groundwater supplies, buffer communities from flood damage, and provide critical habitat for fish and wildlife.
By breaching and removing segments of an old, decommissioned levee, the project allows the San Joaquin River to flood the grasslands seasonally, as it would have naturally decades ago. This return of historical flooding patterns will smother invasive exotic plants — which thrive in drier conditions — and replenish the native grasses and wetland plants that evolved alongside the river. In turn, this will re-create habitat for wildlife to live and thrive.
The reconnected floodplains will enable endangered Chinook salmon to once again be able to find shelter and food along this stretch of the San Joaquin River, improving the likelihood that they will survive, reach maturity, and spawn. The seasonal flooding will also create vernal pools — temporary wetland ecosystems that support aquatic amphibians, reptiles, and invertebrates that depend on these fleeting but vital habitats.
And the benefits aren’t just ecological. The project will support groundwater recharge in a region where aquifers have been significantly depleted by decades of agricultural pumping — a priority for partners like Cox Enterprises and the communities that depend on reliable water supplies in California’s Central Valley.
A Park with an Unlikely Origin Story
Great Valley Grasslands State Park wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for cheese. In 1982, Joseph Gallo — a former dairy farmer who built a successful cheese business — donated thousands of acres of Central Valley grasslands to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the state of California, with a request that the land be designated for wildlife refuges and parks.
Sitting just south of Modesto and west of Merced, the 2,826-acre park is one of California’s largest remaining native grassland areas. But unlike most state parks, it was never developed for public use — no visitor centers, no trails, no infrastructure to welcome people to this remarkable landscape along the San Joaquin River. In many places, you can’t safely reach the river without a motorized boat.
Adding to the challenge, when Gallo donated the land, a network of levees built in the 1950s crisscrossed the landscape. These levees weren’t built to hold back the river — they were designed to contain cattle from Gallo’s dairy operation. But even after the cattle stopped grazing, the levees remained, cutting off the grassland ecosystem from the San Joaquin River, altering the natural flood patterns that had shaped this landscape for thousands of years, and opening the door for invasive plant species to take hold.
What remained was a series of obsolete levees at an underused park — and an extraordinary opportunity for restoration.
How We Got Here
More than 15 years ago, American Rivers began working with the California Department of Parks and Recreation, River Partners, and other agencies, nonprofits, and private partners to identify opportunities to restore the park’s native grasslands and reconnect the San Joaquin River to its historic floodplains. It was a vision that took patience, persistence, and the contributions of many organizations over many years.
Funding from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife — through Propositions 1 and 68 — along with support from California State Parks’ Cannabis Watershed Protection Program and Cox Enterprises helped turn that vision into a construction project. But getting to the finish line was far from linear. Permitting delays paused work for extended periods. Construction in a naturally flood-prone area meant crews were regularly sidelined for months at a time as weather events intervened. Some of the State Parks staff and project engineers worked on this assignment for more than 15 years.
That’s why the red ribbon moment on June 11 meant so much. It wasn’t just a construction milestone — it was the culmination of a relay run by dozens of people across two decades.
How do we know if the Restoration is a Success?
With construction now complete, the project team will shift focus to monitoring and learning. The team will track zooplankton, groundwater levels, water temperatures, native plant reintroduction, and wildlife use to measure how successfully the ecosystem is recovering. Floodplains provide the shelter and food juvenile salmon need to survive the arduous journey to the ocean. Zooplankton are microscopic organisms that drift along water currents and are an important food source for juvenile salmonids. When the river flows through the breach, we will measure zooplankton on the floodplain and in the San Joaquin River to determine the effectiveness of our efforts. This data will help inform future restoration efforts across the San Joaquin River and beyond.
What Comes Next
California’s Central Valley has long been recognized as one of the most “park-poor” regions in the state — most of California’s 280 parks lie along the coastline or within the mountains.
But that is beginning to change.
State Parks is gathering public input to develop a General Plan to improve public access at Great Valley Grasslands State Park so that residents and visitors can experience and enjoy this revitalized landscape. In addition, State Parks and American Rivers are continuing our partnership to restore and reconnect floodplains on over 1,000 acres of land north of the San Joaquin River with funding from the Wildlife Conservation Board. Soon Central Valley residents will be able to discover and enjoy this remarkable stretch of the San Joaquin River in their backyards.
On April 22, Governor Gavin Newsom announced State Parks Forward, a new initiative to expand the State Parks System and establish three new state parks in the Central Valley, including the 874-acre San Joaquin River Parkway in Fresno.
The San Joaquin River is flowing onto its floodplain again. The grasslands are beginning to heal. And the communities, Tribes, and wildlife that depend on a healthy river are a little better off for it.
Here in the Southeast, drought is no stranger, and this summer it is impacting communities and rivers in the region just as in many other parts of the country. In North Carolina, much of the state has been in severe or extreme drought conditions for months, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor, and stream and river flows are near record-low levels in much of the state.
Rivers are accustomed to drought; it is a natural occurrence, but its impacts on rivers are often worsened when we alter their flows, draw too much water out of them, or pave over the landscape in areas of the watershed that would otherwise replenish groundwater and streamflow when it rains. Meanwhile, droughts themselves are becoming more severe and, in some places, more frequent in a changing climate.
In hot and dry weather, soils dry out quickly, a fact any home gardener knows all too well. At a river basin scale, the impacts of excessively hot and dry conditions on the natural systems that support our rivers with fresh water are significant and worrisome. When river flows drop low early in the season and stay low, river ecosystems can be pushed beyond their normal bounds, harming fish and wildlife, canceling river recreation activities, and threatening the supplies of communities that depend on these rivers for clean water.
Drought is not just a summertime occurrence: In the Southeast, it comes about in the first place due to a lack of rainfall to recharge groundwater and streams’ baseflow during the winter and cooler months. This is absolutely the case with the drought currently striking the region: a very dry winter left the region poorly prepared for the heat of summer, from a water availability standpoint. The current North Carolina drought conditions, in particular, intensified in the springtime (which should normally be a relatively rainy season in the Southeast)—not in the fall when we typically have our driest season.
In Georgia, the state has been lucky to receive rainfall that has moderated drought conditions in the early summer, but it’s not likely to see drought disappear altogether during the hot summer months. It takes a long time to get into a drought, and it will take a long time to get out. In North Carolina and other parts of the region, the current situation is more dire, and the timeline for recovery is likely much longer. (Meanwhile, a bit of weather whiplash between drought and flash flood conditions is implicated in this summer’s massive fish kill on the Chattahoochee River in Atlanta.)
American Rivers has worked for years advocating for the protection of the natural flows that sustain river ecosystems, for an “efficiency first” approach to securing water supply for our communities, and for smart water infrastructure planning that protects the natural flows that rivers need. It’s important for us all to conserve water to maintain community water supplies: reducing outdoor water use, fixing leaky plumbing fixtures, avoiding water waste, and much more. It’s also critically important for water utilities to plan, maintain, and manage water supply infrastructure in ways that protect river flows as much as possible. In particular, we must be planning for drought when we’re not in drought, in order to make our policies and our infrastructure as river-friendly as possible when drought arrives.
All this work becomes more important all the time, as population growth, urban sprawl, energy generation, and the advent of data centers together make even more demands on our freshwater resources and the water that both we and our rivers need.
Our National Monuments often contain treasured public lands and waters. They’re so important that forty Presidents, across both parties, have utilized the Antiquities Act to protect monuments that would go on to become Grand Canyon National Park, Olympic National Park, Acadia National Park, Glacier Bay National Park, Zion National Park, Arches National Park, and many more. President Teddy Roosevelt, one of our most famous conservation presidents, established 18 national monuments shortly after he signed the Antiquities Act into law. Since that time, nearly half of America’s National Parks started first as National Monuments—a part of our nation’s natural and cultural heritage.
Across the country, the 31 national monuments designated in the last 30 years directly protect 21,143 miles of rivers across 2,125 watersheds, affecting the clean water supplies of more than 13 million people. These monuments provide world-class fishing, hunting, paddling, and other forms of outdoor recreation fueling valuable and sustainable economic development for nearby gateway communities. These public lands are also our natural water towers, providing clean water to people and wildlife downstream.
Taos, New Mexico, the gateway to the Rio Grande Del Norte National Monument, saw a 40% increase in tourism and over 20% increase in lodging tax revenue in the year after its designation. The protections the Monument provide for wildlife are immeasurable, as elk, pronghorn, bighorn sheep, and mule deer all use the river corridor as habitat and a major migration corridor. Acequias, Pueblos, agricultural producers, and local communities are also supported by water from the Monument.
In Maine, the watersheds of Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument, including the East Branch Penobscot River, provided $3.4 million to the local economies of gateway communities according to a study by the National Park Service. The Monument safeguards more than 30 miles of the East Branch of the Penobscot River along with the Seboeis River and Wassataquoik Stream, protecting cold, clean headwaters that are essential to healthy rivers all the way downstream. These free-flowing waters and surrounding forests sustain endangered Atlantic salmon, wild brook trout, moose, Canada lynx, and bald eagles — proof that protecting a river means protecting the entire web of life that depends on it.
Our Local Monuments: Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante
Like others who live near or visit National Monuments near them or those in states across the country, my family and I take time – sometimes an extended weekend, sometimes two weeks – to do what we love most: Travel the desert rivers, buff-colored canyons, and pinion-juniper mesas of Bears Ears National Monument or Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument afoot, afloat, astride a bicycle, or in a four-wheel drive vehicle.
We have made this pilgrimage without exception every spring for over 20 years. The two monuments have very different characters, but they both have extraordinary qualities that make them special to us, pulling us back year after year. Sinuous, red rock canyons emanate from high-altitude mesas, picking up seeps and springs as they make their way to some of the most storied and intact river systems in the Southwest.
Together, these designations protect significant portions of the San Juan, Colorado, and Escalante river systems, safeguarding important cultural and ecological values, and ensuring clean water for people and wildlife downstream.
A Public Trust
Humans have been attached to Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante for millennia. The Ancestral Puebloan cliff houses, kivas, granaries, and rock art protected under the Antiquities Act make that clear, as do the seeps, springs, herbs, and natural landforms. Many tribal members continue to call these places their ancestral homelands and current sources of medicinal and ceremonial plants, among other irreplaceable natural and cultural resources. Bears Ears National Monument has been described as an open-air museum and cathedral, whereas Grand Staircase-Escalante was designated for its one-of-a-kind cultural, geologic, and palaeontologic values.
On Monday, July 13, 2026, two proclamations were issued to reduce the boundaries of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments by 90% – almost 3 million acres combined- leaving just over 300,000 acres protected under monument designations. The Bears Ears Commission, established to inform the management of the lands and resources of Bears Ears, and made up entirely of Tribal representatives, was also disbanded, and the Tribes’ seals were removed from signage at the monument. This is a larger rollback than was attempted in 2017, when the boundaries of the monuments were decreased by about 2 million acres, a decision was ultimately reversed by President Biden. Over 1,000 people recently turned out in six cities across Utah to support maintenance of the original designations for Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante.
Coming to A National Monument Near You?
Other monuments are also potentially in peril, including ones that have significant local and state support.
There are places in the country where development is appropriate. But as a nation, we must continue the successes that we’ve had in conserving our most irreplaceable waterways and landscapes and in respecting tribal sovereignty. If you are fortunate enough to have the opportunity to visit some of these special places, go. See, for yourself, some of the best places we’ve protected as a country.
Tags: Bears Ears, Grand Staircase-Escalante, San Juan River, Escalante River, public lands, national monuments, Antiquities Act, tribes, river protection, river conservation, clean water
World Nature Conservation Day is July 28. It is more important than ever to speak up and make your voice heard for our nation’s rivers. We know there is a lot going on in the world that can make it overwhelming to figure out what you can do to help. That’s why we’ve put together 5 simple things you can do this World Nature Conservation Day to make an impact in your community and nationwide:
1. Take Action: Sign our Wild and Scenic Rivers Act petition
Wild and Scenic Rivers are our healthiest, cleanest, most intact waterways, protected for their scenic beauty, natural and cultural significance, and recreational value. A Wild and Scenic designation protects the free and natural flow of a river and preserves what makes a river special. Join us in our effort to safeguard rivers — Tell your Members of Congress to support new Wild and Scenic Rivers today!
2. Use our Protected Rivers Explorer Tool
Across the nation, 80% of rivers lack adequate protection. Our Protected Rivers Explorer is a groundbreaking tool based on cutting-edge science. Using the Explorer, we can, for the first time in history, see how secure rivers are all across the country. Discover how protected your state and local rivers are and get involved today!
3. Advocate for rivers through our Action Center
Be a voice for rivers: Last year, our community sent 30,000+ messages to decision-makers calling on them to take action for healthier rivers and cleaner water. Check out our Action Center and take action today!
4. Learn about the top 10 ways to conserve water at home
There are a few simple things you can do at home — Fix leaks, turn off the faucet while brushing your teeth — to ease the burden on your local water supply and save money in the process. These water-saving measures can have a big impact on water demand in your local community.
5. Become an American Rivers Member
Rivers provide clean water and natural habitat. Support our work protecting and restoring our nation’s rivers by donating a gift today! Together, we can protect the source of all life — our rivers.
One small action each day adds up to make a big impact over time. Share this list with your family and friends and revisit these actions when you can. Healthy rivers are for everyone, not just a privileged few. We are in this together, and it will take all of us in this movement to protect rivers and preserve clean water.
Like much of the Southwest, the San Luis Valley in Southern Colorado, home to the headwaters of the Rio Grande, is facing a historic, near record-setting snow drought; early runoff and all signs point to a severe water shortage. Snow water equivalent (SWE) – how much liquid water is available in snow – in the region is among the lowest on record, triggering dire concerns about the impacts of reduced runoff on agriculture, communities, and ecosystems.
The Rio Grande is essential to the livelihood of people, economies, and the environment, and the demands from human populations and the impacts of climate change have put the Rio under increasing pressure. These pressures are well documented; numerous studies conclude that rivers in the southwest are facing critical shortages, largely as a result of these compounding pressures. Local communities, including those along the Rio Grande and its tributaries, are acutely aware of their water challenges and have come together to identify innovative solutions to address the threats. River and riparian restoration projects, agricultural efficiency and modernization projects, recharging the local aquifer, and protecting small streams and wetlands are just some of the initiatives communities along the Rio are undertaking to protect and restore their community’s lifeblood.
In the San Luis Valley (Valley), the community has long been working on flexible, innovative water solutions to make every drop count. Water managers, conservation organizations, irrigation companies, communities, businesses, agencies, and recreationists have come together to identify programs and projects that provide multiple benefits while also addressing drought and water scarcity challenges head on. Many of the solutions being implemented have known benefits while others are in the earlier stages of research and impact analysis, but early indications suggest some of these solutions provide significant opportunities to address some of the challenges facing Valley communities, and beyond.
Frozen Assets
One such project, “Frozen Assets,” is an innovative and collaborative water management project under way in the San Luis Valley, led by American Rivers in close collaboration with our partners from Wetland Dynamics, Ducks Unlimited, Rio Grande Headwaters Land Trust, Colorado Parks and Wildlife, and other private, state, and federal partners. Frozen Assets is an ongoing project designed to research how winter sheet ice, an innovative water management strategy that mimics natural processes, can support aquifer recovery, assist with native re-vegetation on retired agricultural lands, enhance wildlife habitat, and allow flexibility for agricultural producers in the Valley.
Winter sheet ice has been used historically in the Valley to spread water shallowly across the landscape during the winter and ‘store’ it as ice for early spring use. Sheet ice starts developing when temperatures freeze in the fall, and, through consistent application of water in the winter, producers slowly ‘push’ shallow water across the surface to build upon the frozen layer, creating a large sheet of ice. The slowly melting ice provides water and foraging resources for over-wintering birds and wildlife and early spring migrants like waterfowl and cranes. This slow process results in less water lost to evaporation and transmission, and allows water to infiltrate soils and recharge aquifers, facilitating the growth of early season plant species.
This Project is designed to simultaneously equip water users with information about winter sheet ice and demonstrate its viability as an alternative for seasonal water use that is beneficial to wildlife, enhances soil moisture retention, boosts the resilience of local water tables, improves habitat quality, and promotes the growth of native plant communities.
Rye Resurgence
The Rye Resurgence Project has benefited not just the Valley, but businesses and consumers around Colorado and the greater Southwest region. Established to address the Valley’s groundwater depletion challenges and improve soil health, the Rye Resurgence Project is a community-driven initiative focused on revitalizing the local agricultural economy and environment by promoting San Luis Valley Rye. A winter cover crop, rye requires significantly less water than other rotational crops and has a deep, complex flavor profile that can be used in a larger variety of ways.
The Rye Resurgence Project has a dual mission, partnering with local farmers to grow rye and establishing a market for Valley rye. Ensuring there is a market and diverse buyers for new crops is an essential piece of the puzzle for producers when considering less thirsty crops. The Project has made connections with local and regional businesses – including bakers, millers, brewers, and distillers – to utilize rye in their products. In its first year, the project partnered with farmers to grow 4,500 acres of winter rye in the fall of 2023, which yielded an estimated 4,670 acre-feet in water savings over the course of the first year, and 24 businesses identified as partners.
River and Habitat Projects
The rivers and water flowing through San Luis Valley provide critical habitat for many different species of wildlife; multiple wildlife refuges and state wildlife areas line the river throughout the Valley. The Alamosa National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) provides important habitat for native fish. However, the NWR experiences a highly variable flow regime that places stress on both riparian and aquatic health, and lower streamflows are occurring more frequently, resulting in stress on aquatic species, including fish. To address these challenges, the Rio Grande Headwaters Restoration Project worked with partners to plan and implement the Rio Grande Corridor Restoration Project at the Alamosa NWR.
This Project resulted in restoration and aquatic habitat enhancement both within the Alamosa NWR and on adjacent private lands by reshaping and stabilizing eroding streambanks with rock and native plants, which allows for better floodplain access when higher flows are present. Additionally, channel shaping and enhanced instream habitat improved low-flow and off-channel aquatic habitat. Importantly, this included a specific off-channel habitat feature created for Rio Grande chub, which are present in the area. The Project also benefited visitors to the NWR by redefining adjacent public trail access that reduces recreational disturbance to the area. This is just one example of the many multi-benefit, cross-sector river restoration projects happening in the Valley.
Water is the lifeblood of this region, and collaborative solutions like these will help preserve the economic vitality of the Valley while conserving its most precious resource for the human and wildlife communities that depend on it.
Communities across North Carolina’s Cape Fear River Basin are facing renewed uncertainty after the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) proposed rollback of drinking water protections for several PFAS chemicals, commonly known as “forever chemicals.”
The EPA recently announced two proposed rules on May 18, 2026. One would roll back protections for several PFAS compounds, while the other would delay implementation of existing standards.
What are PFAS?
PFAS are a group of human-made chemicals that can enter rivers and streams through industrial discharges and other sources. They are highly persistent in the environment. Exposure, even at very low concentrations, can cause human health concerns and developmental impacts on infants and children. Drinking water standards are critical to protecting public health. They also create incentives for industries to reduce PFAS pollution at its source—often the most effective and affordable way to protect rivers, communities, and downstream drinking water supplies.
Two years ago, the EPA finalized the nation’s first enforceable drinking water standards for several PFAS chemicals, which marked a major step forward in addressing long-standing contamination concerns. For communities like the ones downstream of the Chemours facility in Fayetteville, North Carolina, that action reflected years of local advocacy, scientific attention, and public pressure to address PFAS pollution in the Cape Fear River system.
PFAS in the Cape Fear River Basin
Communities in the Cape Fear River Basin, just like others across the country, have already borne significant costs associated with PFAS contamination. Now, with these proposed rollbacks, communities are once again confronting basic questions about drinking water safety, long-term health protections, and whether current systems are doing enough to prevent future pollution.
The Cape Fear River Basin is one of the most ecologically diverse regions in North Carolina, with interconnected rivers, wetlands, and floodplains that support unique wildlife, local economies, recreation, and drinking water supplies.
The proposed changes to existing standards focus on drinking water, but they also raise broader concerns about how communities address pollution in rivers and waterways. Communities in the Cape Fear River Basin are facing the reality that protecting clean water requires sustained attention, coordinated action, and accountability across entire watersheds.
American Rivers is proud to support our local partner organizations working in those communities most directly impacted. Across the watershed, local partner organizations continue to play a critical role in elevating community concerns, documenting pollution impacts, and advancing solutions that protect both people and clean water. Clean Cape Fear, Cape Fear River Watch, Haw River Assembly, and Sustainable Sandhills have helped build public awareness of PFAS contamination while advocating for stronger protections and greater accountability from polluters.
What can we do to protect clean water?
American Rivers supports bipartisan federal legislation that would help communities address PFAS contamination and modernize aging water infrastructure.
Congress can help strengthen protections for communities facing PFAS contamination. We are asking Senators to support the Healthy H2O Act (H.R. 4721 / S. 2436), which would help rural homeowners and communities access water quality testing and treatment resources for contaminants such as PFAS, particularly in areas that rely on private wells.
Protecting drinking water requires more than treating pollution after it reaches the tap. It also means preventing harmful chemicals from entering rivers and wastewater systems in the first place. Keeping pollution out of rivers protects public health, reduces treatment costs, and helps safeguard fish, wildlife, and recreation.
Summer is here! That means longer days for fishing, hiking, kayaking, swimming – more daylight for all of your favorite river activities. Summer is my favorite time of year. To me, nothing compares to creating memories with friends and loved ones during group paddles and river hangs. Even alone, just sitting and listening to the water as it makes its way downstream – the riffles, the rapids, the birds, the fish splashing grounds me and reminds me that rivers have life within and around them — life that depends on them.
For National Rivers Month, we want to celebrate the common belief that Life Depends on Rivers®. There is a reason it is the American Rivers tagline. Rivers provide our drinking water, grow our food, and provide vital habitat for fish and wildlife. All life requires healthy rivers to survive.
This year has been a challenging year for rivers, with many threats putting clean water and ecosystems at risk. That’s why it is more important than ever to recognize and celebrate the progress we make together.
I hope you enjoy some celebratory updates from the past year that show the impact we can have if we all work together to protect our rivers under the shared belief that Life Depends on Rivers®.
100 Dams Down: A Big Year for Reconnecting Rivers in the U.S.
In 2025, the United States removed 100 dams. One hundred outdated, often crumbling, and frequently dangerous structures were pulled from our waterways across 30 states. In their wake, more than 4,893 miles of river were reconnected — the most upstream miles ever reconnected in a single year in the U.S. through dam removal. In these rivers, water is flowing freely again for the first time in decades, sometimes centuries. Learn more…
Tijuana River’s landmark agreement to stop toxic pollution
The Tijuana River ranked #2 in our 2025 America’s Most Endangered Rivers® report due to toxic pollution threatening border communities. This designation, developed with partners Surfrider Foundation and Un Mar de Colores, helped catalyze swift federal action. Within three months of the April report release, American Rivers and others were invited to meet with EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, which helped build momentum for a landmark agreement between the United States and Mexico to address the ongoing public health crisis. This demonstrates how strategic advocacy, combined with persistent community leadership, drives solutions for rivers and their communities. Learn more…
Texas voters approve $20 billion investment for water and flood resilience
In a groundbreaking victory, Texas voters approved a ballot initiative dedicating $1 billion annually for 20 years to fund water infrastructure improvements, wetland and floodplain restoration, and river reconnection projects. This is the largest state-based investment in water resources in U.S. history — a bipartisan triumph showing that water wins at the ballot box. American Rivers Action Fund worked alongside the National Wildlife Federation Action Fund and Texans for Opportunity to support this groundbreaking measure, paving the way for similar successes across the country. Learn more…
Celebrating a long-awaited urban wetland restoration in Seattle
After years of planning and partnership, a headwater wetland restoration project in West Seattle reached a major milestone — and in February, the community gathered to celebrate. As our Northwest Region team’s first urban wetland restoration project, this work demonstrates how restoring headwater wetlands can strengthen neighborhoods, improve habitat, and serve as a model for other urban communities. Learn more…
For many Idahoans, the Teton River is forever linked to one fateful day: June 5, 1976.
That morning, the Teton Dam catastrophically failed during its initial filling, unleashing a wall of water that devastated downstream communities and changed lives in an instant. But another loss often receives less attention: before the failure, the dam’s reservoir had inundated the Teton Canyon, flooding one of the Northern Rockies’ special river landscapes.
The Teton Canyon is more than a footnote on dam failures and lost rivers. In the 50 years since the dam failed, both the canyon and the river have had an opportunity to recover. Today, the Teton once again carries cool, clear water through one of the Northern Rockies’ remarkable deep canyons. The canyon is again an important place for the protection and restoration of Yellowstone cutthroat trout, a species central to the region’s ecology and angling heritage. Anglers, hunters, boaters, and families again value this place. The canyon and river are part of eastern Idaho’s identity, and today the Teton remains eastern Idaho’s only major river without a large dam and reservoir system altering its character.
After the failure, the Teton River received something precious: a second chance.
Across the country, communities are proving that rivers can recover when people invest in restoration, remove outdated infrastructure, and work together to reconnect and repair damaged waterways. However, opportunities to reverse major damage do not come easily, and meaningful recovery takes time, commitment, and partnership.
Over the last several decades, people throughout the region have invested in restoring and improving the Teton River system, and it shows. In the Teton Valley upstream, conservationists, farmers, and communities have worked together to find practical solutions that support agriculture while protecting and restoring river health.
Those partnerships — including Friends of the Teton River and Trout Unlimited’s Idaho chapter — matter because water challenges in the West are real. Communities need reliable water supplies. Farmers need certainty. Rivers need enough water to sustain fisheries, wildlife, and recreation economies. Too often, those needs are framed as incompatible; the work done in the Teton Valley has shown another path.
As Scott Bosse, the Director of American Rivers’ Northern Rockies Region, says in the film Second Chance:
“What is happening in the Teton River Valley, where conservationists and farmers and irrigators are coming together with innovative solutions to meet each other’s needs without building big dams in a way that satisfies all of them, while not just protecting the river but restoring it. It’s a unique culture that’s been built, especially on the upper Teton, and I’d like to see it replicated all over the West.”
This lesson matters today because some downstream interests are again promoting rebuilding the Teton Dam.
Rebuilding the dam would not simply create a reservoir, it would once again flood the Teton Canyon and place at risk a river system that communities have spent decades improving. It would ignore the progress already being made through collaboration and innovative approaches that recognize healthy rivers and healthy communities can succeed together.
As Scott says later in the film: “That river almost died in 1976. It’s had a resurrection. You don’t get many second chances in life, and you’ve got to seize them when you do.”
The Teton River got a second chance. Let’s not squander it.
Visit the Fishcamp Collab for Conservation and watch the short film Second Chance and enter to win amazing raffle items!
The broken dam
In a small village in the Catskill Mountains, the century-old Lake Jefferson Dam still stands, crumbling.
This seemingly innocuous dam has the potential to cause a fatal flood if it fails. Its spillway, completed in 1926, is no longer large enough to safely pass the floods the region is facing as storms grow more intense. It has already been damaged in past floods. Today the owners, whose home sits just below the dam, are working with partners to remove the obsolete structure before it catastrophically collapses.
Built on the pristine East Branch of Callicoon Creek in the Upper Delaware River Basin, the decaying dam also blocks important habitat for fish and other species. Decades of sediment have built up, leaving the dam’s impoundment only a few feet deep. The spillway is scarred from past floods and chunks of concrete are missing, exposing the core of the structure.
The Lake Jefferson Dam was built for recreation and later repurposed as a micro-hydropower project in the 1980s. Now it sits unused and in disrepair, waiting to be safely removed. It provides no flood control and in fact poses a serious hazard for flooding. If it were to fail, it could send a wall of water downstream, threatening nearly a hundred homes.
This dam is not unique.
Across the country, dams are failing, or on the verge of failing, more than ever. Over the past twenty years, the number of dam failures or emergency incidents has risen from an average of three per year to more than 70.
We are facing an infrastructure crisis hidden in plain sight.
Rising dam safety emergencies
Dam safety challenges are being driven by two major forces: aging infrastructure and increasingly severe storms.
While age alone does not make a dam unsafe, older dams require more maintenance and upgrades to remain secure. At the same time, more intense storms are producing floods that many dams were never designed to withstand, making failures more likely. In addition, development has often expanded downstream of dams, putting more people at risk should dams fail.
Bringing dams up to modern dam safety standards is expensive. For owners of uneconomic dams or obsolete dams, it is often a nonstarter. As a result, many dams are poorly maintained and, in some instances, abandoned altogether.
State dam safety offices are responsible for regulating more than seventy percent of the dams that are in the U.S. National Inventory of Dams. Yet many offices lack the staff and resources needed to oversee their vast inventory of dams. As a result, dam safety offices are forced to prioritize their oversight, leaving thousands of dams unchecked. Even when safety upgrades are identified, dam owners often lack the resources or will to implement them.
Dam safety offices need greater funding and capacity not only to monitor existing dams, but also to support the removal of those that are obsolete and unsafe.
Unregulated killers
Some dams pose a danger not just if they fail, but simply by existing.
Low head dams, typically less than 15 feet tall, are designed to allow water to continuously flow over the crest of the dam. This design can create a powerful recirculating current at the base of the dam, a hydraulic that can trap and hold swimmers, paddlers, and even rescuers underwater.
These structures are often referred to as “drowning machines,” and have been linked to at least 780 deaths in the U.S.
Most low head dams fall outside of state dam safety jurisdiction. While some states require warning signs, enforcement is often limited by gaps in authority and resources. As a result, known lethal hazards can remain in place for decades, long after they have outlived any useful purpose.
Maintain them or drain them
Selective removal of dams, particularly those that have become obsolete or unsafe, is an increasingly practical and cost-effective solution.
Dam removal eliminates long-term liability for dam owners while also improving river health, making it an economical and effective solution to costly repairs and upgrades. More than 2,300 dams have been removed around the country, most within the past two decades, and dam removal is now widely recognized as part of the natural lifecycle of infrastructure.
Dam safety professionals are increasingly embracing this approach. Federal and state guidance, along with technical resources, now help dam owners evaluate when removal makes more sense than repair. As well-known dam safety engineer Charles Karpowicz often puts it, “Maintain ‘Em or Drain ‘Em.”
Beyond eliminating safety risks, dam removal can also strengthen climate resilience. Research from Utah State University found that removing aging and obsolete barriers helps rivers regain their natural function, allowing them to better adjust to and recover from extreme weather events.
In other words, strategically removing dams doesn’t just reduce risk, it helps prevent future disasters.
Back in New York
Each spring, ice melts off Lake Jefferson, revealing the aging dam beneath it.
This spring, engineers have been collecting data and finalizing plans to remove the structure and restore the East Branch of Callicoon Creek. The work takes time, but the goal is simple: eliminate a known hazard before it becomes a catastrophe.
The dam owners, community members, and dam safety officials are all working toward the same outcome: a future where this stretch of river flows freely again and where the community downstream can breathe a little easier, knowing one more dangerous dam is no longer a risk.
May 31 is National Dam Safety Awareness Day. Find out what dams are at risk near your community and push for repairs, upgrades, or removal.
In California’s Central Valley, a river can look alive and still be starving. The San Joaquin winds through farmland and former floodplain country, but for much of the last century, it has been cut off from the seasonal flooding that is the lifeforce of juvenile fish. That is why inland salmon and steelhead — ocean-going rainbow trout — recovery conversations keep circling back to one idea: The river must be reconnected to the land beside it.
When the San Joaquin ran dry
The modern San Joaquin reflects decades of intensive flow regulation and water diversion. Completed in 1942, Friant Dam, located on the upper San Joaquin River near Fresno, California, was built to store water for irrigation and provide flood control. The dam helped set in motion a long period in which large sections of the upper San Joaquin ran dry as water was diverted into canals.
The San Joaquin feeds into the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, a key migration corridor and rearing environment for Central Valley salmon. With a dry riverbed and no small inlets or marshy wetlands where they can spawn and rear, spring-run Chinook salmon and steelhead disappeared from the mainstem river for decades.
Friant Dam is a defining chapter, but the broader Central Valley pattern is bigger than a single structure. Across the Central Valley, levees and engineered channels pinned rivers into place, cutting them off from the floodplains that once spread across the valley floor each winter and spring. The result was a loss of productive food webs and sheltered rearing areas for young fish.
Why floodplains make for healthier fish
Some of the best fish habitat on the San Joaquin is not in the river channel itself. In wet years, the shallow edges of the valley floor — the same landscapes we now think of as grasslands and fields — are where young salmon are able to find food and room to grow.
Healthy floodplains are extremely special for salmon and steelhead because of the food availability and the time they provide for young fish to mature. When water spreads out over shallow floodplain surfaces, it warms faster than the main channel as sunlight penetrates the surface, letting aquatic bugs, microbes, zooplankton, and algae flourish. That burst of new food helps young fish put on size fast at exactly the life stage when growth is the difference between making it to the ocean and being lost along the way.
Decades of Central Valley research show the same pattern. Juvenile Chinook that access floodplain habitat grow faster and survive better than fish confined to the main channel. This is largely because floodplains produce far more food. More recent work on managed floodplains, including seasonally flooded agricultural fields, has confirmed that floodplain access can drive some of the fastest juvenile growth rates recorded in the region. No two years look the same on a working river, but many different studies come back with the same result: Floodplain access gives young fish a real survival advantage.
That’s why floodplain reconnection is treated as core salmon and steelhead recovery logic in California. In the San Joaquin system, restoration planning recognizes that floodplains and the food they produce can shape how fast juvenile Chinook grow and how well they survive. Program scientists are directly asking how floodplain productivity predicts juvenile Chinook biomass and growth, and how that information can be used to guide adaptive management on the river.
The restoration fix anglers should care about
If the benefits floodplains provide for fish are repeatedly backed by science, the question becomes: Where and how can floodplains be restored?
This is where American Rivers comes in. Working in partnership with agencies, as well as local communities and organizations throughout the Central Valley, we advance projects that reconnect rivers to their floodplains — not just to restore the functional habitat of native fish and wildlife, but also to improve water quality and lower flood risk in nearby communities.
This includes giving rivers room to spread out during high flows. It also means helping to align the reconnection of San Joaquin’s floodplain with long-term recovery for salmon, steelhead, and other species.
State and federal restoration plans in the San Joaquin frame floodplain reconnection as a way to create shallow and productive rearing habitat for juvenile Chinook and other floodplain-dependent species like Sacramento splittail — a native feeder fish. This includes projects at the San Joaquin River National Wildlife Refuge that manage how floodwater moves onto and off of restored floodplain habitat.
The river and the surrounding valley floor historically functioned as a connected system, where seasonal flooding shaped both aquatic habitat and the grasslands along the river’s edge. Reconnecting the river to parts of that landscape is about restoring floodplain processes that let the river function more naturally, which creates the seasonal habitat young fish depend on.
Most students at the University of California, Santa Barbara pass this place every day without fully realizing how special it is.
Just beyond campus sits Coal Oil Point Reserve and Devereux Slough, a tidal wetland shaped by shifting water and a surprising abundance of life. What might look like an open stretch of land from a distance is actually a dynamic, water-connected landscape.
We asked UCSB students what this place means to them.
“It just feels like a quiet break from everything, even if you’re right next to campus.” — UCSB Environmental Studies Student
More Than Open Space
Coal Oil Point Reserve spans over 170 acres and protects a mix of coastal habitats, including salt marshes, estuaries, dunes, grasslands, and seasonal wetlands. At the center of it all, Devereux Slough shifts throughout the year, sometimes filling with water and at other times drying into salt flats and shallow channels.
That constant transformation is part of what makes the landscape so compelling. It moves and responds, changing with the seasons.
“Spaces like Coal Oil Point give students a controlled but natural environment to not just conduct research in, but also connect to it. These spaces allow UCSB undergrads to be as close as possible to some of our beautiful native wetland species, such as great blue herons, brown pelicans, garter snakes, slender salamanders, and countless more wildlife.” — UCSB Seeds Club Communications Chair
A Landscape Full of Life
Look closer, and the wetland reveals itself as a place full of activity. Birds move through the area in large numbers using the slough and surrounding habitats to rest and feed, as well as lay their nests.
Coal Oil Point is especially known for the western snowy plover, which is a small shorebird that relies on this coastline. Each winter, hundreds gather here, which makes it one of the most significant sites for the species in the United States.
“Once you actually stop and look, there’s so much going on. Birds and so many sounds, it’s definitely way more alive than you might think.” — Earth Sciences UCSB Student
“I didn’t realize how important the area is for wildlife until one of my classes talked about it. It really makes you want to visit it more during the school year.” — UCSB Student
What People See in a Place Like This
People connect to landscapes like this in different ways. For some, it’s about wildlife. For others, it’s about peace and simply having a place nearby that feels different from everyday routines.
“It’s just nice that it’s there. Like you can go out and it’s quiet for a second, even during midterm seasons when things get hectic.” — UCSB Geography Student
“It’s really pretty at sunset. That’s honestly when I notice it the most.”— UCSB Biological Studies Student
“As an environmental student, it’s kind of a reminder for me that there’s really ecologically important functioning habitat right next to all this developed space.”— UCSB Environmental Studies Student
Why It Matters
Places like Devereux Slough are easy to overlook, but they play a critical role in coastal ecosystems. Wetlands filter water, provide habitat, support biodiversity, and connect land and ocean systems in ways that are not always visible.
They also offer a way for people to connect with water and nature in their everyday lives.
“It reminds me that we live in nature, not just around it, and we should always keep working to ease the integration of people with our environment.” — UCSB Coastal Fund Board Member
Coal Oil Point sits at the boundary between campus life and a living, changing ecosystem. It’s a place many students enjoy for recreation, whether they are jogging, biking, doing wildlife photography, or having a picnic. Students fill the area. Once they notice it, community members throughout Goleta find themselves returning to the peaceful haven.
A Closing Reflection
Over the past year, as American Rivers’ Communications Intern, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about the connection between people and the natural places around them. It could be a nationally recognized river system or a quiet wetland beside a college campus, and in both cases, I’ve found that these landscapes matter because they give people a chance to pause and remember that nature is a central and meaningful part of our everyday lives.
That’s part of the power of conservation storytelling. Sometimes protecting a place means starting with simply noticing it.
The next time you walk past your town’s natural oasis like Devereux Slough, I suggest you stop for a few minutes. Watch the birds glide across the water and listen to the breeze through the tall grasses, maybe even sit quietly at sunset before heading back into the rush of the day.
As my time with American Rivers comes to a close, it feels fitting to end with a place like this one. This is a place that reminds us that even in the middle of busy lives and constant movement, there is still value in slowing down long enough to connect with the landscapes around us.
Places like Devereux Slough reveal that the natural spaces woven into our everyday lives are both beautiful and deeply worth protecting for our future generations.