When we first saw this photo, many of us asked the question, “what is that?” or “where can I get one for my river?”  

It all started three years ago when Westchester Parks Foundation (WPF) created the “Clean River Project” with a school group in White Plains, NY. The project’s purpose is to address floatable trash, a major water quality issue, on the Bronx River. 

To do this, WPF installed two booms about 7 miles apart, that float across the Bronx River from bank to bank and supported by cement polls. The booms are comprised of connected floatation devices with a lip that sits half in/half out of the water. Basically, it catches trash floating down the river. After floating for a week or two, the booms end up looking like this (see picture below). 

Also featured in the photo are volunteers removing floatable trash caught by a boom. This photo was captured at an event hosted by WPF and Riverkeepers and resulted in around 40 volunteers collecting 5,244 items from the river—equaling 288 pounds of trash. These volunteers together put in a total of 156 hours of work for this cleanup event!  

Every other week WPF volunteers arrive on site, slide on their waders and hop into the river to remove the collected trash one by one. This activity happens quite regularly to make sure the booms, and river are kept clean.   

As they remove the trash, volunteers count bottles, cans, straws, and more. One volunteer is tasked with recording every piece of trash pulled out. This allows WPF to track the number of pieces of trash and the type of trash. Erin Cordiner, WPF’s Director of Volunteer Programs says, “the information we collect helps find the sources and stops trash from entering the river in the first place.” 

According to WPF, the three most common things found are Styrofoam, cigarette butts and plastics. Sometime this year the high school volunteers will be analyzing the compiled data of their research to propose different strategies to help prevent more river pollution.  

To address these issues, WPF engages volunteers by promoting outreach to local businesses whose products end up in and along the river, creating a uniting message surrounding the harm to our waterways caused by non-biodegradable materials.  

WPF engages the public to advocate for and invest in the preservation, conservation, use, and enjoyment of the 18,000 acres of parks, trails, and open spaces within the Westchester County Parks system. Their 2019 National River Cleanup® winning photo is only a glimpse into the astounding work that they do every day. During the peak season of April-November, WPF engages with their community with all kinds of events every single day!   

It’s all about community engagement… and clean parks of course! WPF notes, “Events like these bring together their community, at all ages, and shows them exactly what happens to their trash if it is not disposed of properly. It is a chance for people to really see how trash can wind up in their local parks that they might not otherwise notice. Once you get a few people involved with a local project, it doesn’t take long before you are able to inform an entire locality about positive change that is possible through simple acts of volunteering!” They have since been able to expand to two locations with four school groups. They are always looking for more local groups, school groups or otherwise, to get involved with their Clean River Project so reach out to them if you’re interested!  

If you are an organizer and looking for a new way to clean up and catalog the trash in your river while engaging community members, this may be the project for you. The booms need to be checked regularly to collect the trash. If anyone is looking to do a similar project, WPF invites you to reach out to them. They are willing to offer advice, logistics and more to help you get started.   

Congratulations to WPF, winners of the 2019 National River Cleanup® Photo Contest. Thank you for all your hard work keeping our rivers clean! 

As President-elect Biden’s Cabinet appointments take shape, one thing is clear: addressing climate change and environmental justice will be at the forefront of his administration. That’s a good thing for the planet and for rivers and clean water.

In historic choices, Biden named Rep. Deb Haaland to be Secretary of the Interior and Michael Regan to be Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Haaland, a citizen of Laguna Pueblo in New Mexico, will be the first Native American Cabinet secretary. Regan, who has led North’s Carolina’s Department of Environmental Quality, will be the first Black man to run the EPA.

Also joining the Cabinet will be former Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm as Secretary of Energy. Former Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack will be returning to serve as Secretary of Agriculture, a position he held for eight years under President Obama.

In addition, Biden named former EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy to head a new White House Office of Climate Policy, where she will lead the administration’s domestic climate change initiatives. Her counterpart on the international front will be former Secretary of State and Senator John Kerry, who will serve as a special envoy on climate change.

Leading the White House Council on Environmental Quality will be Brenda Mallory. She is an experienced environmental lawyer, working at EPA and CEQ and most recently at the Southern Environmental Law Center, a public interest environmental law firm that has represented American Rivers in litigation.

Each of these appointments reflects President-elect Biden’s commitment to make addressing the existential threat of climate change a top priority for his administration. Moreover, by appointing people of color such as Haaland, Regen, and Mallory to key environmental posts, Biden is demonstrating that addressing systemic racism and the disproportionate environmental harm suffered by communities of color will be hallmarks of his environmental policies.

Perhaps no appointment better signals the importance of addressing climate change than Biden’s appointment of Brian Deese to lead the National Economic Council. In the Obama administration, Deese was a senior advisor to the President on climate and energy policy, where he helped negotiate the Paris climate agreement. President-elect Biden has pledged to reenter the Paris agreement on the first day of his administration.

With the appointment of Deese to lead on economic policy, Biden is making clear that addressing climate change and restoring the nation’s economic health go hand-in-hand.

At American Rivers, we recognize that the impacts of climate change often register first and hardest on rivers, with more frequent droughts and devastating floods. These impacts, in turn, fall disproportionately on Black, Latino, and indigenous communities. To address these problems, American Rivers developed our 2021 Blueprint for Action for healthy rivers and clean water. In addition, our comprehensive report, Rivers as Economic Engines: Investing in Clean Water, Communities and Our Future, provides a roadmap for the new administration and Congress on how investing in healthy rivers and clean water can help address climate change, further environmental justice, and rebuild our economy.

With the team President-elect Biden is putting in place, American Rivers should find a receptive audience for our policy recommendations, helping to repair the damage the Trump administration inflicted on rivers and clean water and forge a better, more equitable future of healthy rivers and clean water everywhere, for everyone.

As we wave farewell to 2020, our minds are set on the future, and promise of a new year. But to know where we’re going, we must first look back at where we’ve been in this unforgettable year. Here’s what the year meant for rivers and clean water across the country, as seen through the lens of our most popular blogs.

Record Number of States (26!) Remove Dams in 2019

Remember February? Well, it’s almost here again and with it comes our annual Dam Removal Report. Last year, more states than ever before were restoring rivers through dam removal. American Rivers maintains the only database of record for dam removals in the United States. The database (here) includes information on 1,722 dams that have been removed since 1912.

River of the Year for 2020: The Delaware River

In April we had the privilege to bring some good news when it was hardest to find: The Delaware River was named 2020’s River of the Year. We gave the Delaware this honor to recognize its momentous progress for water quality, river restoration and community revitalization.

A big dam problem: The disaster in Michigan and solutions for the future

2020 being 2020, of course there was a dam failure. Thankfully, no one was seriously hurt. The Edenville Dam failed in Michigan on May 19, forcing thousands of residents to evacuate their homes during a global pandemic. This unnatural disaster served as a chilling reminder that it’s time to prioritize river protection and investment in smart infrastructure. Our communities, our economy and our lives depend on it.

7 Ways to Safely Recreate Again

As spring turned to summer, river-lovers started eyeing their next opportunity to get out on the water for a taste of normalcy. But the world wasn’t quite normal yet. To help the responsible recreators, we created a list of tips for how to recreate in ways that are thoughtful and considerate not just toward the places we go, but also the people we encounter there. Even as we enter 2021, this list is still relevant and worth checking out.

Flooding and injustice are deeply linked — particularly during a pandemic

As the pandemic continued to affect our lives well into the summer, Black Lives Matter and other social justice movements awakened the world to the need for racial justice and reform. Then came hurricane season.

Throughout the Carolinas, many communities were historically built based on practices that located Black, Latinx and Indigenous communities in less-valuable and often flood-prone areas. As a result, these communities are more likely to be displaced from their homes during hurricane-related floods and face more obstacles rebuilding afterward. To rebuild a better world, we called on Congress to invest $500 billion over 10 years to create the transformational change we need to ensure clean water and healthy rivers for all. Our report, Rivers as Economic Engines: Investing in clean water communities and our future, details how the right investments in water infrastructure and river restoration can make all the difference.

American Rivers recently praised PacifiCorp and parent company Berkshire Hathaway for stepping up to ensure dam removal and river restoration on the Klamath River in Oregon and California. While we applaud PacifiCorp for taking responsibility for the damage that their dams have caused on the Klamath, they still have work to do on Washington’s Lewis River. American Rivers, the Cowlitz Indian Tribe, the Yakama Nation and other partners are working hard to hold them accountable.

The Lewis River flows through southwest Washington beginning at Adams Glacier on Mt. Adams and drains a basin of roughly 1,400 square miles. The river winds its way through Gifford Pinchot National Forest before joining the Columbia River near La Center, WA.

The Cowlitz, Yakama, Klickitat, and Chinook people have all called the basin home since time immemorial and the river was home to abundant salmon, central to their life and culture. Today, four large hydropower facilities block the river, preventing salmon and bull trout from returning to their home waters. Constructed between 1931 and 1958, the Lewis River hydroelectric project consists of Merwin Dam, Yale Dam, and Swift No. 1 and Swift No. 2 which are joined by a canal. Cowlitz County Public Utility District owns the Swift No. 2 facility, while PacifiCorp owns Merwin, Yale, and Swift No. 1 and operates all four facilities to produce a total of 580 megawatts of hydroelectricity – enough power to supply approximately 460,000 homes per year. While some salmon not used for broodstocking at the Lewis River or Merwin hatcheries are trapped at the lowermost dam and transported above the uppermost dam by truck, these facilities deny access to traditional spawning habitat for a majority of adult Lower Columbia River salmon and prevent juvenile salmon from outmigrating to the ocean.

In 2004, the utilities signed a settlement agreement with American Rivers and other non-governmental organizations, eleven federal and state governmental agencies, the Cowlitz Indian Tribe and the Confederated Bands and Tribes of the Yakama Nation. This agreement accompanied the most recent license required to operate the dams, which was granted by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in 2008. The agreement stipulated that the utilities must provide fish passage facilities which would allow anadromous fish to move through each of the three project reservoirs by their own volition – opening up over 170 miles of spawning habitat. The requirement of full fish passage throughout the entire Lewis River was celebrated by salmon advocates throughout the region.

In 2016, the utilities presented information to the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) and United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) in an attempt to evade their obligation to build fish passage facilities by claiming that habitat restoration actions can provide equivalent benefits to fish passage at a lower cost. Despite the significant scientific and technical information disputing this conclusion, NMFS and USFWS issued a determination that deemed fish passage “inappropriate” four years later. The federal agencies stated that PacifiCorp would likely not need to build two of the proposed facilities and could defer a decision to build the other two facilities until 2031 and 2035.

Emboldened by the decision made by NMFS and USFWS, the utilities have submitted amended applications to FERC that would allow them to renege on their agreement of building fish passage facilities throughout each of the three reservoirs. As stipulated in the 2004 Settlement Agreement, if fish passage is deemed inappropriate, the utilities will instead implement a habitat restoration plan. The utilities have proposed and filed applications for the “In Lieu plan,” a program which would seek to improve 41 miles of aquatic habitat in the headwaters of the Lewis River at the cost of $21 million — a savings of over $160 million from the original fish passage plan. Despite insufficient evidence provided by the utility companies or by NMFS to suggest that fish passage is inappropriate, the utilities are forging ahead with a cheaper plan that will fail to recover federally threatened Lower Columbia River salmon and bull trout populations.

NMFS requires that members of the Aquatic Coordination Committee (ACC), a committee formed under the 2004 Settlement Agreement to help coordinate and consult on aquatic measures related to the projects, to reach a consensus agreement before NMFS will consult on the proposed habitat restoration plans. Members of the ACC, which includes American Rivers staff, are now being asked to sign off on the utilities’ attempt at skirting their obligation to provide fish passage through the reservoirs. In addition to American Rivers, other parties to the ACC that have voted not to approve the In Lieu plan include the Lower Columbia Fish Recovery Board, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation, the Cowlitz Tribe, and Trout Unlimited.

There has been insufficient evidence provided by the utility companies or by NMFS to suggest that fish passage is inappropriate, and to move forward with the In Lieu habitat restoration plan without the consensus of the Settlement Agreement parties is premature. The In Lieu plan put forth by the utilities does not present a comparison of habitat restoration impacts to impacts of full fish passage through the reservoirs. Generally, the In Lieu plan errs on the side of over-estimating the benefits of habitat restoration while under-estimating the benefits of full fish passage through the dams.

There remains too much uncertainty when it comes to how and when salmon and bull trout populations will respond to habitat restoration. American Rivers does not support the In Lieu plan put forth by the utilities and does not agree that the In Lieu plan will aid in Lower Columbia River salmon recovery.

Sixteen years ago, PacifiCorp and Cowlitz County PUD made a promise to address the damage that their dams inflict on the Lewis River by installing fish passage. Now, they are trying to get out of this obligation. They have a responsibility to restore the Lewis River’s salmon runs and that means ensuring fish passage at the dams. For the river, the salmon, and all who benefit from a healthy Lewis River, we won’t settle for less.

This blog was written by Olivia Dorothy, Upper Mississippi River Basin Director, American Rivers & Brad Gordon, 2017-2019 American Rivers Lapham Fellow, currently the Southern Minnesota Program Manager at Great River Greening 

In the Midwest, nitrogen and phosphorus pollution from farms is a persistent problem. In excess, these nutrients, which plants need to thrive, can cause toxic conditions in lakes, rivers, streams and aquifers. Too much nitrogen in a water supply can interrupt the delivery of oxygen to your body’s cells, which can lead to death, particularly in infants. Both phosphorus and nitrogen pollution can also contribute to toxic algae blooms in lakes, rivers and estuaries. The over-production of blue-green algae can suck all the oxygen out of the water column and cause massive fish kills.  Some types of algae can also produce a toxin, microcystin, that can cause a range of stomach problems and liver failure.   

In 2014, a large toxic algae bloom in Lake Erie caused 400,000 people in Toledo to lose access to clean drinking water.ⁱ Nutrient pollution-fueled “dead zones” along the U.S. coasts costs our seafood and tourism industries at least $82 million a year.ⁱⁱ  Even communities along hundreds of miles of the Ohio River had to issue drinking water advisories in 2019 due to drought-like conditions that helped the toxic algae flourish.ⁱⁱⁱ  

While nutrient pollution is a global problem, it is particularly prevalent in the Upper Midwest Corn Belt. Corn requires massive amounts of fertilizer that farmers deliver in the raw, inorganic forms. The inorganic forms of fertilizer are more water soluble, meaning the plant can take up the nutrients faster. But it also means that they are easily washed downstream during precipitation events, where they cause problems for aquatic ecosystems and drinking water supplies. 

To respond to this growing environmental crisis, Mississippi River Basin states have developed nutrient reduction strategies to target investments in voluntary on-farm conservation and land management practices that will reduce nutrient pollution. While several strategies call for more enrollment of land into conservation easements and the establishment of wetlands, most states have overlooked floodplain restoration as an important tool to help reduce nutrient pollution.  

In addition to floodplain restoration’s potential to remove nutrient pollution from rivers, floodplain restoration has the benefit of providing many additional ecosystem services for communities. Reconnecting and restoring floodplains can help convey floodwater away from people and critical infrastructure, provide habitat for native plants and animals, recharge groundwater supplies, spur economic developing and property tax revenues, and increase the quality of life for communities by providing natural areas for recreation and relaxation.^v  

To better understand the nutrient removal potential of ecologically healthy floodplains, American Rivers conducted a literature review of over 200 studies from North America and Europe, 40 of which contained relevant data for our study. We found that floodplain reconnection and ecosystem restoration has the potential to permanently remove both nitrogen and phosphorus from the water column. 

The literature review also found that nutrient retention potential of floodplains is likely based on a few key design features. These include: 

1. Engineering the floodplain landscape to slow the water down. Although more flow across the floodplain could lead to a greater total mass of nutrients removed, the floodplain will lose effectiveness (the percent removal) as flow rates increase. 

2. Incorporating a permanently inundated wetland in the floodplain area. Permanent inundations with shallow or gently graded banks provide the most aquatic-terrestrial fringe habitat that is ideal for bacteria that remove nitrogen. Ephemeral wetlands that dry out completely and ponds with steep banks have limited nitrogen removal potential.  

3. Ensuring geomorphic diversity across the floodplain. Incorporating dips and swells into the floodplain landscape will help slow the water down so it can drop out phosphorus laden soil. Most soil is consolidated and buried on the floodplain and will not be released over the long-term.  

4. Restoring dense vegetation in the floodplain. Vegetation improves nutrient removal by providing organic matter for denitrifying microbes and slows water flow for better sedimentation and accretion. 

5. Harvesting vegetation from floodplains where feasible. This may aid in phosphorus removal, but caution should be taken due to the unknown impact on native plant communities. 

6. Restoring floodplains along waterways with higher concentrations of nutrients. Floodplains can permanently remove large amounts of nutrients as long as the water is slowed down to maximize nutrient removal.  

Floodplain restoration should be used more in the Midwest as a tool to remove nutrient pollution. Too often, floodplain development projects overlook restoration as an option. Ecosystem restoration is often perceived as having a low or negative return on investment. Home buyouts in floodplains might allow the river to be reconnected, but the ecosystem functionality is not restored – the land is usually maintained as paved or turfed “open space.” Where ecosystem restoration projects do take place in floodplains, reconnection to the river is rare as funding sources usually prohibit restoration projects in frequently flooded lands.  

Our publication adds to a growing body of evidence that floodplain restoration is an essential tool to improve water quality and build more resilient communities.  

Read the full paper here. 

Citation: Gordon, Brad, Olivia Dorothy, Christian Lenhart. 2020. Nutrient retention in ecologically functional floodplains: A review. Water, 12, 2762. 

Just like the seasons, rivers change, and change is hope (a particularly valuable commodity nowadays). While summer and spring tend to receive the most fanfare, we think each season on the river holds its own special beauty and adventures. These are a few of our favorite things about getting out on the river, no matter the season:

More than any other season, a river in spring is a messenger of hope. Their floods nourish the ground with fresh soil. They invite us to join in the songs and dances of animals, to do something new and bold. Watching life sprout up after a long winter can sometimes be all it takes to regain the strength inside us to keep pushing for a better world. 

Spring also brings the start of National River Cleanup® season! Across the country, people volunteering for National River Cleanup® commit their time and energy to keeping our rivers clean for all to enjoy. We are grateful to our sponsors for helping to inspire their communities to join us – in 2019 Cascade Blonde pledged to work in their communities along side National River Cleanup and local river organizations to keep 100,000 pounds of trash from waterways. There’s no better (or more fun) way to see the power a single person can have within a community than joining a river clean up. 

Summer on the river gets all the attention, with good reason! When the thermometer starts creeping up, nothing beats hitting the gravel road, rolling down the window and making your way to the river. It’s not just about beating the heat and escaping to bask in the cooler temperatures rivers provide. From serene paddles to whitewater action; from lazy floats to fly-fishing; from riverside hikes to family picnics — summer rivers have it all.

Honestly, the only hard part is, no matter how excited we are for fall, it still hurts to see the treasured days of summer slip through our fingers. Oh, and toxic algae.

Ah fall: when every leaf is a flower and every river a painting. Every autumn, river and stream valleys around the country erupt with beautiful fall colors and the chorus of migrating birds making their way south. Finally, the perfect opportunity to flex those photography skills!

It’s also the time for bundling up in flannels and hiking boots. Finally, you can explore and camp without every insect in a five mile radius begging to make your acquaintance. The change in humidity, that crisp air we all love, also means hiking doesn’t have to drench you in a layer of your own perspiration. The same is true for heading to the river to help clean up plastics and litter. You’ll be surprised how long you can stay out there on a cool fall day with a thermos of something warm. 

When the days grow short, some of us prefer hibernating. But for the winter river warriors out there, new sights and adventures await. Where it gets cold enough, ice crystals turn ordinarily beautiful rivers into extraordinary exquisite rivers and skiing makes their trails even more accessible.

Even in the middle of winter, water and rivers are the ultimate source of life. If you’re lucky, you might catch a peek at some of the amazing animals that take on the cold temperatures, harsh weather, and limited food supplies in their own special way. Plus, we all know there’s no better feeling than really earning that cozy cup of hot cocoa after a day out in the cold. 

If nothing else, the winter gives us the opportunity to mark the end of another year with the people and rivers we love. 

Let’s be real: 

Rivers are perfect every second, minute and day, no matter the season! 

Whats your favorite river season?

When two tribes, two states and Warren Buffett step up and commit to the world’s biggest dam removal project – it’s a big deal.

That’s what happened last week, when the Karuk and Yurok tribes, California Governor Newsom, Oregon Governor Brown, the Klamath River Renewal Corporation and PacifiCorp, a subsidiary of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, announced an agreement that advances the removal of four dams on the Klamath River.

This river restoration has taken decades of effort by the tribes, American Rivers and many partners. We are thrilled to reach this milestone and we’re going to keep at it until we reach the finish line – and see this river flowing free.

We hope this ad, running in USA Today and the Salem Statesman Journal, expresses our deep gratitude to Governor Brown, Governor Newsom, the Karuk and Yurok tribes, PacifiCorp and the KRRC.

The press conference on November 17 was moving, with everyone speaking from the heart.

Here are some highlights:

Yurok Chairman Joseph L. James –

“This dam removal is more than just a concrete project coming down. It’s a new day and a new era for tribes.”

“We are connected with our heart and prayers to these creeks, lands and animals, and our way of life will thrive with these dams coming out.”

“It is our duty and our oath to bring balance to the river.”

“The effort to heal the Klamath River is an expression of tribal sovereignty, a fulfillment of Indian rights and a restoration of justice. It benefits our neighbors up and down the West coast. The effort to heal the Klamath River is who we are. We walk it, we live it, we pray it.”

Karuk Chairman Russell “Buster” Attebery –

“The Karuk people have been dependent on salmon, steelhead, sturgeon, eels since the beginning of time.”

“My worst day as chairman is when I said there were no fish available for our tribal members, our elders, our children…I’m looking forward very much to having the best day as chairman of the Karuk Tribe when I can say we have restored those fish and we can enjoy those bonding times with our children, when we can go to the river and put the food on the table together.”

“We hope it is a benefit to everyone. Everyone who comes into contact with the Klamath River. Everyone who lives close to the river who wants to vacation here, the farmers and irrigators who live in the upper basin. We want to make sure there is enough water for everybody. Working together, we can do that.”

Oregon Governor Kate Brown –

“What we are doing is more than just signing a legal document. We are taking an incredibly important step forward on the path toward restorative justice for the people of the Klamath basin and toward restoring the health of the river as well as everyone and everything that depends on it.”

“The agreement is about far more than the removal of four dams. It’s a step toward righting historic injustices while also putting these lands and waters on a path to the future that everyone can share.”

“In Oregon, our Klamath tribes remember a time when their livelihoods were supported by clean, healthy and vibrant waters. It is that vision, that promise that we are working toward restoring for generations to come.”

California Governor Gavin Newsom –

“One of the wonderful things about the history of this endeavor is the dialectic between tribal nations, tribal elders… we simply wouldn’t be here without you and your leadership, the council’s leadership, tribal elders’ leadership.”

“Some of my greatest memories are going up to this river with my father…passion doesn’t begin to describe his environmental stewardship, and he really made that indelible in my life … It’s in that generational mindset that I’m here…”

“In a time that we’re filled with so much cynicism, so much anxiety, so much negativity, that we’re here on the precipice of the largest river restoration project in the history of this country…what an extraordinary moment.”

Greg Abel, Berkshire Hathaway –

“I am pleased today to restate PacifiCorp and Berkshire Hathaway’s commitment to the agreement…including the removal of the dams and more important, the restoration of the river and the lives of the tribal communities.”

“We know the issue of removal of these dams is of incredible importance to the tribes and is a matter of social, economic and racial justice.”

Meadows in the Sierra Nevada mountains are critical components of our rivers and watersheds. They are places of beauty, diversity, and important habitat for many native animals, birds, and plants. Meadows also contain large quantities of carbon in their rich, deep soils. While it has been known for some time that meadows harbor large quantities of soil carbon, whether meadow soils are gaining or losing carbon and how this might be related to meadow condition, has been unclear.

Research published in the scientific journal Ecosystems revealed that meadows with wetland plant communities and dense root mats were large net carbon sinks, meaning they removed carbon from the atmosphere. In fact, per acre, the amount of carbon captured in these meadows was similar to rates measured in tropical rainforests. On the other hand, meadows with more bare ground and plant communities associated with drier soil released large amounts of carbon from the soil to the atmosphere. In the long-term, such changes to the large soil carbon stocks in meadows could add up. And unlike in forests, where most carbon is sequestered in wood aboveground, the change in carbon in meadows is belowground. This means meadow soil carbon is less vulnerable to disturbances such as wildfire and may persist in the ecosystem for longer than aboveground carbon. These findings will help us identify meadows to protect to maintain soil carbon gains and meadows in need of restoration to prevent additional losses of soil carbon to the atmosphere.

This Sierra wide study was born through a collaboration between CalTrout, American Rivers, Stillwater Sciences, University of Reno, UC Merced, Plumas Corp, Truckee River Watershed Council, Sierra Foothill Conservancy and South Yuba River Citizen’s League. This collaboration, that eventually grew into the Sierra Meadows Partnership, has demonstrated that meadows throughout the region are both gaining and losing carbon at high rates. Capture and storage of carbon in soil is a natural way to reduce carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere and combat climate change. However, human activities can disrupt natural processes and lead to the loss of soil carbon to the atmosphere. These results suggest that meadow management may either contribute to climate change or mitigate the harmful effects of increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide. The study is aimed at arming restoration practitioners with information to help make good management decisions.

 “It was fantastic to see the amount of dedicated hard work done by literally dozens of people to collect and analyze reliable and consistent samples throughout the Sierra over a three-year period. UNR graduate student Cody Reed added the essential missing parts not included in our original proposal, making it possible to gain a much better understanding of how much carbon is actually going into or out of the soil with healthy versus degraded meadows. The results have been very nicely articulated by Cody in this article,” said Amy Merrill of American Rivers, also a coauthor of the study. Amy helped initiate and the orchestrate this project while at Stillwater Sciences and now, at American Rivers, is leading the second half of this project to determine if these changes in carbon sequestration can be observed once the degraded meadows are restored, and if there is a way to predict those changes through modeling.  

Cody Reed, a doctoral student in Ben Sullivan’s lab at the University of Nevada, Reno, took the lead on the first half of the funded project. Cody added several important aspects to the research design, including an isotope tracing study to better elucidate the flow of carbon through the plant-soil system. Steve Hart at the University of California Merced provided critical scientific insights and has had several undergraduate and graduate students engage in this project. Field soil, vegetation, and gas sample collection was orchestrated by Stillwater Sciences and UNR, with the eight partner organizations each engaged in data collection, and Stillwater Sciences and the two Universities performing laboratory analyses.

“Meadows are hotspots of diversity in the forested landscape of the Sierra Nevada. It is fantastic to see these numbers, demonstrating that healthy meadows provide all kinds of benefits, from habitat for diverse plant and animal species, to improved downstream summer flows and water quality, and now to super impressive rates of carbon sequestration. We now know, like many native American tribes have known for many centuries, that these are places to treasure, restore, and protect.”

One of my favorite quotes is from Leonardo da Vinci, “In rivers, the water that you touch is the last of what has passed and the first of that which comes; so with present time.” Elections are like rivers, framed by what has happened in the past and full of possibility for the future.  This year’s election is no exception.

Now that it appears that Joe Biden is our President-elect, American Rivers is ready to work with President Biden, Vice President Harris, and their administration to repair the substantial damage to rivers and clean water done by the Trump administration over the past four years and, going forward, make real progress in protecting and restoring rivers and conserving clean water.  We’ve identified five priorities for the Biden-Harris administration and Congress in our 2021 Blueprint for Action:

1. Invest in rivers and clean water to recover from COVID-19
2. Reverse regulatory rollbacks and restore strong, effective federal protection for rivers and clean water
3. Improve protection and management of the nation’s floodplains
4. Launch a national initiative to prioritize and fund dam removals
5. Increase protection of Wild and Scenic rivers

While some of these priorities can be accomplished by the new administration itself, many will require congressional action.  Regardless of which party controls the Senate (and we may not know until January following runoff elections in Georgia), Congress will continue to be closely divided, making bipartisanship even more important.

The need for bipartisanship was amply demonstrated in this year’s election when voters on Colorado’s Western Slope voted overwhelmingly to pass ballot measure 7A, raising property taxes to provide nearly $5 million annually for protecting water supplies for farmers and ranchers, drinking water for Western Slope communities, and rivers for fish, wildlife, and recreation.  American Rivers joined with a bipartisan group of stakeholders to lead the campaign for 7A.  As Colorado River District general manager Andy Mueller said in The Aspen Times, the results prove that water “was the one issue that’s not partisan, that was about uniting a very politically diverse region. Everybody is so sick of the nasty, divisive, partisan politics. People with Trump signs and Biden signs voted for the same thing.”

Our slogan at American Rivers, Rivers Connect Us, is worth remembering as a newly elected President Biden and Congress tackle the nation’s pressing issues in the next four years.  While there is a Republican River that flows through Nebraska and Kansas, and a Democrat Creek in Colorado, support for rivers and clean water should not be a partisan issue. 

If you’re like me, you probably have at least a dozen different river stories in the back of your mind.

Some conjure memories of family, friends and the shared experiences on the river, while others might evoke visceral memories of waiting out an hours-long summer afternoon storm, drenched and freezing cold. Your river story might include reeling in the fish of a lifetime, or a long swim through a class five rapid. Maybe there’s a special river you were married on, or another on which you spent your honeymoon, or perhaps you spread the ashes of a loved one on yet another river that holds important meaning.

This week, my river story didn’t involve one specific river, but concerned the protection of many rivers that have shaped my life over the last decade. After the years of outreach I have conducted to Montanans from all walks of life, I know that I’m not alone in harboring a cadre of rivers stories. There are generations upon generations of stories like mine intertwined with the rivers that hold them. And this week, Senator Jon Tester (D-MT) announced his plans to introduce legislation that will forever protect the rivers that hold some of our most sacred and informative stories as Montanans.

On Tuesday, October 27^th, as I drove the long winding lane from Trout Chasers Lodge in Gallatin Gateway, down to the banks of the Gallatin River, I was overflowing with excitement and nervousness. As a steering committee member of the coalition Montanans for Healthy Rivers, I had been helping to plan a press event with Senator Jon Tester’s staff for weeks. This was a moment many of us had been waiting for the last several years or more: The Senator planned to announce he would be introducing the Montana Headwaters Legacy Act.

If you’ve read any of my past blogs or spend time in the river world, you are probably already very familiar with the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act. As the highest form of protection a river can receive, Wild and Scenic designation forever maintains a river’s free flowing nature, clean water and “outstandingly remarkable values.”

Montana’s original Wild and Scenic Rivers – the North, Middle and South Forks of the Flathead River and the Upper Missouri River – were all designated in 1976. Montana did not have another Wild and Scenic designation until East Rosebud Creek gained protection in 2018, bringing the state’s total miles of federally designated Wild and Scenic Rivers to just shy of 400. This still amounts to less than ¼ of 1% of the state’s total river miles.

When the Montana Headwaters Legacy is passed, it will nearly double the number of river miles in Montana that are protected forever as clean and free-flowing.

After parking my vehicle and getting out to greet my colleagues, I took a few moments to absorb my surroundings. The excited chatter of reporters and supporters alike, the smell of a campfire burning to lend some warmth to attendees, and the sound of the Gallatin River in the background will forever cement that day in my memory. To say this is a milestone in the state’s conservation history is an understatement, let alone in my career as a conservation professional.

I have met Senator Jon Tester a few other times over the years, but this time was going to be different. On this occasion, I would be listening to him announce his plans to introduce legislation that my colleagues and I have spent the last nine years of our lives crafting and gathering support for. To be clear, this type of thing doesn’t happen too many times during a conservation-focused career. And legislation that leaves a long-lasting legacy like this one doesn’t happen too many times in a lifetime. 

Like many important occasions of my life, the entire press event went by in a flash. I was so focused on capturing the event for social media, I couldn’t remember what anyone said until I watched it later on my phone at home. And now, almost two days later as I write this blog, am I only starting to put words to my emotions around what happened this week and the weight of its significance.

For those that grew up in the 90s and watched the sitcom “Family Matters,” you might recall the theme song and infamous line, “it’s a rare condition this day in age, to read any good news on the newspaper page.” I feel that’s especially true lately when the shock of each day’s headlines seems to top the previous day’s, and so on and so on. On the rare occasion that good news makes headlines or a reason for celebration presents itself, I find myself humming that tune.

Well friends, this was one of those occasions.

After the press event concluded, a few of my fellow coalition members and I bought a six-pack of beer and traveled down to a nearby river access site to toast the day’s event. At that moment and in the one which I’m writing, I can’t help but reflect on the feeling of immense gratitude.

I felt gratitude as I watched Senator Tester drive off towards home, after an extremely long travel day from Washington D.C., on top of several long days of hearings in the Senate. I feel gratitude for leaders like Senator Tester who make decisions with conviction and genuine care for their constituents and the generations of people they will never know. I feel gratitude for my colleagues in this movement, who work tirelessly for the causes they believe in and the people behind those causes.

It feels a bit like I’m giving an acceptance speech for some award I didn’t win, but during these challenging times we find ourselves in, sifting out the moments I feel thankful seems to be the only way I can make sense of the world and feel comfortable in it.

I hope you read this and feel some sense of comfort in knowing that during such challenging times there can still be reasons to celebrate and be thankful for what we still have to protect. I encourage you to send Senator Jon Tester a personal thanks for this monumental step he is taking to secure Montana’s conservation legacy so that you and I can continue to create the stories that have shaped us to this point. A minute of your time now has the potential to give hours of time to future generations on a river that will undoubtedly shape them.

If you’d like to watch the event yourself, check out the live video stream.

While the national election still hangs in the balance, we have great news for the Colorado River, and rivers on Colorado’s Front Range.

Across the western slope, more than 70% of voters easily passed Ballot Measure 7A, providing much needed funding for the Colorado River District. The ballot measure would raise property taxes across the River District and was approved in 14 of the 15 counties in the district’s region. American Rivers, and several diverse partners were strong advocates for the measure.

A second measure, also on the ballot as 7A, passed on the Front Range, in the St. Vrain – Left Hand District, which encompasses parts of Boulder, Larimer, and Weld Counties. While a smaller district, the success of the measure (similar in structure to the Colorado River District’s question) is no less important to water supply, water quality, and stream health in the area. The measure passed with 68% of the vote – a remarkable accomplishment in such a divided time.

Matt Rice, American Rivers Colorado Basin Director, said that the results prove that water, and protecting the Colorado River, is one issue where western slope voters are united.

“This is a big win for the Colorado River, the two River Districts, and the future of Colorado’s water supplies. The overwhelming support for these measures shows that Coloradans value healthy rivers for our environment, economy and our future. In a polarized election season, we proved that water, and rivers, connect us.” 

In their implementation plans, the River Districts plan to use funds raised by the ballot measures to go towards funding water projects backed by local roundtables and communities in five categories, including healthy rivers, water quality and watershed health, productive agriculture, infrastructure improvements, and conservation and efficiencies.

It has never been more urgent to support funding for the Colorado River.  20 years of drought caused by climate change and increasing demand have diminished water supplies, put the health of rivers at risk and threaten the viability of agriculture.  65% of the flow in the entire Colorado River Basin originate in the Colorado River District’s jurisdiction.

The Colorado River, like all rivers, is critically important to communities on both the West Slope and the Front Range, and to the state of Colorado as a whole. The Colorado River drives a $3.8 billion dollar recreation economy, generates over 26,000 recreation related jobs, and irrigates thousands of acres of farmland.

This is a guest blog by David Stokes, Executive Director of Great Rivers Habitat Alliance.

The City of St. Charles, Missouri, sits between the Missouri and Mississippi rivers within the peninsular county of the same name. Like almost all cities and counties within major floodplains, St. Charles has experienced significant flooding events in recent years. Many of their flooding problems have been caused by irresponsible floodplain developments in neighboring cities and counties.

In early 2020, the City of St. Charles announced it was embarking on two new studies for major levee projects to “protect” parts of the city. The proposed Elm Point levee within the Mississippi River watershed is a typical “build it and they will come” floodplain development project intended to take undeveloped land out of the floodplain (as defined by FEMA) via a new 500-year levee to allow for major commercial development after the levee is built. These types of floodplain developments have been a common occurrence in the St. Louis-region, leading to increased flooding, environmental damage, abuse of tax subsidies, and further harms.

The other proposal, the Frenchtown levee alongside the Missouri River, is slightly more defensible. In this case, existing residents and businesses have seen increased flooding, and the city is trying to help address the situation. While a new, 500-year levee is not the proper answer (and will only make flooding worse for someone else nearby), the people of the Frenchtown neighborhood do deserve help.

Great Rivers Habitat Alliance became concerned as soon as we heard about these proposals. We raised our objections to community groups, local media, and to St. Charles city and county officials. Our objections focused on these projects being just the latest additions in the ongoing regional levee race that has resulted in water being higher and flooding being worse for all our communities. This levee race costs enormous amounts of money, harms the environment, damages vital habitat, and threatens public safety by creating larger and faster floods.

In July, we were informed by Mayor Dan Borgmeyer of St. Charles that the city was cancelling the Elm Point levee study. While they are continuing with the Frenchtown study, it was a great win for the environment that the Elm Point levee proposal has been cancelled. It was also a relatively fast win. For non-profits used to drawn out policy fights that can last for years (including one our organization had with the neighboring city of St. Peters, Missouri, from 2005 to 2011), convincing a local government to cancel a bad proposal this quickly  is uncommon. How did it happen and what can we all take from it?

I think the most important lesson is the importance of routinely following the agendas of local governments in the regions your organization may cover. We learned about these two studies in their embryonic stages just after they had been proposed. Too often, activists hear about projects of all types well after the backers have performed much of the behind-the-scenes work, including consulting fees, preliminary engineering work, etc., that can cost significant money. Spending that money makes it more difficult for a government to just cancel a project. We learned about and began objecting to the Elm Point levee early on, making it easier for the city to listen to our arguments and end the project before expending taxpayer money.

Another lesson is the importance of building good relationships with local officials. In our meeting with city officials, local media, and other groups, we always kept our objections professional and never let it devolve into a personal dispute. Since the decision to end the project, I have given credit where it is due – and will continue to do so – by properly praising Mayor Borgmeyer and other city officials for this great decision. We want a good relationship with the Mayor so that we can be a part of the conservation and debate about the Frenchtown levee. The pressures from developers to pave over America’s floodplains never ends. All we can do as activists is be prepared to fight for our beliefs as effectively as we can.

---

David Stokes is a Saint Louis native and a graduate of Fairfield (Conn.) University. Stokes has been the executive director of Great Rivers Habitat Alliance (GRHA) since 2016. He focuses his efforts on preserving the Confluence floodplain of the Mississippi, Missouri, and Illinois rivers from harmful development. Prior to joining GRHA, he was an assistant to Saint Louis County Councilman Kurt Odenwald from 2001 through 2006. Stokes was a policy analyst at the Show-Me Institute from 2007 to 2016. He currently serves on the University City Commission for Access and Local Original Programming (CALOP) and is a past president of the University City Library Board. Stokes was the 2012 representative to the Electoral College from Missouri’s First Congressional District. He lives in University City, Missouri with his wife and their three children.