This guest blog by John Ruskey, with Quapaw Canoe Company, is a part of our America’s Most Endangered Rivers® series on the Big Sunflower River.

This river has the blues! Besides the many blues and gospel musicians who were born and baptized along its banks, its mussel shell beds, which are reported to be the richest such biota in the world, seem to be in constant danger of overzealous engineering. The Sunflower River has been neglected, dumped upon and over-worked — so much that American Rivers has proclaimed it to be America’s “Most Endangered River” in 2018.

The good news is that its forests constitute the largest bottomland hardwood forests in the National Forest system (they also produce the highest carbon-sequestration of any forests in North America!), and its banks are home to every creature found native to the Mississippi Delta, winged, webbed, or otherwise. It’s a beautiful place to get away, to reflect a moment on the rivers and woods of America, to walk along its banks, to paddle its waters, to enjoy its primeval scenery. Most importantly, it’s home to all of us who live on or near its banks, and second home to many others who love it from a distance. Shouldn’t we be taking better care of our lonely muddy river — the little lonely river with a bad case of the blues?

Natural and Cultural Description: 

The Sunflower River is sometimes difficult to access, in part because it is carved out of the deep mud of the Lower Mississippi Alluvial Valley. Nevertheless it is well worth the effort to explore. Paddlers are rewarded with abundant birds, amphibians and mammals, deep woods, endless wetlands, and the rich culture of the Mississippi Delta. How many rivers can you put-in near the Delta Blues Museum (Clarksdale), paddle behind the most active juke joint in the world (Red’s in Clarksdale), meander though the “birthplace” of the blues (Dockery Plantation), visit another legendary juke joint Club Ebony (BB King’s haunt in Indianola), and end up near the birthplace of Muddy Waters (Rolling Fork)?

The Sunflower is the Mississippi Delta. If a rain drop falls in the Delta most likely it enters the Big Sun somewhere in its 250 mile north-south journey. It receives all waters good and bad from Friars Point, Clarksdale, Cleveland, Indianola, Leland, Greenville, Rolling Fork, and Mayersville. The only major Delta populations it doesn’t drain are Tunica, Greenwood, and Belzoni. Its tributaries include the Hushpuckena, the Quiver River, Bogue Phalia, Silver River, and due to some radical canal work, Deer Creek and Steele Bayou. The Little Sunflower, and some minor bayous and chutes are considered its “distributaries,” waterways that carry its excesses during high water. It is sometimes connected overhead out of its drainage area via Moon Lake and the Yazoo Pass to the Coldwater River and points North and East, but only after torrential rainfall or during the highest of river levels. Of course, during severe flooding, the entire Delta goes under water and then you could really say “the river connects us all!”

The Sunflower River is born in the bayous and lakes of Northern Coahoma County and meanders South some 250 miles through the Yazoo-Mississippi Delta paralleling the Mississippi River on the West and the Yazoo on the East, (with which it confluences with 10 miles above Vicksburg). A small but dynamic river, once forested, now mostly bordered by fields, the Sunflower is a rich habitat for all creatures native to the region, including black bear and panther. Its muddy current averages 2100 cfs (cubic feet per second) at Sunflower, 3461 cfs at the mouth of Bogue Phalia, and approximately 4500 cfs where it empties into the Yazoo River at Steele Bayou.  Its drainage includes most or all of Coahoma, Bolivar, Sunflower, Washington, Sharkey, and Issaquena Counties, some 3,689 square miles, inhabited by 133,075 people (2017 estimate, US Census).

The Sunflower and the Yazoo parallel each other (and not coincidentally the Mississippi River) for the majority of their North-to-South journey, but come from widely different origins. While the Sunflower emerges from the bayous of the North Delta, the Yazoo gurgles out of the Kudzu-covered Piney forests of the Mississippi “Hill” Country, in the form of the Coldwater River. Later it merges with the Tallahatchie (Bobby Gentry: Ode to Bille Joe), and then at Greenwood meets the Yalobusha to form the Yazoo. It also passes through Sledge (home of Charlie Pride), Marks, and Yazoo City. Greenwood was once the cotton stock market capital of the world, and Robert Johnson was reportedly poisoned in a nearby juke joint. Emmet Till was murdered on one of its bayous, igniting the stormiest period of the Civil Rights era.

All Mississippi rivers have the blues to some extent, but the Sunflower has the blues worse than any other. In its journey through the Delta, the Sunflower winds through the layers of mud and history that gave the world its first great blues singer (Charlie Patton, Dockery Plantation), the first mechanized cotton picker (Hopson Plantation), its oldest African-American founded community (Mound Bayou), rural Civil Rights era leaders (Fanny Lou Hamer, Sunflower County; Aaron Henry, Clarksdale), the Teddy Bear (President Theodore Roosevelt was in the Delta National Forest (reportedly somewhere near Little Sunflower Recreation Area) hunting bears when the idea of the teddy bear toy was created.), King of the Chicago Blues (Muddy Waters, born in Rolling Fork, lived 25 years at Stovall) and the renowned ambassador of the blues (B.B. King, Indianola). The Rev. C.L. Franklin (Aretha’s Father) is just one of many who were baptized in her muddy waters. Bessie Smith died at the G.T. Thomas Hospital which sits on her banks in Clarksdale (now the Riverside Hotel). Today you can hear live blues along the river at juke joints Red’s and Ground Zero Blues Club, and learn about the African American history that gave birth to this earth-shaking music at the Delta Blues Museum (Clarksdale) and the BB King Museum (Indianola). Legendary woodsman, Holt Collier (1846-1936), who cornered the Teddy Bear, reported its waters to run clear and clean, and Roosevelt started each day of the hunt with a cold-water swim. One of our long-term objectives is to make the waters safe once again for fishing and swimming. What would Roosevelt think if he returned to the deep forested lands he once hunted in and found their wetlands had been drained of water?

Don’t look for sandbars on this river. You will encounter nothing but thick, rich Mississippi alluvial floodplain soil, and the fields and towns and forests adjacent. Exceptional wildlife, especially raptors and amphibians. Muddy banks make for muddy landings, muddy picnics, muddy camps. In high water the mud is all hidden. But in low water be ready for climbing and descending steep slippery banks of chocolate goo as you enter and exit the waterway.

Of course, the end of one river is just the beginning of another, and so the Sunflower becomes a tributary of the Yazoo River at Steele Bayou. Not far downstream the Yazoo gets swallowed by the mother river, the Mighty Mississippi. There is an outdated plan to build the world’s largest freshwater pumps where the Sunflower joins the Yazoo, the so-called “Yazoo Pumps.” We in the Delta feel the effects of the problem the pumps are supposed to fix, that is “backwater” building up within the Mississippi Delta. We paddlers have some thoughts about this and the water situation everywhere, the lack of good water, the disappearing wetlands, the violent shifts of water levels from drought to flood, from extremely low water levels, to catastrophic flooding on all rivers in the middle of America. Why is this happening? In part because more rain is falling when it rains. In part because we keep cutting off wetlands, like the Mississippi Delta, or building parking lots or neighborhoods, or increasing our farmlands in places where the river used to naturally expand, and its excess waters be absorbed in.

I am but a canoe builder and river guide, and leader of a small group of adventurers, the Mighty Quapaws. But we do know the Sunflower river better than anyone else, if nothing else for the simple fact that we are the only people that actually get out and paddle it. Poor neglected rivers. They have become the closet you stuff all your unwanted things in — where your guests can’t see them. But what if your guests did see them? Then you’d start keeping it a little neater, wouldn’t you? And that’s what we are hoping with the Big Sunflower – we are hoping that these explorations and writings will take some of the fear out of the mud and trashy banks, and add a little respect and recognition of the beauty and great expressions of life – and that more people will get out and paddle it. As more people paddle, maybe the people who dump things over the bank will be less inclined to do so — and those who would build giant expensive pumps — and who knows, maybe with the attention of others they’ll even clean up some of the mess they made last year.

It’s time to stop this terrible ‘Yazoo Pumps’ project and protect the Big Sunflower and it’s rich history once and for all.

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Where can you paddle the Sunflower River?

There are many places along the 250-mile length of the Sunflower River to access and paddle, but the best spots are found around Clarksdale and Rolling Fork. See below for complete listing and links to water trails in Clarksdale, Anguilla, and Rolling Fork. Canoe, kayak and paddle board are all suitable vessels.

Clarksdale:

In the Clarksdale area, you can do a round trip from downtown, paddle upstream as far as you feel like and then turnaround. The Quapaw Canoe Company is a good place to do this from for easy parking, access, maps, and canoes, kayaks and paddle boards for rent. www.island63.com

There is also a beautiful 3 mile paddle (approx 1 hr.) into downtown from the Friars Point Bridge. Or take an afternoon and put in near Clover Hill on the Farrell-Eagle’s Nest Road, 10 miles total (approx 4 hrs). http://lowerdelta.org/paddling-trails/sunflower-river/

Hopson Plantation/Shack Up Inn: Start out near Red’s Juke Joint in downtown Clarksdale and paddle 5 miles downstream for a takeout at the Hopson Bridge, directly behind Friend of the Sunflower River supporting business Shack Up Inn.

Sunflower:

In Sunflower, put in behind the Library and do a round trip paddle, first upstream, you can make an interesting foray up to the mouth of the Hushpuckena River, and then float back into town. (like climbing the mountain: do the hard work first!)

Indianola:

Put in at the confluence of the Quiver River, approx 8 mile paddle to the Hwy 49 Bridge below town. Walk 2 miles north into town to reach Club Ebony, BB King’s favorite juke joint. The phenomenal BB King Museum is located nearby.

Anguilla:

Boat Ramp at the Hwy 14 bridge. Do a round trip, or make a day (or overnight) 14 mile paddle into Delta National Forest, the largest bottomland hardwood forest in the National Forest system. http://lowerdelta.org/paddling-trails/big-sunflower/

Near Rolling Fork/Holly Bluff:

Good ramp on the old channel of the river off highway 16. Paddle upstream past the distributary Little Sunflower River, and meander deeper and deeper into the woods. Round trip: go as far as you feel like paddling, then turn around and return to your vehicle.

Little Sunflower River: Put in at the boat launch off the 433 (Spanish Fort Road) deep in Delta National Forest (the largest bottomland hardwood forest in the National Forest system) and explore the same woods legendary hunting guide Holt Collier frequented. http://lowerdelta.org/paddling-trails/little-sunflower/

Near Eagle Lake:

Steele Bayou Confluence: put in at the Steele Bayou Control Structure and paddle upstream ½ mile to the confluence of Steel Bayou, where steamboats used to start their journey up into the frontier Mississippi Delta.

Yazoo River Confluence: put in at the Steele Bayou Control Structure for a one-mile paddle to the mouth of the Big Sun at the Yazoo, the “River of Death.”  Enquire about further paddling options down the Yazoo River.

Rivers are the lifelines of Colorado’s economy, environment, and lifestyle. They touch everyone in our state, providing most of our clean, safe, and reliable drinking water; supporting our thriving farms and ranches; and contributing to culture, heritage, and recreation — everything from world-class fishing, paddling, and scenery — drawing visitors from around the world.

Colorado’s rivers provide so much to each of us, but do we really know enough about them?

Colorado’s rivers sustain our economy and quality of life, however our state’s lingering aridity and variable climate does not guarantee enough water will be in the right place at the right time for people or wildlife. The journey of water and the ways we’ve engineered our river systems to move water to where it is needed is complicated.

As Colorado developed, the Front Range grew beyond what nearby available water sources could reliably supply. Envisioning a future of water scarcity, Front Range water providers secured significant Western Slope water rights, allowing them to pipe and pump Western Slope water east across the Continental Divide to support the water needs of the Front Range. These trans-basin diversions permanently remove water from one basin, depriving downstream ecosystems and communities of water that would have naturally flowed through them.

Rivers supply the majority of Colorado’s drinking water. Unfortunately, today our rivers are under strain from high water demands and limited supplies. Colorado’s population is rapidly increasing, topping 5.6 million in 2017, and experts predict our state’s population could double in 30 years. Our rivers are already overworked providing for current demands, let alone for future growth.

Today, American Rivers and Audubon Rockies released “Do You Know Your Water, Colorado?” a resource to illustrate the long, complicated journey a drop of water has from its home in a river to your tap. Take a look, and explore how the rivers we love are connected to our clean, safe, reliable drinking water, and ways you can step up to protect the rivers and places we love in Colorado.

In many ways, water ties our state together, but managing water in Colorado has never been easy. With a changing climate, growing population, and numerous competing needs, managing Colorado’s water will not get any less challenging in the future. It’s more important than ever that we all understand where our water comes from, and what we can do to preserve our critical water resources.

In 2015, Colorado’s first Water Plan was signed, establishing the first holistic approach to managing the state’s water. Colorado’s Water Plan offers solutions to water uncertainty by charting a collaborative path forward towards water security for people and the environment. The Plan provides a blueprint for improving water conservation, using land smartly, storing and sharing water more efficiently, and ensuring our rivers and natural places have the water they need to stay healthy and to support Colorado’s vibrant recreation economy and way of life. It is now up to Colorado to put the Water Plan into meaningful action.

Coloradans know what makes our state so great – our rivers. We must meet future water demands without sacrificing our rivers and the wildlife, communities and economies they support. Our communities, economies, environment, and drinking water depend on all of us working together. Can our rivers count on you to help move Colorado’s water future forward?

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This week, after seven years of opposition to a hydropower proposal put forth by the Snohomish County Public Utility District (SnoPUD) for the South Fork Skykomish River, local activists, tribes, paddlers, river recreationists, and anglers got some good news at the April 10 SnoPUD meeting, when the SnoPUD commission and staff agreed to cancel the Sunset Falls hydropower project and request the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to close the docket on the current application.

“I don’t see a need at the moment for Sunset Falls,” said Commissioner Kathleen Vaughn at the April 10 meeting. The announcement was met with a resounding applause from the audience, which was packed with local residents and activists, whom for years have been vocal in their opposition to the project.

“What the IRP (Integrated Resource Plan) makes pretty clear is that there isn’t a need for a resource like Sunset Falls,” said SnoPUD CEO/general manager Craig Collar, “particularly from an energy standpoint, but also from a capacity standpoint, anywhere in the near future.”

SnoPUD’s Integrated Resource Plan is a long-term strategy regarding future energy resources and provides an action plan for the future. Once the IRP is adopted at the upcoming May 2018 meeting, the Sunset Falls project will be officially cancelled.

The announcement came just one year after the South Fork Skykomish was named among America’s Most Endangered Rivers® of 2017, the second time it’s landed on the list (first time was in 2012).

The proposal for the run-of-river hydroelectric facility at the Sunset and Canyon Falls reach would have rerouted water from a 1.1-mile stretch of the river sending it through a roughly 2,200-foot underground tunnel to a powerhouse at the base of Sunset Falls, thus reducing Sunset and Canyon Falls to a trickle.

The proposed project would have adversely impacted the downstream migration of salmon and steelhead smolts in the spring. According to Tulalip Tribe data, the habitat above the falls represents upwards of 30% of the Chinook natural origin spawners in the Skykomish population and 20% of the Chinook production within the entire Snohomish basin. Chinook salmon are critical to our struggling Southern Resident Killer Whale populations.

Of course, the opposition to this dam goes well beyond just a wild fish perspective. Because of outstanding fish, wildlife, recreation, and scenic values, the South Fork Skykomish has been singled out by a variety of state, regional, and federal agencies for protection. In 1990, it was recommended by the Forest Service as suitable for Wild and Scenic designation. The Northwest Power and Conservation Council identified it as a Protected Area from hydropower development. And it is recognized as the only Puget Sound river in the Washington State Scenic River system. Add to that the power generated from the project would be minimum and come at a high price to ratepayers, operating at a loss for the first 30 years, and the project just doesn’t make sense.

“This is a major victory for everyone who values our region’s healthy, free-flowing rivers,” said Wendy McDermott, Director of the Puget Sound and Columbia Basin for American Rivers. “Thanks to overwhelming public support and determined local activists, the South Fork Skykomish River has gone from ‘most endangered’ to ‘saved’. I commend the Snohomish PUD for making this prudent decision today.”

Although there was overwhelming opposition from locals, the general public, and tribes, local resident and activist Lora Cox was singled out by the SnoPUD staff and commissioners at the meeting for her dedication and work against the hydropower proposal. In a time when the political and conservation landscape is full of hyperbole and sometimes skewed facts, there is a refreshing lesson to be learned from the way Cox approached activism, as indicated by Collar and the commissioners.

“I’d like to recognize one stakeholder in particular: Lora Cox,” said Collar. “Lora is no fan of the project and we heard from her more than anyone else. Lora was always polite, always respectful, and she took the time to engage with staff and ask questions. She was receptive to feedback and worked hard to understand this project and engaged with staff in a very graceful way, which we appreciated.”

“I can’t speak about what this means to other stakeholders,” said Cox, “but this was a deeply personal debt that I tried very hard to pay,” she said. The debt she references was a lost battle she fought years ago in opposition to a dam on the Stanislaus River in Northern California. “Little did I know the effort would be all-consuming, requiring huge amounts of time, mental energy, patience, and a bit of money. But the Skykomish River will remain free flowing for quite a while.”

She added, “SnoPUD leadership and commissioners deserve credit for reassessing their realistic need for the minimal amount of power the project would have produced and for wisely deciding to abandon the project. For a public utility to do that is almost unheard of.”

Cape Town, South Africa, could be the first modern city in the world to run out of water due to explosive population growth and severe drought, intensified by climate change. Since word of the shortage first hit U.S. newspapers in February, “Day Zero” — when the city’s reservoirs run dry and the municipal water system essentially shuts down — has been pushed from April to July and perhaps beyond thanks to Capetonians’ emergency water-saving measures. But if and when the city is forced to shut off its taps, more than 4 million people could be rationed to 6.6 gallons of water per day — just enough for basic health and hygiene.

I sat down with American Rivers’ Senior Vice President of Conservation, Chris Williams, to hear why he isn’t surprised by the news out of Cape Town, why it’s a big deal and how American Rivers is working across the country to make sure our communities are thinking and acting in smart ways when it comes to water in the era of climate change.

Why is it important to pay attention to what’s happening in Cape Town?

Because it’s situations like Cape Town’s that folks in the water world have been sounding alarms about for a long time. In many parts of the world, water supplies are under increasing pressure from growing human population, demographic changes and climate change, which is changing the rules by which rivers, rain and snowfall, and annual storms have operated for thousands of years. Under most climate change scenarios, dry places are going to get drier, wet places are going to get wetter, and times of drought and plenty will be increasingly unpredictable. So, cities and agricultural areas that are in fairly dry parts of the planet — like Cape Town — are the first to feel the bite as climate change really starts to take hold.

Are there parts of the United States that face similar challenges?

We’re already seeing this across the Southwest, from California to Texas. Record droughts have wracked the region in recent years, with some cities and farming communities pulled back from the brink only by timely but increasingly unpredictable monsoons and snowfalls. The cities fed by the Colorado River — from Los Angeles to Las Vegas to Phoenix — are in the danger zone because they are historically dry and likely to get drier. Colorado River reservoirs Lake Powell at Glen Canyon Dam and Lake Mead at the Hoover Dam, like their counterparts around Cape Town, are historically low and getting lower. Every year, folks in the desert Southwest hold their breath and wonder, “Is this going to be the year when we have to declare a shortage?” Many say it’s not a question of if but when.

How is American Rivers stepping up?

While the situation in the southwestern United States is dire, it’s not too late to take the steps necessary to avoid a Cape Town-like crisis. But it will take a new approach to managing water in the West. We need a better, more efficient, more enlightened way to make sure water gets to where it’s needed. We need to ensure that people use water wisely and are good stewards of a resource that’s coming into ever greater demand. And we need healthy, natural rivers — because they are the best infrastructure for gathering and delivering water for human use.

American Rivers is moving on multiple fronts to meet this challenge. We are working with stakeholders, including federal, state and local officials, water management agencies, irrigators and conservationists, on innovative water-sharing and trading schemes that would allow water to move more freely from place to place and user to user, depending on need and supply in any given year. We are promoting water efficiency as a more effective and economical alternative to dams, reservoirs, pipelines and pumps. And we’re spearheading projects to restore rivers, from California’s Central Valley to the headwaters of the Colorado River, to ensure that they are healthy and resilient in the face of climate change.

What is the next frontier of helping communities become more resilient to climate change?

When Americans think of water scarcity, we tend to picture a dusty field or a cracked lake bed in some rural setting. The crisis in Cape Town brings home the impact water scarcity can have on urban dwellers. [Currently Capetonians are surviving on rations of 13 gallons per person of water per day. For comparison, the average American uses 80-100 gallons per day.]

The management of rivers and water resources in U.S. cities is often fragmented amongst multiple agencies with separate jurisdictions over source water, stormwater and wastewater. American Rivers is working in cities across the country to better integrate management of urban water in order to improve the ability of cities to ensure clean, plentiful water and — the other side of the climate coin — be better prepared for flooding. This work provides an opportunity to bring historically marginalized communities — those often least served by current water infrastructure and most vulnerable to pollution and flooding events — to the table when decisions are being made about how the city will manage its water.

At the end of our discussion, Chris added:

I hope that South Africa’s water-saving efforts work, that winter rains come this year and that Cape Town escapes the current crisis. But hoping for rain is not enough. Only by protecting and restoring our rivers and carefully stewarding our water can we meet the challenge of climate change, and ensure that no cities in the United States face their own Day Zero.

The City of Raleigh is emerging as a leader in the use of green stormwater infrastructure (GSI). In the fall of 2017 the City completed a multi-year process to update its policies to encourage the use of GSI throughout the City. This was the culmination of the City’s Green Stormwater Infrastructure strategic plan.

The work grew out of a call to action by the City Council in the early 2000s committing to improve the health of local streams and the Neuse River but promoting Low Impact Development (LID). That commitment took nearly a decade to be converted to action by the City. In 2013, Raleigh Stormwater began the process of developing in earnest the GSI strategic plan. The plan development was facilitated by Tetra Tech. The first phase was internal to the City working with various City departments to educate staff and learn about potential barriers within the City structure to successfully implementing GSI across the City. This is a critical step in truly integrating GSI into the basic mechanisms of a city – city staff at all levels and all departments need to see how using GSI can aid their work rather than be a burden.

In 2015, the public phase of the plan launched with the creation of two work groups- the Code Review Work Group and the Implementation Work Group. These work groups included interested citizens, city staff, developers, engineers, and environmental groups. American Rivers was engaged on both over the next year and a half of work.

Raleigh began implementing its green stormwater infrastructure strategic plan in September 2017. The new plan includes revision of the City’s Unified Development Ordinance (UDO) to remove barriers to the use of green stormwater infrastructure and the development of an incentive program for private developers to use GSI in new and redevelopment. The incentive program is particularly noteworthy since it is not a cash incentive; in the process of the development of the incentives we heard from developers that the preference would be for a streamlined permitting system that offered timeliness and certainty. The City of Raleigh in response is creating a ‘green team’ that works with developers to integrated GSI into their plans and in return shepherds the project through the City system. The City also has its on-going cost share program to offset the costs associated with retrofitting existing private development with GSI.

This plan and investment in retrofits sets Raleigh apart as a leader in the use of GSI and a model for other communities across the country.

You can’t wall off a river and expect the river, its wildlife, or its people, to survive. That’s why we put the Lower Rio Grande on the list of America’s Most Endangered Rivers® of 2018.

“The Rio Grande is so much more than a border,” says Chris Williams, Senior Vice President for Conservation at American Rivers.

“It is a life-giving source of water, a cultural crossroads, a pillar for local economies, a scenic treasure, and a unique freshwater ecosystem. Construction of a border wall, unhindered by any meaningful environmental review, disrupts and damages that ecosystem, impacting everything that depends on it.”

President Trump has proposed the construction of hundreds of miles of new border walls along the Rio Grande, and Congress has agreed to fund this first phase of construction. The first 30 miles of this new phase of wall building have already been mapped, and preparations are under way for construction in the Lower Rio Grande floodplain.

Much of this new construction will be “levee-walls”— essentially a steel fence on top of a large levee— that will cut the Rio Grande off from its floodplain, potentially exacerbating flooding and erosion and blocking access to this life-giving resource for people and wildlife.

In the coming years, President Trump will likely push Congress to fund additional border wall construction. Trump has called the current $1.57 billion appropriation a “down payment” on an eventual $25 billion over ten years.

We’re calling on Congress to refuse to appropriate another penny for this damaging and wasteful project.

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New Rio Grande border walls will have multiple impacts: habitat corridors will be severed and endangered species will be pushed closer to extinction; natural inflows into the river will be disrupted; wetlands will be destroyed; floodwaters will be deflected, potentially moving the river channel; flooding in communities along the river will be worsened; and access to the river for residents and landowners will be disrupted.

In addition to the Lower Rio Grande, America’s Most Endangered Rivers of 2018 is a snapshot of some of our nation’s most beloved and iconic rivers in the crosshairs. The list includes:

• The recreation paradise of the Boundary Waters
• The rivers of Alaska’s world-famous Bristol Bay
• The Mississippi River in the heart of Minneapolis

In our many years of issuing the America’s Most Endangered Rivers report, we’ve seldom seen a collection of threats this severe, or an administration so bent on undermining and reversing protections for clean water, rivers and public health.

Your support is vital as we fight for America’s Most Endangered Rivers of 2018, and rivers nationwide.

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Senator John McCain called it “one of the worst projects ever conceived by Congress.”

Former Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt called it “godawful, cockamamie.”

They were talking about the Yazoo Pumps, an Army Corps boondoggle that would devastate Mississippi’s Big Sunflower River and cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars.

Thanks to President Trump and his allies in Congress, this terrible project is back and it poses such a threat that we placed the Big Sunflower River at the top of the list of America’s Most Endangered Rivers® of 2018.

The Big Sunflower River is a special place…

The Yazoo Pumps project would cause a mind-boggling amount of damage…

The Yazoo Pumps project would cost taxpayers at least $300 million. That’s a lot of money…

It’s time to stop this terrible project once and for all.

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In addition to the Big Sunflower River, America’s Most Endangered Rivers of 2018 is a snapshot of some of our nation’s most beloved and iconic rivers in the crosshairs. The list includes:

• The recreation paradise of the Boundary Waters
• The Lower Rio Grande along the border with Mexico
• The rivers of Alaska’s world-famous Bristol Bay
• The Mississippi River in the heart of Minneapolis

In our many years of issuing the America’s Most Endangered Rivers report, we’ve seldom seen a collection of threats this severe, or an administration so bent on undermining and reversing protections for clean water, rivers and public health.

Your support is vital as we fight for America’s Most Endangered Rivers of 2018, and rivers nationwide.

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Thank you for standing with us.

Is your favorite river endangered? Check out the list below of the 2018 America’s Most Endangered Rivers®.

On this year’s list, zombie projects abound. From draining critical wetlands on Mississippi’s Big Sunflower River to mining in Minnesota’s Boundary Waters and the rivers of Alaska’s Bristol Bay, to building a border wall on the Lower Rio Grande, America’s Most Endangered Rivers® of 2018 illustrates the recurring attacks by the Trump administration and Congress on clean water, people and wildlife.

This is the kind of destruction that will be difficult and, in some cases, impossible to reverse. If the Trump administration and its supporters in Congress succeed in rolling back bedrock environmental protections and handing over our rivers to polluters, the health, well-being and natural heritage of our nation’s families and communities will be impoverished for generations to come.

The following rivers on this year’s list will be directly impacted by decisions from the Trump administration and Congress:

• Big Sunflower River (Mississippi), threatened by revival of the Army Corps of Engineers Yazoo Pumps project that would drain critical wetlands at enormous taxpayer expense.
• Rivers of Bristol Bay (Alaska), threatened by the world’s biggest open pit mine that could devastate a $1.5 billion salmon fishery.
• Boundary Waters (Minnesota), threatened by mining that would pollute pristine waters and harm a thriving recreation economy.
• Lower Rio Grande (Texas), threatened by a border wall that would cut off people and communities from the river, exacerbate flooding, and destroy wildlife habitat.
• South Fork Salmon River (Idaho), threatened by mining that could have lasting consequences for clean water and the Wild and Scenic mainstem Salmon River.
• Mississippi River Gorge (Minnesota), threatened by obsolete locks and dams preventing revitalization of river health and recreation in downtown Minneapolis.
• Colville River (Alaska), threatened by oil and gas development that imperils clean water and habitat for polar bears, wolves and caribou.

“Healthy rivers are essential to public health, our economy, and the well-being of our nation. We must insist that those tasked with managing our water resources have the best interests of the public in mind. America’s Most Endangered Rivers of 2018 highlights critical upcoming decisions and paints a stark picture of what’s at stake. It’s an important call to action that we must amplify nationwide,” said Jo-Ellen Darcy, former Assistant Secretary of the Army (Civil Works) and American Rivers board member.

On the #1 river on this year’s list, the Big Sunflower in Mississippi, members of Congress are pushing to undermine the Clean Water Act to resurrect the Yazoo Pumps, one of the most environmentally damaging projects ever proposed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. If allowed to advance, it would be the first time ever that an EPA veto of a Corps project (the George W. Bush EPA stopped the project in 2008) was overturned by Congress, undermining the authority of the EPA to enforce the Clean Water Act.

The Yazoo Pumps Project would damage more than 200,000 acres of wetlands in the Big Sunflower River watershed in the heart of the Mississippi River Flyway. More than 450 species of fish and wildlife, including the Louisiana black bear, rely on the wetlands habitat that would be drained by the project.

The Lower Rio Grande, #4 on this year’s list, is threatened by border wall construction that would cut the Rio Grande off from its floodplain, potentially exacerbating flooding and erosion and blocking access to this life-giving resource for people and wildlife.

“There is nothing American about building a border wall that threatens a great river and its wildlife and tears communities apart. This wall is wholly contrary to our nation’s values. Echoing President Reagan in West Berlin in 1987: Mr. Trump, tear down this wall,” said Theodore Roosevelt IV. “Water and rivers are an essential part of our life and if we don’t preserve them we’ll be doing an infinite amount of damage to future generations.”

Threats facing many of America’s Most Endangered Rivers® of 2018 would have a significant impact on indigenous, Latinx, and African American communities. Destroying the Big Sunflower’s wetlands would impact subsistence fishing for low-income families and communities of color. Mining in Bristol Bay and the South Fork Salmon would harm wild salmon runs, which are central to the cultures and livelihoods of Alaska Natives and Native American tribes respectively. A wall along the Rio Grande would prevent people from accessing the river and create additional flood risks and other challenges for border communities.

In its 33rd year, the annual America’s Most Endangered Rivers® report is a list of rivers at a crossroads, where key decisions in the coming months will determine the rivers’ fates. Rivers are chosen for the list based on the following criteria: 1) The magnitude of the threat, 2) The significance of the river to people and nature, and 3) A critical decision-point in the coming year.

Over the years, the report has helped spur many successes including the removal of outdated dams and the prevention of harmful development and pollution.

America’s Most Endangered Rivers® of 2018:

Big Sunflower River, MS

• Threat – Army Corps pumping project
• At Risk – Critical wetlands and wildlife habitat

Rivers of Bristol Bay, AK

• Threat – Mining
• At risk – Clean water, salmon runs, indigenous culture

Boundary Waters, MN

• Threat – Mining
• At risk – Clean water, recreation economy

Lower Rio Grande, TX

• Threat – Border wall
• At risk – River access, public safety, wildlife habitat

South Fork Salmon River, ID

• Threat – Mining
• At risk – Clean water, salmon habitat

Mississippi River Gorge, MN

• Threat – Dams
• At risk – Habitat, recreation opportunities

Smith River, MT

• Threat – Mining
• At risk – Clean water, recreation

Colville River, AK

• Threat – Oil and gas development
• At risk – Clean water, wildlife

Middle Fork Vermilion River, IL

• Threat – Coal ash pollution
• At risk – Clean water, Wild and Scenic River values

Kinnickinnic River, WI

• Threat – Dams
• At risk – Blue-ribbon trout stream

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In this episode of We Are Rivers, we discuss the collaborative efforts Arizona and other Lower Basin states and water users are taking to address challenges facing the Colorado River and solutions, including the Drought Contingency Plan.

This blog was co-authored by Jeffrey Odefey & Kathryn Sorensen, Director of Phoenix Water Services

Arizona is a renowned leader in water management thanks to more than a century of careful planning and effective leadership. But, with drought and declining water levels in the state’s key water supplies, Arizona must do more.

Nearly half of Arizona’s water is provided by the Colorado River via the Central Arizona Project (CAP) canal. However, the Colorado River is over-allocated. Over the past decade, the Colorado River has been the subject of a series of high-profile planning efforts and negotiations, including the recently proposed Drought Contingency Plan. These efforts reflect the widespread recognition of significant legal over-allocation and physical overuse of water in the Colorado River Basin, as well as a more accurate understanding of historic hydrology in the Colorado River Basin and the likely near-term impacts of climate change.

Due to both drought and the basic problem of over-allocation of the river, Lake Mead levels have dropped quickly, leaving Arizona at risk of a shortage declaration that will diminish the amount of Colorado River water available to Central Arizona.

System conservation is an innovative and extremely promising approach to reducing risk and building resiliency and certainty into Colorado River Basin operations. Willing funders compensate water users who are willing to voluntarily reduce their water use. Voluntary system conservation allows Colorado River users to collaborate on ways to use less water in the lower basin so that it can be stored in Lake Mead to benefit the system as a whole. This storage benefits people and communities because a model that sustains Lake Mead’s water levels will allow people and communities to predict and understand the long-term management of the Colorado River.

The Colorado Basin states have inherited this problem, and it is our inherent duty to work together to fix it. Public health, economic development, and quality of life here in Arizona are contingent upon a reliable and safe water supply. We must be committed to building resiliency and implementing innovative water management strategies to ensure dependable water supplies for generations to come.

Tune in to “Episode 10: Securing Arizona’s Water Supply is a Team Effort,” to hear how Arizona and other Lower Basin states are working together to reduce demand of the Colorado River through the Drought Contingency Plan.

You can learn more about this collaborative project at 4states1source.org.

The William Penn Foundation recently announced more than $40 million in new funding for the Delaware River Watershed Initiative (DRWI), which is among the country’s largest non-regulatory conservation efforts to protect and restore clean water. The DRWI is a first-of-its-kind collaboration, where American Rivers is one of 65 organizations working together to protect and restore the Delaware River and its tributaries, which provide drinking water for 15 million people in Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, and Delaware.

The DRWI is tackling widespread pollution problems that threaten clean drinking water and the health of rivers and streams. This includes erosion and runoff from deforested acres in headwaters, polluted runoff from agricultural fields, flooding and polluted stormwater from cities and suburbs, and a depleted aquifer in southern New Jersey.

In 2014, the DRWI launched a new approach, joining local and regional groups to accelerate conservation efforts. Today, the DRWI stands out as a basin-scale program driven by non-profits like American Rivers, guided by science. In just over three years, DRWI partners have;

• Protected 19,604 acres,
• Restored 8,331 acres, and
• Monitored and sampled water quality at more than 500 sites across four states.

With learnings gleaned from the past four years, this additional $40 million dollar, three-year investment builds on DRWI’s initial successes to protect and restore an estimated 43,484 additional acres, and it allows DRWI to continue its scientific approach to securing clean, abundant water in the basin.

American Rivers has been very involved in the campaigns to protect and restore the Delaware River system that supplies water to 15 million people, many of whom live in Pennsylvania. As a member of the DRWI, we have led the push to advance green stormwater infrastructure and assess scientific and economic findings to create a plan to improve upstream/downstream connected buffer protections within the Basin in Pennsylvania. American Rivers has also been a part of the national Clean Water for All Coalition and supported the comprehensive development and successful launch of the campaign in the mid-Atlantic.

We are excited to see how this will continue to flourish to the benefit of all Pennsylvania residents, and all residents in the Delaware River Watershed.

This guest blog by David Wick is a part of our 2017 America’s Most Endangered Rivers® series on the South Fork Skykomish River.

The past few weeks, we’ve been detailing the issues with the Snohomish County PUD (SnoPUD) proposal to build a new powerhouse at the base of Sunset Falls on the South Fork Skykomish River and reroute water from a 1.1 mile reach of the river between Canyon and Sunset Falls. This proposal is a threat to outstanding fish, wildlife, recreation, and scenic values of the Skykomish and in this post we’re going to jump in to some of the specifics about the threats and the issues this proposal would pose to the imperiled runs of salmon and steelhead.

Since 1958, the Washington State Dept. of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) has operated a trap and haul facility at this site to transport wild fish above Sunset, Canyon, and Eagle Falls to approximately 90 miles of cold water spawning habitat. Ecosystem Diagnostic and Treatment (EDT) modeling for Chinook salmon in 2004 and 2005 suggested that the South Fork Skykomish River above Sunset Falls is the most productive area for Chinook in the Skykomish system. According to filings from the Tulalip Tribe, Chinook production above Sunset Falls represents upwards of 30% of the natural origin spawners in the Skykomish population and 20% of the Chinook within the entire Snohomish basin.

The purpose of the trap and haul facility is to sort the returning mature fish and to transport wild Chinook, coho, sockeye, shum, and pink salmon, including bull trout and steelhead, above the falls. Hatchery salmon are returned to the hatchery to be sacrificed for roe and milt, and hatchery steelhead are dispatched and donated. Needed trap and haul improvements include a new truck and better sorting equipment. SnoPUD is offering approximately $3 million for these one-time, off-license upgrades as an enticement for locating their powerhouse adjacent to the trap and haul facility. While improved handling may lessen the impacts to overall fertility, that better handling of up-migrating fish does not cause them to grow larger, survive longer, or to become more abundant.

Part of increasing fish abundance requires the successful down-migration of juvenile salmon and steelhead over the falls and for that, ample flows are needed. This is the proposed project’s fatal flaw.

According to some fisheries experts familiar with the basin, the project will impair downstream fish passage as well as degrade and reduce fish habitat necessary for spawning salmon and other native fishes in the South Fork Skykomish River system, by reducing median monthly flows 63 – 90%.

To make the project economically viable, SnoPUD needs to drastically reduce the river flow over the falls by diverting most of the flow through its hydropower facility. According to plans filed with FERC, juvenile fish will be screened and deposited in the de-watered bypass reach. Juveniles remaining in the river will pass over Canyon and Sunset falls with inadequate water to cushion their landing on the rocks below.

According to statements filed with FERC, SnoPUD’s proposed project is neither economically viable nor in the interest of its ratepayers. The project could not operate for three months per year due to low summer flows and relies on securing a minimum instream flow of 250 cfs, which is wholly insufficient for the habitat needs within the bypass reach. The proposed instream flow conflicts with state minimum instream flow rules, and the entire project area is further protected from hydropower development under the Northwest Power Act.

In its draft license application Exhibit E, Section E.1.4.2. Endangered Species Act (page E-15), SnoPUD rightly concludes “that findings of ‘may affect, likely to adversely affect’ are appropriate for Chinook salmon in the Puget Sound Evolutionarily Significant Unit (ESU), and winter-run steelhead and bull trout in the Puget Sound Distinct Population Segments (DPS). While the District’s proposed construction best management practices are intended to protect aquatic resources, the risk of incidental adverse effects on individual fish (i.e., incidental take under the ESA) cannot be entirely eliminated. The Project may also adversely affect designated or proposed critical habitat for these species.”

Chinook and coho salmon populations are at or near historic lows, and adding a new source of mortality is not appropriate. The project threatens to do irreversible damage to populations at risk as well as to critical habitat required by Chinook salmon as established by NOAA (50 CFR Part 226, September 5, 2005). Considered cumulatively with all other sources of mortality or population pressure, the project has the potential to move threatened populations to endangered status.

In April 2016, the Tulalip and Snoqualmie Tribes formally requested that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission deny PUD’s application based on anticipated harm to juvenile salmon and steelhead.

Currently, 15 different salmon and steelhead stocks in Washington State are listed under the Federal Endangered Species Act and the productivity of the ESA-listed natural origin Skykomish Chinook salmon population has substantially declined over the past 15 years to well below the replacement level, meaning the population is currently in steep decline.

Southern resident orca whales are also at a 30-year population low. In 2015 the federal government declared that our orca whales are among eight species most likely to go extinct without dramatic action. In just the last two years, seven whales have died. Lack of Chinook salmon has been strongly implicated as the main cause of decline. Despite spending millions on fish studies, SnoPUD has not examined or commented on the potential effects of the proposed project on Orca Whales.

But there is still hope. Joseph Bogaard, executive director of the Save our Wild Salmon Coalition (a coalition of more than 40 organizations) says that, “Salmon are a very prolific species. If you give them a healthy river they will do the rest. The most important action we can take to help salmon and steelhead survive and thrive is to restore healthy habitat and access to healthy habitat.”

Let’s not repeat the same mistakes made in Europe and New England where the salmon decline was not only dramatic, but permanent.

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In a year of political upheaval and attacks on environmental safeguards, American Rivers continues to claim some significant victories – thanks to you, our supporters.

President Trump signed the omnibus spending bill on Friday, and it’s an important victory for rivers and clean water.

Here are some of the ways our rivers, clean water supplies, and communities won in the spending bill:

• $8.821 billion for the Environmental Protection Agency ($763 million more than the 2017 enacted level) that includes vital funding to prevent water pollution and safeguard drinking water.
• $209 million (up from $100 million) for FEMA to reduce flood risk for communities through better planning, and rebuilding homes and businesses away from floodplains.
• $104 million (up from $75 million) for the WaterSMART program’s water efficiency efforts.

Also important is what’s not in the bill: we were able to fight back several harmful anti-environmental riders, including one that would have prevented public scrutiny and judicial review of the Trump administration’s efforts to repeal the Clean Water Rule.

While we celebrate this good news, we are continuing to defend our rivers from a series of attacks from Congress and the Trump administration. We’ll be sounding the alarm about urgent threats to ten rivers on April 10, when we announce America’s Most Endangered Rivers® of 2018.

To all of you who help make our victories possible, and who stick with us through all of the battles – thank you.