On Wednesday, in it’s largest expansion since 1949, Yosemite National Park grew to include 400 acres of lush meadow. Ackerson Meadow, along the park’s western boundary, was part of John Muir’s original plan for Yosemite. It’s conservation and addition to Yosemite has been a top conservation priority for decades.

American Rivers’ chapter in Ackerson Meadow started in 2012 when we forged a strong friendship with the landowners, Robin and Nancy Wainwright. Along with the Wainwrights, we set a vision to add the meadow to Yosemite National Park. In 2013, with a grant from the Sierra Nevada Conservancy, the property was appraised. After the appraisal, we brought together the Wainwrights, the National Park Service, and the Trust For Public Land to work together to bring our vision to fruition. On September 7th, with funding from the Yosemite Conservancy and an anonymous donor, the Trust for Public Land purchased the property and donated it to the Park Service.

Protecting and restoring headwater meadows is part of American Rivers’ California focus and the Sierra Nevada Conservancy’s Watershed Improvement Program. Together we have partnered on a number of projects to improve the health of the Sierra Nevada, California’s primary source of clean water. Through this addition to Yosemite National Park, Ackerson Creek – which flows through the property before flowing into the Wild and Scenic South Fork of the Tuolumne River and the greater San Joaquin River – will have it’s water quality protected from threats for years to come.

[metaslider id=33422]

Guest post by Harpeth River Watershed Association is a part of our America’s Most Endangered Rivers® series spotlighting the Harpeth River.

---

We are happy to report good news for one of America’s Most Endangered Rivers® of 2015, the Harpeth River in Tennessee. In August 2016, Judge Sharp of the U.S. District Court in Nashville approved the settlement of the federal Clean Water Act citizen suit brought by Harpeth River Watershed Association (HRWA) against the City of Franklin, TN in August 2014. The court enforceable settlement is designed to bring Franklin into compliance with the terms of the state permit for the city’s sewage treatment plant. Franklin’s sewer plant is the largest single source of permitted discharge of pollutants into the State Scenic Harpeth River.

The Harpeth was highlighted on American Rivers’ annual list of endangered rivers in 2015 in part due to concerns over unpermitted discharges of wastewater into the river. The river’s water quality is impaired from unacceptably high levels of pollutants that feed harmful algae growth that can cause dangerous conditions for wildlife and public health according to the TN Department of Environment and Conservation. This court-enforceable settlement, if faithfully implemented by Franklin, will improve the water quality of this very popular Tennessee State Scenic river resource flowing through Nashville and one of the fastest growing regions of our state and country.

The significance of this effort for clean water and public participation in government include:

• Franklin brought into compliance with state sewer plant discharge permit
• Harpeth River will see reduced pollution if all aspects of settlement are implemented
• Prevention of dangerous algae and toxic conditions in Harpeth River
• Publicly accessible water quality monitoring of river conditions is expanded
• Increased support for new pollution reduction plan being developed for the entire Harpeth River
• Federal Court validation that citizens have the right to participate in and comment on government decision-making without retaliation
• No sewer rate increases related to the lawsuit

Next Steps Toward Recovery of Harpeth Already in Motion

This settlement begins the next stage of a broad community effort to restore the State Scenic Harpeth River. Franklin and HRWA have already agreed on locations for water quality monitoring in the river as required, and Franklin is in the process of installing monitoring equipment based on the state’s approval. Such information is essential to the new pollution reduction planning process for the entire Harpeth River that has been put in motion with the settlement. The TN Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC) announced the start of this effort, called a “Total Maximum Daily Load” (TMDL) last year, with HRWA, Franklin, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and the U.S. Geological Survey as the core partners. The process of formulating the TMDL plan will require several years to determine how much pollutant the Harpeth River can receive and still meet water quality standards, and to allocate that pollutant load among the various sources.

This successful settlement is one of many significant milestones over our 15 years that have already resulted in improving water quality in one of America’s Most Endangered Rivers. Our efforts have led to the launching of the first comprehensive pollution reduction plan for an entire river system in the Southeast. We are also now working with Franklin and TDEC on establishing conditions for the new permit for the expansion of Franklin’s sewage treatment plant, which needs to reduce pollution loads in the river.

American Rivers and the Harpeth River Watershed Association thank YOU for taking action on behalf of this special place!!

---

The Harpeth River Watershed Association in middle Tennessee is dedicated to preserving and restoring the ecological health of the Harpeth River and its watershed. Our work leverages the scientific and technical training and experience of our staff and advisors with the efforts of a diverse corps of volunteers who are crucial to every aspect of our programs.

Photographer and filmmaker John Gussman has been documenting the restoration of the Elwha since the first chunks of concrete dam fell five years ago.

“It’s a shining light,” he says. “The success on the Elwha shows we can actually fix things.”

Now that the dams are gone, Gussman, a resident of Sequim, WA has witnessed what he describes as the “rapid recovery of nature”  — the sediment that has moved downriver to restore the beach at the river’s mouth, to the plants and trees reclaiming land once drowned by reservoirs, to the salmon and other fish and wildlife rebounding.

“Nature knows best,” he says. Gussman co-directed the film Return of the River that tells the Elwha’s story.

I was on the Elwha in September 2011 when the world’s biggest restoration project kicked off. Elwha Dam and Glines Canyon Dam had blocked the river for roughly 100 years, completely blocking salmon from historic habitat and destroying the river central to the culture and heritage of the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe.

I remember standing on Elwha Dam, watching salmon circling in the pool below. I remember being amazed that even after all this time, they were still returning, still trying to get upstream.

Now they can.

Elwha Dam was gone for good in March 2012. Glines Canyon Dam, the tallest ever removed at 210 feet high, was gone by September 2014. The journey began in 1978 when Elwha Dam failed to pass its safety inspection. The tribe worked with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to conduct a failure analysis on the dam and demonstrate the catastrophic flood risk to the reservation. This catalyst sparked a decades-long effort to restore the Elwha River with unrelenting work by the tribe and conservation groups, including American Rivers.

I asked Robert Elofson, River Restoration Program Director for the tribe, how he feels now that we’ve hit the five-year mark. He says the tribe “takes pride that it has played a lead role in such a successful project” and tribal members are looking forward to resuming fishing for ceremonial purposes next year (a fishing moratorium has been in effect since 2011 to let fish populations rebound).

He has seen the benefits of dam removal first hand, from the crabs he has caught at the river’s mouth to the elk sign he noticed on the former Lake Aldwell reservoir lands.

It’s rare that we have a chance to make a river truly wild again, and on the Elwha we did. Eighty-three percent of the river is protected inside Olympic National Park. The dams were the only major impact to the river – so since the dams have come down, the river has been a one-of-a-kind laboratory to watch a river come back to life.

This special report from the Seattle Times sums up the ongoing transformation:

Elk stroll where there used to be reservoirs. Bigger, fatter birds are bearing more young, and moving in to stay. A young forest grows where there was blowing sand in the former reservoir lakebeds. Seeds tumble down the river’s coursing current. The big pulse of sediment trapped behind the dams is passed; the river has regained its luminous teal green color, and its channel is stabilizing.

Logs are tumbling and stacking in the river, building complex, braided channels, islands and jams.

And fish are booming back: More than 4,000 chinook spawners were counted above the former Elwha Dam the first season after it came down. Overall, fish populations are the highest in 30 years. And that’s before the first progeny of salmon and steelhead going to sea since dam removal come back this year.

“It has been a real success,” Elofson says.

I’ve never been so excited to visit a place famous for rain as I was last week in Seattle, learning about green stormwater infrastructure (GSI) from some of the nation’s leaders. If you’re scratching your head about “GSI”, just know that it’s an approach to wet weather that mimics nature to soak up, evaporate, transpire, or recycle stormwater. In short, GSI means catching the rain with plants, not pipes.

I was surprised to learn that Metro Atlanta gets about 30% more rain than Metro Seattle, is 40% bigger, has 50% more people, and in 2015, Atlanta even had more wet days than Seattle. So what makes Seattle national leaders when arguably, we have a bigger stormwater problem around Atlanta? That’s what we went to learn.

American Rivers co-sponsored this peer exchange to Seattle, which included our partners at Clayton County Water Authority, their consultants from CH2M, and the Chief Operating Officer from the county. Our goal was to learn strategies and techniques for how to reduce water pollution and flooding with GSI, while simultaneously gaining multiple quality of life and economic benefits.

With over 15 years of experience, Seattle has a lot of success stories. One thing that was immediately clear was the strength of their partnerships. This included partnerships across multiple government departments (with a focus on transportation), as well as extensive partnerships which extend into the non-profit, corporate, and public realms. They also have an iconic water body to rally around protecting: the Puget Sound. While Clayton County’s Flint River may not be as famous as the Puget Sound, it’s certainly a critical Georgian resource, worthy of protection, respect, and long weekends spent paddling.

Another success story is Seattle’s willingness to talk about their failures and lessons learned. It’s not easy to embrace failures, but the rest of us really appreciate not having to make the same mistakes. The main issues we discussed were related to rushing, community engagement, and the equitable distribution of benefits.

At the end of the day, my biggest takeaway was that implementing GSI isn’t rocket science. If there is: 1) political will, 2) decent funding, 3) good relationships across departments, and 4) effective community engagement, then this should be a lot easier than most of the things our government does every day. American Rivers looks forward to supporting Clayton County Water Authority’s effort to green the county, so that we may improve quality of life for residents, grow the local economy, and protect the streams and rivers upon which we rely.

Guest post by Charles Scribner spotlighting the Black Warrior River.

Updated September 8, 2016:

Southern Environmental Law Center, Black Warrior Riverkeeper, and Public Justice sued Drummond Company for violations at its Maxine Mine site, an abandoned underground coal mine located on the banks of the Locust Fork of the Black Warrior River near Praco, Alabama.

Though mining at Maxine Mine ceased in the 1980s, acid mine drainage has been illegally discharging from the site into the Locust Fork through surface water runoff and seeps from the underground mine for years. The site also presents a substantial imminent harm to human health and the environment due to the storage of tons of mining waste on a bluff above the Locust Fork. Besides being a continuous source of acid mine drainage, the mining waste has completely filled a tributary of the Locust Fork.

The site currently consists of underground mine works, surface piles of mining waste, and a system of man-made drainage ditches and earthen dams used to create sediment basins for runoff from the waste piles. The basins are continuously leaking polluted water and the dams are holding acidic coal mine drainage and mining waste. The main dam by the river is deteriorating and could potentially breach, resulting in a large release of pollutants into the Locust Fork, a primary tributary of the Black Warrior River and a popular area for fishing, boating and other forms of outdoor recreation.

The Maxine Mine site is one of the worst of hundreds of abandoned mines in the Black Warrior basin, many of which continue to degrade streams and contaminate groundwater with unpermitted discharges containing high levels of sediment, heavy metals such as iron and aluminum, and other pollutants.

To address the ongoing pollution and storage of coal mine waste on the Locust Fork, the groups are seeking removal of the mining waste, excavation and/or remediation of contaminated streams, and any other appropriate measures by Drummond to immediately stop all illegal discharges at the site.

As outlined in the notice letter, the groups’ claims include violations of the Clean Water Act through illegal, ongoing discharges of pollutants into the Locust Fork and its tributaries, illegal stream filling, and violations of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act for improper management of solid wastes.

It is important to note that Drummond Company is the same company who proposed the Shepherd Bend Mine highlighted in American Rivers’ annual report on America’s Most Endangered Rivers® of 2013. Drummond has withdrawn their Shepherd Bend permits, however, we don’t know if that withdrawal is permanent.

---

Charles Scribner is the Executive Director of Black Warrior Riverkeeper. Black Warrior Riverkeeper is a citizen-based nonprofit organization dedicated to improving water quality, habitat, recreation, and public health throughout the Black Warrior River watershed.

 

Guest post by Guido Rahr is a part of our America’s Most Endangered Rivers® series spotlighting the Smith River.

Our family has had a ranch on the Smith River for almost 40 years. It is nestled in a broad valley, perched 800 feet above the river. From the edge of the canyon we can see the Smith far below: clear rifles gliding over yellow rocks and deep blue corner pools where the river has cut through hundreds of millions of years of ancient marine sediments. No painter of imaginary landscapes could describe a more beautiful tapestry of clear water, golden meadows, forests of Douglas Fir and limber pine — all framed by towering cliffs of cream and rust colored limestone.

The Smith River canyon is our place on the planet. It is where we come and where we will go. It is where we the different generations of our family come together, where we raise our children, teach them to flyfish for trout in the summer, and hunt deer and elk in the fall. My wife Lee and I were married on the meadow above the river, and my father and mother are buried there.

I am a landowner on the Smith and I also protect rivers for a living. My organization, Wild Salmon Center, gives me a front row seat on rivers that have been lost – and those which may be next. Gold and copper mines are our worst nightmare. We and our partners are now fighting mines in Bristol Bay Alaska and the Russian Far East. When my family learned of the Canadian mining company Tintina’s proposed mine in the headwaters of the Smith River, it hit close to home. Way too close.

There are many ways to destroy a river, but few are as pernicious as placing a hard rock mine in the headwaters. These type of mines often generate acid mine discharge, which shifts the delicate chemistry of rivers and undermines the very building blocks of aquatic life. What makes these kind of mines so dangerous is that the damage can be permanent. The threat of acid mine drainage or the catastrophic failure of a tailings pond never goes away. It can happen while the mine is in operation, or fifty years later. Witness the tailings dam failure of the Mount Polley mine in British Columbia in 2014, or the failure of the Gold King Mine in the headwaters of the Animas River in Colorado in 2015.

Anyone who has a commitment to a place of beauty and family history will fight to protect it. Mining companies always say there is no risk, that they are employing the best technology, that the community needs jobs. But in the end, the company will harvest its profits, then they will leave, and the jobs will dry up. But the mine and its reservoir of toxic chemicals will never go away. It will remain hidden far upstream, out of sight, hanging like the sword of Damocles, perched above us and our beautiful river, threatening everything out family holds sacred. Of course we and our neighbors on the Smith will fight the mine. It is an obligation that comes with the land.

Take action today >>

---

Guido Rahr is the President and CEO of the Wild Salmon Center in Portland, Oregon. His family has had a ranch on the Smith River for 40 years.

On Monday, a member of the Navajo Nation Council submitted legislation that would authorize $65 million to start construction of the Grand Canyon Escalade. This project is a massive proposed resort development on the east rim of the Grand Canyon. The site itself is within the western Navajo Nation, on the border of Grand Canyon National Park, and above one of the most sacred sites in Native American culture – the confluence of the Colorado and Little Colorado Rivers.

But how could this happen, when the sitting President of the Navajo Nation, Russell Begaye, has stated his outright opposition to the project? Let’s go through the details.

Tribal Government

Like the United States Government, the Navajo Nation has an Executive Branch (President’s office), and a Legislative Branch (like our US House and Senate). But in the Navajo government, there is only one legislative body, the Navajo Nation Council (like a combination of our House and Senate). A bill is introduced into the Navajo Nation Council, then if approved it goes to the President’s desk to be signed into law or vetoed.

Could the Escalade legislation pass?

Yes. Under tribal law, if the Council has enough votes to pass, it could over-ride a veto from the President’s office, with a two-thirds majority. There are 23 members of the Navajo Nation council, and to be “veto-proof” the bill would have to have 16 supporters. It is hard to know how many votes the bill currently has, but it is going to be close regardless.

Is this really urgent?

Yes. Under Navajo law, there is only a 5-day public comment period, which started Monday, August 29. The comment period (and time when your comments would be filed into the official record) ends September 3^rd. If you care about the canyon, you need to speak up now.

How are we working with the Navajo people directly?

American Rivers is collaborating with the Flagstaff-based organization, Grand Canyon Trust, as well as the local, Navajo organization Save the Confluence. The Save the Confluence group is an on-the-ground, Navajo-led grassroots organization working within the Navajo Nation to oppose the project. Our three organizations collaborated extensively when we listed the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon as America’s Most Endangered River in 2015, and we continue to work closely together today.

How could they build this? Isn’t inside the Grand Canyon National Park land?

Yes and no. The current interpretation is that the National Park service boundary includes the Colorado River, up to the high-water mark. The Navajo Nation boundary extends from the east rim of the canyon, down to that high-water mark line. The developers have proposed that there would be a resort development on the east rim, and terminate down in the canyon just above the high-water boundary line, connected by a 1.4-mile long gondola, all on the Navajo Reservation lands. The development would permanently impact the experience of park visitors and boaters. What is now a wild part of the landscape would become industrialized and crowded.

What about the confluence? Isn’t it sacred?

The confluence of the Colorado and Little Colorado rivers is considered sacred by a number of tribes, including the Navajo. The Navajo do consider the confluence a place of deep spiritual significance, and the Hopi, Paiute, Zuni and other tribes and pueblos revere this place as well. As such, the Intertribal Council unanimously opposed this project in 2015 based on these values.

Exactly HOW could they build it?

That is a good question, since the area is extremely steep, rugged, and remote. Think about it – how would you get equipment staged to build a project like this? How do you get bulldozers and cranes and other heavy equipment into an area like this? A helicopter could not land there, since the only flat spot is in the National Park, which would never allow this. Whatever the developers are thinking, there would be impacts to the river and surrounding lands.

Don’t the Navajo need economic development?

Absolutely, and one of the main objections to this project is on an economic basis. The developers have stated that the project would create 3,500 jobs, but that figure has been argued for some time. The likely construction and infrastructure jobs would overwhelmingly come from outside the reservation, as would most of white collar jobs to run the resort. Some jobs, certainly, could be held by Navajo people, but all 3,500? Not likely.

The other argument is about revenue. Revenues from the resort to the Navajo people start at a mere 8% of the profit, and only increases as more and more people pay to ride the gondola, and tops out at 18% (assuming at least 2 million people pay to ride the gondola per year). Consider for a moment that the main Grand Canyon National Park saw its biggest year ever in 2015, with 5.5 million visitors – would 2 million people ever visit this resort destination 28 miles from highway 89? And how many of them would actually pay (upwards of $40-50 each) to ride the gondola?

This is a really bad deal for the Navajo people, especially those who live in the local area, as the Bodaway Gap chapter would get none of the tax revenue from the project, as well as the Nation being required to pay the $65-million dollar start-up bill to even get the project going.

But, what about people who can’t hike to the bottom of the canyon? Don’t they deserve to experience it as well?

Certainly, and Grand Canyon National Park already provides a world-class visitor experience today. Everyone can experience the canyon in their own way already – you can hike it, you can float it, you can ride a mule, and you can fly over it. And maybe most importantly, anyone can come to the rim of the canyon, sit in the quiet contemplation, and enjoy the view. Smell the air. Watch a raven glide overhead. The Grand Canyon belongs to all of us, for all time, and it should not be diminished..

So what can be done?

Most urgently, sign the petition, and then stay tuned as this saga continues to develop. There will invariably be more ways that your voice can be heard. Thank you for standing up for the Grand Canyon.

Guest post by Jim Klug is a part of our America’s Most Endangered Rivers® series spotlighting the Smith River.

There is no doubt that Montana is the epicenter for great fishing, bountiful access and healthy rivers in the U.S. West. While Montana is home to dozens of world-class rivers and fisheries, there is one river that enjoys a very special place in the hearts and minds of all who have been lucky enough to experience it first-hand – the Smith.

Montana’s Smith River offers anglers and river enthusiasts the opportunity to experience one of the last true wilderness river floats found anywhere in the lower 48 states. This 60-mile float flows through a remote and largely pristine canyon offering some of the most incredible scenery found anywhere in the Northern Rockies. Traffic is limited to non-motorized watercraft, and multi-day-float permits are limited and hard to come by. Most permits are awarded each year through a public lottery system, where roughly one in eight applicants are lucky enough to draw a launch permit. The rest of the permits are allocated to a small number of long-time outfitters who make it possible for clients to book the Smith with fully outfitted and guided packages. Many Montana residents look forward to our Smith trips every spring, and applying for the annual lottery has become as much of a seasonal tradition as the purchase of our annual fishing license or the first launch of the drift boat each spring.

I made my first trip on the Smith River more than 15 years ago, and ever since that time, I’ve looked forward to my annual pilgrimage down the canyon. Over the years, I have made this trip with my wife and children, with long-time clients, and with countless friends. Memories made on this river are as special as they are irreplaceable.

Montanans are now being told that Tintina Resources – a small, foreign-owned start-up – intends to open and operate a massive copper mine at the headwaters of the Smith River on the banks of Sheep Creek. The Smith and its tributaries (including Sheep Creek) provide crucial habitats and spawning grounds for wild trout. Many of these fish travel more than 200 miles round-trip from the Missouri River to spawn in the Sheep Creek drainage, which comprises more than half of the tributary spawning area for rainbows, browns and other trout in the Smith River system. Sheep Creek is integral to the health and spawning populations of both the Smith River and the neighboring Missouri River.

Montana economists conservatively estimate that fishing on the Smith alone contributes more than $10 million to the state’s economy each year. This is a remarkable contribution given the short Smith River floating season, which typically runs from May through late July. Locally, fishing and recreational traffic on the Smith directly supports shuttle services, river-guiding companies, hotels, restaurants and all types of mom-and-pop retailers. For ranching families up and down the valley, water from the Smith irrigates thousands of acres of crops and is truly the lifeblood for these rural communities.

Tintina Resources is proposing a mine that would drop below the water table, creating a situation where they would have to constantly pump water out of the mine to keep it from flooding. This large-scale pumping of groundwater could dry up critical tributaries, harm resident trout and reduce spawning habitat. In addition, these discharges will include heavy metals, nitrates and arsenic, which will no doubt have a harmful effect on the immediate environment and of course on area waters.

Tintina tells us that they know what they are doing, but in truth, they are a small, foreign startup company that has never before operated a mine. They tell us that the mine will be good for locals and bring much-needed jobs to the area, yet the locals hired by the company to make promises to Montanans are low-level employees and not decision makers. They have little control over important decisions such as investment in environmental protections, community involvement or important employee safeguards. The president and CEO of Tintina is an Australian. The rest of the board is comprised of a Canadian, an Australian and two New Yorkers. None of them have ever before done business in Montana.

Montanans have heard Tintina’s story many times over. Mining companies come to the state promising to be responsible by employing new technologies. The end results, however, are almost always the same: cut-and-run exit strategies, a polluted after-math, and taxpayer-funded cleanups.

As a life-long angler and someone whose livelihood and income depend on healthy fisheries, clean water and sportsman’s access, I obviously care deeply about the condition and state of our state’s rivers. That said, I am not anti-mining any more than I am anti-timber, anti-agriculture or anti-oil or gas. Montana has a long history and a well-defined legacy of providing bountiful resources to all types of extractive industries, and these resources have certainly helped economic development in our state and country. I believe that while there are places in our state where mining makes sense, the headwaters of Sheep Creek and the Smith River are not one of those places.

Please join American Rivers in asking Montana Governor Steve Bullock to protect the Smith River by directing his state agencies to withhold any permits for the mine unless it can be developed in a manner that eliminates any possibility of degrading the river’s water quality and wild trout fishery!

---

Jim Klug is the Director of Operations at Yellow Dog Flyfishing Adventures. Yellow Dog Flyfishing Adventures is a hands-on, specialty travel and destination angling company based out of Bozeman, Montana.

 

 

My friend and colleague Sinjin Eberle and I have a debate about National Parks. He’s a westerner, at home in the great expanses of the west, always in awe of the magnificent landscapes, the rushing rivers, the deafening quiet, and the humbling topography of Zion, Dinosaur, or the Grand Canyon.

Well, ok he has a point. But I’m here to speak for the east.

We’ve got some natural beauty in our National Parks here: the first rays of sunlight to strike America every day land upon Cadillac Mountain in Acadia National Park. Dolphins frolicking at dusk along Cape Hatteras National Seashore is something you can’t see in the Southwest. And I know my friends in South Carolina will argue that Congaree National Park has some of the coolest flora and fauna this side of, well, anywhere.

Even with all that, there’s a different kind of majesty that National Parks protect, preserve, and share, and that’s history. As Charles Kuralt said, “America is a great story, and there is a river on every page of it.” So I’m here to take you on a tour of just a few of my favorite National Parks that have rivers and history.

Antietam National Battlefield

Walk the Miller’s Cornfield at dawn, following in the footsteps of Hooker’s I Corps as it opened the bloodiest day in American history. End your trip in the evening, crossing the Burnside Bridge over Antietam Creek, named for the Union IX Corps Commander who frittered away the lives of his soldiers by trying to force the crossing of the narrow stone span (which still stands today) in the face of determined Confederate fire.

In between, you will join with the thousands who annually become Antietam Partners because they discover that they “value the sacrifice and serenity that is Antietam.”

Shiloh National Military Park

In southwest Tennessee you will find one of the best preserved and most haunting of all the Civil War battlefields owned by the National Park Service. If you go, make sure to walk Fraley’s Field at first light.

Imagine how the soldiers of the 25^th Missouri Regiment must have felt when they found that the woods in front of them were not empty, but in fact filled with Confederate General A.S. Johnston’s Army of Mississippi. And also make sure you arrive at the northern end of the park, at the bluffs overlooking the Tennessee River, as night falls.

If you’re quiet, you can hear the distant echoes of the wounded and panicked men of General Grant’s Army of Tennessee lying along the shore, while General Buell’s Army of the Ohio disembarks from their boats by torchlight at Pittsburgh Landing, arriving just in time to save Grant’s army, and the nation.

Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania Military Park

More than 100,000 Americans were casualties at the First and Second Battles of Fredericksburg, the Battle of Chancellorsville, the Battle of Salem Church, the Battle of the Wilderness, and the Battle of Spotsylvania all of which are commemorated and preserved by this national park.

During the Battle of Fredericksburg in December, 1862, U.S. troops crossed the Rappahannock River under fire, and the view of their subsequent doomed assault on Marye’s Heights led General Lee to utter his famous quote: “It is well that war is so terrible, or we should grow too fond of it.”

Cross the river yourself and climb the heights in their footsteps, or hike your way through the tangled underbrush of the Wilderness, and feel the weight of history on your shoulders.

Lowell National Historical Park

History isn’t all bullets and battles. It’s the story of ordinary men and women most of whom led ordinary lives and did ordinary things. But when you look back through the lens of time, the ordinary often appears to us as extraordinary.

Many of my relatives sailed across the ocean from Ireland to find religious and economic freedom in America. They found it in the water-powered mills and factories of Massachusetts, and while we would probably be horrified at the conditions found in an Industrial Revolution-era factory, they were grateful to escape famine and oppression and to have the opportunity to build their futures in the Land of the Free.

Lowell NHP is the monument to the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution in America, and to the men, women, and children who lived and died in it. It’s a park commemorating not just the Industrial Revolution, but the people behind it.

Minute Man National Park

It’s where, one could argue, America began, with the Shot Heard Round the World fired over the Wild and Scenic Concord River at Old North Bridge.

You can get chills down your spine standing by “the votive stone” near the “dark stream” and reciting Emerson’s Concord Hymn.

These are just a few of the great National Parks where history and rivers intersect. But what’s great about these parks is that they are not just static fields or buildings. They are places of learning and reflection.

Most of the major National Parks have Junior Ranger programs where kids are encouraged to answer questions, to think about what they are seeing and experiencing, and to learn lessons that go far beyond what they get in the classrooms. My daughter has been “sworn in” as a Junior Ranger at three parks so far, Gettysburg National Military Park, Antietam National Battlefield, and Independence Park in Philadelphia. She declared to me just last week that she wants to earn her badge at all the Parks, so we’ve got some work ahead of us!

These Parks are her legacy and the legacy of all who come after us, as they are the legacy of those who came before us. Not just all Americans, but all people – past, present and yet to come – who yearn for and believe in freedom are the inheritors and guardians of Old North Bridge and what it represents. The battlefields around Fredericksburg, at Shiloh, and at Antietam were painful steps toward fulfilling the promise of freedom and equality to all. And the triumphs and tragedies of the working class people who brought their talents from distant shores and struggled under tremendous odds to build a better life are captured in the mills and waterways in Lowell.

If you love rivers and you want to feel history come alive, #FindYourPark! And bring a friend. 

Now it’s your turn

What’s your favorite national park? Have you been able to celebrate at it this year?

One of the newer national parks, the Congaree was protected because of the local support. The Congaree was first protected as a National Monument in the mid-1970s.  The area escaped the bite of chainsaws thanks to the strong advocacy of local citizens who didn’t want to have clear cut one of the last remnants of virgin, bottomland forests in the Southeast.  In 2003, the Congaree became a National Park, a great tribute to the conservation legacy of South Carolina Senator Fritz Hollings.

The Congaree National Park is also great testament to how American Rivers’ Blue Trails initiative can connect people to a river and a park.  Coursing some 50 miles from Columbia, South Carolina to the southeastern end of the park, the Congaree River Blue Trail links urban residents to one of the wildest places left in the eastern US.  It offers a multi-day paddling adventure as one travels from within view of the state capitol dome into a wilderness that touts some of the tallest trees east of the Mississippi.  Countless sandbars just right for a picnic or an overnight camp border the river’s bends while bluffs of multicolored clay contrast the area’s extensive floodplain forests.  For those with less ambitious appetites, the park also offers Cedar Creek, a blackwater gem with a tree canopy cathedral that abounds with birdlife well worthy of its designation as a globally important birding area.

The Congaree River Blue Trail collaborative has also brought additional support for the park including citizen backing for adding new lands to the park, involvement in river cleanups and a recreation paddling map for the Congaree River and Cedar Creek that is offered online and as a colorful, printed version available at the park and from local outfitters.

As we mark the 100^th anniversary of the national park system, let’s make sure to celebrate Congaree National Park and the Congaree River Blue Trail.

A recent visit to the Congaree National Park website brought home an important landmark in time – 2016 is the 100^th anniversary of the National Park Service. And what a great testament to the successes of the National Park system the Congaree is! One of the newer national parks, the Congaree was protected with help from local support. The Congaree was first protected as a National Monument in the mid-1970s. The area escaped the bite of chainsaws thanks to the strong advocacy of local citizens who didn’t want to clear cut one of the last remnants of virgin, bottomland forests in the Southeast. In 2003, the Congaree became a National Park, a great tribute to the conservation legacy of South Carolina Senator Fritz Hollings.

The Congaree National Park is also great testament to how American Rivers’ Blue Trails initiative can connect people to a river and a park. Coursing some 50 miles from Columbia, South Carolina to the southeastern end of the park, the Congaree River Blue Trail links urban residents to one of the wildest places left in the eastern US. It offers a multi-day paddling adventure as one travels from within view of the state capitol dome into a wilderness that touts some of the tallest trees east of the Mississippi. Countless sandbars just right for a picnic or an overnight camp border the river’s bends while bluffs of multicolored clay contrast the area’s extensive floodplain forests. For those with less ambitious appetites, the park also offers Cedar Creek, a blackwater gem with a tree canopy cathedral that abounds with birdlife well worthy of its designation as a globally important birding area.

The Congaree River Blue Trail collaborative has also brought additional support for the park including citizen backing for adding new lands to the park, involvement in river cleanups, and a recreation paddling map for the Congaree River and Cedar Creek that is offered online and as a colorful, printed version available at the park and from local outfitters.

As we mark the 100^th anniversary of the National Park Service, let’s make sure to celebrate Congaree National Park and the Congaree River Blue Trail.

---

­­­

Gerrit Jöbsis is a resident of Columbia, SC and directs American Rivers’ efforts to protect and restore the Rivers of Southern Appalachia and the Carolinas.

The Louisiana flooding has been described as “extreme”, “devastating”, “shocking” and the numbers certainly convey the gravity of the situation. 31.39 inches of rain fell in Watson, LA. River crest records were broken by up to 5 feet. 30,000 people were rescued. 60,000 homes damaged and the number keeps rising. Tragically, at least 13 people are dead. Scientists say the chances of a flood like this were at least one in 500.

As astounding as those numbers are, to me the most sobering fact is that this was the eighth 500-year rain event in the United States in just over a year, according to NOAA. Events in Texas, West Virginia, Maryland, and elsewhere have brought the reality of climate change into perspective.

On Tuesday President Obama visited Louisiana to take in the scope of the disaster and provide some hope to the people struggling to figure out how to rebuild their lives and homes. It’s clear that significant investments will be needed to make Louisianans whole and make their communities more resilient to the more frequent and extreme storm events we should expect from climate change impacts.

President Obama’s trip comes a day after his administration took an action that should give us all hope for how we recover from future floods. On Monday the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA) released their proposed rule to update the federal flood standards that determine if and how the federal government invests in development in floodplains. The new standards will ensure that a greater margin of safety is used so that federally funded infrastructure can withstand larger floods. Not only will this reduce damage to infrastructure and keep communities safe, it also helps protect river health by encouraging development to occur on safer, higher ground.

The standard will also help rivers and improve public safety by requiring consideration of natural approaches that use floodplains to safely convey and buffer the impacts of floods. Natural flood management approaches like floodplain restoration result in less infrastructure at risk of flood damage and support an array of benefits to rivers and riverine communities including wildlife and fish habitat, clean water, and recharged groundwater supplies.

These changes are the result of lessons learned after past flooding disasters in Louisiana, Colorado, the Northeast, and across the country. They were identified as necessary to the safety of the nation in the President’s Climate Action Plan, the Sandy Task Force Rebuilding Strategy, and Recommendations of the President’s State, Local, and Tribal Task Force for Climate Preparedness.

FEMA is taking comments on their new standard until October 21. There is still work to be done to implement it and other agencies are expected to unveil their own implementation plans in the coming months. In the meantime, we hope the state of Louisiana will utilize the lessons learned from past floods, and the administration will help affected communities rebuild resiliently as quickly as possible.