Articles

As the year comes to an end, we have a lot of successes to celebrate for our rivers in the Southern Rockies region. We could not have accomplished this much without the support from people like you! Thanks for helping us achieve all the below milestones this year. Here are some regional highlights from American Whitewater’s three pillars: Protect, restore, & enjoy!  Protect: In September, we achieved additional Wild and Scenic River eligibility protections in the Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre, and Gunnison

The removal of two dams blocking Northern California’s Eel River is one step closer to happening. On November 17, Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E), the owner of the dams, released its initial draft plan for dismantling the Scott and Cape Horn dams and relinquishing its license for the 113-year-old Potter Valley Hydroelectric Project. PG&E’s straightforward plan would remove the dams as early as 2028–a remarkably fast timeline. But it also included a more complex alternate plan put forth by

We need your help to protect the future of Utah’s creeks and the deadline is TODAY at midnight. The Manti La Sal National Forests have released a draft management plan for a 1.4 million acre landscape without any real protections for rivers and without a single mention of river recreation. The Manti mountains are home to unique Utah creeks, including Cottonwood, Ferron, Huntington and Left Fork Huntington creeks. Collectively, these creeks provide over 30 miles of high quality paddling in

Each year American Whitewater’s membership ratifies Board of Director members to serve three-year terms. These candidates volunteer to serve on the American Whitewater Board. Current American Whitewater members can cast their votes through Midnight Pacific Time, December 15th. American Whitewater has three Director Nominees to fill three open seats in this election, and you may vote for up to three candidates on the slate. The ballot for our Board of Directors election is placed online here. You must be a current

On October 26th, community members of the Crystal River Valley convened at Roaring Fork High School in Carbondale to learn about a suite of approaches that would provide protections to the river. This was the second of two public meetings hosted by the Crystal Wild and Scenic and Other Alternatives Feasibility Steering Committee who have been meeting monthly since this past April. The group is chaired by Pitkin and Gunnison counties, Town of Marble, and the Colorado River Water Conservation

Colorado Gives Day is happening now through December 5! Donate today to have your dollars go even further in supporting American Whitewater’s river access work in Colorado.    What is Colorado Gives?    Community First Foundation and FirstBank partnered to make this time every year more rewarding for givers, nonprofits and communities across Colorado. Colorado Gives Day is the state’s largest online giving event, raising more than $415 million for Colorado non-profits since 2010.    Community First Foundation and FirstBank

The Lower White Salmon Coalition, formed in 2016, is releasing its Vision Plan for the approximately five hundred acres of land owned by PacifiCorp along the lower White Salmon River representing the former project lands for the Condit Hydroelectric Project. For whitewater boaters this includes the Lower Gorge from Buck Creek to the Columbia River. The removal of Condit dam in 2011 – 2012 restored a free-flowing river, which quickly returned to its historic channel, a major change for fish,

You might want to tighten those nose clips and buy some earplugs: earlier this year the Supreme Court ruled on a long running legal dispute about which streams and wetlands the Clean Water Act actually protects from pollution – and it’s not good. Their decision, which ignored even the most basic science, stripped protections for an estimated 50% of streams and 70% of wetlands that had been protected since the 1970s.  Congress is considering a bill, the Clean Water Act

American Whitewater filed a legal appeal of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC’s) decision to allow the owner of a failed hydropower project on the Salmon Falls RIver, which forms the Maine and New Hampshire border, to abandon its deadbeat dams. The appeal, filed in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, argues that dam removal is in the public interest because leaving the dams in the river blocks fish passage and recreation, and also violates the Clean Water Act.  American

American Whitewater is excited about the upcoming Crystal River Wild and Scenic and Alternatives Community Summit taking place October 26th, from 5:00 to 8:30 pm in Carbondale at the Roaring Fork High School Auditorium (2270 CO-133, Carbondale, CO 81623). We hope you will join us in learning about and providing feedback on all the potential options for protecting the upper Crystal River that the Steering Committee has identified. Food will be provided along with an interactive agenda. Save the date!

Dolores River Boating Advocates is hosting a virtual event on Wednesday, October 11th. This will be a great chance to hear about what  the 2023 Dolores River season looked like and a chance to provide feedback on your experience. We will listen to presentations from water managers and dam operators, fish biologists, and recreation advocates. This event will be hosted on Zoom, and will span from 6:00PM – 8:00PM with an opportunity to ask questions. For future boating seasons, we

More and more voices call for major renovation or complete removal at Glen Canyon Dam   In August, American Whitewater and many others submitted scoping comments on the complex planning process for Post-2026 Operations at Glen Canyon and Hoover Dams on the Colorado River. The outcome of the multi-year process led by the Bureau of Reclamation will guide reservoir operations at both Glen Canyon Dam (Lake Powell) and Hoover Dam (Lake Mead) and has the potential to affect river recreation

In August a D.C. Circuit Court vacated the Surface Transportation Board’s environmental review and directed further evaluation of the human and environmental impacts of a proposed segment of railway in the Uinta Basin in Utah. The new 88-mile track would provide for efficient export of waxy crude oil extracted from northeast Utah, along the Colorado River, to Gulf Coast refineries. Eagle County in Colorado sued the Transportation Board, indicating that both the up and downstream impacts – such as oil