Articles

  Welcome to the American Whitewater Gauley River Festival presented by Subaru, the paddling world’s biggest party!     The Gauley River Festival is a critical fundraiser for American Whitewater and is our largest fundraising event.  All proceeds from the festival support American Whitewater’s conservation and access work throughout the Southeast. Come out and join us for a weekend of great paddling, live entertainment, and the infamous silent auction. Check out highlights of this year’s event.         Thursday,

American Whitewater would like to recognize Anne Connolly as our Volunteer of the Month. Anne was the mastermind behind the first annual Boater Chick Festival held on the Nantahala River at the Nantahala Outdoor Center in Wesser, NC May 17 – 18, 2008.   Anne, along with the help of volunteers, orchestrated the entire Boater Chick Festival in only a few short months, putting insane amounts of time into planning and getting the support of sponsors who provided generous prizes

The Tonto and Coconino National Forests announced earlier this month that due to continuing demolition efforts on the Childs-Irving Hydroelectric facilities, a temporary closure of Fossil Springs and Fossil Creek on the Tonto and Coconino national forests is in effect from Monday, Aug. 18, 2008 through Saturday, Feb. 28, 2009 (unless teminated sooner.)   The closure area boundaries include: Fossil Springs trailhead north to Fossil Springs, west to the Irving Power Plant, and south along the east side of Forest

US Forest Service funding for many programs vital to Americans’ enjoyment of our National Forests is about to disappear as the agency re-allocates funding for those programs to its fire fighting budget. The Chief of the US Forest Service announced Friday that the agency has depleted its $1.18 billion fire suppression budget for fiscal year 2008, and has initiated a recall of $400 MM from agency programs throughout the nation.  The result is that many projects benefiting outdoor recreationists will

Ladies of the Lower G returns to Gauley Fest!   Spend a day paddling with Anna Levesque on the Lower Gauley and raise money for AW! What’s not to love?   If you haven’t heard of the Ladies of the Lower G event it’s an annual event that Anna Levesque of Girls at Play and North American River Runners (NARR) put on around Gauely Fest. All the ladies who sign up spend the day boating down the Lower Gauley with

  Friends of the Cheat, a watershed group based in Kingwood, WV, recently completed construction of a new parking area along the Big Sandy Creek in Rockville, West Virginia. The location on river left, just upstream of the Rockville Bridge, will provide public access to two of the popular whitewater runs in the state. There’s space for over 30 cars, more than enough to relieve congestion on busy spring weekends. The county road from the bridge to the lot was

Whitewater paddlers in Bruceton Mills, West Virginia have often used the parking lot behind the Little Sandy Church of the Nazarine to access Little Sandy Creek. This past summer Pastor Chad Harvey told me that parents in his congregation had asked for a fence to keep their youngsters from falling into the river. The church board approved construction, but because they wanted to continue the church’s tradition of hospitality towards paddlers they also planned to build a gate. This will

Volunteers Will Launch Flotilla to Clean Up the Clackamas River Sunday, September 7th Date: Sunday September 7, 2008When: Sign-in starts at 9:30am @ Barton ParkWhere: Meet at Barton Park. What’s Happening: River runners with big hearts are cordially invited to join us — kayakers, rafters, drift boaters, tubers, river boarders, snorkelers and even scuba divers! Join one of 15 pods which will launch under the leadership of skilled volunteers to paddle one stretch of river, either Barton to Carver, Carver

North Carolina’s Division of Parks and Recreation is conducting a survey of paddlers to help them assess citizen’s access needs and opinions on how river access initiatives should be funded and accomplished.  The survey only takes a few minutes and if you paddle in NC, we encourage you to participate.  Whitewater paddlers’ participation in the study will help provide vital information about recreational needs on whitewater rivers.    Take the survey by clicking here.  

The American Whitewater membership tent will be at the Nantahala Outdoor Center for the Guest Appreciation Festival (GAF). This years event is scheduled for September 26-28. Anchored by NOC’s annual used gear sale, GAF also features a used gear marketplace and big discounts on new equipment in NOC’s famous Outfitter’s Store. There’s also live music, on-river contests and clinics, free rolling pool instruction, manufacturer boat demos, paddling film premiers, a kids’ moonwalk and more! Check with NOC and stay up-to-date

The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) is proposing to divert up to 25 million more gallons of water per day from the Tuolumne, enough to fill 1,000 swimming pools, every day. The proposal to divert more water is embedded in the SFPUC’s Water System Improvement Program (WSIP) a $4.3 billion plan to upgrade the Hetch Hetchy water system, which provides water for 2.4 million people in San Francisco, and surrounding communities in Santa Clara, San Mateo and Alameda Counties.

The Big bend run on the North Fork Feather River has been a classic in low water years in California.  As the lake level drops this run grows in length, uncovering the Big Bend Dam and rapids like, Boxcar and Meat Grinder on Steroids.  The problem has always been that even with the lake below the 730-foot elevation mark, doing this run still required a two-hour paddle out. American Whitewater was able to negotiate as part of the settlement agreement for

Like many paddlers, American Whitewater yesterday submitted comments on the Forest Service’s environmental assessment (EA) of recreation on the Chattooga River.  Our comments were a team effort, and can be downloaded and read in the box to the right.  Our comments point out many of the flaws in the EA, which was clearly a strategic document attempting to justify a ban on paddling the upper Wild and Scenic Chattooga.  The EA was the weakest such document that many of our