Articles

Paddlers from all over California and the West came out to celebrate the Feather River and support American Whitewater at this year’s Feather River Festival.   Thanks to some key volunteers from the Chico Paddleheads , the events went off without a hitch.  The slalom and down river races were a success in large part due to the efforts of Keith Kishiyama, Roland McNutt, Charlie Guilbault along with, Macy Burnham.   The old school classic “Wild Americans” was a big hit at

Welcome to the American Whitewater Gauley River Festival presented by Subaru, the paddling world’s biggest party!   Started in 1983 to celebrate the derailment of a hydro-electric project that would have disrupted whitewater flows on the Gauley, Gauley Fest has grown to become the largest river festival in the world, posting attendance numbers of over 5,000 people in 2006.   The festival will feature live entertainment, a whitewater marketplace, lots of on river activities, and a silent auction where you can

Public Comments Needed By September 13!               The USFS recently published a range of 6 potential alternatives explaining how the USFS will manage the upper Chattooga River for the next 15-20 years.  BEFORE THE END OF THIS YEAR, the USFS will select one of those alternatives or some other alternative based on public input. Importantly, whatever alternative the USFS selects will control whether you get to paddle this spectacular section of river during the next 15-20 years!  The USFS

The Feather Festival is back, bigger and better than ever before!!.  Having water in this very dry year in California is something to celebrate.   The Festival will be happening August 24 through 26th.  In addition to the two-day flow release on the Rock Creek reach, the Festival include a Film Festival of Friday night, a Slalom race on Saturday, a down river race through the exciting Tobin section Saturday at afternoon. Friday’s films will begin at 7:00 and include great

The US Forest Service released its “Scoping Document” regarding recreational management on the Wild and Scenic Upper Chattooga River (NC,SC,GA) on Tuesday, August 14, 2007.  This document marks the initiation of the formal NEPA decision making process which will lead to a revised management plan late this year.  Comments are being accepted by the USFS on the 13 page document until September 13th of this year.   This official public comment period is one of only two remaining opportunities to

Earlier today, Congressman Dave Reichert (WA-8) announced his intention to introduce legislation to protect the lands and waters of the Middle Fork Snoqualmie through expansion of the Alpine Lakes Wilderness and designation of the Pratt River as Wild and Scenic. This proposal will provide long-term protection for the Pratt River along with Forest Service lands on the south side of the Middle Fork Snoqualmie along the run known as the "Upper Middle". The "Upper Middle" starts at the Taylor River

In Colorado, nine river-basin roundtables are charged by the Colorado Water for the 21st Century Act (www.leg.state.co.us/clics2005a/csl.nsf/fsbillcont3/3F94A053189A6DE587256F6A0080FFA9) to assess how much water is needed to protect “non-consumptive” recreational and environmental attributes, as well as how much water is needed for "consumptive" uses like agriculture, industry, and municipal delivery systems. When compared against water supply figures, quantified consumptive and non-consumptive needs help the state identify how much water is available for future delivery to municipal systems around the state, particularly the

On Thursday, July 19th, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) released a decision that will allow the removal of Dillsboro Dam. The 12 foot tall and 310 foot long hydroelectric dam is located on the Tuckasegee River in Western North Carolina, and is a significant barrier to fish, mussels, and other aquatic organisms. It is also a barrier to paddlers, on an otherwise popular and accessible Class II river. With this nod of approval from FERC, dam removal could begin

Last night American Whitewater released the latest and greatest version of American Whitewater’s website.  Just so you don’t miss any of the cool new features, we outline them here for you!   Here are some new features that you might find interesting:   River Networking Tool: By clicking the star next to your favorite rivers it lets AW staff and volunteers, river managers, and partners know that you have personal experience with those rivers – and that you are interested

This year’s American Whitewater Deerfield River Festival is shaping up to be one of the best ever. This years event will bring new activities both on and off the river to the weekend celebration. Check out what we have going on this year: American Whitewater Membership DriveEach year American Whitewater gathers up all sorts of goodies to host the annual Deerfield American Whitewater membership drive.  Folks that join or renew there AW membership get hooked up with magazines, dvds, stickers,

The Pit 1 reach of the Pit River, from Fall River Mills to highway 299, will have releases again this summer.   Many people got on this run for the first time last summer and found it to be a great class III/ IV run.  This years releases will be for one weekend in June, July and August.  This year dates are:•    June 23-24 •    July 21-22 •    August 18-19 Because this is a dry year flows will be 1000 cfs

Hearing Scheduled on Proposed Mining Operation on the Salmon River The Idaho Department of Lands (IDL) will hear public comments on a proposal to mine state lands below the ordinary high water mark on the Salmon River upstream from Lucile ID. The hearing will be held on July 18th, 2007, at 6:00pm in the conference room at the Idaho Department of Lands office, 555 Deinhard Lane, McCall ID. If possible, please attend to ask IDL to deny the application for

The 3rd Yough Festival and 27th Upper Yough Race are taking place on July 28th, 2007!  The event features a small town America family atmosphere folk / bluegrass celebration of the Youghiogheny River. For this special event a 6 hour Upper Yough Race dam release has been scheduled from 11am to 5pm. On Saturday July 28th morning, from 9 am to 1:00 pm, we will be taking registration for the 27th Upper Yough Race at the liquor store parking lot

The fourth year of releases on the Wild Mile of Montana’s Swan River in Bigfork is underway. Wednesdays through the summer as long as sufficient flows last, whitewater releases will occur from 5 PM to 9 PM. Releases are contingent on project inflows equal to or greater than 800 cfs at 8 am the day of the release. The Wild Mile is truly a wild ride, over large crashing waves and through a beautiful protected canyon. It also offers up

Save Our Wild Salmon, a coalition supporting restoration of healthy salmon populations and the rivers they depend on, is on the road with a 5-state public outreach tour to raise awareness for endangered wild salmon and steelhead in the Pacific Northwest. The “Extinction Stops Here” road show is making scheduled stops in Oregon, Washington, California, Arizona and Nevada during June and July to raise visibility for the plight of endangered salmon and steelhead in the Columbia and Snake Rivers, and

We are proud to announce that Alex Zendel is AW’s Volunteer of the Month for July, 2007.  Alex lives in Knoxville, TN, and has been exploring creeks and rivers in the southeast and elsewhere for over a decade.  Thankfully, he has also taken the time to help AW out on a number of projects relating to mapping, the website, and geographical information systems.   Alex has volunteered his considerable talent with mapping and spatial analysis to AW on several important projects over the past five