Articles

River festivals have a long tradition of generating awareness of impending threats to whitewater resources. Squamish Whitewater Paddlers hosted the first Ashlu Whitewater Festival later in 2004 to raise awareness and generate funds to assist their efforts in protecting one of British Columbia’s signature runs. The festival has been a great success and and grows each year. This year’s event is planned for August 24th-27th, 2006. You can find all the information you need at the Ashlu Whitewater Festival website.

At a July 27th meeting, the US Forest Service announced a deeply flawed plan for conducting the User Capacity Analysis for the Chattooga River. The analysis was ordered over 18 months ago by the highest office of the US Forest Service. AW research professionals reviewed the plan and uncovered study flaws that would make the study unsafe, scientifically invalid, biased, exceedingly expensive, and unlikely to produce information useful for decision making. American Whitewater is sending comments to the US Forest

On August 11th, American Whitewater joined a group of 70 organizations, agencies, and individuals in signing a Settlement Agreement that will shape the management of the Catawba River for the next 30-50 years.  The agreement, marks the culmination of 3 years of studies and negotiations among a diverse group of stakeholders.  This effort included over 300 meetings – and the group logged nearly 58,000 hours and analyzed over 2,500 issues related to the river. The signing of a settlement agreement is

The North Fork Feather River needs your support! As you may be aware, releases on the Class IV Cresta reach have been canceled for July and August and possibly for the rest of the year. We feel that these cancellations are based upon some dubious assertions about the impacts on frogs from release flows. We intend to challenge these cancellations and restore the releases on the Cresta reach. You also may be aware of the fact that AW and the

The North Carolina State Parks system is negotiating with the owners of Chimney Rock Park for the purchase of their property. This could become the centerpiece property for the new Hickory Nut Gorge State Park. The owners of Chimney Rock Park have also decided to list the park with Sotheby’s International Realty. A transfer of these lands for development could have significant impacts on the Rocky Broad River, a North Carolina classic creek run. For more information go to: http://savechimneyrock.net/index.htm

AW has been a supporting organization for the proposal to create a legacy for the wild rivers and wilderness lands in the shadow of Mt. Hood (see past article). We came one step closer to our goal when the U.S. House recently passed legislation that would move us toward greater protection for Mount Hood’s clean water, fish and wildlife and world-class recreation opportunities by protecting five rivers totaling over 26 miles under the federal Wild and Scenic Rivers Act. Now

AW would like to congratulate Chris Iverson for being voted AW’s Volunteer of the Month for August.  Chris is our newest Regional Coordinator, and works with us through the Conewago Canoe Club, based in Southcentral Pennsylvania.  Chris is just one of a motivated group of paddlers that have stepped up to work with the power company, agencies, and other stakeholders on a project that may lead to dam and channel modifications on the Susquehanna River at Holtwood Dam.  The changes are coming in the form of

American Whitewater and Wave Sport are pleased to announce the creation of the American Whitewater Steward of the Year award presented by Wave Sport. This annual river stewardship achievement award recognizes individuals who have made outstanding contributions to river access, conservation, or safety on behalf of American Whitewater. A formal announcement of the program will be made at the Outdoor Retailer Summer Market in the Confluence Watersports booth (32085) at 5pm on Friday August 11th. Mark Singleton, Executive Director for

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued the Final Environmental Analysis documents last week for the dams on the Nantahala and Tuckasegee rivers, located in Western North Carolina.  The analysis documents contain the final recommendations of FERC staff, which adhere closely to the Settlement Agreement reached by AW and other Stakeholders in 2003.  The next step in the relicensing of the dams will be approval by the FERC commissioners and issuance of new 40 year licenses for the operation of

As reported in today’s issue of the Columbian, Klickitat PUD has announced their intention to acquire the Condit Dam on the White Salmon by eminent domain (read full article). This dam has aged beyond its useful lifespan and would require significant investments to bring it up to modern safety and environmental standards. PacifiCorp, a private utility focused on the most economic course of action, decided to decommission the project, remove the dam, and restore the White Salmon as a free-flowing

Earlier this year public Wenatchee River access to the Dryden Weir (aka as the lowhead dam below Rock and Roll) was closed off by the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) due to issues with vandalism to equipment, litter, people driving on stockpiles, and complaints from neighbors about parties. WSDOT does not have the resources to manage the site and they chose their quickest and easiest option which was to close the area to public access. Unfortunately this has been

In 2003 a new whitewater opportunity was initiated on the Chippewa River at Jim Falls with new access sites and summer releases scheduled for the 2nd and 4th Saturdays of July and the 2nd Saturday and the 3rd Sunday in August. The use of these releases has increased since their inception with 18 boaters in 2003, 41 boaters in 2004, 77 boaters in 2005. At the first release this year 27 boaters came out and 3 more remain. The licensee

The U.S. Senate will vote this afternoon, July 18th on legislation giving the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers hundreds of new water projects to build.  This is the same agency whose poor planning caused the catastrophic levee failures in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina.   Over the past decade, dozens of reports have documented systematic problems with Corps projects. It is time to reform the Corps — you can help by calling your Senators and urging them to vote YES on two key amendments

After a particularly wet spring in California, consultants for Pacific Gas & Electric recently revealed some alarming results regarding foothill yellow legged frogs on the North Fork Feather River.    The flows in the Feather, and most other rivers in the state, had elevated flows throughout most of this winter and spring.  Once spill flows came under control, dam operators abruptly reduced flows in the North Fork Feather River.   Sierra Rivers gradually drop.  The consultants found that many of the

The North Fork Feather Release schedule is finally fit to print. The releases will be the fourth weekend of the month, Cresta Saturday and Rock Creek Sunday.  The Dates are :•    June 25th (Rock Creek only)•    July 23rd (Rock Creek only)•    August 27th (Rock Creek only) New Release Information•    September 23rd/24th  (Rock Creek Only)•    October 28th/ 29th (Rock Creek Only) AW has been hard at work negotiating a long term plan for the Feather with PG&E  and our other Agency partners. 

On June 8th a new gauge was added to the USGS real-time network on the Cascade River in Washington State. The river is well known as a great class V run and a designated Wild and Scenic River but it has always been hard to catch at desired flows. The river does not correlate well with other gauged streams in the basin, and getting any information on flow required either a trip to the river or a phone call to