Articles

The 4th Annual Whitewater Symposium will take place on Friday October 13th – Monday October 16th on the South Fork American in Lotus/Coloma, California (just 45 miles northeast of Sacramento). This year’s symposium is hosted by Dan Crandall of Current Adventures and Kayaking.com. The Whitewater Symposium is a four-day annual event that seeks to advance the sport of whitewater kayaking through bringing top paddlers, instructors and program leaders together. Just a few of the confirmed speakers and Topics listed below

River Recreation Survey The U.S. Forest Service in cooperation with the Bureau of Reclamation is in the process of gathering data from recreational users of the Tieton, Naches and Bumping Rivers and Rimrock, Clear and Bumping Reservoirs. This information will be used by the Bureau of Reclamation as part of a study to determine the impact of recreation on water resources as it relates to water storage. Potential impacts to all resources will be identified during the preparation of an

The Feather River Festival was event a great success, due to the large numbers of paddlers that showed up despite only having one day of flow.  Our hats are off to the Chico Paddleheads and AW volunteers that made this event happen! Over forty people showed for the film festival on Friday night.  The offerings included video and pictures from Ben Stookkesbury, Taylor Robertson, Chuck Lees, Eric Petlock and Dave Steindorf.  In addition to the visual pleasures of the evening

The 2006 Gauley Festival is going to be one of the best yet. It’s a showcase for AW and the top vendors in the whitewater culture. It’s a place to catch up with old friends, make new ones and have a great old time. This event takes a lot of man power to put on and we need your help.  Sign up for 2 hours (or more) to become a part of the Gauley Fest Volunteer Team. Then, while you’re

This years Ohiopyle Falls Festival was blessed with a perfect water level, lots of participants and great event leadership making the event a huge success. Barry Adams and his team pulled together a wonderful day of Falls runs in Ohiopyle. A “How to Run a Water Fall” clinic was held as part of the event to share knowledge and skills with participants from around the country. Over 200 participants ran the Falls for over a 1000 runs without incident. The

American Whitewater Ambassador and founder of Girls at Play, Anna Levesque, will be keeping the ‘Ladies on the Lower G’ fundraiser event alive and kicking this Gauley season!   Originally sponsored by Lotus Designs, the event is now being picked up by Girls at Play and Kokatat and hosted by North American River Runners.  “It’s a great combination for me,” says Levesque, “paddling one of my favorite rivers with great women and raising money for AW!”     The event will take

The Commissioner of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation has issued a decision on the Esopus River that has been anxiously awaited by paddlers. The decision granted New York City a water quality permit for its diversion that provides drinking water to the city and recreational opportunities for whitewater paddlers. The new permit will allow boatable releases to continue on the Esopus River. This is a victory for the paddling interests involved, most notably the Kayak and Canoe Club

Ohiopyle, PA ““ This eight annual event will be held Saturday, August 26, 2006. Experienced paddlers can participate via our race or freestyle competition or just participate by running the falls or taking our clinic “How to Run a Water Fall”. In addition, there will be an Upstream Race on the Lower Yough, Falls Under Lights, Town Party, Silent Auction and other activities.  FALLS FESTIVAL

The Olympic National Park protects the core of the Olympic Peninsula with 95% of the park as designated wilderness. More than 3000 miles of rivers and streams flow from the high mountain peaks to the ocean. These rivers are a defining feature of the park, historically serving as primary transporation corridors through the region prior to European settlement. Today these same rivers, which flow through massive old-growth forests of the Pacific Coastal Rainforest, provide some of the country’s best opportunities

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