Articles

After another busy year in the southern Rockies, it is a great time to look back on our accomplishments and look ahead to what next year will bring. This year was full, yet again, with unprecedented challenges as well as opportunities. The first ever water shortage was declared on the Colorado River while hundreds of millions of dollars were appropriated for watershed restoration, aquatic habitat remediation and natural infrastructure in the West as a part of the Infrastructure Investment and

First introduced in March 2016, Senator Wyden’s Recreation Not Red Tape Act had a hearing in the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee this past week. We are pretty excited that the Committee has an interest in outdoor recreation and scheduled a hearing covering 9 bills focused on outdoor recreation. We were part of launching that interest among Committee Members when our Pacific Northwest Stewardship Director Thomas O’Keefe was invited to testify before the Committee in March 2019.   We

Tis’ the season! Our 2021 AW Holiday Membership Offer is now available. Get a one-year Standard AW membership along with our 2022 AW calendar AND a 28 oz AW water bottle . . all for just $60! Give a great gift (or treat yourself!) and support your favorite non-profit at the same time. . . rockin’ river karma for the whole year!  Head over to our membership form to join or renew for yourself or select the ‘Gift Membership’ option to

Tugalo Dam was built 100 years ago. For the past hundred years it has inundated four miles of the Chattooga River and two miles of the Tallulah River beneath a reservoir along the South Carolina and Georgia border. The dam owner has recently proposed to spend roughly $25 Million to upgrade their generators to last another two generations or more. American Whitewater and our partners are asking federal regulators to take a hard look at dam removal as an alternative

As West Coast boaters are all too familiar, the past two wildfire seasons have been a difficult one for our communities and for the rivers we love. Increasingly, fires are burning more intensely, are covering more ground than before, and are burning throughout a longer fire season. Land management agencies are often responding with vast closures of the lands and waters they manage, prohibiting public access sometimes for long periods of time after the fires are out.   American Whitewater

In a big win for river restoration and investment in public lands, the House passed the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021 (H.R. 3684), as amended by the Senate, late last Friday, November 5. This legislation will now be sent to the President’s desk. American Whitewater staff have worked with our partners over the past several months on a few key sections of the bill that keep more water in rivers and protect water quality.   Dams (Division

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 10th. Currently, American Whitewater has four Director Nominees to fill four open seats for election, you may vote for up to four candidates on the slate. The ballot for our Board of Directors election is placed online here.   You must be a

Paddlers are invited to join American Whitewater and the National Park Service for a Zoom Listening Session to share recreational interests for the Wild and Scenic North Fork of the Kern River. Specifically, the reaches below Fairview Dam to Riverside Park that are included within the boundaries of the Kern River No. 3 Hydroelectric Project owned by Southern California Edison (SCE). In September, SCE filed a Notice of Intent and a Pre-Application Document to officially start the process to relicense

Every 5 years Washington State updates their State Comprehensive Outdoor Recreation Plan (SCORP). All states must have such a plan that is required to receive federal recreation dollars from the Land and Water Conservation Fund. The process is currently underway to update Washington State’s SCORP for 2023-2027. This plan provides strategic direction for how local, regional, state, and federal agencies, together with tribal governments, and private and non-profit partners, can assure the effective and adequate provision of outdoor recreation and

Late in the evening on Thursday, October 21, a coalition of advocates, including American Whitewater won a significant victory for clean water when a federal district court vacated a Clean Water Act rule put in place by the previous administration. The order from the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California restores state and Tribal authority to ensure federally permitted activities, including hydroelectric dams, affecting rivers and lakes comply fully with state and tribal laws protecting clean water.

This past week a consortium that includes Twin Creeks Timber, The Conservation Fund, and WKO announced plans to acquire SDS Lumber and Timber Companies. This acquisition includes significant land holdings in the White Salmon River watershed as well as adjoining lands in the Little White Salmon, Klickitat, and Hood River watersheds that are critical to the health of these spectacular rivers. These lands also represent the traditional territory of the Yakama Nation ceded to the federal government in the treaty

Gauley Fest annually provides our community with an opportunity to reflect on this much-loved stretch of whitewater, as well as the important stewardship work that American Whitewater has, and continues to do in the region. In honor of Gauley Fest, and in an effort to raise funds for our stewardship work across the country that this festival normally provides, we have the put together an incredible online whitewater auction and it’s happening right now => 2021 Gauley Fest Online Auction.

Safety Editor’s Note: Teresa Gryder is a former river guide and a whitewater paddler with decades of experience. For the past few years, she’s been writing and creating safety-focused events for the Lower Columbia Canoe Club. Her work is so impressive that I invited her to share her ideas in a regular column for the American Whitewater Journal. Welcome, Teresa; AW readers, enjoy. You are in for a treat!   -Charlie Walbridge, AW Safety Editor   When you’re good at

Truckee River access is threatened by a landowner on the Nevada County Hirschdale Road. This take-out is used by paddlers who put-in at Boca and float the family friendly section of the Truckee River, taking out before the harder rapids appear. In 2019, a landowner purchased the property around Hirschdale Road and the spur road historically used to get to the river. In the years since, the landowner has been busy on Hirschdale Road posting no parking signs, erecting gates and

Safety Editor’s Note – Teresa Gryder is a former river guide and a whitewater paddler with decades of experience. For the past few years, she’s been writing and creating safety-focused events for the Lower Columbia Canoe Club. Her work is so impressive that I invited her to share her ideas in a regular column for the American Whitewater Journal. Welcome, Teresa; AW readers, enjoy. You are in for a treat!   -Charlie Walbridge, AW Safety Editor   This column is