Articles

Make your online shopping mean something for the rivers you love. American Whitewater is participating in the Amazon Smile program. Online retailer, Amazon, has committed to send 0.5 percent of proceeds from eligible purchases to American Whitewater and other eligible non profits. It won’t cost you anything extra to use Amazon Smile, as the company is simply donating part of its profits. Plus, there’s no cap to how much you can use the service.    As you contemplate your holiday

Make your online shopping mean something for the rivers you love. American Whitewater is participating in the Amazon Smile program. Online retailer, Amazon, has committed to send 0.5 percent of proceeds from eligible purchases to American Whitewater and other eligible non profits. It won’t cost you anything extra to use Amazon Smile, as the company is simply donating part of its profits. Plus, there’s no cap to how much you can use the service.   As you contemplate your holiday

American Whitewater has big plans for 2018, with a goal of securing permanent protections for over 5000 miles of streams in celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act. We see a unique opportunity to make a lasting impact by protecting some of our best remaining freely-flowing rivers, but we can’t do it without your ongoing support to keep our work on track.  Your membership dollars and donations will support our conservation efforts from protecting large landscapes and the whitewater rivers that flow through

Gunnison, Colorado – Last Wednesday, Matt Brown – longtime river guide, adventurer, and pillar of the Gunnison Valley community- passed away tragically after an accident in Moab. Matt was so much to so many.   Matt had been a river runner since the late 70’s. His passion for rivers and the right to float was unparalleled. As a owner of Scenic River Tours in Gunnison, CO he played an intricate role in teaching the people of Gunnison Valley and the

The American Whitewater Store has just received some new arrivals you don't want to miss. The special edition 2018 Calendar celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act is ready to order and, back by popular demand, we have the pink “Lady Bird Tees,” made of 100% organic cotton and fit just right for a woman. We’ve also got sharp looking hoodies, “Dam Busting Tour” t-shirts, Klean Kanteen steel pints, hats, books and much more. So stop

This week, Rep. Rob Bishop (R-UT) introduced a bill to effectively eliminate the Antiquities Act as a core conservation tool for landscapes that include many rivers important to our community (Learn More). Over more than a century, the Antiquities Act has served as the mechanism to protect some of our country’s most iconic paddling destinations that include the Colorado River through Grand Canyon (AZ), Black Canyon of the Gunnison (CO), Brown’s Canyon of the Arkansas River (CO), San Juan River

Paddlers might have noticed that flow releases on the Cheoah River were getting a bit skinny over the past couple years, until the juicy release this September. At the urging of American Whitewater, the dam owner had USGS come out and recalibrate the gage this July, and the results confirmed the dam owner had been under-releasing by approximately 100-150cfs. In our annual planning meeting last week, they committed to adjusting their releases to comply with their federal license, and actually

Bond, Colorado – Every August, Gore Canyon Festival brings athletes and river enthusiasts together to celebrate the upper Colorado River. This year, over 130 competitors entered the Class V Gore Canyon downriver kayak and raft races, SUP events, and a freestyle rodeo. Many others came to paddle for fun, spectate, volunteer, and celebrate with the river community. The 3-day event is organized by American Whitewater which plays a critical role in protecting paddling on the upper Colorado River by securing recreational flow-protections and representing paddlers in

If you’re one of the 4.6 million people who visit the Nantahala and Pisgah National Forests each year, you already know how incredible this corner of the Southern Appalachians is. No matter your preferred form of adventure, you know the Nantahala-Pisgah offers access to unparalleled outdoor recreation opportunities — access and opportunity that’s hard to put a price on. But now a series of new economic studies, commissioned by Outdoor Alliance, does just that. The studies' authors found that paddlers,

Many of the technology tools deployed by American Whitewater have been developed in close collaboration with committed volunteers. In fact, early versions of our website date back to the late 1990’s as a volunteer driven project. This month, American Whitewater is proud to recognize Greg Lee as a Volunteer of the Month for his efforts developing an Android phone app based on the American Whitewater National River Database. This is the same information found on our website and utilized heavily

Yesterday American Whitewater filed comments on the proposal to rescind the Clean Water rule (2015 Waters of the United States rule, also known as the WOTUS) with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The deadline for comments is today September 27th. The clock is ticking, and we've made it easy for you to speak up and voice your support for the Clean Water rule alongside American Whitewater: Speak Up for Clean Water.    In our comments we express our strong opposition

The Russell Fork (VA & KY) is one of the classic Class V creek runs in the United States. The river is run year round and relies on a combination of natural flow and dam release from the Flanagan Reservoir on the Pound River. Every October, the Corp of Engineers draws the reservoir down over 4 weekends, putting anywhere from 800-1100 cfs into the Russell. Paddlers from all over the world converge on the Breaks to sample the awesome whitewater,

American Whitewater is pleased to announce that an Android App is now available for our river and gage information. This is the same information found in the national river database accessible from our website and utilized heavily by the paddling community. The app can be downloaded at Google Play here.   Special thanks for development of the app goes to Greg Lee and Rachel Jin who donated their time in this volunteer effort. An iOS version is in the future also

September 2017, Charity Navigator, America's largest and most-utilized independent evaluator of charities, announced that American Whitewater has earned its eighth consecutive 4-star rating. Receiving four out of a possible four stars indicates that American Whitewater adheres to good governance and other best practices that minimize the chance of unethical activities and consistently executes its mission in a fiscally responsible way. The letter from Charity Navigator informing American Whitewater that it was awarded a eighth 4-star rating from Charity Navigator is

American Whitewater is proud to recognize longtime Pacific Northwest paddling aficionado Christian Knight as our Volunteer of the Month for his efforts organizing an extremely successful clean-up at Eagle Falls on the Skykomish River in Washington state. Eagle Falls is a beautiful roadside attraction for a straightforward class V park and huck at low water or a frothy one drop rollercoaster at high water. The walls and boulders around the falls had become defaced by graffiti over time taking away

Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) has confirmed that they are changing the scheduled recreational flow days for PIT 1 to 4 consecutive days starting Friday October 6 through Monday October 9 (Columbus Day Weekend). This is due to resource constraints brought on by a combination of winter storm damage to the facilities, roads and increased reliance on Pit 1 generation to make up for the outage of the Pit 5 powerhouse. PG&E will start ramping up spill at 7:00 am