Articles

Late last month, U.S. Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) released a discussion draft of a bill that is, by far, the most dangerous piece of hydropower legislation for rivers that we've seen in over a decade. The proposed "Hydropower Regulatory Modernization Act of 2015" would take the hydropower industry back to the days that brought about massive hydropower development during the last century, where developers could dam a river, take out all of the flow and barely give a second

California boaters! Join American Whitewater on Monday, May 11th at the State Capitol in Sacramento for California Rivers Day–an education, outreach, and activism event focusing on rivers.    Our rivers need your voices more than ever, as the severe and persistent drought has unleashed an intense push to take us back to the era of big dam building and weaken protections for our waterways. We hope you'll come out to celebrate and advocate for our rivers!     California Rivers Day will

THIS WEEK ONLY! American Whitewater is thrilled to announce that we have partnered with FLOAT to bring you limited edition river stewardship T shirts available this week only! For every shirt sold FLOAT will donate $8 to American Whitewater to help us restore rivers. Head on over to www.float.org and SHOP today – lots of fun colors to choose from!

If you boat whitewater rivers in Oregon, American Whitewater wants to hear from you! We're doing a survey to better understand the importance of some of the state's best whitewater runs. The information you provide will be used to support our work to protect, restore and improve access to your favorite rivers in the state.  Take the survey here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/G9VWTVR   Your feedback is important to us, and could lead to new Wild and Scenic River designations or to fight

As paddling season kicks into high gear, we hope that you'll consider making a contribution to American Whitewater on GiveBig Day–Tuesday, May 5th! GiveBIG is a one day event through the Seattle Foundation that makes your donation to American Whitewater go further! It's a great way to support our efforts to halt new dams proposed for the North Fork Snoqualmie and South Fork Skykomish Rivers, secure protections for iconic and pristine rivers on the Olympic Peninsula, and ensure that the public can

May 2nd will be the first Saturday Upper Yough release of the year, and hundreds of white water paddlers will converge on the small town of Friendsville, MD. After $25,000 in paddler-donated seed money and $160,000 in grants raised by the Town the new parking area is complete and awaiting final approval. We hope the parking will be open, but please park on the side of the road if it isn't. Other work to protect river access continues. Don Millard, a local

The current agreement for water in the Ocoee River with Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) expires in 2018. A new agreement is needed. For the next agreement, TVA is asking for $9 million from outfitters to recover the lost costs of hydro generation for the first 5 years of releases. These fees represent an eye-popping 800% increase for the Middle Ocoee and a 180% increase for the Upper Ocoee. If the outfitters are unable to pay, then private boaters will lose

During dry years like the persistent drought here in California, American Whitewater believes water should be put to good multi-use down our flowing rivers. Thus, most of the agreements that have been negotiated on hydroelectric projects over the past 15 years have conditions that provide for recreational flows even in critically dry years. American Whitewater has been able to negotiate flows in dry years due to the fact that none of these flows have any impact on downstream consumptive water

On April 12, 2015 a Canadian paddler visiting the US was killed on the Farmlands section of Washington's White Salmon River. Denis Brown, 63, flipped in "triple Drop" rapid, did not roll, and washed iunto a strainer on the river right bank. Mr. Brown came our of his kayak and pinned against the strainer, and his boat washed down and lodged against him. There is an excellent report of this and the vigorous rescue attempt available now in the AW

Friends of the Cheat, a long time partner of American Whitewater, will put on the 21st Annual CheatFest on Saturday May 2nd. It's an all day event with races, kid's events, great music, and of course, whitewater! FOC works tirelessly to improve water quality in the Cheat River Watershed and was a key player in the recent protection of the Cheat Canyon. They currently maintain three river access areas on the Cheat and Big Sandy Rivers which they built with