About American Rivers 

American Rivers is the leading organization working to protect and restore the nation’s rivers and streams.  Rivers connect us to each other, nature, and future generations.  Since 1973, American Rivers has fought to preserve these connections, helping protect and restore more than 150,000 miles of rivers through advocacy efforts, on-the-ground projects, and the annual release of America’s Most Endangered Rivers®. 

Headquartered in Washington, DC, American Rivers has offices across the country and more than 100,000 supporters, members, and volunteers nationwide.

Through our work in five key program areas - Rivers and Global Warming, River Restoration, River Protection, Clean Water and Water Supply - American Rivers is working to protect our remaining natural heritage, undo the damage of the past and create a healthy future for our rivers and future generations. 

Our Programs:

Rivers and Global Warming

The impacts of global warming will hit rivers first and worst, in the form of increased droughts, floods, and waterborne diseases. Fortunately, healthy rivers boost community safety and security, building resilience against these impacts and helping communities thrive in the face of a changing climate.  To address these issues, American Rivers is:

• Raising awareness of how global warming impacts river health, clean water, and water supplies, and promoting 21st century green infrastructure solutions that enhance health, safety and quality of life.

Restoring Rivers

Restored rivers and floodplains protect and enhance local communities and support fish and wildlife.  We are committed to restoring our nation’s rivers through:

• Removing obsolete and unsafe dams
• Improving the operations of dams, levees and other river infrastructure
• Significantly reducing losses from catastrophic floods
• Connecting people to their local river

Protecting Rivers

America’s highest quality rivers provide drinking water, flood protection, fish and wildlife habitat and recreation opportunities.  To ensure that our nation’s rivers are protected, we focus on:

• Preventing harmful and destructive projects such as logging, mining, drilling or damming
• Protecting critical watersheds
• Bringing national attention to threatened rivers
• Providing an opportunity for advocacy on behalf of rivers

Clean Water

By focusing our efforts on stopping pollution from sewage spills and stormwater runoff, we are working to ensure that our urban and suburban environments are safe for drinking, fishing and boating.  We focus on ensuring clean water supplies through:

• Protecting wetlands and other natural landscapes that provide clean water
• Encouraging municipalities to effectively treat stormwater and wastewater, and consider them resources not waste products

Water Supply

Ensuring that our rivers and communities have enough water is critical to supporting a healthy environment and thriving economy.  We must ensure the nation’s long-term water supply through:

• Blocking expensive and inefficient water storage projects that will damage rivers without providing substantial community benefits
• Reducing total water consumption through proven water efficiency practices 
• Balancing human water consumption with the natural requirements of rivers and the habitats they support.