Protecting Rivers & Your Clean Water
As Flooding Risks Rise, Communities Can Take Steps to Prepare
Fay Augustyn, Intermountain West Blue Trails Manager
April 24, 2013 | Floods & Floodplains, Climate Change
Across much of the Midwest, rising waters and flash flooding are threatening public safety, homes and businesses, farmland, and commerce and transportation. Torrential rains late last week sent many rivers over the tops of their banks in Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, and Missouri. In Illinois alone, 44 counties have been declared state disaster areas. As towns begin to clean up the debris and damage, the threat of more rain could pose additional flooding risks and as floodwaters make their way downstream, other communities could be in jeopardy.
Read more »Smarter Flood Management in California's Central Valley
Evan Reimondo, Restoration and Outreach Coordinator, AmeriCorps Member
March 22, 2013 | Floods & Floodplains
American Rivers is spearheading an effort to improve the safety and sustainability, while increasing the recreational, environmental, and community benefits, of a proposed levee modification project on the Feather River, CA.
Read more »Native Youth Restore Headwaters
Luke Hunt, Ph.D., Director, Headwaters Conservation
February 27, 2013 | Floods & Floodplains, Water Supply
On Sunday, Native youth from the Sierra foothills and American Rivers' staff got into the mud and planted hundreds of willows along an eroding stretch of Wolf Creek. Wolf Creek is the most recent in an 8-month series of teaching and restoration projects we have worked on with the Sierra Native Alliance Youth Conservation Corps. Youth measured stream flow, bank stability and beaver activity in Hope Valley. We also cleared invasive plants from an infested floodplain, and repaired trails on tributaries to the Yuba River.
Read more »River Impossible: The Hazard of Whittenton Dam and the Mill River Restoration
Brian Graber, Director, River Restoration Program, Northeast Region
February 26, 2013 | Dams & Dam Removal, Floods & Floodplains, Wild and Scenic Rivers
In 2005, the Whittenton Dam nearly failed, forcing 2,000 people to evacuate homes and businesses in downtown Taunton, Massachusetts. As the Mill River swelled around the dilapidated dam, senators, a governor, and CNN gathered and assessed the site. The dam was built to power a mill more than a century before, but it hadn’t served that purpose for decades. But like so many other dams, it remained in the river, a hazard that was nearly realized.
Read more »River Restoration In Oakley, CA Engages Community
Sara Larsen, Administrative Assistant, Berkeley
February 13, 2013 | Floods & Floodplains, Urban Rivers
Like too many creeks across the country, Marsh Creek was “improved” by the Soil Conservation Service in the early 1960’s. Until recently, the lower six miles was a treeless, trapezoidal flood control channel fenced off from surrounding properties. American Rivers’ partners, the Natural Heritage Institute and Friends of Marsh Creek Watershed, worked with the City of Oakley and the local flood control district to restore a section of channel and reconnect the creek to the community.
Read more »Rebuilding Better in New York
Eileen Fretz, Flood Policy Director
February 11, 2013 | Climate Change, Floods & Floodplains
Soon after Hurricane Sandy hit, devastating much of the Northeast, politicians and experts took to the press to urge the government to help communities rebuild “better”. But what exactly does rebuilding “better” mean?
Read more »Governor Inslee Proclaims Strong Support For The Yakima Integrated Plan
Michael Garrity, Washington State Conservation Director
February 1, 2013 | Dams & Dam Removal, Floods & Floodplains, Wild and Scenic Rivers, Water Supply
Last Thursday, new Washington state Gov. Jay Inslee appeared before a photo of the Yakima River at his weekly press conference to announce his first legislative action: Introducing a bill to the state legislature (HB 1414) calling for state funding and implementation of the Yakima Basin Integrated Plan in order to restore salmon, protect key headwaters habitat, and better manage water in the Yakima River Basin.
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