What is the National Blueways Initiative?
Jamie Mierau, Director, River Protection
January 9, 2013 | Blue Trails, Urban Rivers, Wild and Scenic Rivers
In May of 2012, Secretary of the Interior, Ken Salazar announced the new National Blueways System, a key element of America’s Great Outdoors, and designated the Connecticut River Watershed – covering areas of Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Connecticut – as the nation’s first blueway. Yesterday, a second river was added to the list, the White in Arkansas.
The National Blueways System was established to recognize rivers that are being protected and restored through diverse stakeholder partnerships that use a comprehensive watershed approach to resource stewardship. It helps to coordinate federal, state, and local partners to promote best practices, share information and resources, and encourage active and collaborative stewardship of rivers and their watersheds across the country.
The designation recognizes the history, beauty of value of healthy rivers and provides an opportunity to build upon the conservation, recreational, and educational and economic benefits they provide to communities along them.
The National Blueway designation differs from existing federal designations for rivers (e.g., Wild and Scenic), which generally cover only a segment of a river and a narrow band of the riparian corridor.
A National Blueway, by contrast, includes the entire river from its “headwaters to mouth” as well as the river’s watershed.
National Blueways designations are intended to recognize and support existing local and regional conservation, recreation, and restoration efforts, and do not establish a new protective status or regulations.
For more information and to see if your river might be a fit for the National Blueways System, contact American Rivers' Director of River Protection, Jamie Mierau.
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Submitted by Kathleen Rogers at: January 15, 2013
My city has a group called GWMA-Ground Water Management Assistance (? ) . We meet once a month. It is a group of diverse peoples with an interest in our ground waters. We are trying to keep it clean and viable. We are so surrounded by CAFO opperations of Dairy and Beef Cattle. Hundreds of thousands of head of cattle in our Yakima Valley. We are trying to find ways in which to keep our country wells from being polluted by nitrates, and our waters used for wasteful purposes in this mega industry operation. We are up against mega monies of cattle industry, dairy or beef. They feel like we are picking on them, like they have a target on their backs. They feel like nitrates are coming from fertilizers on the local farms for centuries as well. Yet our wells are being dug deeper and deeper to find clean water. Our water table is depleting. Our children and families are getting illness from their drinking water, forcing them to buy bottled water. The poorer country families here, that work these places for incomes, are the ones hurting. The ones that have lived out here for 40- 50 years are hurting. The only ones not hurting are the owners of the CAFO's who very seldom live on location, never down hill from them. If anyone has information for us that would be of good use to combat our ground waters issue, please let me know. Thank you.