World Nature Conservation Day is July 28. It is more important than ever to speak up and make your voice heard for our nation’s rivers. We know there is a lot going on in the world that can make it overwhelming to figure out what you can do to help. That’s why we’ve put together 5 simple things you can do this World Nature Conservation Day to make an impact in your community and nationwide:
1. Take Action: Sign our Wild and Scenic Rivers Act petition
Wild and Scenic Rivers are our healthiest, cleanest, most intact waterways, protected for their scenic beauty, natural and cultural significance, and recreational value. A Wild and Scenic designation protects the free and natural flow of a river and preserves what makes a river special. Join us in our effort to safeguard rivers — Tell your Members of Congress to support new Wild and Scenic Rivers today!
2. Use our Protected Rivers Explorer Tool
Across the nation, 80% of rivers lack adequate protection. Our Protected Rivers Explorer is a groundbreaking tool based on cutting-edge science. Using the Explorer, we can, for the first time in history, see how secure rivers are all across the country. Discover how protected your state and local rivers are and get involved today!
3. Advocate for rivers through our Action Center
Be a voice for rivers: Last year, our community sent 30,000+ messages to decision-makers calling on them to take action for healthier rivers and cleaner water. Check out our Action Center and take action today!
4. Learn about the top 10 ways to conserve water at home
There are a few simple things you can do at home — Fix leaks, turn off the faucet while brushing your teeth — to ease the burden on your local water supply and save money in the process. These water-saving measures can have a big impact on water demand in your local community.
5. Become an American Rivers Member
Rivers provide clean water and natural habitat. Support our work protecting and restoring our nation’s rivers by donating a gift today! Together, we can protect the source of all life — our rivers.
One small action each day adds up to make a big impact over time. Share this list with your family and friends and revisit these actions when you can. Healthy rivers are for everyone, not just a privileged few. We are in this together, and it will take all of us in this movement to protect rivers and preserve clean water.
Like much of the Southwest, the San Luis Valley in Southern Colorado, home to the headwaters of the Rio Grande, is facing a historic, near record-setting snow drought; early runoff and all signs point to a severe water shortage. Snow water equivalent (SWE) – how much liquid water is available in snow – in the region is among the lowest on record, triggering dire concerns about the impacts of reduced runoff on agriculture, communities, and ecosystems.
The Rio Grande is essential to the livelihood of people, economies, and the environment, and the demands from human populations and the impacts of climate change have put the Rio under increasing pressure. These pressures are well documented; numerous studies conclude that rivers in the southwest are facing critical shortages, largely as a result of these compounding pressures. Local communities, including those along the Rio Grande and its tributaries, are acutely aware of their water challenges and have come together to identify innovative solutions to address the threats. River and riparian restoration projects, agricultural efficiency and modernization projects, recharging the local aquifer, and protecting small streams and wetlands are just some of the initiatives communities along the Rio are undertaking to protect and restore their community’s lifeblood.
In the San Luis Valley (Valley), the community has long been working on flexible, innovative water solutions to make every drop count. Water managers, conservation organizations, irrigation companies, communities, businesses, agencies, and recreationists have come together to identify programs and projects that provide multiple benefits while also addressing drought and water scarcity challenges head on. Many of the solutions being implemented have known benefits while others are in the earlier stages of research and impact analysis, but early indications suggest some of these solutions provide significant opportunities to address some of the challenges facing Valley communities, and beyond.
Frozen Assets
One such project, “Frozen Assets,” is an innovative and collaborative water management project under way in the San Luis Valley, led by American Rivers in close collaboration with our partners from Wetland Dynamics, Ducks Unlimited, Rio Grande Headwaters Land Trust, Colorado Parks and Wildlife, and other private, state, and federal partners. Frozen Assets is an ongoing project designed to research how winter sheet ice, an innovative water management strategy that mimics natural processes, can support aquifer recovery, assist with native re-vegetation on retired agricultural lands, enhance wildlife habitat, and allow flexibility for agricultural producers in the Valley.
Winter sheet ice has been used historically in the Valley to spread water shallowly across the landscape during the winter and ‘store’ it as ice for early spring use. Sheet ice starts developing when temperatures freeze in the fall, and, through consistent application of water in the winter, producers slowly ‘push’ shallow water across the surface to build upon the frozen layer, creating a large sheet of ice. The slowly melting ice provides water and foraging resources for over-wintering birds and wildlife and early spring migrants like waterfowl and cranes. This slow process results in less water lost to evaporation and transmission, and allows water to infiltrate soils and recharge aquifers, facilitating the growth of early season plant species.
This Project is designed to simultaneously equip water users with information about winter sheet ice and demonstrate its viability as an alternative for seasonal water use that is beneficial to wildlife, enhances soil moisture retention, boosts the resilience of local water tables, improves habitat quality, and promotes the growth of native plant communities.
Rye Resurgence
The Rye Resurgence Project has benefited not just the Valley, but businesses and consumers around Colorado and the greater Southwest region. Established to address the Valley’s groundwater depletion challenges and improve soil health, the Rye Resurgence Project is a community-driven initiative focused on revitalizing the local agricultural economy and environment by promoting San Luis Valley Rye. A winter cover crop, rye requires significantly less water than other rotational crops and has a deep, complex flavor profile that can be used in a larger variety of ways.
The Rye Resurgence Project has a dual mission, partnering with local farmers to grow rye and establishing a market for Valley rye. Ensuring there is a market and diverse buyers for new crops is an essential piece of the puzzle for producers when considering less thirsty crops. The Project has made connections with local and regional businesses – including bakers, millers, brewers, and distillers – to utilize rye in their products. In its first year, the project partnered with farmers to grow 4,500 acres of winter rye in the fall of 2023, which yielded an estimated 4,670 acre-feet in water savings over the course of the first year, and 24 businesses identified as partners.
River and Habitat Projects
The rivers and water flowing through San Luis Valley provide critical habitat for many different species of wildlife; multiple wildlife refuges and state wildlife areas line the river throughout the Valley. The Alamosa National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) provides important habitat for native fish. However, the NWR experiences a highly variable flow regime that places stress on both riparian and aquatic health, and lower streamflows are occurring more frequently, resulting in stress on aquatic species, including fish. To address these challenges, the Rio Grande Headwaters Restoration Project worked with partners to plan and implement the Rio Grande Corridor Restoration Project at the Alamosa NWR.
This Project resulted in restoration and aquatic habitat enhancement both within the Alamosa NWR and on adjacent private lands by reshaping and stabilizing eroding streambanks with rock and native plants, which allows for better floodplain access when higher flows are present. Additionally, channel shaping and enhanced instream habitat improved low-flow and off-channel aquatic habitat. Importantly, this included a specific off-channel habitat feature created for Rio Grande chub, which are present in the area. The Project also benefited visitors to the NWR by redefining adjacent public trail access that reduces recreational disturbance to the area. This is just one example of the many multi-benefit, cross-sector river restoration projects happening in the Valley.
Water is the lifeblood of this region, and collaborative solutions like these will help preserve the economic vitality of the Valley while conserving its most precious resource for the human and wildlife communities that depend on it.
Communities across North Carolina’s Cape Fear River Basin are facing renewed uncertainty after the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) proposed rollback of drinking water protections for several PFAS chemicals, commonly known as “forever chemicals.”
The EPA recently announced two proposed rules on May 18, 2026. One would roll back protections for several PFAS compounds, while the other would delay implementation of existing standards.
What are PFAS?
PFAS are a group of human-made chemicals that can enter rivers and streams through industrial discharges and other sources. They are highly persistent in the environment. Exposure, even at very low concentrations, can cause human health concerns and developmental impacts on infants and children. Drinking water standards are critical to protecting public health. They also create incentives for industries to reduce PFAS pollution at its source—often the most effective and affordable way to protect rivers, communities, and downstream drinking water supplies.
Two years ago, the EPA finalized the nation’s first enforceable drinking water standards for several PFAS chemicals, which marked a major step forward in addressing long-standing contamination concerns. For communities like the ones downstream of the Chemours facility in Fayetteville, North Carolina, that action reflected years of local advocacy, scientific attention, and public pressure to address PFAS pollution in the Cape Fear River system.
PFAS in the Cape Fear River Basin
Communities in the Cape Fear River Basin, just like others across the country, have already borne significant costs associated with PFAS contamination. Now, with these proposed rollbacks, communities are once again confronting basic questions about drinking water safety, long-term health protections, and whether current systems are doing enough to prevent future pollution.
The Cape Fear River Basin is one of the most ecologically diverse regions in North Carolina, with interconnected rivers, wetlands, and floodplains that support unique wildlife, local economies, recreation, and drinking water supplies.
The proposed changes to existing standards focus on drinking water, but they also raise broader concerns about how communities address pollution in rivers and waterways. Communities in the Cape Fear River Basin are facing the reality that protecting clean water requires sustained attention, coordinated action, and accountability across entire watersheds.
American Rivers is proud to support our local partner organizations working in those communities most directly impacted. Across the watershed, local partner organizations continue to play a critical role in elevating community concerns, documenting pollution impacts, and advancing solutions that protect both people and clean water. Clean Cape Fear, Cape Fear River Watch, Haw River Assembly, and Sustainable Sandhills have helped build public awareness of PFAS contamination while advocating for stronger protections and greater accountability from polluters.
What can we do to protect clean water?
American Rivers supports bipartisan federal legislation that would help communities address PFAS contamination and modernize aging water infrastructure.
Congress can help strengthen protections for communities facing PFAS contamination. We are asking Senators to support the Healthy H2O Act (H.R. 4721 / S. 2436), which would help rural homeowners and communities access water quality testing and treatment resources for contaminants such as PFAS, particularly in areas that rely on private wells.
Protecting drinking water requires more than treating pollution after it reaches the tap. It also means preventing harmful chemicals from entering rivers and wastewater systems in the first place. Keeping pollution out of rivers protects public health, reduces treatment costs, and helps safeguard fish, wildlife, and recreation.
Summer is here! That means longer days for fishing, hiking, kayaking, swimming – more daylight for all of your favorite river activities. Summer is my favorite time of year. To me, nothing compares to creating memories with friends and loved ones during group paddles and river hangs. Even alone, just sitting and listening to the water as it makes its way downstream – the riffles, the rapids, the birds, the fish splashing grounds me and reminds me that rivers have life within and around them — life that depends on them.
For National Rivers Month, we want to celebrate the common belief that Life Depends on Rivers®. There is a reason it is the American Rivers tagline. Rivers provide our drinking water, grow our food, and provide vital habitat for fish and wildlife. All life requires healthy rivers to survive.
This year has been a challenging year for rivers, with many threats putting clean water and ecosystems at risk. That’s why it is more important than ever to recognize and celebrate the progress we make together.
I hope you enjoy some celebratory updates from the past year that show the impact we can have if we all work together to protect our rivers under the shared belief that Life Depends on Rivers®.
100 Dams Down: A Big Year for Reconnecting Rivers in the U.S.
In 2025, the United States removed 100 dams. One hundred outdated, often crumbling, and frequently dangerous structures were pulled from our waterways across 30 states. In their wake, more than 4,893 miles of river were reconnected — the most upstream miles ever reconnected in a single year in the U.S. through dam removal. In these rivers, water is flowing freely again for the first time in decades, sometimes centuries. Learn more…
Tijuana River’s landmark agreement to stop toxic pollution
The Tijuana River ranked #2 in our 2025 America’s Most Endangered Rivers® report due to toxic pollution threatening border communities. This designation, developed with partners Surfrider Foundation and Un Mar de Colores, helped catalyze swift federal action. Within three months of the April report release, American Rivers and others were invited to meet with EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, which helped build momentum for a landmark agreement between the United States and Mexico to address the ongoing public health crisis. This demonstrates how strategic advocacy, combined with persistent community leadership, drives solutions for rivers and their communities. Learn more…
Texas voters approve $20 billion investment for water and flood resilience
In a groundbreaking victory, Texas voters approved a ballot initiative dedicating $1 billion annually for 20 years to fund water infrastructure improvements, wetland and floodplain restoration, and river reconnection projects. This is the largest state-based investment in water resources in U.S. history — a bipartisan triumph showing that water wins at the ballot box. American Rivers Action Fund worked alongside the National Wildlife Federation Action Fund and Texans for Opportunity to support this groundbreaking measure, paving the way for similar successes across the country. Learn more…
Celebrating a long-awaited urban wetland restoration in Seattle
After years of planning and partnership, a headwater wetland restoration project in West Seattle reached a major milestone — and in February, the community gathered to celebrate. As our Northwest Region team’s first urban wetland restoration project, this work demonstrates how restoring headwater wetlands can strengthen neighborhoods, improve habitat, and serve as a model for other urban communities. Learn more…
For many Idahoans, the Teton River is forever linked to one fateful day: June 5, 1976.
That morning, the Teton Dam catastrophically failed during its initial filling, unleashing a wall of water that devastated downstream communities and changed lives in an instant. But another loss often receives less attention: before the failure, the dam’s reservoir had inundated the Teton Canyon, flooding one of the Northern Rockies’ special river landscapes.
The Teton Canyon is more than a footnote on dam failures and lost rivers. In the 50 years since the dam failed, both the canyon and the river have had an opportunity to recover. Today, the Teton once again carries cool, clear water through one of the Northern Rockies’ remarkable deep canyons. The canyon is again an important place for the protection and restoration of Yellowstone cutthroat trout, a species central to the region’s ecology and angling heritage. Anglers, hunters, boaters, and families again value this place. The canyon and river are part of eastern Idaho’s identity, and today the Teton remains eastern Idaho’s only major river without a large dam and reservoir system altering its character.
After the failure, the Teton River received something precious: a second chance.
Across the country, communities are proving that rivers can recover when people invest in restoration, remove outdated infrastructure, and work together to reconnect and repair damaged waterways. However, opportunities to reverse major damage do not come easily, and meaningful recovery takes time, commitment, and partnership.
Over the last several decades, people throughout the region have invested in restoring and improving the Teton River system, and it shows. In the Teton Valley upstream, conservationists, farmers, and communities have worked together to find practical solutions that support agriculture while protecting and restoring river health.
Those partnerships — including Friends of the Teton River and Trout Unlimited’s Idaho chapter — matter because water challenges in the West are real. Communities need reliable water supplies. Farmers need certainty. Rivers need enough water to sustain fisheries, wildlife, and recreation economies. Too often, those needs are framed as incompatible; the work done in the Teton Valley has shown another path.
As Scott Bosse, the Director of American Rivers’ Northern Rockies Region, says in the film Second Chance:
“What is happening in the Teton River Valley, where conservationists and farmers and irrigators are coming together with innovative solutions to meet each other’s needs without building big dams in a way that satisfies all of them, while not just protecting the river but restoring it. It’s a unique culture that’s been built, especially on the upper Teton, and I’d like to see it replicated all over the West.”
This lesson matters today because some downstream interests are again promoting rebuilding the Teton Dam.
Rebuilding the dam would not simply create a reservoir, it would once again flood the Teton Canyon and place at risk a river system that communities have spent decades improving. It would ignore the progress already being made through collaboration and innovative approaches that recognize healthy rivers and healthy communities can succeed together.
As Scott says later in the film: “That river almost died in 1976. It’s had a resurrection. You don’t get many second chances in life, and you’ve got to seize them when you do.”
The Teton River got a second chance. Let’s not squander it.
Visit the Fishcamp Collab for Conservation and watch the short film Second Chance and enter to win amazing raffle items!
The broken dam
In a small village in the Catskill Mountains, the century-old Lake Jefferson Dam still stands, crumbling.
This seemingly innocuous dam has the potential to cause a fatal flood if it fails. Its spillway, completed in 1926, is no longer large enough to safely pass the floods the region is facing as storms grow more intense. It has already been damaged in past floods. Today the owners, whose home sits just below the dam, are working with partners to remove the obsolete structure before it catastrophically collapses.
Built on the pristine East Branch of Callicoon Creek in the Upper Delaware River Basin, the decaying dam also blocks important habitat for fish and other species. Decades of sediment have built up, leaving the dam’s impoundment only a few feet deep. The spillway is scarred from past floods and chunks of concrete are missing, exposing the core of the structure.
The Lake Jefferson Dam was built for recreation and later repurposed as a micro-hydropower project in the 1980s. Now it sits unused and in disrepair, waiting to be safely removed. It provides no flood control and in fact poses a serious hazard for flooding. If it were to fail, it could send a wall of water downstream, threatening nearly a hundred homes.
This dam is not unique.
Across the country, dams are failing, or on the verge of failing, more than ever. Over the past twenty years, the number of dam failures or emergency incidents has risen from an average of three per year to more than 70.
We are facing an infrastructure crisis hidden in plain sight.
Rising dam safety emergencies
Dam safety challenges are being driven by two major forces: aging infrastructure and increasingly severe storms.
While age alone does not make a dam unsafe, older dams require more maintenance and upgrades to remain secure. At the same time, more intense storms are producing floods that many dams were never designed to withstand, making failures more likely. In addition, development has often expanded downstream of dams, putting more people at risk should dams fail.
Bringing dams up to modern dam safety standards is expensive. For owners of uneconomic dams or obsolete dams, it is often a nonstarter. As a result, many dams are poorly maintained and, in some instances, abandoned altogether.
State dam safety offices are responsible for regulating more than seventy percent of the dams that are in the U.S. National Inventory of Dams. Yet many offices lack the staff and resources needed to oversee their vast inventory of dams. As a result, dam safety offices are forced to prioritize their oversight, leaving thousands of dams unchecked. Even when safety upgrades are identified, dam owners often lack the resources or will to implement them.
Dam safety offices need greater funding and capacity not only to monitor existing dams, but also to support the removal of those that are obsolete and unsafe.
Unregulated killers
Some dams pose a danger not just if they fail, but simply by existing.
Low head dams, typically less than 15 feet tall, are designed to allow water to continuously flow over the crest of the dam. This design can create a powerful recirculating current at the base of the dam, a hydraulic that can trap and hold swimmers, paddlers, and even rescuers underwater.
These structures are often referred to as “drowning machines,” and have been linked to at least 780 deaths in the U.S.
Most low head dams fall outside of state dam safety jurisdiction. While some states require warning signs, enforcement is often limited by gaps in authority and resources. As a result, known lethal hazards can remain in place for decades, long after they have outlived any useful purpose.
Maintain them or drain them
Selective removal of dams, particularly those that have become obsolete or unsafe, is an increasingly practical and cost-effective solution.
Dam removal eliminates long-term liability for dam owners while also improving river health, making it an economical and effective solution to costly repairs and upgrades. More than 2,300 dams have been removed around the country, most within the past two decades, and dam removal is now widely recognized as part of the natural lifecycle of infrastructure.
Dam safety professionals are increasingly embracing this approach. Federal and state guidance, along with technical resources, now help dam owners evaluate when removal makes more sense than repair. As well-known dam safety engineer Charles Karpowicz often puts it, “Maintain ‘Em or Drain ‘Em.”
Beyond eliminating safety risks, dam removal can also strengthen climate resilience. Research from Utah State University found that removing aging and obsolete barriers helps rivers regain their natural function, allowing them to better adjust to and recover from extreme weather events.
In other words, strategically removing dams doesn’t just reduce risk, it helps prevent future disasters.
Back in New York
Each spring, ice melts off Lake Jefferson, revealing the aging dam beneath it.
This spring, engineers have been collecting data and finalizing plans to remove the structure and restore the East Branch of Callicoon Creek. The work takes time, but the goal is simple: eliminate a known hazard before it becomes a catastrophe.
The dam owners, community members, and dam safety officials are all working toward the same outcome: a future where this stretch of river flows freely again and where the community downstream can breathe a little easier, knowing one more dangerous dam is no longer a risk.
May 31 is National Dam Safety Awareness Day. Find out what dams are at risk near your community and push for repairs, upgrades, or removal.
In California’s Central Valley, a river can look alive and still be starving. The San Joaquin winds through farmland and former floodplain country, but for much of the last century, it has been cut off from the seasonal flooding that is the lifeforce of juvenile fish. That is why inland salmon and steelhead — ocean-going rainbow trout — recovery conversations keep circling back to one idea: The river must be reconnected to the land beside it.
When the San Joaquin ran dry
The modern San Joaquin reflects decades of intensive flow regulation and water diversion. Completed in 1942, Friant Dam, located on the upper San Joaquin River near Fresno, California, was built to store water for irrigation and provide flood control. The dam helped set in motion a long period in which large sections of the upper San Joaquin ran dry as water was diverted into canals.
The San Joaquin feeds into the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, a key migration corridor and rearing environment for Central Valley salmon. With a dry riverbed and no small inlets or marshy wetlands where they can spawn and rear, spring-run Chinook salmon and steelhead disappeared from the mainstem river for decades.
Friant Dam is a defining chapter, but the broader Central Valley pattern is bigger than a single structure. Across the Central Valley, levees and engineered channels pinned rivers into place, cutting them off from the floodplains that once spread across the valley floor each winter and spring. The result was a loss of productive food webs and sheltered rearing areas for young fish.
Why floodplains make for healthier fish
Some of the best fish habitat on the San Joaquin is not in the river channel itself. In wet years, the shallow edges of the valley floor — the same landscapes we now think of as grasslands and fields — are where young salmon are able to find food and room to grow.
Healthy floodplains are extremely special for salmon and steelhead because of the food availability and the time they provide for young fish to mature. When water spreads out over shallow floodplain surfaces, it warms faster than the main channel as sunlight penetrates the surface, letting aquatic bugs, microbes, zooplankton, and algae flourish. That burst of new food helps young fish put on size fast at exactly the life stage when growth is the difference between making it to the ocean and being lost along the way.
Decades of Central Valley research show the same pattern. Juvenile Chinook that access floodplain habitat grow faster and survive better than fish confined to the main channel. This is largely because floodplains produce far more food. More recent work on managed floodplains, including seasonally flooded agricultural fields, has confirmed that floodplain access can drive some of the fastest juvenile growth rates recorded in the region. No two years look the same on a working river, but many different studies come back with the same result: Floodplain access gives young fish a real survival advantage.
That’s why floodplain reconnection is treated as core salmon and steelhead recovery logic in California. In the San Joaquin system, restoration planning recognizes that floodplains and the food they produce can shape how fast juvenile Chinook grow and how well they survive. Program scientists are directly asking how floodplain productivity predicts juvenile Chinook biomass and growth, and how that information can be used to guide adaptive management on the river.
The restoration fix anglers should care about
If the benefits floodplains provide for fish are repeatedly backed by science, the question becomes: Where and how can floodplains be restored?
This is where American Rivers comes in. Working in partnership with agencies, as well as local communities and organizations throughout the Central Valley, we advance projects that reconnect rivers to their floodplains — not just to restore the functional habitat of native fish and wildlife, but also to improve water quality and lower flood risk in nearby communities.
This includes giving rivers room to spread out during high flows. It also means helping to align the reconnection of San Joaquin’s floodplain with long-term recovery for salmon, steelhead, and other species.
State and federal restoration plans in the San Joaquin frame floodplain reconnection as a way to create shallow and productive rearing habitat for juvenile Chinook and other floodplain-dependent species like Sacramento splittail — a native feeder fish. This includes projects at the San Joaquin River National Wildlife Refuge that manage how floodwater moves onto and off of restored floodplain habitat.
The river and the surrounding valley floor historically functioned as a connected system, where seasonal flooding shaped both aquatic habitat and the grasslands along the river’s edge. Reconnecting the river to parts of that landscape is about restoring floodplain processes that let the river function more naturally, which creates the seasonal habitat young fish depend on.
Most students at the University of California, Santa Barbara pass this place every day without fully realizing how special it is.
Just beyond campus sits Coal Oil Point Reserve and Devereux Slough, a tidal wetland shaped by shifting water and a surprising abundance of life. What might look like an open stretch of land from a distance is actually a dynamic, water-connected landscape.
We asked UCSB students what this place means to them.
“It just feels like a quiet break from everything, even if you’re right next to campus.” — UCSB Environmental Studies Student
More Than Open Space
Coal Oil Point Reserve spans over 170 acres and protects a mix of coastal habitats, including salt marshes, estuaries, dunes, grasslands, and seasonal wetlands. At the center of it all, Devereux Slough shifts throughout the year, sometimes filling with water and at other times drying into salt flats and shallow channels.
That constant transformation is part of what makes the landscape so compelling. It moves and responds, changing with the seasons.
“Spaces like Coal Oil Point give students a controlled but natural environment to not just conduct research in, but also connect to it. These spaces allow UCSB undergrads to be as close as possible to some of our beautiful native wetland species, such as great blue herons, brown pelicans, garter snakes, slender salamanders, and countless more wildlife.” — UCSB Seeds Club Communications Chair
A Landscape Full of Life
Look closer, and the wetland reveals itself as a place full of activity. Birds move through the area in large numbers using the slough and surrounding habitats to rest and feed, as well as lay their nests.
Coal Oil Point is especially known for the western snowy plover, which is a small shorebird that relies on this coastline. Each winter, hundreds gather here, which makes it one of the most significant sites for the species in the United States.
“Once you actually stop and look, there’s so much going on. Birds and so many sounds, it’s definitely way more alive than you might think.” — Earth Sciences UCSB Student
“I didn’t realize how important the area is for wildlife until one of my classes talked about it. It really makes you want to visit it more during the school year.” — UCSB Student
What People See in a Place Like This
People connect to landscapes like this in different ways. For some, it’s about wildlife. For others, it’s about peace and simply having a place nearby that feels different from everyday routines.
“It’s just nice that it’s there. Like you can go out and it’s quiet for a second, even during midterm seasons when things get hectic.” — UCSB Geography Student
“It’s really pretty at sunset. That’s honestly when I notice it the most.”— UCSB Biological Studies Student
“As an environmental student, it’s kind of a reminder for me that there’s really ecologically important functioning habitat right next to all this developed space.”— UCSB Environmental Studies Student
Why It Matters
Places like Devereux Slough are easy to overlook, but they play a critical role in coastal ecosystems. Wetlands filter water, provide habitat, support biodiversity, and connect land and ocean systems in ways that are not always visible.
They also offer a way for people to connect with water and nature in their everyday lives.
“It reminds me that we live in nature, not just around it, and we should always keep working to ease the integration of people with our environment.” — UCSB Coastal Fund Board Member
Coal Oil Point sits at the boundary between campus life and a living, changing ecosystem. It’s a place many students enjoy for recreation, whether they are jogging, biking, doing wildlife photography, or having a picnic. Students fill the area. Once they notice it, community members throughout Goleta find themselves returning to the peaceful haven.
A Closing Reflection
Over the past year, as American Rivers’ Communications Intern, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about the connection between people and the natural places around them. It could be a nationally recognized river system or a quiet wetland beside a college campus, and in both cases, I’ve found that these landscapes matter because they give people a chance to pause and remember that nature is a central and meaningful part of our everyday lives.
That’s part of the power of conservation storytelling. Sometimes protecting a place means starting with simply noticing it.
The next time you walk past your town’s natural oasis like Devereux Slough, I suggest you stop for a few minutes. Watch the birds glide across the water and listen to the breeze through the tall grasses, maybe even sit quietly at sunset before heading back into the rush of the day.
As my time with American Rivers comes to a close, it feels fitting to end with a place like this one. This is a place that reminds us that even in the middle of busy lives and constant movement, there is still value in slowing down long enough to connect with the landscapes around us.
Places like Devereux Slough reveal that the natural spaces woven into our everyday lives are both beautiful and deeply worth protecting for our future generations.
Tillie Walton is a conservationist, hydrologist, river guide, and the host of the PBS series, Wild Rivers with Tillie. She is also a dear friend of American Rivers.
In season 1 of Wild Rivers with Tillie, she brought viewers down some of the West’s most beloved rivers. Some face perilous threats, and others offer a playbook for how to protect and preserve these cherished bodies of water. Viewers can join Tillie on the Rogue, the Colorado through Glen and Grand Canyon, the Yampa, and on the Snake. Throughout the season and on each of the rivers she explores, Tillie engages experts in thoughtful conversation about conservation, drought, and the future of the rivers that tether us to the landscape and to each other.
We had the opportunity to ask Tillie a few questions about the inspiration for her work (including hosting the show), some fun behind-the-scenes anecdotes, and what else she’s been working on (Tillie doesn’t sit down much)…
1) Tell us about the first river you remember spending time on.
What made the biggest impact on me was a 3-week trip in Big Bend National Park as a senior in high school. We spent three days canoeing on the Rio Grande through Santa Elena Canyon, and that changed my life forever. We were all inner-city kids, and some of us didn’t know how to swim. We were given these tippy little canoes, and I was secretly glad that I was with the instructor because I really did not want to flip my canoe! I was terrified.
At one point, the instructor told me, “I want you to put your paddle down.” I said, “What?” He said, “Put your paddle down, lie back, and just keep your eyes open.” And as I leaned back, I felt the river underneath me, the canyon walls towering around me, and the sky passing above me. We were drifting along the river, meandering through the canyon walls, and I don’t know how to describe it, except that something just clicked. And I instantly knew, this is it. This is what I want to do, and since then I’ve never looked back. That trip changed my life, and I’m so grateful.
2) Why dedicate so much of your life to rivers?
Honestly, it never occurred to me not to. Rivers have truly shaped who I am, and I feel most like my true self when I’m on a river. There are so many life lessons that the river teaches us, and in my career as a Grand Canyon guide, I saw how the river can open us up to something larger than ourselves and connect us to each other – regardless of politics, religion, socioeconomics, etc.
I’ve witnessed people light up, laugh, play, and heal by spending time on the water. And even though rivers can be intimidating, I’ve found my sense of peace and connection by being on, in, and around rivers. I want everybody to have the opportunity to experience that sense of awe, wonder, peace, connection, and freedom. It’s part of what I hope to give back to the world.
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Havasu Creek, Grand Canyon -
Tillie and David Yetman filming at the Hance Rapid | Dan Duncan -
Sunshine Falls, Arkansas River -
Tillie and Margaret Bowman filming in the Grand Canyon
There are so few places that we can go in this world that give us a chance to quiet our minds and just really connect with something that’s beyond ourselves. Rivers put our smallness as humans into perspective, as well as our infinite grandeur. And I want to help preserve and protect these places.
Perhaps you could describe my drive for doing this as a love affair with the river, and sometimes with love, you have no choice—it’s just part of who you are.
3) What are the best, worst, and weirdest parts about filming season one?
Well, the best part is the people I’ve gotten to meet—from Native American leaders to conservative ranchers to river-running hippies. Talking with folks and recognizing that, despite how different our outer appearances may be, people are saying the exact same thing about their connection to the land and the river.
It always amazes me how much people truly care about these places and how much they are doing to protect the land and rivers in their own ways.
I also love getting to explore wild rivers, like the Devil’s River (which was probably one of my favorites), and go places I would have never thought to visit otherwise. It’s opened my eyes to rivers I didn’t know about and left me with a newfound sense of gratitude for our planet.
The worst part is cold river trips, disgusting hotel rooms, and all the driving. Most of these places are in the middle of nowhere and involve hours of driving with a very cramped car full of camera gear, and the three of us (Dan Duncan, our photographer and producer, the sound person, who is often a volunteer, and I) sharing a car with all of the gear for days on end. The hotel rooms can be kind of less than desirable in the middle of nowhere, but we make it work. And of course, I like warm weather, so the cold trips are not my favorite, but it’s still good to be on the river.
The weirdest (and fun) part is that Wild Rivers with Tillie is completely unscripted. River trips are unpredictable, and we are often going on the river, filming and talking with people I have just met. We never know what the storyline will be or how it will turn out until after the trip is over.
4) What is the thing that you’re most excited about right now in terms of your conservation work?
I’m most excited for the opportunity to show big love for Big Bend and the Rio Grande River. That’s the place I was talking about earlier that transformed my life. It’s under threat right now because there are plans to build a steel-structure border wall through the middle of our National Park, which will go through some of the most special places on earth and the Rio Grande River.
I hope others will realize this is a phenomenal place that needs to be protected. Our National Parks, and the rivers that flow through them, are some of America’s greatest treasures. I’m excited to have an opportunity to be a voice for that river and am always looking to get folks who are making decisions that impact these places on the river to experience it for themselves.
I’d like to issue an open invitation to anybody who is a policymaker—let me take you down the river and let the river speak for itself so that you can know why these places are truly treasures that we need to protect.
5) If you could embed everyone in the world with one piece of knowledge or understanding about rivers, what would it be?
Rivers are the exquisite jewels of our planet, and all of life depends on fresh water. Not only do rivers sustain life on an ecological and biological level, but they’re so good for the soul. I would say get out there and just spend some time by water! Water—whether it’s the ocean, rivers, lakes, taking a shower, or drinking a glass of water—it makes us all feel better!
Rivers make up less than 1% of all water on Earth. If you think of it in terms of jewelry, rivers decorate the earth like rare, beautiful, glistening diamond necklaces that sustain and support all life. These are the most exquisite gems of our planet, and I really wish that we could learn to take care of them as such. So learn about your local river, enjoy time on it, and learn what you can do to protect it.
Want to experience a river right now? Check out THIS immersive trip down the Grand Canyon that Tillie and her team created.
Voters throughout the West continue to care deeply about the protection of clean water and public lands as well as the wildlife habitats they contain. The values protected by Wild and Scenic Rivers are the same values that Western voters consistently say they care about. Across roughly 15 years of polling in the West, including Colorado College’s Conservation in the West poll, the University of Montana’s biannual Public Lands Survey, and polling by the Center for Western Priorities, voters have consistently identified access to clean water and public lands, as well as wildlife protection, as top priorities.
The Wild and Scenic Rivers Act is designed to safeguard exactly those kinds of values and resources. Congress created the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System in 1968 to protect rivers that have outstanding natural, cultural, and recreational values for present and future generations. The act protects a river’s free-flowing character and water quality and preserves “outstandingly remarkable values” such as fish and wildlife, scenery, recreation, geology, history, and culture.
Clean Water, Public Lands, and Wildlife Remain Top Priorities Across the West
Colorado College’s 2026 Conservation in the West poll covering Nevada, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Utah, New Mexico, Colorado, and Arizona provides the broad regional picture—85% of voters said issues involving public lands, waters, and wildlife are important in deciding whether to support an elected public official. That support resonated on both sides of the aisle, with nearly 8 in 10 Republicans and more than 9 in 10 Democrats saying those issues matter greatly to them. Those numbers do not mean every voter agrees on every designation in every place. What it does demonstrate is that the underlying values of Wild and Scenic Rivers still matter to voters across the region, including Republicans and Independents. When people hear “Wild and Scenic,” the phrase may sound like a label. In practice, it refers to protecting exactly the kinds of river values voters already say they want to keep. These shared priorities help explain why, when voters are asked about specific rivers, support carries through to long-term protections and, in some places, to Wild and Scenic River designation.
In Eastern Idaho, Priorities Translate to Local Rivers
A May 2025 poll in eastern Idaho shows this connection clearly. The survey polled registered voters in six eastern Idaho counties, with roughly two-thirds of respondents identifying as Republican.
These voters, who live at the headwaters of the Snake River system, were asked what they found most convincing about protecting local rivers. Fish and wildlife habitat emerged as the top reason, followed by economic benefits and clean drinking water. The results show that many voters view river protection through concrete benefits like wildlife habitat, clean water, and community well-being.
The same poll found that voters identified water pollution and increasing development pressure along riverbanks as the two biggest threats to eastern Idaho’s rivers. These concerns reflect the kinds of threats that long-term river protections are designed to address.
Support Carries Through to Wild and Scenic Designation
This pattern is not limited to just general attitudes about rivers in specific places. When voters are asked about specific designations, support remains strong.
The University of Montana’s Public Lands Survey in 2020, 2024, and 2026 found strong voter backing for designating the Gallatin, Madison, and other rivers near Bozeman, Montana, as part of the Wild and Scenic Rivers System. Similarly, polling in New Mexico shows broad agreement with protecting the Gila River watershed. A 2020 statewide poll found that more than three-quarters of voters support designating portions of the Gila and San Francisco Rivers as Wild and Scenic Rivers, including clear majorities in counties surrounding the rivers themselves.
Together, these findings reinforce a consistent trend across the West that when voters are asked about real rivers and real places, support for Wild and Scenic River designation remains strong.
As Congress considers bills like the Greater Yellowstone Recreation Enhancement and Tourism Act and the M.H. Dutch Salmon Greater Gila Wild and Scenic River Act, these polls offer a clear message. For more than a decade, Western voters have consistently expressed their support for clean water, wildlife, and protected rivers. The opportunity now is for their public lands champions in Congress to act on those priorities and move these bills across the finish line this session.
The Through Line
Polling does not replace local knowledge and river management plans or the careful work that goes into any proposed designation. But it helps answer a broad, important question: Do the values behind Wild and Scenic Rivers connect with Western voters? The evidence here suggests yes.
Across the West, voters continue to say that public lands, clean water, and wildlife matter to urban and rural ways of life. In New Mexico and Montana, those same values translated into strong support for protecting rivers through Wild and Scenic River designation, demonstrating how broad priorities for clean water and wildlife carry through to specific rivers and real policy decisions. Wild and Scenic Rivers protect the qualities that make rivers matter, and many voters across party lines favor protecting those qualities.
A river with deep local meaning
The Myakka River is woven into everyday life in Sarasota County, Florida, with sunny mornings on the water, fishing, and paddling along the gentle waters with the occasional manatee sighting, if you’re lucky. Like all rivers, its value lies in many things at once. It is a habitat. It is a livelihood. It is clean water. It is local identity, and the backdrop for the memories people carry with them. It is dollars and cents in the pockets of local businesses. It is also part of a larger watershed that connects people together and to the beauty around them amid one of the fastest-growing areas in America.
The Myakka is a rain-fed river, rising and falling with the seasons, sometimes shrinking back to expose dry stretches of riverbed and then filling again with the next rains.
Miri Hardy, founder of the Myakka River Partnership and a longtime advocate for the river, alludes to its emotional pull. She describes what she calls “The Myakka’s magic … it’s just one of those places that gets under your skin.” Her accounts of the river’s meaningful connection to people in the region reflect a broader pattern where people form strong, lasting connections to specific natural backyard places.
Why the Myakka is a case study in cooperative conservation
The Myakka is an inspiring example of how local commitment can shape national conservation efforts through a rich history of cooperation and dedicated river stewardship.
The Myakka River Management Coordinating Council was established in 1985 under Florida’s Myakka River Wild and Scenic Designation and Preservation Act, state-level protection enacted to coordinate management of the river across state agencies.
As Hardy puts it, federal designation is “icing on the cake, but you have to have the cake first.” In other words, federal Wild and Scenic River designation builds on committed, long-term local and state-scale conservation efforts.
That foundation is also part of what has generated strong local enthusiasm to protect the Myakka and its magic. Hardy says, “You just say ‘Myakka’ and their face … it just relaxes, and it breaks into a smile.” For many in Sarasota County, the river is tied to a shared sense of place.
After decades of local effort in one of the fastest-growing regions in the country, residents and advocates recognized that protecting the river would require more than local commitment alone. Ensuring its future meant pursuing protections at the federal level.
Enter Rep. Greg Steube (R-FL-17) and Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) and the Myakka Wild and Scenic River Act of 2025—a major step towards federal protection.
Established in 1968, the Wild and Scenic Rivers System keeps rivers free-flowing, protects their water quality, and preserves their natural, cultural, and recreational values for future generations. The law that created this special river system was enacted in recognition of the important role that rivers play in communities and for wildlife.
With federal designation, the magical Myakka will join 18 other rivers protected as Partnership Wild and Scenic Rivers. These 18 rivers flow through a patchwork of public lands, private property, and various local jurisdictions in eastern states, as opposed to Wild and Scenic Rivers in the west, which cross vast expanses of public lands. Partnership Wild and Scenic River designations bring together communities, tribes, nonprofits, and local governments before designation to hammer out a clear plan for managing rivers across jurisdictional boundaries.
Rivers do not recognize our maps and boundaries. Flowing across public and private lands, they connect people and places in ways that demand shared responsibility. That’s where Partnership Wild and Scenic Rivers designations shine. By empowering local communities to lead, this approach brings people together across property lines to protect what they share. Rivers may not follow our boundaries, but through collaboration, they can benefit from lasting protection.
A broader lesson for river protection
The story of the Myakka River offers a larger lesson for our nation. Our 4.4 million miles of rivers are alarmingly under-protected. Roughly 80% lack adequate safeguards, and about two-thirds have no protection at all. Meanwhile, community demands on these waterways are growing, and the threats they face—from extreme weather to pollution—are increasing. Wild and Scenic River designations remain our strongest tool to ensure these rivers continue to support people and wildlife for generations to come. After all, freshwater is one of our nation’s most valuable resources.
People connect to rivers in many ways, but those bonds create a shared understanding of why protecting them matters. Partnership Wild and Scenic Rivers offers a locally focused approach, recognizing that protection can take different forms depending on the landscape and the community involved. The Myakka River shows what this can look like in practice.
When people feel connected to a river, they show up for it—and as the Myakka Wild and Scenic River Act of 2025 shows, that connection can turn into powerful long-term national protection.
Outside the halls of Congress, few are familiar with the legislative tool called the Congressional Review Act. Seemingly innocuous, even boring in its name, the Congressional Review Act – or CRA – is a powerful, consequential political device, and it’s increasingly being used to undermine protections for our public lands and waters.
The Congressional Review Act was first enacted in 1996 and was designed to allow Congress to review major federal regulations that are listed as rules in the Federal Register. Historically, it was used infrequently. Before 2016, the CRA had been used only once. Today, it’s often used to undo administrative rules the current Congressional majority disagrees with. Still, its use as a public lands management tool is unprecedented.
The CRA was never intended to apply to presidential action under the Antiquities Act, land withdrawals grounded in statutes, or site-specific land protections. National monuments and major land protections are exercises of delegated Congressional power, not agencies interpreting law. Because of this distinction, using the CRA in the context of public lands management stretches the word “rule” far beyond how it’s been understood before.
In January 2026, the House passed a Congressional Review Act resolution to overturn a mining ban near Minnesota’s pristine Boundary Waters. Shortly after, the Government Accountability Office issued a groundbreaking opinion concluding that the Bureau of Land Management’s 2025 management plan for Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument could be overturned using the CRA, prompting a countdown for votes to undo protections for the Escalante River.
For the first time, environmental protections for beloved fish species like cutthroat and lake trout, mining bans in sensitive watersheds, and public lands management decisions are being subjected to the CRA and its consequences, without public input. Once rules are revoked by the CRA, the creation of similar rules is prohibited without another act of Congress.
When Congress votes to overturn hard-won public lands and water protections, they are overturning years of rigorous scientific review and sidelining public input, including the voices of hunters and anglers, Tribal and local communities, and conservationists around the country. They are risking the right of all Americans to enjoy access to public lands, jeopardizing local recreation economies, and harming sources of clean water.
Our love for public lands, clean water, and abundant wildlife is something that unites us all. Our public lands deserve durable protection. Let’s remind our elected leaders that the Congressional Review Act shouldn’t be used to permanently strip protections from public lands and waters.