In no particular order, here’s a snapshot of 10 of our biggest river wins of 2025: 

1. Secured major wins for America’s Most Endangered Rivers® of 2025 

Our 2025 America’s Most Endangered Rivers® report ranked the Tijuana River #2 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 in southern California, 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. 

The Rappahannock River’s designation as one of America’s Most Endangered Rivers® of 2025 brought crucial national attention to the threats facing Virginia’s longest free-flowing river. But this spotlight did more than raise awareness; it galvanized action that delivered tangible results. Working alongside our dedicated partners, The Friends of the Rappahannock, the Rappahannock Tribe, and the Southern Environmental Law Center, we achieved a significant victory for the river and the communities that depend on it. This collaborative effort secured permit changes for a proposed data center, banning industrial cooling withdrawals and reducing drought withdrawals by millions of gallons.

2. Mobilized action to protect Public Lands and Roadless Areas 

Bipartisan public outcry over a disastrous sell-off provision in a massive tax and spending bill led to the protection of public lands and the rivers that flow through them. Victory was snatched from the jaws of defeat thanks to supporters like you. 

The Trump administration is looking to rescind the Roadless Rule, which protects clean water and wildlife habitat by preventing road construction and timber harvest on roughly 45 million acres of national forests. This would be a significant setback (100,000 river miles) to our goal of protecting one million miles of rivers. Our team is making sure decision makers understand the impacts to clean drinking water supplies and we are mobilizing our supporters (we’ve collected more than 10,000 signatures so far) in support of these important river protections.

3. Safeguarding Montana’s Gallatin and Madison Rivers 

Rep. Ryan Zinke (MT) introduced the Greater Yellowstone Recreation Enhancement and Tourism Act (GYREAT Act) – Wild and Scenic legislation to protect nearly 100 miles of the Gallatin and Madison rivers and their tributaries in southwestern Montana. This legislation was developed through collaboration with American Rivers and our partners. If passed, these protections would create a vital corridor linking the rivers of Yellowstone National Park to the headwaters of the Missouri River.

4. Defending healthy rivers and Tribal sovereignty 

American Rivers helped rally national, regional, and local partners in urging the Department of Transportation to protect aquatic connectivity programs — efforts that restore fish passage, reconnect rivers and wetlands, and replace outdated culverts and road crossings. The joint comment letter was signed by 140 groups — including Tribes, anglers, businesses, universities, research institutions, conservation organizations, community leaders, agencies, faith groups, and planners — all united for healthier, more connected waterways. 

Additionally, when the Department of Energy urged the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to roll back its 2024 policy protecting Tribal sovereignty in hydropower permitting, American Rivers acted fast. Working with Tribal attorneys, Native networks, and partner organizations, we mobilized national opposition and filed formal comments — demonstrating our deep commitment to Tribal leadership and ensuring healthy rivers. We’ll continue working alongside Tribal partners to ensure these protections remain strong.

5. Restoring mountain meadows in California 

American Rivers is a key member of The Sierra Meadows Partnership, a coalition of environmental organizations working together to restore 30,000 acres of mountain meadows by 2030. These meadows act as natural sponges that store water, improve drought resilience, and provide essential wildlife habitat. Through this collaborative effort, we successfully secured a $24.7 million block grant from the Wildlife Conservation Board to support our restoration work.

6. Advanced critical protections for New Mexico’s waterways 

After naming New Mexico’s waterways #1 on America’s Most Endangered Rivers® of 2024 list, we’re celebrating significant wins across the state. In the Pecos watershed — home to elk, black bears, Rio Grande cutthroat trout, and generations-old acequia farms — the Department of Interior paused new mining claims across 165,000 acres while pursuing longer-term protections. Through advocacy with our partners, we helped secure Outstanding National Resource Waters protection for over 250 miles of rivers across five watersheds, including the Rio Grande. And now, Senator Heinrich (NM) and the All Pueblo Council of Governors are championing protection of the Caja del Rio — a 107,000-acre landscape along the Rio Grande and Santa Fe rivers that holds deep cultural significance for Puebloan and Hispanic communities while supporting diverse wildlife.

7. Furthering community safety through dam awareness 

American Rivers spoke on panels and hosted webinars addressing the deadly threat of low head dams, generating hundreds of participants from across the dam removal and safety industries. A low head dam is a human-made structure that spans the full width of a river and is designed to allow water to continuously flow over it, creating a dangerous hydraulic and earning them the nickname “drowning machines.” Our educational workshops brought together leading experts to discuss solutions for addressing these public safety hazards while advancing river restoration solutions.

8. Building momentum for dam removal across the Northeast 

American Rivers is celebrating a wave of funding that will free multiple rivers across the Northeast. We were awarded $220,000 to remove the Yopp Pond dam on the Fourmile River in Connecticut — the first barrier blocking this coastal river that drains to Long Island Sound. Fisheries biologists note this removal will be transformational for alewife runs in this critical watershed. Additionally, New Hampshire Fish and Game committed $150,000 to support two strategic dam removals: North Branch Gale dam in the Upper Connecticut River watershed and Mead Brook dam in the Contoocook River watershed. Both dams impact excellent cold-water habitat and are scheduled for removal in 2026. Additionally, the Davis Conservation Foundation granted $20,000 for our hydropower relicensing work in Maine.

9. Defended Idaho’s Salmon River 

Along with our partners at Advocates for the West and coalition members in Idaho, American Rivers and our Action Fund filed a lawsuit against the Forest Service to prevent a massive open-pit gold mine at the headwaters of the South Fork Salmon River. This important waterway is a national treasure that provides critical spawning habitat for the longest-distance, high-elevation salmon migration on Earth, as well as world-class whitewater recreation and fishing. It has been listed as one of America’s Most Endangered Rivers® for three consecutive years.

10.  Improved wildfire resilience in California 

American Rivers and our partner, Terra Fuego Resources Foundation, completed prescribed fire burns on 160 acres as part of a 570-acre fuel reduction and prescribed fire project — a critical effort to protect the South Yuba River and the communities of Nevada City and Grass Valley from catastrophic wildfire. In a major boost for river restoration, the California Wildlife Conservation Board approved nearly $5 million to launch the Pickel Meadow Restoration Project on the West Walker River. Construction begins this summer, marking an exciting next chapter for this important watershed.

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This year’s progress is thanks to you and thousands of passionate advocates, partners, volunteers, and expert staff who contribute to our mission daily. Together, we’re building a future of healthy rivers and clean water for everyone, everywhere.

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In Texas, citizens passed Proposition 4 with 71% of the vote, authorizing a billion-dollar-a-year fund for water security and stream and floodplain restoration efforts across the state for the next 20 years. This is the largest state-based water ballot initiative in the history of the United States. Partners, including the National Wildlife Federation Action Fund and Texans for Opportunity, were vital to the effort, amplifying the issues with the Texas State Legislature, and to Governor Abbot and communities across the Lone Star State.

“Across the country, when water is on the ballot, water wins. Texans of all political stripes turned out to show they understand the need to fund water projects to sustain communities and wildlife,” says Karla Raettig, Executive Director of the National Wildlife Federation Action Fund.

In Idaho, Boise voters approved a 2-year, $11 million property tax levy that will supply critical funding for clean water, parks and urban trails, and wildfire prevention measures. Boise voters approved the measure with 81% of the vote, illustrating how integral improvements to Boise River habitat, walkable parks, and wildfire protection measures are to the quality of life across the city. The coalition effort was led by Conservation Voters of Idaho, which coordinated a substantial get-out-the-vote campaign, knocking on more than 10,000 doors across the city.

“Boise is great because of our open space, and the City has received a mandate that we must continue to expand and protect these special places and resources. We’re proud that Boise continues to show up big and united in shared values like protecting our river and open space,” says Alexis Pickering, Executive Director of Conservation Voters of Idaho.

Much of the water that we rely on comes from rivers, which also provide crucial habitat for fish and wildlife. Our economies, farms, and cities depend on river water for growth, and rivers offer unparalleled opportunities for reconnection with nature and with one another.

These wins at the ballot box build on other water funding measures that have passed with broad, bipartisan support, such as Propositions DD and JJ in Colorado, which have raised over $130 million for water conservation and river health projects across the state since 2020.

“Water security is a unifying issue across the political spectrum. No matter where you live or who you vote for, we all need clean water coming out of our kitchen taps, and we all want to be able to take our kids to the local creek to play,” says Heather Taylor-Miesle, Executive Director of the American Rivers Action Fund. “These wins will make life better in Texas and Idaho, and they provide a blueprint for actions other cities and states can take to protect their water wealth.”

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Currently, when the plant is running full steam, 1,400 cubic feet/ second (think 1,400 basketballs full of water passing by every second) is diverted out of the river into a tunnel and then into massive pipes visible against the canyon walls, where the power of falling water spins turbines to generate electricity. The water is then returned back to the river. Under the new deal, when the plant stops operating (it is over 100 years old and vulnerable to rockfall), the water would instead stay in the river, vastly improving conditions for fish and the bugs they eat in the 2.4-mile reach between the diversion and the powerplant’s return flows. The dedication of the plant’s water rights to that stretch of river would bring benefits that ripple hundreds of miles up and downstream because of the crucial role these water rights play in controlling the river’s flow through Western Colorado.  

In Colorado, as in most of the West, older water rights take priority over newer ones when there’s not enough water to satisfy everyone’s claims.  On the Colorado River, the Shoshone Hydropower rights limit the amount of water that can be taken out of the river upstream by junior rights that divert water from the river’s headwaters through tunnels under the Continental Divide to cities and farms on the eastern side of the Rocky Mountains. The new deal to enable the Shoshone rights to be used for environmental flows would preserve those limitations on transmountain diversions in perpetuity.  

Upstream from the power plant, near the ranching town of Kremmling, Colorado, the river carries less than half the water it would without the existing transmountain diversions. This stresses fish populations and the iconic cottonwood groves that line the river. The Shoshone rights downstream prevent these diversions from being even larger. Because the power plant returns all the water it uses to the river without consuming it, the water continues to provide benefits downstream from the plant to rafters, farms, cities and four species of endangered fish that exist only in the Colorado River Basin. Securing these flows for the future is particularly important as climate change continues to reduce the river’s flow, which has already declined by roughly 20% over the past two decades.  

The people cheering in the hearing room represented cities, towns, counties and irrigation districts from up and down the Colorado River. Their entities had pledged ratepayer and taxpayer dollars to help secure the rights in the complex transaction spearheaded by the Colorado River Water Conservation District. Environmental organizations, including American Rivers, Audubon, Trout Unlimited and Western Resource Advocates, were also parties to the hearing and supportive of the deal, but were vastly outnumbered.  

The Coloradans cheering in that room were there because their constituents’ livelihoods, clean drinking water and quality of life depend on a living Colorado River. American Rivers is proud to stand with them and will continue advocating for the completion of this historic water transaction.  

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While the Biden administration amended rules to comply with the Supreme Court ruling, the Trump administration recently released a new draft rule that would go further than even the Supreme Court in limiting what waters can be protected.

The Clean Water Act’s definition of “Waters of the United States” (WOTUS) is core to defining what waters are protected and which aren’t. Unfortunately, the Trump Administration’s newly proposed WOTUS rule would roll back protections for vast areas of wetlands and river tributaries. It’s estimated that close to 80% of America’s remaining wetlands would lose Clean Water Act protections. As written, the rule would leave many waterways vulnerable to pollution, degradation, and destruction, threatening water quality and community resilience across the country.

Here are our top four concerns with the new WOTUS proposal

1. The rule requires streams and wetlands to have surface water “at least during the wet season” in order to qualify for protection. But it never defines what the wet season actually is.

What this means for rivers: Wet seasons vary dramatically from region to region, and without a clear, science-based definition, many healthy and ecologically important streams risk being excluded.

2. Narrow definitions and expanded exemptions shrink the scope of protected waters.

What this means for rivers: By redefining “tributary” to include only streams with year-round or steady “wet-season” flow, and expanding exemptions for wastewater and waste-treatment systems, the new rule would eliminate protections for many intermittent streams and man-made infrastructure that function like natural streams, opening the door to more unregulated pollution. Many rivers in the Southwest only flow for part of the year. This updated definition would put many of these rivers at risk.

3. The rule suggests any artificial or natural break in flow cuts off upstream protection.

What this means for rivers: Under the proposed rule, a culvert, pipe, stormwater channel, or short dry stretch can sever jurisdiction. This means upstream waters that feed larger rivers may no longer be protected, allowing pollution to still flow into nominally protected rivers and streams.

4. The rule significantly eliminates wetland protections by requiring “wetlands” to physically touch a protected water and maintain surface water through the wet season.

What this means for rivers: The new definition excludes many wetlands, which naturally store floodwater, filter pollutants, and safeguard communities. This puts the drinking water for millions at risk and increases the risks of flooding for many communities.

The health of our rivers depends on the small streams and wetlands that feed them. By discarding science, narrowing long‑standing definitions, and creating confusing jurisdictional tests, the Trump Administration’s proposed WOTUS rule risks undoing decades of progress toward cleaner, safer water. America’s rivers—and the communities that depend on them—deserve better.

These rollbacks will put our waterways and the life that depends on them in jeopardy. The public comment period to speak up and defend clean water protections is open until January 5. Please take action today and send a letter to the EPA urging them to keep the current definition of Waters of the United States in place!

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Many of these wetlands form within floodplains, low-lying lands along rivers that naturally flood. The transformation comes quickly after a storm. What was once a dry or muddy landscape quickly comes alive as flood water flows over the land, tempting mallards, pintails, and waterfowl of all kinds to flock to these vital habitats to feast on nutrient-rich seeds and small aquatic creatures, rebuilding the fat reserves that fuel their long migrations. The shallow water creates easy feeding grounds and sheltered havens to rest between flights. Waterfowl, like so many other floodplain-dependent species, have evolved their life cycles to the natural flood pattern. 

Unfortunately, more than ninety percent of floodplains in the lower 48 have been disconnected or degraded, contributing to more than half of wetlands being lost, and they continue to disappear at an alarming rate. Each acre drained means fewer places for birds to land and fewer natural floodplains to buffer nearby communities from floods.  

One of the main governmental agencies that can make or break the health of our nation’s floodplain wetlands — and the services they provide for humans and waterfowl — is the Federal Emergency Management Agency. This agency’s choices on paper can shape what survives after the next storm, from homes kept out of harm’s way to wetlands where life thrives. 

3 FEMA programs that impact floodplains, wetlands, and waterfowl 

1. National Flood Insurance Program 

NFIP offers flood insurance to reduce the financial risk to flood-prone homeowners. It covers flood events typically not covered by homeowner’s insurance. For homeowners to be eligible for the NFIP, a community must put in place minimum standards that guide where and how floodplains are developed. The program relies on FEMA flood maps that show where flooding is most likely and to shape how and where we build. 

When construction occurs in floodplain wetlands, the wetlands are commonly drained and filled to make way for homes and roads. Local communities then lose the natural flood protection healthy wetlands offer, and waterfowl lose their habitat. Communities that go above and beyond the minimum standards to keep floodplains open for nature to do its job, storing floodwater and providing space for wildlife, can enroll in the Community Rating System (CRS).  
 
CRS rewards communities with lower flood insurance rates when they take extra steps to build away from high-risk areas and conserve wetlands within floodplains, creating a long-term incentive to protect these irreplaceable landscapes. This allows protected floodplains to become seasonal havens where shallow waters brim with ducks and geese. Beyond prevention, FEMA also works to restore floodplains that have already been lost. 

2. Hazard Mitigation Grant Program 

The Hazard Mitigation Grant Program helps communities recover from floods and reduce future flood risk through projects like home buyouts and floodplain restoration. Funding becomes available to states, local communities, and tribal governments after the president declares a disaster. When implementing voluntary buyouts, local communities use FEMA funding to purchase flood-prone properties and remove the high-liability buildings. This begins the process of potentially allowing floodplains to recover and come back to life. But the decisions that communities make next are important.  

Once FEMA buys out the properties, the agency encourages the land to be managed for natural floodplain and wetland restoration, but does not carry out the restoration work itself. Instead, local governments and community partners decide how each lot is cared for. When the land is left as mowed grass, its ecological value fades. When the land is restored with native plants and reshaped to hold water, it becomes a flourishing wetland again, reviving migratory bird habitat. 

3. Pre-Disaster Mitigation Program 

FEMA doesn’t just help communities improve their flood resilience after a flood; the Pre-Disaster Mitigation Program can take on acquisitions and other flood mitigation projects before the flood happens. In recent years, PDM got a huge boost with the creation of the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program, which has unfortunately been rolled back under the current Administration. 

Through BRIC, FEMA started funding more natural flood-management strategies called nature-based solutions, including programs that reconnect and revitalize floodplains, which create the shallow pools and marsh vegetation that migrating waterfowl rely on each spring and fall. 

Advocating for FEMA policies that work with nature by giving rivers room to flood without inundating property and by allowing storm drainage to settle helps support our feathered friends. As storms grow stronger, FEMA can help implement common-sense limits on risky development to avoid draining and destroying our valuable wetlands. 

In the stillness of a morning wetland, you can see what’s at stake: a living landscape that protects us as surely as we protect it. Across the country, wetlands are vanishing every year. Now is the time to protect what’s left. 

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Scientists from the U.S. Forest Service have developed a system to identify potential “lost meadows.” The lost meadow model is based on the idea that disturbances like overgrazing, logging, and mining can disrupt the stability of a meadow, leading to big changes in their physical structure and biologic communities. One of the most troubling changes is the encroachment of large trees onto the former meadow surface. These trees use up water that was formerly available for wetland plants, and they increase fuels in forests that are already at high risk of catastrophic wildfire. 

Degradation like what is pictured above can render historic wetlands unrecognizable to a typical observer, but the lost meadow model uses satellite and hydrological data to narrow down the search. With these tools, thousands of acres of potential lost meadows were identified across the Sierra Nevada. 

This summer, American Rivers began a multi-year effort alongside the South Yuba River Citizen’s League and the U.S. Forest Service to find out how many of these lost meadows there really are in the North Yuba watershed in northern California, whose headwaters are almost entirely contained within the Tahoe National Forest. Field technicians like me spent months bushwacking through the Tahoe National Forest searching for these potential meadow sites by monitoring their vegetation, hydrology, and geology to determine if they were indeed historic wetlands and if they could be restored. 

One season in, the results are surprising: after assessing more than 1500 acres of potential lost meadow sites, a vast majority were accurately predicted by the model (many were even bigger than projected!). We won’t have all the numbers until the project is complete, but the implications of our results so far are significant. If there are even half as many lost meadows in the Sierra Nevada as the model predicts, the restoration of these wetlands could substantially increase the water storage capacity of the Sierra Nevada, bring back historic habitat for wetland species, and sequester more carbon than is currently possible in their degraded state. 

The benefits offered by the restoration of lost meadows in this region don’t stop there, though. As catastrophic wildfire risk continues to grow nationwide, it is clearer than ever that responsible forest and watershed management is crucial to protecting rivers, wildlife, and people. Strategic lost meadow restoration could lead to significant forest fuel reduction in a region that desperately needs it. Meadow restorations that remove unhealthy growth, create natural fire breaks, and increase surface water during the driest seasons become ever more important, and understanding lost meadows could be key to accelerating fire-safe restoration across the Sierra Nevada and beyond.  

These findings open an exciting new chapter in meadow restoration. At the conclusion of this watershed-scale assessment, we’ll be able to begin exploring entirely new restoration techniques at meadow sites we didn’t know existed, working in collaboration to unlock all the benefits these ecosystems can provide.  

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However, a critical set of rules for how the river is managed is set to expire at the end of this year, and with warming temperatures, unpredictable precipitation, and a growing population across the Southwest all contributing to diminished river flows, the need for new guidelines is urgent. In times of crisis, the states and federal government have been forced to forge short-term, often emergency agreements to conserve water and prevent the system from crashing overall. And for the past two years, negotiators have been working to determine new guidelines for how states and the federal government will manage water shortages and reservoir levels after 2026. A final plan for the new guidelines must be in place by October 2026, when the new “water year” starts and the implementation of the current rules expires.

Last summer, in an attempt to encourage further collaboration and progress, the Department of the Interior set a deadline of November 11, 2025, for the states to come to an agreement. Despite deliberate, concerted effort right up to the deadline, the states have not reached consensus on a path forward. This stalemate is very concerning, as the communities, economies, and ecosystems that rely on the river need certainty around how the system will be managed as we prepare for a hotter, drier future. Management decisions must be grounded in sound science, investments in on-the-ground projects must be made, and efforts to build resilience in communities and ecosystems and expand conservation across the Basin must be pursued. Further, we must ensure that Tribal voices are included in decision-making and that any decisions prioritize the health of the river itself. When we don’t consider the needs of the river, everything else that depends upon it is at risk. 

So, where are we now? In a joint statement, the Basin states and the federal government committed to keep striving to reach a consensus, and we applaud their efforts and determination to keep at it. We strongly encourage the states to remain at the table in a spirit of collaboration and shared sacrifice, and the federal government to continue its leadership to hold the process together. 

Time is of the essence as the river can no longer sustain all the demands expected of it while we engage in inter-basin political squabbles. Like any complex negotiation, there must be a spirit of honest give and take, with the truest of intentions to find a holistic solution for the river. The river needs flexible tools, inspired solutions, and long-term investments to help communities, agricultural interests, and Tribes prepare for the impacts of drought while ensuring comprehensive water security. And ultimately, we must remember the river when it comes to forging these agreements and reducing risk to the system overall. There is no time to waste – we must act now to sustain the Colorado River.  

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The anglers among us may already be thinking ahead and guessing that what the caddisfly has to say is something like “I know how to help you catch that brookie” as a dry fly lure on the end of their line. True enough, angler friends. 

But there’s a bigger and more powerful message coming from this taxonomic Order (Tricoptera), the largest group of aquatic insects. While the caddisfly does go through a complete metamorphosis and eventually emerges as a terrestrial flying insect, its more interesting phases are the aquatic ones. The common defining attribute of the caddisfly is its ability to generate silk. These hard-headed (literally), antenna-less critters use that silk in savvy ways to build sophisticated and wildly creative homes. 

While these insects are small, it’s easy to see their home-building skills if you look closely in a small stream. The many different species of caddisflies have adapted to different aquatic habitats, so you can find them from still pools to quickly rushing riffles. In those quiet pools, they will use their silk to construct homes from leaves or small sticks and twigs.  One of the important jobs of the caddisfly is helping to decompose organic matter in streams. While building homes with this organic material, they also shred leaves and twigs with their strong jaws, which contributes to the cycling of freshwater nutrients. To see these leafy homes in pools, look for small collections of shredded leaves and twigs in a gossamer web of silk.  

Where water is flowing faster over cobble and gravel bottoms, you will find them nestled into tubular homes made of small stones with just their tough little noggin poking out the end! They collect these stones and artfully build a snug tubular home cemented together with their silk. You can find these sturdier homes by gently turning over rocks and seeing these small structures, usually less than an inch, attached to the underside of the rock. 

So there goes the three little pigs analogy – leaves, sticks, and stones – for the straw, wood, and bricks! I know, I know. Kinda like a dad joke… 

But back to their clean water work.  Most of the different species of caddisflies are sensitive to water quality conditions, particularly the amount of dissolved oxygen in the water. When the dissolved oxygen is low due to increased temperatures or too many nutrients in the water, they are not able to survive. This characteristic is used by aquatic scientists to monitor the health of rivers and streams in ways that are much more powerful than occasionally taking a measurement of dissolved oxygen with a meter or chemical test. 

How so? 

For over 30 years, scientists have been assembling groups of aquatic organisms – algae, bugs, and fish – and grouping them according to their tolerance for different conditions of pollution. Some river critters are very tolerant of low dissolved oxygen or turbidity, or other chemical conditions, some are not. The caddisfly larvae are important members of these groupings of indicator species. 

By creating these groupings based on extensive monitoring and statistical analysis, a robust predictive model is created and used to understand how our work to improve and protect water quality is doing. 

So if we watch which critters are living where, they can tell us if a stretch of river is getting healthier with much more certainty than a simple measurement of dissolved oxygen, turbidity, or pH. 

Here’s to another clean water worker helping us all to enjoy what our rivers and streams give us all! 

A version of this blog was first published in Estuary, a quarterly magazine for people who care about the Connecticut River; its history, health, and ecology—present and future. Find out how you can subscribe at estuarymagazine.com. 

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Birthplace of the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act

The Flathead Wild and Scenic River includes the North, South, and Middle Forks that ultimately join and flow into the north end of Flathead Lake. A dam proposed on the Middle Fork of the Flathead River within the Bob Marshall Wilderness was the inspiration for the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act of 1968, which preserves free-flowing rivers and their outstanding values. The three forks of the Flathead River were designated as Wild and Scenic in 1976.

Renowned as having the cleanest, clearest water in Montana and beyond, the three forks of the Flathead River are a recreation destination featuring whitewater rapids, scenic floating, a healthy native trout fishery, and unparalleled riverside camping. The Flathead River system is the backbone for a robust tourism economy: Fifteen percent of tourism dollars coming into Flathead County are spent by visitors on outfitters and guides.

Shared Responsibility for the Future

There’s no doubt Montanans and tourists alike love the Flathead River. However, the recent federal employee reductions in force, together with increasing river use, belie a delicate tension between the benefits of loving this river and the consequences of loving it too much to the point of overuse. Loving a place too much can look different in different places: hordes of RVs parked on beaches, long waits at boat ramps, overflowing parking lots, erosion on river banks or human waste. 

When impacts from river recreation reach a boiling point, we all share in the responsibility to protect river health. Regardless of staffing constraints, the Forest Service is required to act. Part of what’s needed is a transparent menu of actions–from staggering boat launch times to requiring human waste packout–that the agency can choose from to lessen recreation impacts while still providing access to the river.

Partners and outfitters can and do help as well. And they’re needed now more than ever, with more staffing reductions predicted across the federal government. Each year, Flathead Rivers Alliance mobilizes 300 volunteers contributing more than 1,700 volunteer hours, distributes 4,000+ reusable cleanup bags, and collects litter from 80 miles of river, manages volunteer river ambassadors to educate river visitors on how to Leave No Trace, conducts noxious weed pulls on 40 miles of river, and monitors water quality. This summer, river outfitters also helped to keep bathrooms and river access sites clean, work that was formerly done by the Forest Service. 

While we need more public-private partnerships to extend agency capacity, it’s critical that the Forest Service take proactive actions to prevent impacts from overcrowding, pollution in the form of trash and human waste, streambank erosion, and overfishing on the river, despite staffing shortages. 

How You Can Engage

You can join American Rivers and Flathead Rivers Alliance in asking the Forest Service to put the appropriate safeguards in place to ensure we love the Flathead River responsibly. Assuming the process remains on track, concerned community members will have an opportunity this winter to give the Forest Service feedback on their proposed management plan for the Flathead Wild and Scenic River. The plan should set science-based thresholds on river use, commit to monitoring river health and visitor experiences, and creatively forge partnerships to monitor and enforce needed changes to visitation timing, location, extent, and behaviors, now and in the future. Montana, and the nation, have only one Flathead River. As the new management plan for the river is crafted, we must put the health of the river first.

Follow announcements by the Flathead National Forest on the Flathead River Comprehensive River Management Planning Process, sign up to volunteer with Flathead Rivers Alliance, and contact Montana’s congressional delegation to share your concerns about impacts to the Flathead River from federal government workforce reductions. 

Bob Jordan serves as President of the Flathead Rivers Alliance Board of Directors and Sheena Pate serves as Executive Director. Lisa Ronald is an associate conservation director with American Rivers in Western Montana.

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Photographer David Moskowitz was able to help capture the story through the incredible images seen below.

Of all the signs that something is wrong—the curling leaves of stunted crops, the multiplying mats of river stargrass, the tense expressions of water managers—nothing tells the story of this drought like standing on the dry, hard bed of a drastically receded reservoir. 

Between 1910 and 1933, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation built five reservoirs to harness water for Washington farms and towns in the 6,000-square-mile Yakima Basin. Together, Kachess, Keechelus, Cle Elum, Bumping, and Rimrock store about one million acre-feet of water.  

But not this year.  

By September 2025, capacity was a mere 20%. That’s the lowest level since recordkeeping began at the reservoirs in 1971, marking a historic water shortage.  

There simply wasn’t enough snowpack in the Central Cascades to fill the reservoirs in early 2025, leaving them with just 35% of the water they usually store at that time of year. Additionally, winter and spring rainfall was well below normal in the mountainous catchment in western Yakima County.  

On April 8, this reality led the Washington Department of Ecology to declare that the upper Yakima, lower Yakima, and Naches watersheds had officially crossed into their third consecutive year of a severe drought. 

What happens—or doesn’t happen—with stored water in the upper basin sends huge ripples downstream to the Yakima River and its tributaries.  

Irrigation districts that rely on human-made diversions in the river have been struggling to supply enough water to a $4.5-billion agricultural industry. Junior water rights holders, such as Roza Irrigation District and Kittitas Reclamation District, have strategized on the best ways to ration their reduced allotments—just 40% of the full amount they are generally entitled to—throughout the hot summer months of 2025.  

“We’re running the canals the lowest we ever have,” says Sage Park, policy manager for Roza. “Our growers are facing a very hard time, with bad water supplies on top of bad markets.”  

Some farms have gone out of business, confirms Jim Willard, owner of Willard Farms and Solstice Vineyards near Prosser, when we stop by. But he is hanging on. Willard established his farm in 1952, which means he has weathered the drought years of at least 1977, 1993, 1994, 2001, 2005, and 2015.  

How does the current year compare?  

“It’s another lousy drought,” Willard shrugs. “You know what you’ve got to do, the decisions you’ve got to make to keep the farm viable into the future.” 

“The fish are always in drought,” Joe Blodgett, manager of Yakama Nation Fisheries, says matter-of-factly as soon as we meet at the Wapato Dam on the lower Yakima River.  

The last significant drought in 2015 hit out-migrating juvenile salmon hard. Warm, shallow river water reduced their numbers from 1 million to 200,000. The fishery is still recovering—and now, another major drought. 

Joining Blodgett is his team of engineers and scientists, who are dedicated to restoring habitat, improving fish passage, and growing and releasing hatchery salmon, bull trout, and lamprey to bolster drastically declining numbers. 

The Yakama Nation’s connection to native fish species in the basin traces back thousands of years. The salmon trade was the first economy of the basin, and that link remains critical to the tribe’s identity and cultural and economic survival today.  

A little downstream, a small fishing scaffold protrudes into the river—a reminder of a bygone era long before the dam, and a symbol of the harvestable and sustainable future the Yakama Nation’s 10,000 members envision returning to.  

One day. After the drought breaks. 

Until then, the fisheries team is preparing with an ambitious plan to update the ailing Wapato Dam, built in 1917, and construct modern fish passage to improve survival rates.  

“Each species has a story to tell,” Blodgett says, smiling, as we part ways for today. 

Even in drought, the Yakama Nation and the irrigation districts, conservation organizations, and government agencies that make up the Yakima Basin Integrated Plan collaborate to increase flows of cool river water that fish need to survive.  

Maybe it’s truer to say especially in drought. 

That collaboration is unique in the West. It extends to a multitude of projects, many costing tens of millions of dollars, to modernize aging infrastructure, protect and restore fisheries and river habitat, improve water supply reliability, and store more ground and surface water. 

“This is a terrible drought,” says Brandon Parsons, American Rivers director of river restoration. “But we’d be in a lot worse shape if we hadn’t made years of prior investments in the river. We have to continue to work together and implement projects if we’re going to lessen the impacts of more droughts like this.”  

People in the basin know more frequent and severe droughts are on the horizon. They’re racing to ready the region and keep it habitable in a rapidly changing world. Families, fish and wildlife, business and agriculture—all life depends on the Yakima River’s ability to provide clean, cool, reliable water into the future. 

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