People care about and use public lands for many reasons. From hunters and anglers to miners and ranchers, hikers and mountain bikers—there is something for almost everyone on public lands. But what if you live in a city and never set foot on public lands?  Why care about them then?

Not everyone hunts, fishes, mines, ranches, hikes, or bikes; but everyone, truly everyone, depends on clean water. The big secret about public lands is that they are arguably the country’s single biggest clean water provider. According to the US Forest Service, National Forests are the largest source of municipal water supply in the nation, serving over 60 million people in 3,400 communities across 33 states. Many of the country’s largest urban areas, including Los Angeles, Portland, Denver, and Atlanta receive a significant portion of their water supply from national forests.

Healthy forests and grasslands perform many of the functions of traditional water infrastructure. They store water, filter pollutants, and transport clean water to downstream communities. And they do it naturally — essentially for free. When rivers are damaged from land uses on public lands, we all pay the price — literally; we all pay more in taxes and utility bills to clean up the water.

What happens on the public’s land also happens to the public’s water. The importance of managing public lands for the benefit of public water is so fundamental, it has been a pillar of public lands management agencies’ missions since their inception over a century ago. For example, The Organic Act of 1897[1] that created the US Forest Service stated:

When land is degraded due to mining, clear-cutting, overgrazing, and other uses, the negative effects are carried far, far downstream, all the way to your faucet. Poor land management practices also release sediments and contaminants into public water supplies. Such pollution has major consequences, from raising water treatment costs to potentially causing serious public health crisis. 

Poor land management is the main driver of desertification — the phenomenon of lush riparian areas turning into barren plains. Desertification depletes the public’s supply of water, as well as the public’s supply of grass for livestock and big game that ranchers and hunters depend on.

Access to clean, reliable water is a need that cuts through all social and political divisions. It is fundamental to life, literally. Land management that neglects watershed health amounts to peeing in the nation’s public pool — something I think we can all agree we don’t want to happen to our drinking water.

[1] For a good chronological summary of major FS law and policies since the Organic Act of 1897, see:
https://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/fseprd530507.pdf

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In 2018, to celebrate the 50^th anniversary of the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act, and to highlight President Carter’s leadership and connection to the Chattooga, American Rivers produced the film The Wild President with our partners at NRS. 

Below are some quotes from the interview that we did with President Carter for the film, that did not make it into the final production. These words share additional insight on Carter’s connection to rivers and his commitment to their protection: 

On his love of fishing: 

“I was an avid fisher from my boyhood days…some of the most vivid memories of my childhood is going fishing with my father who was also an excellent fisherman. Back then it was all warm water because we lived in South Georgia. And it wasn’t until I became Governor in the 1970’s that I began to learn about flyfishing on the Chattahoochee River.” 

On his values: 

“My motivation I think was trying to preserve as much as I could of the beauty of God’s world. Based on my early religious feelings and the heritage that I got from my father and others who would try and do the same thing from a sportsman’s point of view… still, you know, being on a trout stream which is always lovely, the water’s always pure, the environment’s always conducive to preservation or protection, that’s still some of the most awe inspiring experience I’ve ever had.” 

On the photo of Bull Sluice Rapid (taken when he was Governor): 

“I think people who are explorers and innovators and wildlife experts like Claude Terry [Note: Claude Terry was one of the founders of American Rivers] were a little bit skeptical at first because the Governor actually wanted to ride in the canoe and go down this precipitous falls in the Chattooga River. So, Claude Terry kind of adopted me as one of his students and I learned all I could about handling a canoe and then handling a kayak. And Bull Sluice was a double waterfall, each one was about 5 or 6 feet high, and it precipitated down, and to go down Bull Sluice in an open canoe had never been accomplished. So, Claude and I decided we’d try it. And we actually made it successfully, we only had about 4 inches of freeboard left when we got to the bottom of a thing but that photograph became very famous…since we were the first ones to go down Bull Sluice.” 

On vetoing proposals to build harmful dams: 

“I vetoed I think 16 different dam projects all over the United States which aroused a great deal of animosity and also condemnation among members of Congress and Chambers of Commerce and so forth. But I tried to maintain as close as I could my commitment that these dams were unnecessary and counterproductive for the future and well- being of American citizens.” 

On the power of wild rivers: 

“I think that the Chattooga was the first time I ever risked my life, I’d say, in going down a wild river. And I think it gave me an element of both satisfaction and a sense of you might say heroism in confronting the awe- inspiring power of the Chattooga River when I had a major responsibility as a Governor of a state…So I was more deeply immersed in the extreme advantages of wild rivers like the Salmon River which is called the River of No Return as well as those in Alaska and also the Chattooga in Georgia than I ever had before. So, it kind of opened my eyes to a relationship between a human being and a wild river that I had never contemplated before that.” 

On his hope for future river protections: 

“I think it’s very important for all Americans to take a stand, a positive stand, in protecting wild rivers and scenic areas. I hope that all Americans will join together with me and others who love the outdoors to protect this for our children and our grandchildren.” 

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The Wild and Scenic Rivers Act of 1968 has been the preeminent tool to protect free-flowing rivers in the United States since it was passed more than 50 years ago. Under the Act, rivers with “outstandingly remarkable scenic, recreational, geologic, fish and wildlife, historic, cultural or other similar values,” as well as their immediate environments, are protected from dams and other potential harms. In spite of its success, the Act largely omits Tribes, failing to give Native Nations the authority to designate, manage, and co-manage Wild and Scenic rivers within their own boundaries and on ancestral lands. Correction of this omission is long overdue.

A current example of this omission was brought to our attention through conversations with Indigenous community members along the Little Colorado River (LCR) in Arizona. The LCR was threatened in recent years by a series of pumped-storage hydropower projects proposed on Navajo Nation lands by non-Indigenous developers, and against the will of the Navajo Nation, Hopi Tribe, Pueblo of Zuni, and others who find the LCR culturally important. Historically, under the Federal Power Act, proposed hydropower projects have been given a preliminary permit on tribal trust lands by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) against the will of the Tribe whose land the projects would be located on. Indigenous community advocates understandably wanted to know, “What can we do to permanently protect the Little Colorado River from these unwanted hydropower projects?” 

Designating a river under the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act is a powerful defense against unwanted dams and diversions–it is the only designation that prevents new dams and diversions on designated rivers. The problem is that since Tribes were largely omitted from the 1968 Act, they were not given the power to designate or manage Wild and Scenic rivers, even on their own lands. That management power currently defaults to the National Park Service, even when a designated river is on tribal lands. To say that this is a disincentive for Tribes to utilize the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act to protect their rivers is an understatement.

And that’s not all. As the Table below shows, Tribes don’t even have some of the powers that have been given to states and private parties under the Act, such as the ability to petition the Secretary of Interior to give Wild and Scenic protections to state-protected rivers, or the ability to receive funding and technical assistance, which both private parties and states can. Co-management/co-stewardship agreements and cooperative agreements are also not explicitly authorized for Tribes in the Act, which is a potential disincentive for federal agencies to explore such agreements with willing, interested, and knowledgeable Tribes.

As sovereign nations, Tribes should at least have the power that states and NGOs have regarding river designations. Tribes should be able to manage Wild and Scenic Rivers on their lands, ask the Secretary of Interior to include rivers protected by Tribes under the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act, be formally authorized to engage in co-stewardship agreements with federal agencies, and have the ability to receive funding and technical assistance when managing rivers on their lands.

Correcting the omission of Tribes in the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act remains long overdue. We heard from both legal scholars and tribal communities that creating a well-researched, draft proposal—which you can download here—would be the best way to begin an informed conversation. This is in no way intended to be a finished product, but meant to engage Tribes, advocates, and legal thinkers in what might be possible, and in turn help us make that a reality.

We also realize that proposing to amend a bedrock natural resources law is no small undertaking, and not without some risks. The structure of the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act makes amending the Act easier and less risky than amending other similar laws. Currently, each new river designation is added to the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System through an amendment to the original Act, which means that a new Wild and Scenic designation by a Tribe that includes these proposed amendments would be all that would be necessary to implement them. Furthermore, the Concept Paper proposes extending existing authorities to Tribes through the addition of new sections in the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act, not changes to existing protections that have been settled law for over 50 years. 

In this way, and with your help, we not only propose to retain the protections that the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act has afforded outstanding free-flowing rivers across the county for the last half century, but to expand the ability for Tribes to utilize those same protections to safeguard free-flowing rivers of cultural and ecological importance into the future. Now is the time to address the omission of Tribes in the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act and other bedrock natural resources laws. Doing so would be a measure of restorative justice, while also benefiting Tribes and all life which depends on rivers.  

Please download and read the Concept Paper and Draft Model Legislation, and let us know what you think. We look forward to hearing from you.

Click HERE to download a PDF of the Concept Paper and Draft Model Legislation. Please send feedback, questions, and comments to info@tribalwildandscenic.org or through our website www.tribalwildandscenic.org.
The Wild and Scenic Rivers Act Amendments Project was founded in 2021 by American Rivers, the Grand Canyon Trust, and the Getches-Wilkinson Center in response to Indigenous advocates seeking a tool to protect culturally and ecologically important rivers on Tribal lands from FERC-licensed hydropower projects. More input from Tribes, river advocates, and legal scholars is being sought for the next phase of this project.

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To say the Chattooga River is a popular destination would be quite the understatement. On any given day, the Chattooga is abuzz with activity as people seek to enjoy the river through whitewater rafting and kayaking, flyfishing, and swimming, as well as hiking and camping in the forests that surround the river. You can sense the energy in the atmosphere when you are standing along the Chattooga, whether it is the palpable excitement exuding from thrill seekers as they prepare to launch their boats into the turbulent waters; the serene silence as a solitary angler casts a line into the river; the carefree feeling as a family splashes around along the river’s edge; or the contemplative wonder as folks take in the beauty of one of the many waterfalls along the river corridor. With all this activity, it can be difficult to imagine how not so long ago the Chattooga was practically unknown to the outside world.  

Centuries before European settlement of the area, the Cherokee and other tribes living along the Chattooga served as stewards of the river and its vital natural resources. The canebrakes along the river, the supply of fish and other aquatic resources, and the abundant forest resources played important roles in the cultural life of those who called this area home. A small Cherokee settlement called Chattooga Town was located along a well-used trading path and adjacent to an important river crossing that connected Cherokee communities on both sides of the Chattooga River. Even after European settlement, the rugged landscape of the area helped keep local communities small and isolated even well into the 20^th century and the local knowledge of the river was not as readily available to those who lived outside the region. That all began to change as word of the Chattooga River started to spread beyond these local communities. 

Although the Chattooga caught the attention of theater goers who watched the movie Deliverance in 1972, which prominently featured the river, by that point the Chattooga was already starting to see a rise in awareness within certain circles, especially among environmentalists and outdoor recreationalists. In fact, when Congress passed the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act of 1968 the Chattooga was specifically identified as one of 27 rivers across the country to be studied for possible future inclusion in the new National Wild and Scenic River System. Following the study, it was concluded that the Chattooga was indeed eligible and on May 10, 1974, the Chattooga River became the first river in the Southeast designated as a Wild and Scenic River (WSR).  

So what is Wild and Scenic River designation and why does it matter? The National Wild and Scenic Rivers System was created to preserve certain rivers with outstanding natural, cultural, and recreational values in a free-flowing condition for the enjoyment of present and future generations. When a river is added to the National System, it is given a classification—wild, scenic, or recreational, which are measures of the level of development along the river at the time of designation (the Chattooga WSR has sections of the river representing all three classifications). Additionally, the Chattooga WSR is managed to preserve the following “Outstanding Remarkable Values:” ecology, geology, history, recreation, and scenery (for more details visit this website.) Commenting on the importance of WSR designation for the Chattooga, CEO of the outfitter Wildwater, Jack Wise states that “The Chattooga River would be a very different place today without the direct actions of a few pioneers. Today’s beauty and other special qualities of the Chattooga National Wild and Scenic River are due to the foresight of a coalition of river runners, state, and national legislators with the help of the US Forest Service.” 

Some of the influential individuals and organizations during this early effort included Claude Terry, co-founder of American Rivers (and consultant and stunt double for John Voight in Deliverance), who convinced Jimmy Carter, governor of Georgia at the time, to join him in running the infamous Bull Sluice rapid in a tandem canoe. Carter grew up in awe of nature’s wonder. But it wasn’t until he first paddled the Chattooga River that he understood the power and majesty of a wild, free-flowing stream. The Wild President, a film produced by American Rivers and NRS in 2017, tells the story of Carter’s soul-stirring journey with Claude Terry on the Chattooga, and how the experience motivated him to push for legislation that would protect 57 miles of the Chattooga River as a Wild and Scenic River, preventing any damming or other activities that threaten the rivers’ values. “Once you get to know an area, it becomes part of you, and you can’t help but want to protect it” said Carter.  

Today, the Chattooga Wild and Scenic River Corridor is co-managed by the three national forests that straddle the tristate border: Chattahoochee National Forest in Georgia; Nantahala National Forest in North Carolina; and Sumter National Forest in South Carolina, which serves as the lead forest for the Chattooga WSR. As with anything of this scale and complexity, managing the Chattooga WSR involves near constant collaboration and engagement with local communities, stakeholders, and leaders in all three states. The rivers’ WSR designation and management ensures that the river remains clean, natural and free flowing. In fact, the Chattooga is one of the last remaining free flowing or un-dammed rivers in the Southeast.  

Speaking of collaboration and engagement, throughout 2024 the Forest Service and community partners will be celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Chattooga’s Wild and Scenic River designation, with a specific emphasis on river stewardship. They will take the time in 2024 to reflect on the successes and the challenges of the past 50 years since the Chattooga’s WSR designation. Secondly, throughout the year they will also reengage with local communities in river stewardship through hands-on service events and projects, such as river cleanups. As they do this, the Forest Service and partners want to be intentional in connecting with underserved communities to ensure everyone has the opportunity to access and steward the Chattooga River. Finally, although 2024 is a time to celebrate an important milestone, the three forests plan to also focus on developing future stewards of the Chattooga.  

District Ranger, Robbie Sitzlar from the Andrew Pickens Ranger District (Sumter National Forest) shares, “As much as we want to take the time to celebrate where we’ve been and where we are today, we know that it is critical that we continue to develop the next generation of river stewards through engaging children and families. Because, at the end of the day, each one of us has a role to play in the health of the Chattooga and with ensuring that future generations can enjoy the unique beauty and recreational experiences that the Chattooga Wild and Scenic River Corridor offers.” Throughout 2024, YOU are invited to join us in celebrating the Chattooga River and what it means to South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia and the nation. Come and enjoy all that the Chattooga WSR has to offer, while remembering that it is up to each one of us to do our part in ensuring this important resource can be enjoyed for generations to come.  

To learn more about the many recreational opportunities that the Chattooga Wild and Scenic River offers and how you can get engaged with stewarding this important river, check out the Forest Service Interactive Visitor Map and visit the national forests’ websites:  

• Sumter National Forest, South Carolina: www.fs.usda.gov/scnfs 
• Chattahoochee National Forest, Georgia: www.fs.usda.gov/conf 
• Nantahala National Forest, North Carolina: www.fs.usda.gov/nfsnc 

To learn more about the National Wild and Scenic River System, visit: www.rivers.gov

Greg Cunningham worked for the National Park Service for 15 years at national parks in Virginia, Hawaii, and South Carolina. In 2022, he started with the Forest Service and currently serve as the Staff Officer for Recreation, Heritage, and Engineering for the Francis Marion and Sumter National Forests in South Carolina. He can be reached at Gregory.Cunningham2@usda.gov 

Dr. Janae Davis is the Southeast Conservation Director for River Protection at American Rivers. She can be reached at jdavis@americanrivers.org. 

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“Green divided by white rapids.” 

“The shivering soul-reaching shock of the water. The beverage of the animals.” 

“Drowning not in water but in a sense of belonging.” 

“The water’s writing engraves the rocks like the graphite from my pencil engraves this paper.” 

“It says meditate to throw away your anger.”

Middle school students from Missoula, Montana penned these words after drawing inspiration from some of the area’s storied free flowing rivers. Since time immemorial, nature has been the inspiration for art, literature, film, and other creative outlets. Cave paintings and petroglyphs depicting animals and land/human relationships were created by Indigenous peoples and remain cherished cultural sites today.  

In the early 1800s, Hudson River School landscape painters painted forests, mountains, and wild rivers along with cultivated landscapes like farms. Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson, among many others, were renowned for nature writing in general, and American nature poetry in particular. Montana’s rivers served as the backdrop for Norman Maclean’s 1976 novella, A Rivers Runs Through It, and the subsequent film starring Brad Pitt that brought fly fishing to the masses. Wooden bears, fish, and other wildlife carved with chainsaws remain a popular form of sculpture today in Montana. 

It’s clear that nature and rivers have long had the power to inspire creative expression.

Through a unique partnership, American Rivers has teamed up with the Missoula Writing Collaborative to inspire creative placemaking through “ekphrastic poetry”—poetry inspired by nature photography. Using photographs of water—rushing torrents, placid pools, swirling eddies, and burbling currents—7^th grade students at Missoula, Montana’s C.S. Porter School authored poems about seven of the 57 western Montana waterways American Rivers seeks to protect through the ongoing Lolo National Forest Plan Revision and future Bitterroot National Forest Plan Revision. Students worked with a local poetry instructor to write poems about the Clark Fork River, Clearwater River, Fish Creek, Kootenai Creek, Morrell Creek, Rattlesnake Creek, and Rock Creek.  

A river poetry storymap showcases select young poets’ awe-inspiring interpretations and renditions of their home rivers. To move from individual poetry to collaborative work, each student chose a favorite line from their own poem. Woven together, these lines represent the words of each class—in total more than 175 students—and are a testament to the collective power of inspiration. 

Designed by local artist Eileen Chontos and debuted to honor National Poetry Month, the River Poetry exhibit opened on First Friday, April 7, 2023 at PureWest Realty gallery and included the following poem panels:

• Clark Fork River
• Clearwater River
• Fish Creek
• Kootenai Creek
• Morrell Creek
• Rattlesnake Creek
• Rock Creek

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The Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forest is neither the pan nor the handle of Idaho; it’s in between. This area boasts the headwaters of the Lochsa, Selway, and Salmon rivers, renowned for their big whitewater and multi-day river trips. The Clearwater River’s middle, north, and south forks are well-known angling destinations for steelhead, westslope cutthroat trout, and bull trout. These are the streams where endangered fish will return following the eventual removal of the Lower Snake River dams between Lewiston, Idaho and Tri-Cities, Washington. Scientists have referred to Nez Perce-Clearwater country as the Noah’s Ark for salmon because its higher-elevation rivers will remain cold enough to sustain healthy fish populations even as climate change worsens.  

In 2021, the Biden Administration established a goal to conserve at least 30 percent of U.S. lands and freshwater by 2030, an initiative commonly referred to as America the Beautiful. It is the job of public land management agencies, including the U.S. Forest Service, to meet the administration’s climate goal by inventorying and applying protections to deserving lands and inland waters. 

Granting long-term administrative protections to Wild and Scenic eligible and suitable rivers is one of the most effective ways to make them more resilient in the face of climate change. The Forest Service’s science points to the importance of protecting climate refugia – rivers are anticipated to remain cold enough by 2040 to support coldwater fish species. With only a fraction of rivers having any type of protected status, the administration is far from meeting its America the Beautiful goals, meaning that contributions by every national forest count. 

Other nearby national forests in Idaho and Montana are playing their part. Since 2015, five forests have revised their land management plans and collectively more than doubled the number of rivers protected and increased protected river miles by more than 75 percent.  

Sadly, the Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forest is eliminating protections for 86 percent of its Wild and Scenic eligible rivers in its new forest plan. Across four million acres of inland rainforest, the Forest is offering up just 12 streams to support the administration’s broad-reaching climate goals. Since forest plans typically last for decades, the detrimental decisions made now by the Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forest will adversely affect rivers and fish for generations. 

In all, the Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forest’s new forest plan would remove protections from nearly 700 stream miles. Among the waterways that would lose protections are tributaries to the Lochsa River and the North and South Forks of the Clearwater River. The North Fork Clearwater River, which has been protected for more than 30 years, provides nearly 80 contiguous boatable miles and unsurpassed habitat for bull trout and westslope cutthroat trout. The South Fork Clearwater River is renowned for its unmatched B-run steelhead fishing, miles of walk-and-wade shoreline, and robust whitewater. The Forest is also arbitrarily abandoning protections for:  
 

• 72 percent of streams that have been protected since 1990 
• 80 percent of streams anticipated to provide future climate refuge for threatened and endangered coldwater fish 
• 70 percent of streams that have cultural significance to the Nez Perce Tribe, including the Bear Creek Salmon Hole 
• Streams with superlative scenery and recreational values such as the longest waterfall at 300 vertical feet, the best place to view spawning salmon, and the most popular natural hot springs found on the Forest 

The Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forest is stripping protections from these special rivers based on false assumptions that Wild and Scenic River eligibility and suitability will hamstring forest management and endangered species recovery. Wild and Scenic protections prevent wholesale commercial logging and clearcutting within designated corridors, but allow vegetation management, wildfire mitigation, habitat restoration projects, motorized travel on existing roads and trails, and other activities, as long as they don’t diminish river values. In fact, well-planned projects can enhance river protections. 

If adopted as written, the revised Nez Perce-Clearwater Forest Plan will not only violate the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act and agency planning policy, but it would also undermine President Biden’s Climate Policy. American Rivers is asking Forest Service leadership to correct the egregious errors in the new forest plan to ensure that we protect the best rivers and streams we have today for future generations. 

Join other river advocates: Tell the Forest Service to uphold protections for Idaho’s rivers. 

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Unfortunately, communities of color are also experiencing a nature deficit that is acutely connected to a systemic lack of safe access to rivers, riparian protected areas, and river-related decision making. According to The Nature Gap, a report by the Hispanic Access Foundation, the United States has fewer protected areas—including forests, streams, wetlands, and other accessible natural places near Black, Latino, and Asian American communities. Notably, families with children—especially families of color with children—have less access to nearby nature than the rest of the country.   

The report also highlights that nature is not an amenity but a necessity for the health and well-being of all people. The Hispanic Access Foundation coined the term “nearby nature” to refer to the need and right of all communities to have access to nature, regardless of their circumstances. Access to nature should enhance quality of life and amplify the values of residents and therefore, communities must be at the forefront of all decision making related to the planning and management of their local green spaces. 

The Rivers of Opportunity Initiative 

With nearly every person in the United States living within a mile of a river or stream, waterways provide the nearest nature for most people. American Rivers seeks to address the nature gap and historic injustices by working to make sure that fewer communities are nature deprived and left out of river-related decisions that impact their lives. Historically, the environmental community, including American Rivers, has often focused on the protection of remote and pristine areas, thereby ignoring developed and urban areas. American Rivers is working to increase protection of and access to free-flowing rivers close to where most people live, with an emphasis on collaborating with and amplifying the leadership of communities of color. Over the next three years, we will establish 10 new collaborations with communities and organizations of color and Tribal Nations to jumpstart equitable river protection, improve access, and advocate for new federal, state, and local funding. 

To launch our effort, American Rivers and the National Park Service joined forces to create the Rivers of Opportunity Initiative, which seeks to engage communities of color in more equitable river protection. As a first step, we developed the Rivers of Opportunity Assessment Tool, which mapped the locations of high value rivers and vulnerable communities to assess opportunities for more equitable protections and improved access to rivers for communities facing climate and economic injustices. We condensed this information into an interactive story map that describes the Rivers of Opportunity Assessment in an easy-to-use web tool. This tool can be used to learn about communities facing climate threats near rivers with outstanding values, engage communities in conversations about how protecting their rivers supports their interests, and explore opportunities for collaborative projects that advance equitable river protection.  

How You Can Use the Rivers of Opportunity Assessment Tool 

The Rivers of Opportunity Assessment Tool can be used in several ways to learn about and engage communities in conversations about river conservation opportunities that address climate, environmental, and social burdens. It highlights river values that can be amplified to bring resources to communities that protect rivers in ways that elevate local values and interests. In this way, river conservation can be a powerful approach for protecting communities from unsustainable development and gentrification, addressing climate hazards such as flooding, providing greenspaces for residents, and boosting local economies. We offer some suggestions below about ways that you can use the Rivers of Opportunity Assessment Tool. 

• Learn about a community: The assessment tool can confirm, amplify, and contribute to information already known to community members, help to identify relevant funding opportunities, and justify funding requests. It can also be used to educate conservationists, funders, elected officials, and other interested groups about a community and their river values.  
• Start a conversation: The tool displays ecological, cultural, geological, and other river values that can be used to spark conversations that help potential partners visualize how protecting those values can improve quality of life. Developing additional materials that explain relevant funding opportunities that can help communities realize their vision, can offer opportunities to discuss potential partnerships that support community-led projects. 
• Explore connections between communities: Connecting communities across landscapes is critical to successful river protection efforts. It allows communities to discover their shared interests and foster a greater movement for change that benefits people and the rivers they depend on. In addition, community-led protection efforts produce the most effective outcomes when they create new protections for rivers that amplify or complement existing protections. Connecting communities through projects that also connect their protected areas, can improve floodwater storage, conserve freshwater supplies in drylands, enhance habitat and migration corridors, preserve additional cultural resources, and offer opportunities to expand greenspaces that provide community benefits- employment and entrepreneurship, gardens, trails, and other recreational and educational amenities. The tool can also be used to discover areas where one or more communities might be facing similar challenges on the same high value river. Connecting those communities could provide greater opportunities and capacities to create and manage large-scale projects that have significant impact.  

The Rivers of Opportunity Assessment Tool offers a dynamic and interactive approach to understanding how river protection can support the interests, needs, and values of the most vulnerable communities in our nation. Through its wealth of information and user-friendly interface, the tool can help facilitate conversations, build relationships, plan projects, and develop funding proposals that advance community-led river conservation.  

In August 2023, American Rivers and the National Park Service began phase two of the Rivers of Opportunity Initiative which focuses on using the tool to engage organizations led by people of color to develop strategies for collaborating with the communities they serve. We will share the tool to build relationships, facilitate learning, and collectively envision possibilities for partnerships. We will also ask for feedback about the tool to understand its usefulness and how it can be improved. This collaborative work will serve as a model for equitable community engagement and demonstrate how healthy rivers can support healthy communities. 

As we work with our partners to build on our work, we encourage you to follow along and see how you can get involved, and continue to help protect our rivers. Check out the Rivers of Opportunity Assessment Tool and stay tuned for future developments.  

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Thank you for standing by our mission to protect wild rivers, restore damaged rivers, and conserve clean water for people and nature.

American Rivers is thankful for…

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Local advocates have been working to protect the Upper Verde for over a decade because of its uniquely intact ecosystem and cultural importance. Notably, nearly 15 years ago, the Upper Verde was facing the existential threat of the Big Chino pipeline, a now dormant but not dead groundwater pumping project that would have effectively dewatered the Upper Verde River. But while the river has so far evaded serious development proposals, its flow has certainly been reduced by regional groundwater withdrawal and climate change-driven aridification. And there’s nothing in place to permanently safeguard the river to remain as it is—incredibly wild, undeveloped, and free-flowing.

The Upper Verde has already been found by Prescott National Forest to be both eligible and suitable for Wild and Scenic designation because of its free-flowing status and numerous outstanding values. In a revamped effort to bring permanent protection to this special river through Congressional designation, in late 2021, American Rivers and numerous partners formed the Upper Verde Wild and Scenic River Coalition. Building upon the existing foundation of community support, the coalition over the last two years has made significant progress towards the goal of designating the Upper Verde as Arizona’s next Wild and Scenic River, including introducing the effort to Arizona delegates this past March.

But why the Upper Verde?

The Upper Verde and the campaign to designate it a Wild and Scenic River exemplifies American Rivers Southwest River Protection Program’s goal of protecting our region’s most ecologically and culturally important rivers that remain. Unlike many of our rivers in the Southwest, the Upper Verde is not (yet) in crisis, nor has it been so seriously altered by the consequences of human consumption that it is no longer recognizable. Certainly, the river faces unprecedented threats from climate change, unconstrained groundwater withdrawal, mismanaged recreation, and invasive species. But with the Upper Verde, we have the increasingly rare opportunity to act proactively to protect a wild river. Imagine if we reflected on the consequences of not acting this way for the majority of our waters in the Southwest, but for this river, this time, we made a different choice.

Why Wild and Scenic River designation?

Designation under the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act is the highest form of protection for free-flowing rivers in the United States and recognizes rivers of outstanding regional and national significance. The Verde River is the longest free-flowing river remaining in Arizona and holds immense ecological and cultural value, particularly for the Yavapai-Apache Nation. The birthplace of the Verde, the Upper Verde is a crown jewel of the state, providing clean drinking water, exceptional habitat for rare plants and animals, and excellent outdoor recreation opportunities.

The Verde River watershed is only 5.8% of the land area in Arizona, but it contains some of the best remaining riparian areas in our arid region – lush, green riverside habitats that are critical to our wellbeing, to wildlife, and a healthy ecosystem. As a thriving riparian area, the Verde River supports a large fraction of Arizona’s vertebrate species: 78% of breeding bird species, 89% of bat and carnivore species, 83% of native ungulate species and 76% of reptiles and amphibians genera (CWAG, 2022). The Verde River supports 9 of the 22 native fish species protected by the Endangered Species Act in Arizona. The Upper Verde River specifically is some of the best remaining habitat for the Sonora sucker, Desert sucker, Roundtail chub, Spikedace, Razorback sucker, and Loach minnow.

• Recognition as a Wild and Scenic River will:
  • Ensure clean water supplies
  • Conserve scenery, wildlife, recreation, cultural sites, access to hunting and fishing, and Verde Valley agriculture
  • Prevent future large dams and diversions
  • Provide more resources for monitoring and management
  • Provide opportunities for public engagement
  • Assure river access for recreation, hunting, fishing, and traditional uses
  • Maintain the river and its remarkable ecosystem as it is for future generations

• Wild and Scenic River status does not:
  • Restrict grazing permits
  • Alter existing water rights
  • Constrain private property rights

Rivers are the lifeblood of Arizona’s desert landscapes, but most have been lost, destroyed, or degraded. Arizona only has two Wild and Scenic Rivers, a lower section of the Verde and Fossil Creek, which constitute less than 1/10^th of 1% of the state’s river miles. The Upper Verde remains a refuge for wildlife and nature for people to enjoy and appreciate. Let’s keep it that way!

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Like many great conservation stories, the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act has its roots in Montana.  

The Big Dam Era

The 1940s-1970s mark the era of large-scale hydroelectric dam building in the United States. In three short decades, more than seventy thousand dams were constructed along our nation’s waterways – including more than 150 large-scale dams along the Columbia, Colorado, and Missouri river basins. Once wild rivers in the west, they were rapidly being transformed into stair stepped reservoirs and human controlled rivers in order to support agriculture in the arid west and generate electricity to fuel fast growing metropolitan areas. While this feat of human ingenuity drove certain types of prosperity in certain places, it came with significant costs. For the first time in human memory, the Colorado River ran dry before reaching the Gulf of California. Once among the finest salmon fisheries on earth, the Columbia River Basin’s oceangoing fish, along with the Puget Sound Orcas which depend upon healthy salmon runs, faced the very real possibility of extinction. The decision to construct the dams also occurred with little to no consultation with Tribal Nations. No place was too sacred for large-scale hydro development projects – not even within Grand Canyon or Glacier national parks.  

An idea is born – the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act  

Wildlife biologists John and Frank Craighead came up with the idea for the WSRA while fighting the proposed Spruce Park Dam on the Middle Fork of the Flathead River and the Glacier View Dam, which would have inundated the North Fork Flathead River underneath a massive reservoir inside of Glacier National Park. Although these two projects were defeated, the Craigheads quickly realized natural rivers were becoming scarce, and that stopping one project simply pushed the problem elsewhere. A more systematic approach to river conservation was needed. 

In a 1957 issue of Montana Wildlife, John Craighead made the case for protecting the Flathead as well as other rivers nationwide: “Rivers and their watersheds are inseparable, and to maintain wild areas we must preserve the rivers that drain them.” 

The Craigheads organized, built community support, and engaged elected leaders from around the nation. With support from Interior Secretary Stewart Udall and senators Lee Metcalf (D-Montana), Frank Church (D-Idaho), and others – the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act passed the U.S. Senate unanimously and was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson on October 2, 1968. 

Montana & the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act Today

Today, Montana ranks 7th highest in the nation with a total of 408 miles of Wild and Scenic river miles on five segments – the Upper Missouri, the three forks of the Flathead, and East Rosebud Creek. Of Montana’s approximately 169,829 miles of rivers and streams, less than 0.02% have been protected as Wild and Scenic rivers. Since 1976, only 20 miles of one stream, East Rosebud Creek, has received new Wild and Scenic river protections. Meanwhile Idaho, Wyoming, and Utah have added nearly 1,000 miles of new Wild and Scenic rivers since 2009. 

The next chapter – the Montana Headwaters Legacy Act 

While Montana continues to lag behind our neighboring states in terms of Wild and Scenic river miles protected, the good news is that the Montana Headwaters Legacy Act (MHLA) is our opportunity to write the next chapter in our river conservation legacy. 

Introduced by Senator Jon Tester during the last two Congresses, the MHLA would protect 20 streams totaling 385 river miles in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. This includes iconic rivers such as the Yellowstone, Madison, and Smith by designating them as a part of the National Wild and Scenic River System. As Montana’s population continues to boom, the MHLA is our insurance policy to protect these rivers as they are today, for the future generations.

As we celebrate the 55th anniversary of the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act, let’s remember that river conservation is ultimately a story about people – folks who cared enough to raise their voices and take action. Will you help us write the next chapter?

Ask Rep. Zinke to support the Montana Headwaters Legacy Act! It only takes 90 seconds to make a difference!  Together, we can protect the rivers that flow through our hearts and communities. 

Thank you for taking action for Montana’s rivers! 

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