Blog

Building Strong Champions with Organizational Sustainability

by Brenna Goggin
Post It Notes

In our November River Voices, we gave a brief overview of our Building Strong Champions program and how we provide support to our growing Network. At its core, Building Strong Champions is capacity-building work at both the individual and organizational levels. Over the next several issues of River Voices, we will do a deeper dive… Read More ›

Protecting Drinking Water in the Great Lakes

by Hannah Mico
The Great Lakes make up 90% of North America’s fresh surface water and, in the US, 40 million people rely on the Great Lakes as their drinking water source. However, many in the Great Lakes region face threats to their drinking water — from contamination concerns related to lead pipes, harmful algal blooms or PFAS;... Read More ›

5 Takeaways From the 2020 Emerging Leader

by Megan Nguyen
When I was first selected as River Network’s 2020 Emerging Leader in March of 2020, I asked, “What version of my story do you want to hear: the activist version or the conservationist version?” The team at River Network resolutely replied, “both!” This last year really fused these two identities—my communications associate role at California... Read More ›

Eight Network Members Awarded Technical Assistance Grants to Support Community-Led Research

by April Ingle
With funding and support from the Kresge Foundation, River Network is excited to announce it has awarded Technical Assistance Grants to eight organizations around the country to support the design and implementation of grassroots, ground-up, community-led processes to better understand climate- and water-related issues, impacts and threats in their community, and support advocacy efforts to address them.    Each of the selected organizations have experience working on various aspects of climate resilience,... Read More ›

A Historic Year: What it Means for Our Future Work with Water

by Sheyda Esnaashari

On November 7, 2020, the US presidential election was called for former Vice President Joe Biden. This election was historic for many reasons — occurring during an ongoing global pandemic, a country reckoning with continued racial injustice, and the increasing impacts of climate change, to name just a few. In the weeks since his election,… Read More ›

Water Policy Wrap 2020 – Heartbreak and Hope

by Katherine Baer
My father didn’t grow up as an outdoors person, but he started hiking and canoeing when my sister and I were young. I can remember cold backpacking trips without quite the right gear to stay warm. But, he kept us at it, and one of our favorite places to visit was the Okefenokee Swamp in... Read More ›

2020 Trends Report on State of Water Protection Shows Hope, But More Progress Needed for Sector Diversity

by River Network

BOULDER, COLORADO – December, 2020 – National organization River Network released a 2020 trends report called Our Water, Our Future: State of River and Watershed Protection this week. The report outlines current conditions of waterways in the U.S. including opportunities and threats to water quality and quantity, and provides an analysis of the diversity of… Read More ›

Hope, Water, and Community

by Nicole Silk

2020 was quite a year. Floods, fires, water shutoffs, civil unrest, racial injustice, the health crisis of COVID-19, and economic hardship. Our society, our families, and our hearts have all been pushed and pulled, towards worry and grief as well as recovery and resilience, nearly continuously. There is a sense of exhaustion and fatigue in… Read More ›

Engaging Youth and Communities for Impact in 2020

by River Network

Impact in 2020 looked very different for River Network and the groups we serve. How did we help get groups, and especially youth, on the water and cleaning up the water, despite it all? Cultivating community and youth stewardship of our waters was no less important this year – in fact, it was more important… Read More ›

Fostering Community Leadership – A Tool for Equitable Climate Resilience

by Hannah Mico
Courtesy Vote Run Lead.
As the importance of addressing climate change continues to be well-evidenced by communities combatting ever-more-frequent flooding, fire, and extreme weather, the environmental community finds itself at the intersection of science, equity, and justice – yet again. The urgency of working at this intersection is well-established – both by empirical scientific evidence, and the stories and... Read More ›

Building Strong Champions for Local Impact

by Brenna Goggin
Log bridge over running water.

We say it a lot: River Network connects local watershed organizations across the country, empowering them with tools, training, and resources. But what does this really mean? What does it look like to “build strong champions,” as our strategic plan puts it, and to support Organizational Sustainability & Planning, Leadership Development, and Professional Development for… Read More ›

Connecting Local Groups to National Funding for Groundwater Replenishment

by Kellie Kreiss
Hawaii Youth Conservation Corps interns at the Waipahoehoe forest.
“Ohia trees, which are considered the mother of all native forests [on Hawaii]…are under threat right now,” begins Cheyenne Hiapo Perry, Project Coordinator at the Mauna Kea Watershed Alliance (MKWA), an organization that’s been hard at work since 2009 preserving and rehabilitating the Big Island’s native forests, “…and if we did nothing, over 100 years... Read More ›

River Rally 2021: A Second Virtual Experience!

by Nicole Silk

Last spring, we made an extraordinary decision to take River Rally 2020 virtual in order to protect our community and our team from the health risks of COVID-19. With only six weeks to completely remake our annual event, learn new technology, and reframe expectations, River Rally 2020 was a success, thanks to the patience and… Read More ›