By 1994, River Network had hit its stride with land transactions. As the organization was no longer struggling to stay solvent, new ideas had room to emerge. For example, River Network co-founder, trustee, and former American Rivers President Kevin Coyle encouraged shifting the organization’s thinking – not just about rivers but about water on the whole, noting the difficulty of changing “river policy” without first changing “water policy.” With a focus on water quality and supply, protection at the watershed level came into focus. This approach was further championed by staff like Pete Lavigne, who joined River Network in 1992, and representatives from grassroots groups newly connected through the River Network Partnership, like Don Elder. (Don would later join the River Network staff and serve as Executive Director.)

“Organizing at the watershed scale forces us to see the big picture; equity, justice, safety, access to natural areas.”

-Don Elder, then Executive Director of Alabama Rivers Alliance

The thinking on who we served also began to expand through this lens. 

“The hundreds of thousands of citizens who participate in river conservation... are not just anglers or boaters. They are professors and city planners, engineers and lawyers, farmers and ranchers, and Native American Tribes. Increasingly they are urban people who are involved in river greenways and creek restoration. Often, they are the poor, both urban and rural, who bear the brunt of watershed deterioration.”

-River Network 1994 Annual Report

Read more on the watershed approach in River Voices Summer 1995.