This spring, it is more important than ever for us to come together and make every day Earth Day. In 2020, there were 26 billion pieces of litter along America’s waterways, according to data compiled by Keep America Beautiful. With the increase in single use personal protective equipment and fewer resources available due to the impacts of COVID, litter is more… Read More ›
Blog
How River Network Is Building Community, Online
by Carly Schmidt
Connection and the open exchange of information and ideas has always been integral to water stewardship and community leadership, even before the pandemic. For this reason, River Network launched an online community for the nationwide network of water protectors in January of this year. What you might not have noticed when we launched the community... Read More ›
Building Strong Champions with Leadership Development
by Brenna Goggin
To address today’s water crisis, the national network of water protectors needs strong leaders. That’s why Building Strong Champions is the essence of River Network’s mission. At its core, Building Strong Champions is building the capacity of individuals and organizations. This blog post is the first in our series highlighting this work: looking at what it… Read More ›
Moving Toward Water Equity & Affordability: Low Income Household Water Assistance
by Sheyda Esnaashari
Water affordability issues across the United States have grown at a staggering rate the last several years and have become an even larger problem since the start of the pandemic last March. Some 13.8 million U.S. households (almost 12%) face unaffordable water bills, leading to water shutoffs and even property tax liens and foreclosures in... Read More ›
Stream Management Planning & Rancher Stewardship in Colorado
by Mikhaela Mullins
Since 2017, River Network has worked to increase the number and quality of Stream Management Plans in Colorado. Stream Management Plans, or SMPs, were developed as a result of 2015’s Colorado’s Water Plan, which set goals and measurable objectives to map out the future of water management in the state. One of these objectives is that 80% of locally prioritized streams have an SMP... Read More ›
Action Day for Clean Water and Rivers – Join Us!
by Carly Schmidt
Have you started texting and tweeting your members of Congress, and are missing the chance to actually talk to someone? Are you new to advocacy and want some support to make an effective ask to get Congress to invest in clean and safe water? Whether you’re a seasoned pro or just starting out, it’s an… Read More ›
River Network Statement on Recent Hate Crimes Targeting Asian-Americans
by River NetworkFriday, March 19, 2021 – We condemn hate crimes targeting Asian-Americans, including the recent attack in Atlanta killing 8 people. Hate and racism have no place in river conservation or water advocacy. They prevent our forward progress toward a future where everyone has access to healthy rivers and clean water and diminish the effectiveness of our democracy. Our work and our society are stronger when we intentionally and thoughtfully… Read More ›
Fostering Community Leadership: Putting the Research to Work with Three Network Members
by Hannah Mico
In November 2020, River Network published a new network resource: Tools for Equitable Climate Resilience: Fostering Community Leadership. The toolkit outlines equitable and intentional ways to cultivate emerging leaders, including a step-by-step guide for building community-focused leadership development programs. Since introducing the toolkit at the end of 2020, we’ve moved forward in applying the research with… Read More ›
Standing Stronger Together – NGOs, Tribes, and Water
by Nicole Silk
by Nicole Silk, River Network and Emma Robbins, Dig Deep Context: Equitable Solutions Require Diverse Perspectives We believe that everyone should have access to clean, safe, affordable drinking water and healthy rivers. Sadly, this access is not equal across our nation, with low-income and predominantly non-white communities and neighborhoods experiencing stark disparities. Perhaps the most... Read More ›
Partnership-Building Technical Assistance Grants: Announcing Selected Communities and Water Systems
by Katherine Baer
By our partners at the WaterNow Alliance. We are excited to announce that three community groups and water systems have been selected to receive Partnership-Building Technical Assistance Grants. These groups represent a diverse range of communities and challenges, and will receive technical support to grow their partnerships and pilot trust-building best practices. It is River... Read More ›
Building Strong Champions with Organizational Sustainability
by Brenna Goggin
To address today’s water crisis, the national network of water protectors needs strong leaders. That’s why Building Strong Champions is the essence of River Network’s mission. At its core, Building Strong Champions is building the capacity of individuals and organizations. This blog post is the second in our series highlighting this work: organizational sustainability, a must… 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 ›
