The international Waterkeeper Alliance of New York has selected Living Rivers to establish the first on-the-water advocacy and restoration program for the Colorado River watershed. With rafts, canoes and kayaks, Colorado Riverkeeper will be patrolling the watershed to better document the growing violations of federal environmental laws caused by dams, diversions and excessive water consumption, and use these findings to support litigation strategies.
Colorado Riverkeeper will also be mobilizing the basin’s extensive commercial and private river running community to take part in advocacy programs to ensure enforcement of environmental laws and to return the natural ecological viability to the Colorado River watershed.
“We’re delighted to have joined forces with Living Rivers to advance this rapidly growing model of river advocacy in the watershed that National Geographic described last month as one of the most troubled water sources in the world,” said Robert Kennedy, Jr., president and founder of Waterkeeper Alliance. Since 1999 Waterkeeper Alliance has helped form a network of nearly 100 similar water advocacy programs in the US and abroad.
“Waterkeeper’s arrival on the Colorado couldn’t come at a better time considering the rapidly advancing decline of its unique desert river habitat,” says John Weisheit, who will head up the Colorado Riverkeeper program for Living Rivers. “Their network’s incredible track record of on-the-water advocacy and precedent-setting litigation on behalf of rivers and aquatic ecosystems across the country is something we fully plan to continue here on what has become the most developed river system in the country.”
Colorado Riverkeeper’s initial priority will be to complement the work Living Rivers is undertaking to document violations of the Endangered Species Act caused by the Colorado’s system of more than 40 major dams. The Colorado River through Grand Canyon National Park will of course be a major priority. The river corridor’s entire food web has been transformed, four of the eight native fish species are now extinct, and otters and muskrats can no longer survive.
“I first rafted the Grand Canyon nearly forty years ago, and am appalled that the US Bureau of Reclamation and other federal agencies have allowed the ecological integrity of this internationally acclaimed river corridor, and designated World Heritage Site, to be so severely devastated. Just like the return of the peregrine falcon and California condor to the Canyon’s skies, it’s now time to ensure the recovery of endangered species to the Canyon’s river,” adds Kennedy.
Colorado Riverkeeper launched its first patrols the week of October 7, with one traveling down the Colorado River through Grand Canyon and the other down the Green River through Canyonlands National Park and Cataract Canyon, finishing on Lake Powell reservoir. Overall, Living Rivers’ Colorado Riverkeeper program will be establishing a network of patrols spanning over 1,000 miles, including sections of the Green, San Juan and Yampa Rivers, as well as the Colorado mainstem. To participate in the Colorado Riverkeeper program, including traveling on one of the patrols, contact John Weisheit at Living Rivers.
