Dear John,

This year has been full of challenges to our work protecting clean water and rivers – but thanks to supporters like you, we had some great victories in 2019.

Rivers make life possible – from your drinking water and the food on your plate, to the health of your community, to your favorite places in nature. Our advocacy touches every river and stream in the country.

We tackle big threats to rivers, and we know how to get results. Here are some wins you can be proud of:

Tearing down dams to restore rivers

American Rivers played a part in removing 11 dams, including Bloede Dam on Maryland’s Patapsco River -- eliminating a drowning hazard and opening up 65+ miles of spawning habitat for blueback herring, alewife and shad. Our advocacy and trainings have also built a powerful movement: record numbers of dams have been removed in the last two years.

Saving wild rivers

Just months after East Rosebud Creek became Montana’s first Wild and Scenic River in 42 years, bipartisan legislation permanently protected 620 miles of rivers in California, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Oregon, Rhode Island and Utah.
 

The nation’s voice for rivers

America’s Most Endangered Rivers® of 2019 report garnered national and local media attention, spotlighting the threat climate change poses to our rivers and water supplies. Soon after we named Arkansas’ Buffalo National River to the list, local groups won big when the governor decided to close an industrial hog farm that has polluted the river.

Cleaning streams

National River Cleanup® volunteers pulled 2.7 million pounds of trash from rivers and streams across 44 states. Through this program, we’re not just cleaning up rivers – we’re introducing new people to conservation and inspiring a new generation of river advocates. 

American Rivers is the only national river organization working at the grassroots level and in the nation’s capital to ensure a future of healthy rivers — a resource we can’t live without.

And it’s people like you who power our work every day.

Thank you for making our successes possible in 2019 -- and I know we’ll accomplish a lot together in the year ahead.

For the rivers,