CELEBRATING THE RIVERS OF AMERICAN

 Photos courtesy of Tim Palmer

Outside Adventure to the Max Guest Blogger Tim Palmer

An unspoiled river is a very rare thing in this Nation today. Their flow and vitality have been harnessed by dams and too often they have been turned into open sewers by communities and by industries. It makes us all very fearful that all rivers will go this way unless somebody acts now to try to balance our river development. -- President Lyndon Johnson's remarks on signing the Wild & Scenic Rivers Act, October 2, 1968


When I need to brighten my day, I go to the river.

I walk along the shore, or sit for a while at the water’s edge and listen to the swish, or the babble, or the exciting bubbly rush of flow. Always moving when the rest of the landscape is still, the river holds me rapt, and if I stare long enough, it mesmerizes and takes me away to a special place where the rest of the world — along with its eternal complications, everyday demands, and political disappointments — seems like a thousand miles away. And floating on the river is even better, drifting with the current wherever it goes.

Part of the appeal of rivers likely has an evolutionary context: our bodies are nearly 70 percent water, and every drop comes from a river or from groundwater, which is inseparably connected to the surface flow. Rivers are essential to our lives and communities, and they also create the finest of all wildlife habitat. Their free-flow from mountains to sea makes possible the iconic runs of salmon and steelhead in the Northwest, and of other fish throughout the nation.

Montana’s Flathead River

Through the 1960s our natural rivers — and all of their attributes — were being lost at an astonishing rate by the construction of large dams. Some 70,000 had been built on virtually every major river, and hundreds more were proposed, planned or under construction regardless of their economic worthiness, their hydrologic capabilities to supply water, or their unintended but harmful effects on fish, wildlife, recreation and landowners.

Rising against this backdrop of gung-ho damming, Congress passed the National Wild and Scenic Rivers Act in 1968 with unanimous support in the Senate and with a bipartisan 265-7 vote in the House. Seeking balance of federal policies that for a century had encouraged development at any cost, the law recognized that some of our finest natural streams should remain the way they are. The new law represented nothing less than a new way for a nation to regard its rivers, its landscape, and its environment.

For selected rivers, the program bans dams or other federal projects harmful to the streams, and it encourages other means of protection for fish, wildlife, water quality and historic values. Intending to go beyond the initial 8 designated rivers (12 counting major tributaries), the Act established protocols for adding rivers to the system.
Designation in this foremost program for river stewardship sets the stage for better management of recreation of all types. The resulting national prestige has also bolstered efforts to protect stream front open space, to reinstate healthier flows in diverted sections of some rivers, to develop trails, and to reinforce local communities and economies.

Pennsylvania’s Delaware River

Today, as we near the 50th anniversary of the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act, nearly 300 rivers have been set aside nationwide. That spells success, though, among 2.9 million miles of rivers and streams in the nation, only 0.4 percent are safeguarded in this program.

The next week's anniversary of the National Wild and Scenic Rivers Act on October 2, 2018, is a cause to celebrate the legacy of all who have worked for the health of America’s finest streams. It also challenges us to do more. Perhaps most important, national recognition through this federal law — enacted half a century ago — can inspire all to engage further in ongoing efforts aimed at protecting and restoring these and other waterways.

Learn more about the 50th anniversary of the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act by visiting American Rivers and 5000miles.org.

Tim Palmer is an award-winning author of 26 books on rivers, conservation, and the environment. He has received the National Outdoor Book Award, the Communicator of the Year Award from the National Wildlife Federation and the Lifetime Achievement Award from American Rivers. Living the life as a nomad he and his wife author Ann Vileisis traveled the country for 11 years in a Ford van while they did their research and writing before settling down on in a small town on the Pacific coast.

In his latest book, Wild and Scenic Rivers: An American Legacy, he shows us the beauty and wonders these streams that have been safeguarded under the National Wild and Scenic Rivers Act with 160 spectacular images. You can see more of Palmer work at www.timpalmer.org.

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