A STORY FROM THE PARKWAY

Since it's creation in 1983, the American River Parkway Foundation has been striving to protect and sustain one of Sacramento County's most valuable natural resources, the American River Parkway. Following along the Lower American River, the Parkway offers equestrian and hiking trails, a first-class bike trail, and most of all a great paddling venue.

In conjunction with Sacramento County Parks, the ARPF coordinates programs and works with volunteers to foster environmental stewardship, facilitate volunteer opportunities, as well as fund and implement many Parkway projects.

This past month, the folks from the ARPF asked me to share my experiences of paddling along the Lower American River in their Stories from the Parkway series in hopes of increasing awareness, use, and support of this amazing river trail.

Sliding my kayak gently into the water, it’s not hard to grasp why in a few short years how this river has become so significant to me. I’ve come to know this river’s fickle moods. Its high water winters and early spring rush, its summertime playfulness, and its autumn bounty when the native Chinook salmon swim back upstream to spawn. I’ve paddled its slumberous wide curves and through its fast water rapids. I’ve watched its water roaring like thunder pouring its last dam and followed its a clear and bright emerald ribbon of water all the way to its end to dip my bow in at its milky confluence.

Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes said, “A river is more than an amenity, it is a treasure.” I heartily agree. For me and many others, Northern California’s Lower American River is a rare jewel to behold. Fed by the melting snowpack of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, the river is an essential source for the area’s drinking water, a productive provider of irrigation and hydroelectric power, and recreational highway for paddlers and fishermen. In its final twenty-some miles before pouring into the Sacramento River, it dispenses a peaceful serenity and magic to every creature along its wild banks despite being so near urban complexities of the city. And yes, to a certain extent it seems to be a living being in itself.

I often tell people paddling with me that after we push off onto the river they will be experiencing a totally different world even though we are in the heart of a densely populated urban area. Paddling down the river never ceases to amaze me of how I can escape into a backyard of nature just a few minutes from the buzz of city traffic. Where the only sound you will hear is that of birds, the wind and that primeval summons to our primordial values, the call of distant rapids coming from downriver.

As Henry David Thoreau wrote, “He who hears the rippling of rivers in these degenerate days will not utterly despair.”

“A river seems a magic thing,” declared photographer Laura Gilpin, “A magic, moving, living part of the very earth itself.”
Sitting alongside the Lower American River earlier this week, the river does seem alive as it moved steadily to the sea. Flashes of Chinook salmon among the river’s ripples, scores of gulls, ducks and turkey vultures soar and flutter above, while I catch sight of black-tailed deer bounding through the stream. A large beavertail splash serves as a warning that I’ve come a just bit to close to his domain while chattering otters bark at my passing. The trees, vegetation, and even the rocky pilings that extend all the way along the stream add to the inspirit to this living essence.
It’s nature’s age-old symbiotic relationships between the river and all of its creatures. As long as the water keeps flowing, the river and the life it nurtures will continue to exist.

As humans in the era of climate change, we need to recognize this natural world around us and make our duty to care for it, protect it, and pass it on to generations to come.

This article was originally published as part of the American Rivers Foundation's Stories from the Parkway Series. The series is about people and their experiences while on the American River Parkway in hopes of strengthening the understanding of the American River Parkway and the value it brings to the community. We encourage all of you to support the American River Parkway Foundation and its mission. And if you have a story you would like to tell about your experience using the parking, you can share it with the ARPF Newsletter.

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UNALIENABLE RIGHTS: THE PURSUIT OF PERSONHOOD FOR RIVERS AND LAKES

The river as plaintiff speaks for the ecological unit of life that is part of it. Those people who have a meaningful relation to that body of water—whether it be a fisherman, a canoeist, a zoologist, or a logger—must be able to speak for the values which the river represents, and which are threatened with destruction. --William Douglas

 

Sliding my kayak gently into the water, it's not hard to grasp why in a few short years how this river has become so significant to me. I've come to know this river's fickle moods. Its high water winters and early spring rush, Its summertime playfulness, and its autumn bounty when the native Chinook salmon swim back upstream to spawn. I've paddled its slumberous wide curves and through its fast water rapids. I've watched its water roaring like thunder pouring its last dam and followed its a clear and bright ribbon of water all the way to its end to dip my bow at its milky confluence.
Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes said, “A river is more than an amenity, it is a treasure.” I heartily agree. For me and many others, Northern California's American River is a rare jewel to behold. Fed by the melting snowpack of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, the river is an essential source for the area's drinking water, a productive provider of irrigation and hydroelectric power, and recreational highway for paddlers and fishermen. In its final twenty-some miles before pouring into the Sacramento River, it dispenses a peaceful serenity and magic to every creature along its wild banks despite being so near urban complexities of the city. And yes, to a certain extent it seems to be a living being in itself.

The Whanganui River

The idea of environmental personhood, a legal concept that designates certain environmental entities such as rivers and lakes with the same rights and protections as a person in hopes of establishing new statutory frameworks that go beyond normal environmental protection. The theory has been gaining ground in recent years. In 2008, Ecuador became the first country to enshrine the legal rights of nature in its constitution and in 2011, Bolivia passed a similar law. New Zealand became the first country to grant a specific river legal rights to the Whanganui River in 2017 and was followed by India’s northern state of Uttarakhand granting the right to be legally protected and not be harmed to the Ganges and its longest tributary, the Yamuna River held sacred by millions of Hindus.

This past July Bangladesh became the first country to grant legal status to all of its rivers. In its landmark ruling, the Bangladeshi Supreme Court move is meant to protect the world's largest delta from further degradation from pollution, illegal dredging, and human encroachment. In its ruling, the court said, “Water is likely to be the most pressing environmental concern of the next century,” calling for their countries' rivers to be protected “at all costs”.

Blue-green algae bloom on the shore of Catawaba Island on Lake Erie in 2009.

Meanwhile, in Toledo, Ohio, toxic algae bloom in Lake Erie contaminated drinking water shutting off the city's water supply for three days in 2014. Many blamed nearby farms fertilizer runoff as the culprit. Whereupon, this past February, Toledo voters passed what is known as the Lake Erie Bill of Rights aimed at protecting the great lake and giving empowers Toledo citizens the right to file lawsuits on behalf of the lake. The ordinance's constitutionality was immediately challenged court by an area farmer sighting "it can never guarantee that all runoff will be prevented from entering the Lake Erie watershed." The state of Ohio also joined in on the lawsuit, arguing the state, not the citizens of Toledo has the "legal responsibility" for environmental regulatory programs. The case still remains in litigation. However, this past month, Gov. Mike DeWine unveiled the voluntary “H2Ohio” initiative to address phosphorus runoff.

"It gives the right to the river to exist, to flourish and to naturally evolve and a right to a stable climate free from human-caused climate change impacts," Yurok Tribe General Counsel's Amy Cordalis told National Public Radio after the native American tribe has granted personhood to northern California's Klamath River, making it the first known river in North America given that status at least under tribal law this past spring.

Cordalis says the Klamath's water management and climate change have led to lower water flows and even fewer salmon, the Yurok's main source for food.
"The salmon runs are the lowest they've ever been," Cordalis told NPR, "Even this year, it was anticipated that the returning salmon runs were going to be strong, but they never showed up. We don't know where they are. We have been doing all we can to protect the river and, you know, working within existing legal frameworks. And it's not enough."

The Klamath River

As the movement to give in legal rights to rivers and lakes grows with support even coming from the United Nations, it has also been met with resistance from industry, farmers and river communities, who argue that giving the laws will infringe on their rights and livelihoods without a clear path forward.
“The biggest danger is that if you establish that a river has a right, then who is going to determine what that right is?” Don Shawcroft, president of the Colorado Farm Bureau told the Boulder Weekly in 2017, as proponents were pushing the state to grant the Colorado River legal rights.
For the rivers and lakes which lack a voice of their own, those decisions will be left to future policymakers to determine, as advocates warn of climate change, pollution, urban sprawl, mining, poor infrastructure management as well as drought and floods that currently endanger our bodies of water

"I think this is, is a reflection of a change of societal values," Cordalis concluded with NPR, "So we're in a climate crisis. And we need new tools to respond to that crisis. And in this country right now, corporations have rights as a person. And that's because historically our country valued commerce. And so I think it's a logical next step in this era of climate change to give the same kind of legal recognition to the natural environment and to nature."

Photographer Laura Gilpin declared, “A river seems a magic thing. A magic, moving, living part of the very earth itself.” Sitting alongside the Lower American River earlier this week, the river does seem alive as it moved steadily to the sea. Flashes of Chinook salmon among the river's ripples, scores of gulls, ducks and turkey vultures soar and flutter above, while I catch sight of black-tailed deer bounding through the stream. It's nature's age-old symbiotic relationships between the river and its creatures. As long as the water keeps flowing, the river and its wildlife will continue to exist. As humans, facing climate change, we need to recognize this natural world around us and make our duty to care for it, protect it and pass it on to generations to come.
By granting a river a right to be a river, we can all take the giant steps in understanding the other living beings around us and bare the responsibilities we owe to them.

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