Rivers For Change https://riversforchange.org/ Connecting Source to Sea through adventure, conservation, and education Wed, 24 Dec 2025 00:46:17 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.0 https://riversforchange.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/cropped-Compact-Logo-no-tagline-IG-32x32.png Rivers For Change https://riversforchange.org/ 32 32 2025 Impact Report https://riversforchange.org/2025-impact-report/ Tue, 23 Dec 2025 22:27:29 +0000 https://riversforchange.org/?p=9712 The post 2025 Impact Report appeared first on Rivers For Change.

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]]> Students for Rivers Camp | River Collective https://riversforchange.org/students-for-rivers-camp-river-collective/ Fri, 31 Oct 2025 15:57:28 +0000 https://riversforchange.org/?p=9687 Our 2025 grantee, Vera Knook, created the Students for Rivers Camp on Peru’s Marañón River, a two-week program that brought students together for hands-on learning, community conversations, and river-focused conservation....

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Our 2025 grantee, Vera Knook, created the Students for Rivers Camp on Peru’s Marañón River, a two-week program that brought students together for hands-on learning, community conversations, and river-focused conservation. Participants rafted 90 miles of the Marañon river, met with local communities, joined interdisciplinary workshops, and developed projects that blend science, storytelling, and activism. The camp ended with a conference that highlighted art, culture, and a shared commitment to protecting the Marañón.

Read more below!

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]]> From the River to the Community: How Guides Are Leading the Way https://riversforchange.org/from-the-river-to-the-community-how-guides-are-leading-the-way/ Wed, 01 Oct 2025 20:03:43 +0000 https://riversforchange.org/?p=9663 In June and July of 2025, I traveled across Idaho’s Snake River Basin to work with guides and outfitters on one simple but powerful idea: the people who spend their...

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In June and July of 2025, I traveled across Idaho’s Snake River Basin to work with guides and outfitters on one simple but powerful idea: the people who spend their lives on these rivers are uniquely positioned to be advocates for their future. Over the course of five workshops—in Salmon, McCall, Lewiston, Riggins, and Stanley—I connected with more than 150 guides to share updates on salmon and steelhead recovery, the Lower Snake River dams, and the policies shaping the lands and waters we depend on.

This project was born from the belief that guides and outfitters are more than small business owners and service workers. They are trusted, powerful voices in their communities. They see firsthand what’s at stake when salmon don’t come home, when runs collapse, and when public lands are put at risk. My goal was to give them tools and confidence to step into advocacy, whether that’s talking with their clients on the river or speaking directly to decision-makers.

Five Towns, Many Conversations

The workshops took different shapes in each town. In some places, we had formal presentations; in others, it was a round-table conversation. In Riggins, the River Rendezvous offered a chance to hear stories from seasoned guides whose advocacy is now inseparable from why they guide. In Stanley, the local fly shop filled with a mix of veterans and first-year guides, all united by a shared passion for protecting Idaho’s fisheries. On the Payette, younger guides at Bear Valley spoke with energy about taking up the mantle of conservation—proof that the next generation is ready to lead.


Challenges That Shaped the Work

It wasn’t without challenges. Timing these workshops during the busy summer guiding season meant staying flexible. Sometimes that meant shrinking a planned agenda down to what the group needed most in the moment—or adapting a meeting around a hectic morning of packing for the river. But those adaptations often made the conversations stronger, more grounded, and more memorable.

Another challenge was measuring follow-through in concrete terms. While I heard from many guides about their advocacy efforts on the river, getting video or photographic evidence proved difficult, despite offering a variety of prizes. Additionally, organizational changes meant losing access to our outreach software for the second summer in a row, limiting our ability to facilitate or measure letters to policymakers.


Impact Already Taking Root

Despite those challenges, the impact of this project is already showing. More than 150 guides took part in these workshops. Several businesses opened their doors and lent their credibility to the effort. A Middle Fork guest—moved by her guides’ passion for salmon recovery—reached out afterward with a donation to IOGA, showing how RFC’s investment is rippling outward in ways we couldn’t have planned.

Other river companies collected thousands of dollars in donations to continue support for advocacy efforts. We’ve also driven considerable engagement on our Instagram account for anadromous fish, with a recent video outpacing engagement on our other posts by an order of magnitude.

The numbers tell part of the story—five towns, ten workshops, over 500 miles traveled, and a community of 150+ guides engaged. But the real measure of success was the sense of connection that emerged: between seasoned guides and new ones, between outfitters and their communities, and between the guiding profession and the future of Idaho’s rivers.


Looking Ahead

The lessons from this project point to clear opportunities. We need to expand to more towns and provide follow-up so momentum doesn’t fade. We need to invest in online resources—a refreshed website, advocacy toolkits, podcasts, and digital media—so guides have support year-round, not just when we gather in person. A major focus for IOGA moving forward, shaped in part by this experience, is better engaging and meeting guides where they are—whether in online or physical spaces.

We also need to keep telling these stories together, with partners like Rivers for Change, to show how deeply conservation and guiding are intertwined in Idaho.


Just the Beginning

This summer’s project was just the start. It proved that guides are ready to speak up, that their voices carry weight, and that when given the chance, they’ll step into leadership. With continued collaboration, we can build on this foundation and ensure Idaho’s rivers—and the salmon and steelhead that define them—remain at the heart of our work.

Learn more about IOGA

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]]> Home2Headwaters-3 Year Anniversary! https://riversforchange.org/home2headwaters-3-year-anniversary/ Sat, 26 Jul 2025 19:55:05 +0000 https://riversforchange.org/?p=9601 Home2Headwaters Summer 2025 Updates Heartfelt Update: 3 Years Since The Walk by Nina Gordon-Kirsch This month marks 3 years since this walk happened. I had the opportunity to return to...

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Home2Headwaters
Summer 2025 Updates
💧

Heartfelt Update: 3 Years Since The Walk

by Nina Gordon-Kirsch

This month marks 3 years since this walk happened. I had the opportunity to return to the Mokelumne River in June and after that trip, it feels that clear I (we/you) need to keep returning!

I am so grateful that the film team needed to return to the Mokelumne River to film “pick up footage” in June. That was the impetus to get me back to the river – to swim, to pray, and to keep deepening in relationship with the humans whom I met on the walk. As we drove through places I walked, memories and songs flooded through my body. I found myself singing the same song (taught to me by Te Martin) that I sang while I walked a particular portion three years ago. It’s wild to me how a song can be a placeholder like that.

Julia and I stopped by the houses of some of the trail angels who offered support on the walk; on this trip, some of them hosted us, some we had a quick catch up with, and some I left gratitude letters in their mail boxes, but didn’t get to see. A few key trail angels have now passed on to become ancestors and Julia and I had heartfelt exchanges with their children who are taking over farming or are sadly unable to continue their parents’ legacy. I loved every moment of soaking up these stories and I cried knowing that these souls who love the Mokelumne River so much are no longer here.

We were also blessed by magic synchronicities on the trip (more than are listed here):

  • We got a flat tire in the perfect place with the perfect people. Our day was only slightly delayed, and we ended up getting special carpool time with Kait, Hawk, and Osi – all of whom had been on the hardest part of the walk with me in the backcountry river canyon. It was so special to return to the headwaters with them, the visit had a sense of wholeness for me with them there.
  • When I learned that Gerry Goodie had passed away (former owner of Wimpy’s Bar and Marina on the Moke) from his son Nick (who answered his late father’s cell phone when I was trying to call Gerry) and shortly thereafter Julia’s drone stopped working, I sat by the river and cried. I cried of tech frustration with Julia, and I cried knowing Gerry wouldn’t be at the dock pouring love and respect into the river anymore. Just then, a beaver popped up and swam back and forth in front of Julia and me. I felt her say “I see you” and I felt comforted by her.
  • Last minute we were welcomed to camp on Chris Blackmer’s land whom we had never met, but whose mother, Daphne had hosted us on the walk before she passed away. It turned out that a few days later would be his mother’s celebration of life and we were there with perfect timing to be able to send him footage of his mom to share with his family.

These synchronicities are a reminder to me that the Mokelumne River is an ally to those who are helping to tell her story and helping to connect the humans and ecological life up and down the watershed. This trip taught me that I must return to the river every year.

Planting the seed now for you to join me on a 5th anniversary trip to the headwaters in two years: Summer 2027!

Pilot Program Launching Spring 2026!
Home2Headwaters will be in three Oakland high schools

Home2Headwaters and Rivers for Change (RFC) are excited to announce that our partnership has led to the first pilot program of Home2Headwaters in schools next spring!  

Y’all – THE DREAM IS COMING TRUE!!!

The pilot program will take place in three Oakland public high schools that we have established relationships with over the past years.The costs of the pilot program include:

*Curriculum development with compensated indigenous input
*Teacher and student focus groups before and after curriculum implementation
*In-school class hours to teach hundreds of Bay Area students where their drinking water comes fromTo help cover the first $7,000 in program costs, we’re launching a GiveButter Campaign—and thanks to a generous sponsorship from East Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD), we’re already partway there. Every donation brings us closer to getting this powerful program into classrooms.
 🎉

🎥 H2H Film Updates: Production (aka filming) is done!
Nina interviewing Corrina Gould, co-founder of Sogorea Te Land Trust, a female led Indigenous land trust in the Bay Area.
In June, the film team and I interviewed a few outstanding key voices and went back to particular sites along the walk to collect the missing pieces for the film. Now, film director Julia Maryanska has all the footage to weave together the final film!

Including Indigenous voices in the educational film is a priority for us. After a number of years building relationships with the tribes on whose land I walked, the stars aligned last month for Marielle Olentine (producer) and Julia Maryanska (director) and me to interview representatives from two of the tribes. One interview was with Corrina Gould, co-founder of the Sogorea Te Land Trust on traditional Lisjan Ohlone Land. When I asked Corrina what she would want to say to hundreds of urban youth in the Bay Area, she said, “Go outside, take your shoes off, and put your feet in a creek, in moving, living water.”

Throughout the interview, I was moved to tears hearing and feeling Corrina’s hope for what the path forward can look like to repair the human (settler) relationship to land and water. She emphasized that human dominance over nature has only been present for a few hundred years, while a more respectful and harmonious style of relationship between human and land or human and water was present for thousands of years before that. Corrina spoke about how the earth and climate change are showing us that we are at a crossroads, that we have a choice to make: we could keep manipulating nature for human benefit, or we could return to a harmonious relationship with land and water that her people have always practiced, and help heal what is broken.
Learn more about the Lisjan People
Julia, Hawk, Kait, Nina, Osi, and Darrel at Highland Lakes on Washoe Land.
We also had the honor of interviewing Darrel Cruz, the retired Director of the Historic Preservation Office and Cultural Resources Office for the Washoe Tribe up the Sierra Nevada Mountains. We met at the Mokelumne River in the high country and he showed us some cultural heritage sites whose location will remain unnamed, and then we drove up to the Highland Lakes headwaters and filmed an interview with Darrel. Again, I was touched by the deep relationship Darrel and his ancestors have with the land and water they live among. He speaks of water as a relative, as a deity, as a being to be respected and have a relationship with. What would our society look like if that was true for all of us?I yearn so deeply for settler society to move away from a human-centered way of life, and instead center water, land, and humans all together. Yesterday I was in the river doing fish migration surveys and instead of wearing bug spray and sunscreen as the handout advised, I wore long pants, long sleeve shirt, and a hat, so that I would not create any toxic runoff into the water system. Something so simple as that! What are ways in your life that you can think of what the waters might want and how you can adapt to that?

As Corrina said, for thousands of years humans lived with (not ON) the earth in a harmonious and sustainable way – let us return to that.
Learn more about the Washoe Tribe

Home2Headwaters Project Status:

Phase 1: Walk+Filming –> Complete!
In the summer of 2022, Nina walked 240 miles from Oakland to Highland lakes to trace the source of the East Bay’s drinking water. She brought a film crew with her on parts of the journey with the goal of making a short educational film to bring into Bay Area high schools and teach students where their water comes from. In Fall of 2023, Nina went on a speaking tour to raise money to begin editing the film. In 2024 Home2Headwaters started a partnership with Rivers For Change, and they started applying to education grants to bring H2H into schools.

Phase 2: Educational Curriculum –> Happening Now!
We are using the video footage collected on the walk to make a short educational film and corresponding curriculum to bring into East Bay public high schools. We are still raising money to finish the film editing and make the curriculum in conjunction with local indigenous tribes. 

Please consider making a tax deductible donation to help turn this journey into an educational curriculum.

No donation is too small!
Donate Today!
Grateful for your support,
💙 Nina & the Home2Headwaters team 💙
www.Home2Headwaters.com

ABOUT:

Hi! My name is Nina. In July 2022, I walked 240 miles, tracing the Mokelumne River from my house in Oakland to where my drinking water comes from.

Do you know where your water comes from?
I didn’t… until I was 26 years old and I asked that question and then researched it myself. The answer for me and other East Bay residents is: The Mokelumne River.

Home2Headwaters is a water walk from Oakland to the headwaters of the Mokelumne River – the river where East Bay Municipal Utility District sources drinking water for 1.4 million people in the eastern part of the San Francisco Bay Area. The walk was documented by a film team and is in the process of being made into a short educational film that will be brought into Oakland and Berkeley public schools as well as local public viewings – to teach people where their drinking water comes from.

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]]> A River Worth Protecting: 115 Miles for the Russian​ https://riversforchange.org/a-river-worth-protecting-115-miles-for-the-russian/ Fri, 02 May 2025 19:10:20 +0000 https://riversforchange.org/?p=9567 A River Worth Protecting: 115 Miles for the Russian Part 2 of Billy & Will’s source to sea journey on the Russian River Billy Uhlhorn-Thornton Will Hubert I’m a high...

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A River Worth Protecting: 115 Miles for the Russian

Part 2 of Billy & Will’s source to sea journey on the Russian River

Billy Uhlhorn-Thornton

Will Hubert

I’m a high school student from Marin County, and I grew up spending time on the Russian River. It’s a place I care about a lot — a place where I’ve made memories, but also a place where I’ve watched trash pile up and pollution increase. Every spring, I’ve seen junk accumulate along the riverbanks. And that inspired me to do something.

My friend Will and I decided to paddle the Russian River from its source at Lake Mendocino in Ukiah to its confluence with the Pacific Ocean in Jenner — a full 115-mile journey. Our hope is to share what we see and learn along the way to raise awareness and funding to improve the health of the watershed.

Like Billy, I’m a student — currently at Sonoma State University. Each morning on my way to class, I sip coffee and feel grateful for the water that brewed it. That water comes from reservoirs in Marin County and the Russian River. I’ve come to realize how present — and yet underappreciated — Russian River water is in our North Bay communities. Every time I fill my bottle at school, it’s Russian River water that greets me at the tap.

When Billy suggested a source to sea expedition to learn about and protect the Russian River, I immediately said yes. I said yes because I believe, like he does, that this river is worth knowing and protecting. I said yes because, despite having lived in Marin most of my life, I’m only just beginning to understand how connected I am to this river.

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Expedition Overview

Billy:

Our goal for the first section of our trip was to make it from Ukiah to Healdsburg, but things didn’t go as planned. The narrow river corridor between Ukiah and Hopland was choked full of Willow branches and often blocked by large driftwood piles. We portaged at least once every mile and set up our first night’s camp much earlier than expected. We started our second morning with a portage and made it just beyond Pieta Creek (about 30 miles from our put-in location) before taking out.

Our non-self-bailing inflatable kayaking (i.e., bucket boat) got submerged in Boneyard rapid around sunset and we barely saved it from wrapping around a boulder. To our surprise, a local kayaker appeared in our greatest moment of need and helped us portage our boat and gear before it got dark. Tired and cold, we hauled our gear uphill to a pullout on Highway 101, called for help, and awaited a ride form our back-up driver – thanks Brian!

On May 2nd and May 3rd, 2025, we are planning to finish the 20-mile section that we didn’t complete during our first attempt, from Boneyard rapid to Memorial Beach in Healdsburg. After this section is complete, we will compile videos, photos, and journal entries from our first 50 miles and share our story about the issues impacting the watershed. Before completing the final stretch from Healdsburg to Jenner later this year, we plan to organize a community paddle day and river clean up to help raise awareness and protect the watershed. Most importantly, we want to raise money to support local organizations that are already working to protect this special place.

The Russian River is important not just to me, but to everyone in the area. It provides water for local communities, supports wildlife, and helps sustain farms and businesses along its banks. When the river gets polluted or damaged, it affects all of us. By taking this trip, we hope to raise awareness and inspire people to take action to protect this vital resource for everyone.

 

Will:

Billy and I started this journey with a scouting mission to find the right put-in beach. We traversed Coyote Dam, saw Lake Mendocino, and gazed south toward unknown territory. We met an employee at the fish hatchery who let us throw food pellets to hatchery fish – they wiggled and flopped by the thousands. As we continued our scouting mission we traversed private property, state property, and federal property; we met fishermen and hikers. We drove through reservation land. We saw graffiti.

It became increasingly clear to me that we were standing on contested ground, native ground, sacred ground, political ground. I wondered: Who claims this river? PG&E? California’s Department of Fish & Wildlife? The federal Army Corps of Engineers? Private homeowners just downstream? Native people who have always stewarded this place? There are so many people here now, each with different priorities, all of them intersecting where water meets gravel. And that is precisely where we began our journey: at a gravel beach on the East Fork of the Russian River just above where it joins the main stem.

Billy and I laughed a lot on this adventure. However, our joyful moments were often interrupted by pain and frustration. During our countless portages we discovered that most of the riverbank from Ukiah to Hopland has been littered with junk. Cars from a bygone era have been smashed flat like pancakes and embedded into the mud – Ford, Cadillac, or Chevy? It’s hard to tell anymore. These steel pancakes are fortified in place by retaining walls made of rusted bridge cables, old railroad ties, and barbed wire. Mysterious metal arms reach out from all directions into the center of the river corridor like demon tentacles emerging from the underworld. It was hard work to stay vigilant in uncharted territory. We often wondered aloud together: who thought it would be a good idea to line the river with barbed wire, cars, railroad ties, and rusted cables?  The junk we discovered didn’t match the beautiful oaks, alders, and songbirds that soared above us mile after mile. What a place! What a juxtaposition.

Why This River Matters

It is both tragic and wonderful how people can destroy an ecosystem and then go about sincerely attempting to put it back together. The Russian River watershed is one such place — an ecosystem both revered and desecrated. This place holds stories that live here the same way water does. Some stories glimmer and reveal themselves in broad daylight, while other stories live in underground aquifers where they remain purified, protected, and out of sight.

When I [Will] said yes to embarking on this adventure with Billy, I wondered: How does my story fit with this river — where is our confluence?

Fish and people have always shared a mutuality in survival. People and fish need clean water, such that healthy fish are a signal of a healthy watershed. I wonder how many people have forgotten this, and how many remember?

As it happens, Salmon and Steelhead are struggling — in Marin and Sonoma counties, and all along the Pacific Coast. For me, completing this 115-mile journey has been about discovering what I don’t know that I don’t know — and there is a lot I don’t know. For example, I didn’t know that the underground gravel-bed aquifer beneath the surface of the Russian River extends two hundred feet down and two hundred feet to either side, and that the river’s gravel-bed filters water, which is why we can drink so easily from the Russian River.

Call To Action

We are calling people together to share in our collective wish for the enduring health and survival of this river. So many of us make memories here. We play, splash, lounge, drink, eat, float, and fish. As Billy noted, we will be organizing a river clean-up to generate support for local organizations and to raise awareness about important issues impacting the watershed, and ways people can get involved. We want to see you there!

Follow our journey and learn more at https://riversforchange.org/2025-russian-river/

To support or get involved, email kami@riversforchange.org

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]]> 💧 A Call for Action: El Chaltén Mobilizes for Water Governance https://riversforchange.org/%f0%9f%92%a7-a-call-for-action-el-chalten-mobilizes-for-water-governance/ Mon, 21 Apr 2025 23:48:02 +0000 https://riversforchange.org/?p=9547 Marie Anière-Martínez & Boana Building Power for Water Justice in El Chaltén, Argentina Between November 2024 and February 2025, Boana led an unprecedented civic campaign in El Chaltén: a Call...

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Marie Anière-Martínez & Boana

Building Power for Water Justice in El Chaltén, Argentina

Between November 2024 and February 2025, Boana led an unprecedented civic campaign in El Chaltén: a Call for Action (CFA) advocating for transparent, participatory, and ecologically responsible water governance in southern Patagonia. Rivers for Change was proud to support this project through a Source to Sea Grant.

Why This Matters

El Chaltén, a small town at the base of Los Glaciares National Park, faces urgent water and sanitation challenges. At the same time, decisions about water management often happen behind closed doors—far removed from the community members most affected.

So Boana called for:

• A clear, multi-year water governance roadmap with conservation objectives

•An emergency committee to respond to the sanitation crisis

•The activation of the Local Advisory Body, a key participatory mechanism

• The integration of community voices—especially women and youth

•Legal frameworks rooted in ecocentric rights

•A source-to-sea approach to protect water across its entire journey

They launched the CFA on January 21 across Instagram and our website, in both Spanish and English, alongside a petition that received 749 signatures.

A People-Powered Process

The CFA didn’t emerge overnight. Marie began drafting it solo, due to the complex and political nature of the work. By December, Eva (another member of Boana) joined to help align the advocacy statements with ongoing legal action and governance efforts.

On December 11, they held a collaborative workshop in El Chaltén, inviting community members to explore their own environmental concerns and learn about the CFA. The dialogue was rich—and revealing. Many participants felt excluded from institutional decision-making, believing they lacked the legitimacy or tools to engage. But once they introduced concepts like ecocentric rights or the source-to-sea lens, people lit up. These frameworks helped reframe governance as something inclusive, hopeful, and possible.

They formed a WhatsApp group with 14 participants, which still exists today as a space for continued collaboration.

A Growing Network—and Real Tension

The CFA opened a critical line of communication with the new Los Glaciares Park representative, Horacio Peloso. But just as their dialogue gained traction, a new controversy emerged: the unauthorized opening of trails and illegal logging by the National Administration.

Boana responded with legal action—and won a court order halting the destruction. It became clear that environmental justice tools are among the most effective ways forward. Meanwhile, the CFA continued to resonate. A local woodworker, Maile Suarez, spontaneously created a broader WhatsApp group uniting organizations from across town—from mountain guides to hockey players—to push for collective action.

This campaign was the only organized environmental advocacy campaign in the region this summer—and it showed what’s possible when civic engagement, legal action, education, and imagination come together.

What They Learned

•People need language and context to engage in governance. Reframing “boring” but crucial concepts like governance through engaging content, storytelling, and workshops is key.

•Activism must be multidimensional—blending education, legal strategies, direct outreach to institutions, and creative media.

•**Institutions won’t always come to us—**we must show up, physically and digitally, with persistence and clarity.

What’s Next?

We’re using everything we learned to build a longer-term strategy:

✅ Creating accessible content about governance and water justice

✅ Developing institutional briefs and reports rooted in political ecology

✅ Strengthening our community engagement through more workshops and open dialogues

✅ Advocating for the full and transparent activation of the Local Advisory Body

The work of governance doesn’t stop with a petition or a post. It’s ongoing, collective, and deeply transformative.

📣 Want to support this movement?

→ Read Marie’s full Project Report

→ Read their full CFA in Spanish or English

→ Follow Boana on Instagram

→ CALL FOR ACTION for a transparent and participatory water governance in El Chaltén

→ Donate to support their advocacy and education efforts

Boana is an international cooperation association led entirely by women.

We build projects for the participatory conservation of protected areas in Argentine Patagonia, in collaboration with our institutional partners and local stakeholders. 

Learn More

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]]> Project Report: Establishing a Transparent and Participatory Water Governance in El Chaltén https://riversforchange.org/project-report-establishing-a-transparent-and-participatory-water-governance-in-el-chalten-los-glaciares-national-park-unesco-world-heritage-site/ Mon, 21 Apr 2025 23:28:53 +0000 https://riversforchange.org/?p=9529 Call for Action | Content The call for action for a transparent and participatory water governance was directed towards local institutions of El Chaltén and provincial institutions of the Santa...

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Call for Action | Content

The call for action for a transparent and participatory water governance was directed towards local institutions of El Chaltén and provincial institutions of the Santa Cruz Province, mainly Los Glaciares National Park, the Secretary of Environment of Santa Cruz and the municipality of El Chaltén. 

The first three aspects of the CFA are general aspects that set the framework, starting from the broader objective (a water governance system that can be identified, with a multi-year road map, planned activities and clear conservation objectives), to urgent governance matters (governance arrangements to deal with the sanitation crisis and the conformation of the local advisory body):

  1. The creation of a water governance system focused on clear conservation objectives. 
  2. The recognition of the environmental emergency state and creation of an emergency committee to ensure institutional coordination and participation for the sanitation crisis
  3. The conformation of the Local Advisory Body 

Then, the three other points were focused on holistic and inclusive water management concepts: 

  1. The integration of community voices, especially women and youth
  2. The integration of ecocentric perspectives, based on recent judgments 
  3. The integration of a source-to-sea approach

The publication of the call for action was accompanied by a petition, and we created a series of 9 publications to explain its content. The CFA was officially launched on 01/21 on Boana’s instagram and published on our website in spanish and english.

The writing process and the advocacy statements evolved over the months. During the first months, I (Marie) was working alone on it, to define the principal , but also because it was perceived as a complicated and political task for Boana’s local volunteers. They agreed to the cause but did not feel comfortable engaging with this type of concept and engaging in redaction. By december, Eva joined me to craft the advocacy statements and ensure the CFA was well aligned with our programs, as we needed them to be rooted in our evolving context, more specifically the legal action for the water treatment case and the conformation of the local advisory body, which is a governance mechanism present in the national park’s management plan.

On the 11th of December, we organized a collaborative workshop focused on (1) connecting with personal environmental interests and fostering creative dialogue on environmental issues (2) the presentation of the objectives of the Call for Action.

The workshop was an opportunity to connect with other people from town that were attracted by the creative dialogue aspect. We formed a whatsapp group with 14 people for the event, which is still constituted and forms a potential communication channel. 

During the presentation of the objectives of the call for action, we generated a participatory dynamic that was really interesting. There we also confirmed the lack of feeling of legitimacy to manage some water management concepts, which is something we need to keep working on. The lack of feeling of legitimacy is often coupled with the perceptions that institutions are not at reach, generating a difficult context to overcome. But, engaging with positive and holistic concepts such as eco-centric rights or source-to-sea approach has been a factor of motivation, as it opens a new imaginary. Therefore, we identify that conventional approaches and needs (like governance) that are closely linked to institutions are perceived as complex and not entirely feasible, but that people are interested in other concepts. My guess is that there is an opportunity to work on long-standing governance issues if we reframe them with attractive concepts. 

Many participants learned about the local advisory committee and what it means in the context of the management plan, and in general, they learnt about governance as a concept but also as a practice. Then they brainstormed on how the community could interact with different stakeholders to seek support, mainly international organizations, wondering how UNESCO could help or not.

Analysis | Reception of CFA

The Call for Action (CFA) was both practical and theoretical, introducing concepts like the source-to-sea and ecocentric principles, while also addressing the necessary governance mechanisms for the short and medium term.

The CFA targeted institutions that should be familiar with these concepts and governance structures, but it also served as an educational tool for the community. From this perspective, it introduced key governance ideas that are often overlooked in traditional environmental conservation projects, and it was rooted in political ecology, social sciences, and activism.

This dual purpose made the process both exciting and challenging. Explaining and educating about complex concepts like governance, especially technical governance, while simultaneously mobilizing action was a delicate balance. It was particularly important at the local level, where the community needed to understand and feel a sense of legitimacy regarding these concepts and actions in order to become politically engaged. It was essential, as participation in environmental matters is really fluctuant, as it usually entirely depends on volunteering activities. However, the ongoing issues, such as those surrounding the water treatment plant, and gradual changes, have made the community more receptive to new ideas, processes, projects, and political actions.

Our main successful interaction was with the new representative of Los Glaciares National Park, Horacio Peloso. The call for action was almost an introduction with him. We are proud to have been able to take a clear stand on these issues and indicate that we were working on this and that water management is not an option but a duty. Marie interacted with him through whatsapp, offering collaboration for the Local Advisory Body conformation, with a pro-active and firm behaviour. It is interesting to note that young women are not really expected to engage this way, so it’s another aspect that needs to be taken into account in the strategy. By the beginning of March he agreed to respond to questions and started moving towards us, but literally one week after this the National Administration started to open unauthorized trails in the national park, generating a new conflict in El Chalten.  Our ongoing conversations with him were shifted uniquely towards the confirmation of the local advisory body, one of the advocacy statements of the CFA. 

The CFA represented a significant mobilization precedent for this World Heritage Site, marking the first direct political demand for participation and institutional coordination. It included a petition signed by 749 individuals, which was primarily directed toward governmental organizations, including the Los Glaciares National Park administration, the Secretary of Environment of the province, and the municipality. The context was challenging, given the historical tendency of these institutions to exclude public participation. For example, the World Heritage Committee had recommended reopening the local advisory body and expanding it to include El Chaltén in 2014, but nearly a decade later, this recommendation had still not been implemented. At the beginning of April, some organizations of El Calafate received a convocation letter for the new local advisory body, and we still do not know if it will be implemented in El Chalten and how. 

The campaign successfully highlighted this critical issue, bringing it to the forefront of local conversations. It was the only campaign led by an NGO this summer, highlighting the necessity to keep on working on shared political demands for environmental management.  Following the CFA, a local woodworker and occasional collaborator with Boana, Maile Suarez, took the initiative to form a WhatsApp group with representatives from local organizations (such as the El Chaltén Andean Club, the Mountain Guides Association, other NGOs like Amigos del Parque and Fundación Anfibia, the hockey club, the local library, etc.) to create a collaborative agenda and foster unity. We have continued to collaborate on this process, with Maile Suarez, Paula from the Mountain Guides Association, and Marie regularly following up on the issue, sharing updates, mobilizing new groups, and pushing for collective action toward a shared objective.

Meanwhile, by mid-March 2025, the National Park administration began illegally removing trees within the protected area, exacerbating conflicts and further highlighting the urgent need for consultative and participatory governance arrangements. This action became a pivotal moment, deeply affecting both the community and the newly appointed National Park administration, who did not anticipate such resistance.

We engaged in a new emergency environmental lawsuit, and the judge ordered the National Administration to stop logging. It seems like environmental justice actions are being the most adequate canal for now. 

  • The introduction of a key concept : Governance

Introducing governance was a key success. After the water treatment contamination case, it was necessary to speak about institutions and participation for water management.

Nevertheless, it is necessary to collaborate on this topic with other NGOs, international institutions etc. The CFA was a first introduction where we could keep learning about mobilizing in El Chalten and in social media. But we need to keep the conversation going and craft a strategy based on these learnings. 

  • The consolidation of political demands linked with water management

It is crucial to consolidate actions that mix social science with environmental science, protected area planning with activism, education with mobilization etc. Introducing institutional aspects of water management is key, as most of water projects, legal frameworks, contamination remediation etc. are closely linked to classical political and institutional frameworks. Therefore, it is important to work on boring or technical concepts, or political practices that can be perceived as useless because of how institutions have been managing themselves for the last 20 years. 

It is necessary to be disruptive and we need to keep on thinking about actions repertoire that combine disruptive, creative and the renewal of imaginaries. We also need to focus on attractive communication. 

  • Reaching institutions through social media channels

The following interaction with institutions lacked, as it would have been useful to engage with physical encounters in Rio Gallegos or Calafate, where the head of the Secretary of Environment and the National Park are located. Even if we did not have any formal meeting, it would have been interesting to just show up and create content based on this. 

In general, the type of mobilization, coordination work etc. required by such an initiative is pretty huge, as many activities have to be undertaken (communication, institutional contacts, mobilization of actors that have other priorities etc.) Plus, another important aspect is that other local NGOs can not afford to engage in direct activism and political demands for water governance. 

  • Educate and mobilize at the same time

It was a predictable yet overlooked aspect. It has been really interesting to navigate this one. The conclusion is that it’s necessary to work on communication and content about governance, water management etc, as political demands for water management from the community to the institutions partly depend on what is perceived as doable, feasible, desirable, and normal for citizens. Working on this “normal” or “new normal” is crucial, as well as attractive communication around key political ecology concepts. Somehow, we have to make it attractive to: (1) learn about boring concepts that are crucial  to engage in transformative processes (2) and interact with institutions that are well known not to share some common values. 

  • Communicate about key concepts before mobilizing or generate more workshops and content while mobilizing to explain why these aspects are crucial. 
  • Combine classic interactions with institutions that we can not escape from with new promising concepts that make people connect with imagination and possibilities, like ecocentric rights and source-to-sea. 

  • Possibility to engage with institutions through policy briefs, opportunity notes, advocacy statements, reports from experts etc. from a technical point of view + engage with educational projects with the community   about political and governance concepts.

  • Communication and mobilization structure before and after the publication of the CFA – craft better content that is shared before and after and plan an entire campaign after the release of the CFA that goes beyond the explanation posts, interactions through whatsapp etc.

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]]> RFC Grantee Jeremy Anderson | Breaking Barriers: India’s First Women’s Whitewater Guide Training on the Ganga https://riversforchange.org/rfc-grantee-jeremy-anderson-breaking-barriers-indias-first-womens-whitewater-guide-training-on-the-ganga/ Sat, 28 Dec 2024 19:23:40 +0000 https://riversforchange.org/?p=9465 This project started with something I couldn’t ignore: the glaring absence of women as raft guides on the Ganga River in India. For years, I’ve guided trips blending my Ayurvedic...

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This project started with something I couldn’t ignore: the glaring absence of women as raft guides on the Ganga River in India. For years, I’ve guided trips blending my Ayurvedic practice with rafting excursions on this sacred river. Each trip brought me joy and inspiration, but one thing became painfully clear—despite the bustling rafting industry on the Ganga, not a single guide was a woman. I felt strongly that it was time to change that, and I believed we could help open the door.

I reached out to my longtime river sisters, Elisha McArthur and Julie Sutton, who immediately saw the potential and were eager to join the effort. Together, we partnered with Red Chili Adventures, a Rishikesh-based outfitter I’ve worked with for years. With their support and the backing of organizations like yours, we launched NariNauka—“WomanBoat” in Hindi—India’s first women’s whitewater guide training program.

The winter of 2023-24 was a whirlwind of preparation. We reached out to organizations for grants, secured sponsors for gear, rallied donors for funding, and pieced together everything these women would need to succeed. By March 2024, the three of us were on a plane to India, our bags packed with life jackets, throw bags, river shoes, and clothing for the trainees.

Our cohort of fourteen women was nothing short of inspiring. They ranged in age from 18 to 39, with backgrounds as varied as single motherhood, Himalayan mountain guiding, and even professional kayaking. Some were seasoned on the water; others couldn’t swim. But what united them was their shared dream of becoming whitewater raft guides—a role only one Indian woman had ever occupied: the infamous Sarita (one of our trainees’ older sisters!).

Over the course of the training, we encountered challenges we expected and some we didn’t. What surprised me most was the deeply ingrained belief, even among the women themselves, that guiding rafts wasn’t something women could do. This wasn’t overt opposition but a quiet, cultural narrative that had gone unchallenged. Our task was not just to train these women physically but to empower them to believe in their own abilities.

One moment encapsulated the significance of this program. As we launched onto the Ganga at Devprayag—the sacred confluence where two rivers merge to form Ma Ganga—one of the women, Naina, a highly decorated pro-kayaker, sat in Elisha’s oar boat. She turned to her and exclaimed, “Oh my God! I can’t believe I’m in a raft being guided by a GIRL!” Minutes later, she handed her the oars. As she felt the current and gained confidence, she shouted again, this time with even more awe: “Oh my God! I’M guiding a raft right now!” Seeing her realization unfold was unforgettable.

The program also involved breaking down physical barriers. One of the most challenging exercises was learning to flip and recover rafts—a task traditionally modeled around male physiology. Knowing this, we taught alternative techniques and equipped the rafts with aids to help. At first, the women hesitated, held back by years of hearing they “couldn’t.” But with encouragement and persistence, they began to try—and they succeeded. One by one, they climbed back into the rafts, proving to themselves that they were far more capable than they’d been led to believe.

This effort wouldn’t have been possible without the support of local allies like Sahdev Rana, Red Chili’s lead guide, who provided valuable on-water support as well as insight. He shared that adventure sports are still relatively new in India, and even for men, embracing physical careers in this space is a challenge. Hearing his perspective deepened our appreciation for the societal and cultural hurdles these women were overcoming. We are also deeply grateful to Red Chili Adventures for believing in this program, in these incredible women, and in us, and for their unwavering support every step of the way.

By the end of the training, these fourteen women had not only mastered the technical skills of guiding but had also shattered the barriers of what was believed possible. They became pioneers, ready to lead on one of the most sacred rivers in the world.

This project was truly a collective effort. It came to life because of the collaboration and generosity of so many individuals, organizations, and funders like you. It was a privilege to see these women step into a role they’d never imagined for themselves and to know we were part of something transformational. Thank you for believing in this vision and helping us open the door. Together, we’ve made history.

By Jeremy Anderson |

Jeremy Anderson and the NariNauka project was a 2024 RFC grant recipient. 

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]]> 2024 Impact Report https://riversforchange.org/2024-impact-report/ Sun, 22 Dec 2024 16:40:57 +0000 https://riversforchange.org/?p=9444 The post 2024 Impact Report appeared first on Rivers For Change.

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]]> Battle of the Bay fundraiser https://riversforchange.org/battle-of-the-bay-fundraiser/ Sat, 16 Nov 2024 02:07:58 +0000 https://riversforchange.org/?p=9368 This year’s November 2nd Battle of the Bay was a fundraiser for Rivers for Change! The race was a huge success, and jump started our end of year giving by...

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]]> This year’s November 2nd Battle of the Bay was a fundraiser for Rivers for Change! The race was a huge success, and jump started our end of year giving by raising over $3,000 to support RFC’s mission. Over 70 paddlers hit the water with clear skies. And a great question in their minds. What river do you shower in?

A huge thank you to everyone who showed up, paddled, and supported our mission.

Extra special shout out to the amazing David Wells from Redwood Water Sports, Stephen Pugh from Blue Rush, Jen Fuller from Fuller Fitness, and the announcer John Hadley

Thank you to the Sponsors: OSMO,  Best Day Brewing, Jambar, Maureen Manley and Aline Wachsmuth providing bodywork, and Infinity for donating a SUP to the cause!

Battle of the Bay in Sausalito, CA

Outrigger Canoes, SUP, Surfski, rowers, and prone paddlers all raced together with all proceeds after expenses being donated to RFC.

If you want to increase your paddling for a purpose this season and get your friends and family to support your training and racing efforts, create a fundraising campaign with Rivers for Change’s Move with Purpose campaign! 

It’s a great way to give back and say thanks to these drops of water you recreate on!

Paddles up!

Paddlers race in the Battle of the Bay

 

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