Living rivers need your voice, so please speak out during National Rivers Month

June 1 marks the beginning of National Rivers Month, a month to celebrate the life-giving waterways across the United States.

The hard truth is, many of these waterways are under threat like never before. Across the American West the impacts of climate change continue to intensify. Complicating and exacerbating those effects are water management structures that have foisted over a century of unsustainable water use and injustices on ecosystems and communities. Use your voice to stand up for living rivers today.

Interstate compacts are based on hydrologic scenarios that no longer exist—and are unlikely to exist in the future. The needs of species and ecosystems are minimized. And communities have been cut off from the clean water and healthy rivers they depend on. Western rivers and the human, plant, and wildlife communities that depend on them are in crisis. We need you to act today to protect the rivers of the West.

This month we are celebrating rivers all across our nation. We believe that celebration must include working to protect and restore these arteries of life. The road ahead is not an easy one. We must fundamentally shift Western water management to rethink how we value and manage river systems. Management must include the needs of all water uses for the benefit of both people and the environment. But all of that is impossible without you. Use your voice today to stand up for living rivers and clean water.

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About the Author

Tricia Snyder | Formerly of WildEarth Guardians' Rivers Program, WildEarth Guardians

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