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Pete Lavigne wades Colorado River near site of Aldo Leopold's Green Lagoons essay, to present a copy of A Sand County Almanac to the Central Arizona Project Board of Directors, 3/2004

Thanks to Staff and Volunteers

By Pete Lavigne | March 03, 2005

While we are not involved in the Middle East, you know that at the Rivers Foundation, we are actively engaged with issues and conflicts over drinking water access and quality, ecosystem restoration, wolf protection, bird migration, salmon restoration, and other issues with both regional and worldwide implications. These are real issues and opportunities for a better quality of life for us and our children and many future generations. Your support makes a difference.

For the last four years, an extremely dedicated group of volunteers has built the Rivers Foundation into the accomplished and sophisticated organization you see today. "Wait," you might be saying to yourself, "did he just say a group of volunteers?" That's right, you read it correctly. Until two months ago, we did not have any paid employees.

Our new Assistant Director, Margarita Bird-Buendia, is taking us to a new level of effectiveness. Along with my full-time work as founder and CEO and a core of 10-15 other continuing volunteers, we are building a small, permanent paid staff who will re-start our long delayed endowment campaign, expand our support work with indigenous activists and organizations, and expand upon our substantial record of achievement -- a record we have built during the most trying times for nonprofits in the last 50 years.

The Rivers Foundation needs your continuing support to accomplish all that you have helped us envision. I know you are inspired by our vision and actions. Please donate or renew now and help us continue by considering an increased donation this year!

Explore Our Watersheds

Copper River

The Copper River Delta has the largest concentration of nesting shorebirds in North America, is an important nursery for prized salmon and other fisheries, and is a relatively unspoiled wilderness area with keystone predators including wolves and grizzlies.

Columbia River

The Columbia River watershed is a critical link in the mega-linkages of the Pacific flyway and predator migration corridor. It is the nerve center for salmon restoration, and one of the world's most highly manipulated great river systems.

Colorado River

The Colorado River system flows 1,450 miles through nine states and Mexico; the Grand Canyon was created by its waters. The aridity of most of this region has made its water into a valuable commodity, and the fragile desert, canyon, and delta ecosystems it supports have suffered as a result.

RFA Programs

Clean Water, Biodiversity, and Environmental Justice Initiative

This initiative links RFA's policies of supporting indigenous peoples, drumming home the common sense linkages between clean healthy water for human use, strong biodiverse and healthy ecosystems, and environmental justice for indigenous peoples and economically disadvantaged people throughout the Americas. Continue reading below for more about this initiative, or go to Global Water Policy Initiative to learn about RFA's other main initiative.

Global Water Policy Initiative

This initiative works at the heart of water policy issues, especially the global debate on the privatization of fresh water resources and growing water supply controversies throughout the United States and the hemisphere. We believe that all children and all people deserve clean water, and that access to a subsistence level of water is a basic human obligation. Continue reading below for more about this initiative, or go to Clean Water, Biodiversity, and Environmental Justice to learn about RFA's other main initiative.

Donating to RFA

The Rivers Foundation of the Americas is a public foundation dedicated to promoting and funding the protection and restoration of rivers in the Americas. Your passion for environmental preservation and social justice is a passion shared by all RFA board and staff members and by the organizations the Rivers Foundation helps to fund.

Make a Donation Today!