What We Do
Local Groups Assistance - Support local river and watershed organizations and encourage local river conservation and advocacy- Develop new organizations where our river restoration projects unfold (e.g. Racine and the Root River, and Petenwell and Castle Rock flowages of the Wisconsin River).
- Offer trainings and technical assistance to local groups on fund raising, strategic planning, and issue advocacy.
- Bring people to rivers across the state through paddles, hikes, lectures and other events that directly and intimately engage them in the many facets of rivers.
Policy and Advocacy - Advocate for state and local policies that support rivers, and challenge those that degrade them.
- Push for state funding and stronger regulations to prevent polluted runoff in agriculture.
- Develop farming practices and policies in the “karst” regions of northeastern Wisconsin to protect drinking water supplies from manure contamination.
- Strengthen Wisconsin’s groundwater pumping laws.
- Prevent back-sliding of river protections in the context of “open for business”-style state government imperatives.
Grassroots Organizing – Protect and restore rivers through on-the-ground projects with local groups and citizens.
- Operate “Going Back to the Root” (River) in Racine, revitalizing downtown Racine through restoring the Root River.
- Operate the “Wisconsin River Initiative,” organizing citizen advocates to clean up pollution in the Wisconsin River, keep track of emerging threats from invasive species, and ensure that sturgeon are able to move around the hydro dam at Prairie du Sac.
- Encourage well-informed citizen involvement in local dam decisions, and guide community decisions about dam removal.
Conservation Projects – Implement scientific principles and technology to restore and protect river systems.
- Identify invasive species in Wisconsin’s rivers, assess their potential threats, and engage citizens and organizations in monitoring or eradicating them.
- Ensure that the ancient lake sturgeon can again inhabit many miles of their original habitat by getting them around dams. Our focus is hydro dams on the Menominee and Wisconsin Rivers.
