How to Save a River presents in a concise and readable format the wisdom gained from years of river protection campaigns across the United States. The book begins by defining general principles of action, including getting organized, planning a campaign, building public support, and putting a plan into action. It then provides detailed explanations of how to: form an organization and raise money - develop coalitions with other groups - plan a campaign and build public support - cultivate the media and other powerful allies - develop credible alternatives to damaging projects How to Save a River provides an important overview of the resource issues involved in river protection, and suggests sources for further investigation. Countless examples of successful river protection campaigns prove that ordinary citizens do have the power to create change when they know how to organize themselves. David M. Bolling has twenty-five years of experience as a newspaper editor, journalist, and radio reporter. His work has won more than twenty local, state, and national awards, and he has been writing about rivers and water issues for twenty years. He is the former executive director of Friends of the River, a California river conservation organization, and is co-founder and past president of Friends of the Russian River, a grassroots river coalition in Sonoma County, California. How to Save a River A Handbook for Citizen Action By David M. Bolling ISLAND PRESS Copyright © 1994 Tim Palmer All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-1-55963-250-8 Contents Title Page, Copyright Page, Dedication, Acknowledgments, Introduction, Part One - Techniques, Chapter 1 - Getting Organized, Chapter 2 - Planning a Campaign, Chapter 3 - Building Public Support, Chapter 4 - Getting It Done, Part Two - Tools, Chapter 5 - River Saving Tools, Part Three - An Overview of Issues, Chapter 6 - Values of Free-Flowing Rivers, Chapter 7 - Problems, Chapter 8 - Building Relationships with Rivers, Sources, Organizations, Index, About the Author, Island Press Board of Directors, CHAPTER 1 Getting Organized Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation) there is one elementary truth ... that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one's favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamt would come his way. W. H. MURRAY Get Committed On a summer afternoon in 1988, Wendy Wilson and Tom Watts were sitting in their kayaks in an eddy on the North Fork of the Payette River in Idaho. Wendy was upset. A wealthy Idaho potato farmer had announced plans to finance a hydropower project that would drain the river. The water would go through pipes to an underground generating plant, the power would go to California, and the river would, in a manner of speaking, go to hell. As Wendy complained about this disturbing turn of events, her paddling partner posed a provocative challenge. "If you were a real environmentalist," he said, "you'd form a group and stop this thing." Wendy thought for a moment and then said, "I'll do it if you'll do it." Watts responded, "I'll do it." Wendy stared at him: "Are you serious?" Watts stared at her, "Are you serious?" They explored that question further over a subsequent beer and by November they had an organization. As W. H. Murray predicted, a whole stream of events issued from that decision, and three and a half years later, following one of the most intense and well-organized lobbying campaigns in state history, the Idaho legislature passed a bill protecting the Payette from development. Wendy Wilson is the first person to point out that the Payette River was saved through the efforts of thousands of people. "I didn't do it by myself," she says. "I was smarter than that. It takes a group of people." But what Wendy Wilson and Tom Watts did do themselves was make the commitment that gathered the people who started the organization which saved the river. And that's where river protection begins: Someone has to make the commitment. Falling in Love Choosing to save a river is more often an act of passion than of careful calculation. You make the choice because the river has touched your life in an intimate and irreversible way, because you are unwilling to accept its loss. Mark Dubois, a pioneering river conservationist who dedicated a decade to the Stanislaus River in California, recalls a conversation he once had with a Russian activist. "I asked him the question, how do you get people involved," Dubois, who has himself gotten thousands of people involved, remembers. "He said, 'First I think it is necessary to fall in love.'" If you've fallen in love with a river,