Citizen's Agenda for Rivers

January 19, 2005

Dear Great Lakes Collaborative Colleague,

New York Rivers United (NYRU) is an active member in the Great Lakes Collaborative, a critical effort to restore the Great Lakes Basin. Working together with our friends and colleagues at American Rivers, we believe there is another joint effort that will help in achieving our mutual goals and objectives: The Citizens’ Agenda for Rivers. Many of you are aware of the Agenda and have already given your support; for others this is an introduction and a request for your support.

The Citizens’ Agenda is a proactive policy plan for rivers developed by a steering committee of river and watershed leaders over the last year. It delivers a simple message to all decision-makers: Americans demand clean water and healthy rivers, and we will hold our leaders accountable for doing their part. We believe this message is applicable to the Great Lakes Basin now more than ever.

More than 300 organizations, representing more than 3.6 million Americans, have already endorsed the Citizens’ Agenda for Rivers (view the list of endorsers at www.healthyrivers.org/Endorsements.html). But we are still short of our goal of 1,000 organizational endorsements. We hope to reach this goal in time to deliver the Citizens’ Agenda to the new Congress in late January or early February.

The Citizens’ Agenda identifies three issues representing the most acute threats to the largest number of rivers: eroding water quality, insufficient water flows for river health, and the impacts of sprawl and development. It then calls on decision makers at the local, state and federal levels to take specific policy actions to address each of these threats, such as calling on Congress to pass the Clean Water Authority Restoration Act and states to adopt ecologically based instream flow standards. (Read the full set of policy prescriptions at www.healthyrivers.org/read.html). The Citizens’ Agenda will be updated periodically to reflect changing threats and priorities.

The goals of the Citizens’ Agenda for Rivers, and the solutions it proscribes, are particularly appropriate for those of us concerned about the health of water resources in the Great Lakes Basin. The Citizens’ Agenda also sends a message to Great Lakes decision makers that we are part of larger, nationwide movement that will not rest until we have secured clean water and healthy rivers in all of our communities.

Please go to www.healthyrivers.org today and endorse the Citizens’ Agenda for Rivers. For more detailed information, and to learn about other opportunities to participate in this effort, please contact me (contact info below) or Matt Sicchio at American Rivers (msicchio@americanrivers.org, 202-347-7550).

Sincerely,

Bruce Carpenter
Executive Director
New York Rivers United
T: 315-339-2097
bruce_carpenter@newyorkriversunited.org