The Project: Rescue the Rivers
A Nature Conservancy and Nature Valley Partnership Program
[This project has been completed]

Rivers provide us with water to drink and irrigate our fields, with fish for food and sport, and they are the source of recreation like swimming and boating. Our naturally occurring wetlands and riverside ecosystems are also a tremendous source of biological diversity. For example, the number of species living in freshwater habitat in the U.S. is comparable to those in the world's great tropical rain forests.

We have already lost more than half of the naturally occurring wetlands and riverside ecosystems in the U.S.

hydrological alteration from dams declining water quality from agricultural and wastewater runoff exotic species that invade and kill off natives habitat destruction from commercial development

Freshwater Facts Only 1 percent of the Earth's surface is fresh water, but 12 percent of all known species are found there. Freshwater biodiversity is declining 6 times faster than biodiversity on land. More than 37% of the known freshwater fish species in the U.S. are extinct or imperiled. Freshwater ecosystems provide about $6.6 billion a year worth of services to the global economy through fisheries, drinking water, recreation, etc.

Back River, Maine