Top 10 Most Endangered Rivers in the US

Is a river near you on the list? 

Colorado River snaking along the Grand Canyon at sunset. Arizona. 

Photograph by Pete McBride, National Geographic Creative

By Alexandra E. Petri

PUBLISHED April 11, 2017

Water is life, yet climate change and certain public policies may be endangering its future in America, a nonprofit group warns in a new report. The stakes are high, with the current presidential administration having proposed budget cuts that may eliminate some safeguards for clean drinking water and rivers nationwide.

That’s according to American Rivers, a Washington, D.C.-based conservation group, which released its annual list of America’s Most Endangered Rivers on Tuesday. The list outlines rivers that the group warns face an urgent threat or critical decision point in the coming year.

America’s Most Endangered Rivers of 2017:

#1: Lower Colorado River (Arizona, California, Nevada)

Threat: Water demand and climate change

#2: Bear River (California)

Threat: New Dam

#3: South Fork Skykomish (Washington)

Threat: New hydropower project

#4: Mobile Bay Rivers (Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi)

Threat: Poor water management

#5: Rappahannock River (Virginia)

Threat: Fracking

#6: Green-Toutle River (Washington)

Threat: New mine

#7: Neuse and Cape Fear Rivers (North Carolina)

Threat: Pollution from hog and chicken farms

#8: Middle Fork Flathead River (Montana)

Threat: Oil transport by rail

#9: Buffalo National River (Arkansas)

Threat: Pollution from massive hog farm

#10: Menominee River (Michigan, Wisconsin)

Threat: Open pit sulfide mining

 

Read full article here: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/04/most-endangered-rivers-us-american-rivers/?google_editors_picks=true

Crumbling AwayGiant chunks of rock have been falling from Half Dome. Here, in 1919, a group stands on a rocky outcropping off of the feature.
Photograph by US National Park Service/National Geographic

Impermanent ViewsHalf Dome as seen from the Glacier Point Hotel in 1933. The hotel, finished in 1917, stood 3000 feet above Yosemite Valley. After closing because of snow damage in the winter of 1968, the hotel burned down in an electrical fire in July, 1969.
Photograph by Yosemite Park & Curry Co/National Geographic

Perfectly InaccessibleSnow envelops Half Dome in this 1922 photo. It was declared “perfectly inaccessible” in an 1865 report, but ten years later, hiker George Anderson reached the summit.
Photograph by Pillsbury Picture Co./National Geographic

Beloved PeaksThe nearly 750 thousand acre Yosemite National Park drew over 4 million visitors in 2014. Here, in a 1965 photo, tourists snap pictures of the stunning granite peaks.
Photograph by B. Anthony Stewart, National Geographic

New PathsRockfalls have changed the face of Half Dome, and climbers are adjusting to altered routes. This photo shows an ascent in 1974.
Photograph by Dean Conger, National Geographic Creative

Bad WeatherThis 2010 photo shows Half Dome poking through the clouds. Hikers should not to attempt the climb if storm clouds are in the area. In 1985, lightning struck the peak, killing two hikers and injuring two more (see a National Geographic video here).
Photograph by Michael Melford, National Geographic Creative

FreefallHalf Dome juts nearly 5,000 feet above ground, almost 9,000 feet above sea level, attracting climbers who BASE jump from Half Dome.
Photograph by Jimmy Chin and Lynsey Dyer, National Geographic Creative

Dean PotterDean Potter, who died in a wingsuit accident in 2015, climbs Half Dome in 2012. After the 2015 rockfalls, a climber said it felt like Half Dome was mourning Potter.
Photograph by Jimmy Chin, National Geographic Creative

Pack in, Pack outTourists sometimes wear gloves to clutch at the cables as they climb Half Dome’s final ascent, ditching them on the way back down. When hikers don’t pack out their gloves, "hundreds of pounds of rotting gloves...accumulate."
Photograph by Jimmy Chin, National Geographic Creative

Risk TakersRock climber Alex Honnold, famous for his climbs without ropes or harnesses, walks a 40-foot-long sliver of granite on Half Dome named the Thank God Ledge.
Photograph by Jimmy Chin, National Geographic Creative

A Changing LandscapeThe climber first to climb Half Dome without a rope is taking the rockfalls in stride. “It’s always a little sad to see a classic route change, [but] it’s kind of the nature of rock to change over time,” Alex Honnald says.
Photograph by Mikey Schaefer, National Geographic