Defending Public Lands and Waters–Winter Stewardship Update 2025

What does having safe access to clean water flowing through public lands mean to you and your family? For most of you reading this, we’d be willing to wager it’s incredibly important to your quality of life and that having intact and protected public lands is something you hold close to your heart as an American. Take a look at our 2025 Winter Stewardship Update to see some of the ways American Whitewater membership supports our work protecting rivers and creeks in our national parks, forests, and other public lands. You should know, we have big challenges to solve for 2026, but if our past success is any indication, we’ll surely rise to the challenge; however, we can't do this work without your support to help keep us on track. 

Did you know that our work defending public lands and our safe access to them is almost exclusively funded by individual contributions from our community? Your membership dollars and donations are an incredibly efficient and effective way to show your love for public lands and rivers and to support your ability to safely access them. Plus bonus–all American Whitewater members with an active membership on Dec. 31 will be entered in a drawing to win a week of boating in Ecuador through Small World Adventures or a Dagger Indra Kayak (S/M, shipped to your door)!

Keep in mind, not all public lands that need protecting are wilderness areas. Some of the most important public waters for recreation, connecting people to river stewardship and local economies, are the ones closest to home. Protecting and improving water quality and access to streams that run through our communities is key to providing safe opportunities for all people to enjoy our rivers.

So take a moment to see the projects that your contributions support in every whitewater region across the country in our 2025 Winter Stewardship Update and know that your membership and tax-deductible donations keep our stewardship program, and especially our river access program, running strong. As you begin to think about your charitable gifts for the end of the year, consider the value American Whitewater's work brings to you and the whitewater boating community. We've got some exciting projects on the horizon, and we hope we can count on your support! Become an American Whitewater member or make a charitable tax-deductible donation today!

The team at American Whitewater thanks you, and our rivers do too!