River Network empowers and unites people and communities to protect and restore rivers and other bodies of water. They work to connect river and water champions across the country to each other, empowering them to make a difference and expanding their influence. They offer individuals and organizations mentoring, consulting, and trainings to strengthen their water conservation efforts.
River Network’s policy knowledge and facilitation experience enables them to work with members of the [Mississippi River] Collaborative to create effective agendas, guide workshop activities, and track progress
River Network has facilitated the Mississippi River Collaborative meetings for a decade, helping clean water policy advocates in each of the Mississippi River basin’s 10 mainstem states to design and implement their vision for reducing pollution and restoring healthy wetlands in the basin. River Network’s policy knowledge and facilitation experience enables them to work with members of the Collaborative to create effective agendas, guide workshop activities, and track progress, resulting in more productive meetings and more satisfying outcomes for Collaborative members.
As a check and balance on the Army Corps’ permitting process that allows for dredging and fill-in of wetlands and streams, River Network produced a basin-wide analysis of each state’s review of national permits. Once this review was completed, River Network provided policy recommendations to help members of the Collaborative advocate for strong state-level restrictions and worked in depth with the four states in the basin to ensure healthy check and balance requirements are met by the Army Corps before permitting is granted. The Kentucky Waterway’s Alliance used River Network’s analysis and recommendations to encourage their Divisions of Water to impose conditions on the Army Corps dredge and fill permits.
