Reduce hard surface runoff. Disconnect downspouts from sewer systems, install rain barrels, and plant rain gardens.Support your local watershed organization and join in river cleanup days. Learn about your watershed and how well your water is protected. Many of our daily habits have a negative impact on the health of our rivers, but there are easy things you can do to make a difference. Overused rivers can run dry long before they reach the sea, destroying important habitat.Hard surfaces also increase pollutant runoff from roadways, parking lots, and roofs. Riverside development can reduce shade, which can lead to warmer waters that inhibit reproduction in many species.The resulting algae overgrowth can be toxic to fish and people. Combined stormwater and sewage systems can overflow and pour untreated human waste into rivers, creating disease risk and adding nutrient pollution.Farm runoff containing fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides contaminates water with toxins and excess nutrients, causing algal blooms and dead zones.Disconnecting rivers from their floodplain wetlands destroys habitat and increases the risk of extreme flooding and landslides. Levees may control flooding in one area, but increase flood risk in another.Digging channels or straightening rivers destroys nearby floodplains and wetlands, and can lead to development where flooding is inevitable.Hard shorelines decrease fish populations and increase water velocity, hastening erosion.Dams also alter the amount of water and sediment traveling downstream, changing living conditions above and below the dam. Dams block migratory fish from returning to their historic spawning grounds, reducing fish populations.These uses can all take a toll on a river’s health. We’ve built towns and cities along banks and washed their wastes down the stream. We’ve built dams for power and levees for shipping, dredged channels for navigation and canals for irrigation. People have harnessed the power of rivers throughout history. ”Forage fish” swim upriver to multiply, then head out to sea, providing food for commercially valuable seafood. Even the smallest fish play an important role. Floodplains provide calm shallow waters, allowing fish to grow larger before swimming out to sea. Migrating fish, like salmon, must swim up to cooler, stony beds to reproduce. Trout thrive in highland streams, while catfish lurk near the bottom of slow-moving water. Protected, endangered and threatened species.Many invertebrates that provide food for fish.Migratory fish such as alewife, salmon, trout, and striped bass.Freshwater fish like bass, perch, bluegill, and catfish.This provides natural flood control for coastal communities, preventing billions of dollars in damages. Flood protection-when waters rise, floodplains can absorb large amounts of water.
Rivers have striking regional differences that create distinct habitats. River habitats vary from high, stony streams, flowing channels for ships and boats, to shallow wetlands. Roughly 3.5 million miles of rivers and tributaries in the United States connect us to the sea, even if we live far inland. Rivers provide our communities with economic, ecological, and cultural value.