As an avid kayaker I find the http://imrivers.com/Cahaba site to be very informative for people who enjoy the Cahaba river.

This site is a must for anyone who wishes to canoe, kayak, or hike along the Cahaba River in Alabama. People can visit this site to learn where they can access the river. The put in sites are photographed to show what what the location looks like. Around where I live there are very few ways to figure out where to paddle and what the paddling places look like. All of the put in locations have suggested paddling trips and links to USGS gauge sites so you can know how deep the river will be when you go out to paddle. If you do not own a kayak or canoe this site will tell you where you can rent one. One really good feature of this site is the river problems data. With that information you can avoid places where it is not wise to paddle.

Matthew

I am the secret santa for the IMRivers sites. I am an intern at Wansoo’s firm. I attend Rutgers University in New Jersey as an undergrad double majoring in Geography and Planning and Public Policy.

Matthew Campagna

Here is an e-mail from Rob Hutsel, Executive Director of the San Diego River Park Foundation that we received last Friday. Rob’s Foundation recently joined IMRivers in order to map trash and encampments in the San Diego River Park.

Visit the San Diego River Park Foundation IMRivers site at www.imrivers.com/sandiego

Here is an e-mail:

Dear IM Rivers,

Just wanted to give you an update on our efforts on the San Diego River.

We have found our IMRivers site to be incredibly popular and helpful.  A nice combination!

Tomorrow we start our semi-annual survey of the urban portion of the San Diego River.  Volunteer teams will be out documenting all the trash and debris that is found.  This data will then be uploaded into our IMRivers.  This will be used to organize volunteer projects to go out and collect the debris.  In the last two weeks, three clean ups have been held with over 250 volunteers participating!  Volunteers removed nearly 10,000 lbs of trash.  Teams used print outs of our IMRivers site to locate the trash.  It worked great!

We are training more and more people to use the site and to enter the data.  We hope to have the majority of the river clean of trash within two years.  Thank you IMRIVERS!

Rob Hutsel

Executive Director

The San Diego River Park Foundation

In the past, we here at IMRivers have talked about how quick and easy to use the mapping websites are to create and manage, but it is always nice to have examples of IMRivers userfriendliness. Earlier today, the Chester River Association (CRA), located near the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland, began working on their IMRivers website. In just a few hours, the CRA had isolated their location on the map, imported a paragraph about their oragnization, assembled a header (with their own logo), linked their website to the IMRivers site, and added 25 data points onto their map. This shows how much more information your data could provide the public in just a few hours with IMRivers.

Chester River Association IMRivers Website

Here is an article that was recently posted on the Mountain Xpress new website about the IMRivers site for the French Broad Riverkeeper of Ashville, NC
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To visit the article below on the Mountain Xpress website click here

Visit the French Broad Riverkeepers IMRivers site at the following link: www.imrivers.com/hartwell

The Green Scene
Pollution-tracking Web site maps failing erosion measures
by Rebecca Bowe in Vol. 15 / Iss. 06 on 09/03/2008

Asheville hasn’t seen a lot of gully-washers this summer, but the heavy rains that pummeled the mountains Aug. 25 and 26 pumped new life into a long-running controversy concerning erosion-control problems at development sites on steep slopes.

Mapped out: RiverLink’s new Web page charts hot spots for polluted storm-water runoff.In an Aug. 26 e-mail to Xpress, Haw Creek resident Chris Pelly unleashed a torrent of complaints about the developers of Falcon Ridge, a subdivision on Cisco Mountain that is under construction. Enclosing photos of muddy runoff that flooded nearby roadways, Pelly charged that the failure to retain soil during the grading had created a massive erosion problem once the rains hit. “What’s it going to take to make the system work for the folks living below this project?” Pelly wrote.

But George Ryan, manager of Falcon Ridge at Haw Creek, told Xpress that his company had corrected the problem. “Due to Tropical Storm Fay, over four-and-a-half inches of rain fell Tuesday at the Falcon Ridge site,” Ryan wrote in an e-mail to surrounding neighbors the day after the storm. “Crews worked until late evening and again Wednesday morning to maintain the site and to make sure any erosion was cleaned up. City inspectors made a site inspection on Tuesday and stated that the site was in compliance.”

RiverLink, an Asheville-based nonprofit, has been working to address the issue of erosion control and its inevitable consequence—clouded waterways—through a program called the Muddy Water Watch. A three-week course teaches volunteers how to spot erosion-control violations and alert state agencies, in hopes of prompting enforcement. A recently launched Web site, IM Rivers (http://www.imrivers.com/hartwell), documents their findings to date. “This site allows the public to see the severity and widespread problem that is caused by failing erosion-control measures,” explains French Broad Riverkeeper Hartwell Carson of RiverLink.

French Broad Riverkeeper map site

The Web site spotlights sediment problems at 15 sites; an interactive map provides links to photos and information about each location. The online tool also charts scenic destinations and access points along the French Broad. RiverLink is gearing up for the next Muddy Water Watch training, with the first session scheduled for Tuesday, Sept. 9.
To learn more, e-mail riverkeeper@riverlink.org, or call 252-8474, ext. 114.

We are proud to announce the San Diego River Park Foundation has recently joined the IMRivers community. Their website (www.imrivers.com/sandiego) is being used to document all of the litter found along the local rivers. The goal of this project is to help preserve the natural beauty of the San Diego river system, and with the past successes of IMRivers, I think the San Diego River Park Foundation is headed in the right direction.

“The Pomperaug River Watershed Coalition was formed by residents of Bethlehem, Woodbury, and Southbury CT in 1999 to protect the quality and quantity of water in the Pomperaug Watershed–a 90 square mile area that provides both water and recreational opportunities for thousands of residents. “

The goal of the program was to make people aware that they live in a watershed community and the only way that could be done was to map many of the unique features characteristic of the area.  By using IMRivers, the Pomperaug River Watershed Coalition has been able to draw in support from all ages and types of people.

Mapped features include historical points of interest related to the river, scenic spots, and recreational and educational locations.  These include nature preserves, hiking trails, best places for canoes or kayaks and great places for a fun filled day of fishing.  The map can also provide some very useful information to scientists and preservationists and is not limited to the following: severe erosion, sedimentation, and potential stresses to the river such as wastewater treatment plant discharge locations.

The great thing about IMRivers it is so simple to use and maintain.  For this reason, recruiting volunteers who are concerned about their watershed and the quality of the environment can be easy.  All they need to do is help to populate the maps with their observations and media. Donna Lesch, the Outreach Director, is amazing and she is the one of the few people who has realized the great potential of IMRivers.  Please visit the following websites for more information on how to get involved with this great effort.

visit: http://www.pomperaug.org and http://www.imrivers.com/prwc

John Wathen is one of the best riverkeepers that I know, and a great singer.

visit his imrivers site  http://www.imrivers.com/hurricane.

 Also here is his IMRivers song link: