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Founded | 1973 |
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Founder | Jerry Meral and Mark Dubois |
Focus | "Friends of the River protects and restores California Rivers by influencing public policy and inspiring citizen action." [1] |
Location | |
Area served | California |
Members | Nearly 6,000 |
Key people | Eric Wesselman executive director and Bob Cushman, chair, board of directors |
Revenue | $336,000 |
Employees | 12 |
Website | friendsoftheriver.org |
Friends of the River was founded in 1973 by Mark Dubois and Jerry Meral during the struggle to save the Stanislaus River from New Melones Dam. [2] Some believe that the campaign to save the Stanislaus River marked the end of massive dam building in the United States, making the Stanislaus River the "last river lost". [3] Many photographs, documents, and other materials relating to this failed campaign are available online at the Stanislaus River Digital Archive.
Following that campaign, the group branched out to work to protect other California rivers. The mission of Friends of the River is to preserve and restore California's rivers, streams, and their watersheds; as well as to advocate for sustainable water management.
Today, Friends of the River, a 501(c)(3) organization, has nearly 6,000 members, 12 staff members, and a 12-member Board of Directors. The organization's 2009 budget was $1.06 million. The organization's flagship publication, Headwaters, is published bi-annually, and has a distribution of 6,000. Friends of the River is based in Sacramento with field offices in Monterey and Valencia.
In 2005, Friends of the River joined with the Sierra Club and the South Yuba River Citizens League to file a motion with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to require the managers of Oroville Dam in California to lay concrete on the emergency spillway. The motion was rejected, and approximately 12 years later the emergency spillway was used and began to erode, threatening the dam with potential collapse. Oroville and the surrounding area were evacuated. [4]
Charity Navigator gives the organization four stars out of four for accountability and transparency and three out of four stars overall. [5] In fiscal year ending December 2014, the organization spent 69.5% of its revenue on program expenses, 13.9% on administrative expenses, and 16.6% on fundraising expenses.
Gridley is a city in Butte County, California, United States, 29 miles south of Chico, California and 56 miles north of Sacramento, California. The population as of April 1, 2020 is 7,421. California State Route 99 runs through Gridley and Interstate 5 and California State Route 70 are both nearby.
Oroville is the county seat of Butte County, California, United States. The population of the city was 15,506 at the 2010 census, up from 13,004 in the 2000 census. Following the 2018 Camp Fire that destroyed much of the town of Paradise, the population of Oroville increased as many people who lost their homes relocated to nearby Oroville. In 2020, the 2020 census recorded the population of Oroville at 20,042.
ChildFund also known an ChildFund International, formerly known as Christian Children's Fund, is a child-focused international development organization that provides assistance to children facing poverty and other challenges in 24 countries, including the United States. ChildFund's headquarters are located in Richmond, Virginia, United States.
A spillway is a structure used to provide the controlled release of water downstream from a dam or levee, typically into the riverbed of the dammed river itself. In the United Kingdom, they may be known as overflow channels. Spillways ensure that water does not damage parts of the structure not designed to convey water.
Oroville Dam is an earthfill embankment dam on the Feather River east of the city of Oroville, California, in the Sierra Nevada foothills east of the Sacramento Valley. At 770 feet (235 m) high, it is the tallest dam in the U.S. and serves mainly for water supply, hydroelectricity generation, and flood control. The dam impounds Lake Oroville, the second-largest reservoir in California, capable of storing more than 3.5 million acre-feet (1.1×10 12 US gal; 4.3×109 m3).
Lake Oroville is a reservoir formed by the Oroville Dam impounding the Feather River, located in Butte County, northern California. The lake is situated 5 miles (8 km) northeast of the city of Oroville, within the Lake Oroville State Recreation Area, in the western foothills of the Sierra Nevada. Known as the second-largest reservoir in California, Lake Oroville is treated as a keystone facility within the California State Water Project by storing water, providing flood control, recreation, freshwater releases to assist in controlling the salinity intrusion into the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and protecting fish and wildlife.
New Melones Dam is an earth and rock filled embankment dam on the Stanislaus River, about 5 miles (8.0 km) west of Jamestown, California, United States, on the border of Calaveras County and Tuolumne County. The water impounded by the 625-foot-tall (191 m) dam forms New Melones Lake, California's fourth-largest reservoir, in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada east of the San Joaquin Valley. The dam serves mainly for irrigation water supply, and also provides hydropower generation, flood control, and recreation benefits.
The Stanislaus River is a tributary of the San Joaquin River in north-central California in the United States. The main stem of the river is 96 miles (154 km) long, and measured to its furthest headwaters it is about 150 miles (240 km) long. Originating as three forks in the high Sierra Nevada, the river flows generally southwest through the agricultural San Joaquin Valley to join the San Joaquin south of Manteca, draining parts of five California counties. The Stanislaus is known for its swift rapids and scenic canyons in the upper reaches, and is heavily used for irrigation, hydroelectricity and domestic water supply.
Trinity Dam is an earthfill dam on the Trinity River located about 7 miles (11 km) northeast of Weaverville, California in the United States. The dam was completed in the early 1960s as part of the federal Central Valley Project to provide irrigation water to the arid San Joaquin Valley.
New Melones Lake is a reservoir on the Stanislaus River in the central Sierra Nevada foothills, within Calaveras County and Tuolumne County, California.
International Orthodox Christian Charities, Inc., based in Baltimore, Maryland, is the official international humanitarian agency of the Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of the United States of America. IOCC works in cooperation with the Orthodox Church and other partners to serve people in need. In carrying out its mission, IOCC applies the highest professional standards and renders itself fully accountable to the public and its donors.
The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews is a philanthropic organization founded in 1983 by Yechiel Eckstein whose stated mission is to promote understanding and cooperation between Jews and Christians, and provide humanitarian aid for the State of Israel. Since 2019, Yael Eckstein has been serving as The Fellowship's President and CEO.
The North Fork Feather River is a watercourse of the northern Sierra Nevada and southern Cascades in the U.S. state of California. It flows generally southwards from its headwaters near Lassen Peak to Lake Oroville, a reservoir formed by Oroville Dam in the foothills of the Sierra, where it runs into the Feather River. The river drains about 2,100 square miles (5,400 km2) of the western slope of the Sierras. By discharge, it is the largest tributary of the Feather.
The Oroville–Thermalito Complex is a group of reservoirs, structures, and facilities located in and around the city of Oroville in Butte County, California. The complex serves not only as a regional water conveyance and storage system, but is the headwaters for, and therefore perhaps is the most vital part of, the California Department of Water Resources' State Water Project, as one of the largest publicly built and operated water and power development and conveyance systems.
Wounded Warrior Project (WWP) is an American charity and veterans service organization that operates as a nonprofit 501(c)(3). WWP offers a variety of programs, services and events for wounded veterans who incurred a physical or mental injury, illnesses, or co-incident to their military service on or after September 11, 2001. Military family members and caregivers are also eligible for WWP programs.
Save the Children Federation, Inc., more commonly known as Save the Children USA, is a non-profit organization in the United States. Its stated goal is to improve the lives of children in the U.S. and around the world. Its headquarters is in Fairfield, Connecticut.
Meet Each Need with Dignity (MEND) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization serving the northeast San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles, California.
Flooding in 2017 affected parts of California in the first half of the year. Northern California saw its wettest winter in almost a century, breaking the record set in 1982–83. The same storm systems also flooded parts of western Nevada and southern Oregon. The damage was estimated at $1.55 billion ($1,850,488,732 today), including damage to California roads and highways estimated at more than $1.05 billion.
In February 2017, heavy rainfall damaged Oroville Dam's main and emergency spillways, prompting the evacuation of more than 180,000 people living downstream along the Feather River and the relocation of a fish hatchery.
Mark Dubois began as an environmental activist, initially focusing on saving rivers and has worked to mobilize and engage citizens globally for a vibrant future. In 1972 he co-founded Environmental Traveling Companions (E.T.C.) to offer environmental education and Outward Bound-type trips to disabled persons and disadvantaged youth. In 1973, he co-founded Friends of the River to fight the flooding of the Stanislaus River and canyon by the New Melones Dam. He reached national fame when he chained himself to a rock on the banks of the river to prevent the flooding of the river. He also co-founded International Rivers in 1984, and served as the International Coordinator of Earth Day 1990 and 2000. His personal papers from these organizations and other work from 1970–2002 are held by the Bancroft Library at the University of California, Berkeley.