Current Programs

On The River (OTR)

Russian Riverkeeper’s OTR program is the heart of the organization and consists of maintaining a constant presence on our River to bring information about the River to the community. The OTR program also empowers the community by providing training to gather information on water quality, riparian health, aquatic and terrestrial wildlife, land use and human activity. Riverkeeper also has the opportunity to take on the completion, updating and management of the Russian River “KRIS” GIS Information System, which is a powerful tool for compiling data from Riverkeeper’s OTR program and other sources in the watershed to use for reporting, enforcement and advocacy. All of the data collected by Russian Riverkeeper through its OTR program is used to educate the community, industry, and the regulatory agencies about the issues facing the River.

Water Monitoring

Water quality monitoring builds stewardship by engaging and educating citizen volunteers and allows for better public policy decisions by increasing water quality data. Gathering water quality data is vital due to budget constraints on regulatory agencies that create data gaps and in order to make sound public policy decisions. Lack of sufficient water quality data makes for uninformed public policy decisions as well.

Russian Riverkeeper manages and assists with a variety of water quality monitoring projects to improve watershed understanding and add valuable information to public policy decisions. Most of our work is performed with trained volunteer water quality monitors. Training volunteer monitors is a cost effective way to gather defensible water quality data and increases stewardship of our river.

Advocacy

Our organization was founded on advocacy that brought many watershed problems and issues into the public arena such as endangered Steelhead and Salmon, gravel mining, vineyard development practices, bank stabilization policies, urban stormwater pollution, riparian zone protection and Mercury pollution. Our goal has always been to research each issue and get to the bottom of it to propose solutions or stop a harmful practice such as disposing of grape processing waste near streams or wholesale stream bank clearing. If necessary we will use legal means to stop harm to the river such as our threat to litigate over a Vino Farms proposal to rip-rap (cover river banks with large rock) that brought Vino Farms and the county to the table to work on a better project. We view each issue strategically and propose solutions that work for the river and property owners.

Riverkeeper Park

Our concept is to create a natural pedestrian park with access to the Russian River in downtown Guerneville that reflects and demonstrates the goals of restoring the native plant community and proper ecological stewardship of the river banks for the benefit of lower river property owners while balancing human desires for view corridors and river access.The park will provide space for a natural kids play area, interpretive loop trail, demonstration pervious parking area, picnic tables, sitting benches and small gathering area for watershed education. Volunteer days are held each Wednesday from 8:30-11:30 a.m. Learn more...

Foss Creek Clean Up Crew

Foss Creek Project

The Foss Creek Community Restoration Project is a multi-year native plant restoration project on Foss Creek that will involve removing large amounts of invasive non-native plants that have taken over parts of Foss Creek. The Foss Creek Restoration Project has benefited from over 107 volunteers committing over 600 hours to restoring Foss Creek this year! We are making great progress on our efforts to remove non-native invasive plants species that reduce habitat for native wildlife and fish and increase flood risks by reducing channel capacity.Our next scheduled work day is December 4th. Learn more...