Tag archives for rivers
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At a fish-rearing facility near Michigan‘s Kalamazoo River, I’m peering inside a big, water-filled tub at lake sturgeon eggs no bigger than BB pellets. Someday these will grow into the biggest fish in North America, but for now, they’re the precious cargo of a state program to bring these freshwater giants back to their native…
By Kelli Barrett, Ecosystem Marketplace In East China’s Fujian Province, the booming economy has been good to the cities of Sanming and Nanping, as well as to farmers in the surrounding hills. That, however, has been bad news for the Min River and to the downstream city of Fuzhou, which gets its water from…
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Go behind the lens and above the ground with photographer Dave Showalter as he reveals the hidden meanings behind aerial images he made on LightHawk flights.
Posted by Near the point where Turkey, Iraq, and Syria meet, two villages face each other across the Tigris River. On one side lies the Iraqi Kurdish village of Faysh Khabur, home to a Chaldean Christian community for more than fourteen centuries. On the other bank sits Khanik Village, another ancient Chaldean community — but one that lies in Syria.
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Bass fishing in the American Southeast may have just gotten a little bit more complicated. According to a release filed this week, biologists from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) would like to name a new species of black bass, the Choctaw bass, or Micropterus haiaka. In 2007, FWC scientists found an unusual DNA…
Tapped Out: How Will Cities Secure Their Water Future?
Posted by Brian Richter of The Nature Conservancy and University of Virginia in Water Currents on May 8, 2013 
Today, global demands for food, energy, and shelter are putting unprecedented pressure on the resources of the planet. Water is at the heart of this crisis. In fact, more than half of the world’s cities are already experiencing water shortages on a recurring basis – based on findings from a study that I published, along…
NG Young Explorer Julia Harte examines the historical importance of water in Mesopotamia’s cultures and religions through text and photos, as well as a video shot and edited by team member Anna Ozbek.
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It rises in Ethiopia’s Shewa Highlands, and flows for 760 kms through terraced hillsides, volcanic outcrops and fertile grasslands as far as the world’s greatest desert lake, Lake Turkana, in Kenya. The lower valley of the Omo River is believed by some historians to have been a cultural crossroads for thousands of years, where a…
A Water Bank Helps Revive Colorado Delta Willows and Wetlands
Posted by Sandra Postel of National Geographic's Freshwater Initiative in Water Currents on April 23, 2013 
This post is part of a series on the Colorado River Delta. In the delta community of Miguel Alemán, situated along the Colorado River corridor that forms the border between Mexico and Arizona, we arrive at an unlikely enterprise in this parched environment: a tree nursery. A few thousand cuttings of willow, mesquite, and cottonwoods…
An iconic freshwater fish of tropical South America, the arapaima is a massive, slender beast that can grow up to 10 feet (3 meters) long and weigh 440 pounds (200 kilograms). It is known as the pirarucu in Brazil and the paiche in the western Amazon, and is one of the largest freshwater fish in…
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It is a river that goes by many names – Red. Grand River Red. The Canyon Maker. And today it is the Most Endangered River in the country. American Rivers released our annual America’s Most Endangered Rivers report today, listing the Colorado River at #1 because demand for water is outstripping supply. Outdated water management…
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Departing Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar shared a few thoughts at his exit ceremony about the keystone accomplishments of his four years and three months in office, and called out restoration of the Colorado River Delta as his signature achievement in water management (see our ongoing series on the delta): “The fourth keystone I spoke…
Acid rain may not be top of mind these days for many Americans, but that doesn’t mean the problem has gone away. Referring to any form of precipitation with high levels of nitric and sulfuric acids, some acid rain can develop naturally from decay of living things. But the primary cause is emissions from burning…
The Secret World of the Old Water
Posted by Octavio Aburto of Scripps Institution of Oceanography in Explorers Journal on March 23, 2013 
Follow Octavio Aburto and Jaime Rojo in their journey through the San Pedro Mezquital River, the last untamed river in Mexico.
From Amethyst Brook in Massachusetts to Wychus Creek in Oregon, communities in 19 states restored 400 miles of rivers and streams by removing 65 dams in 2012. American Rivers announced the annual dam removal list today, bring the total for U.S. dam removals up to nearly 1,100. Last year, outdated or unsafe dams came out…
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It is in the nature of human hubris to assume Man Knows Better than Nature. Which is why, perhaps, when it comes to trout, things are a downright mess. Thanks to the British, as the Empire expanded beyond the sunset, so did trout. In 1864, they were introduced to Tasmania, India in 1889 and South…
Except for the occasional shriek of a raven or the muffled voices of hikers passing on the rocky trail, Santa Elena Canyon was silent. The canyon’s high walls shielded us from the hot Texas sun, which beat down with a vengeance even in November, when I visited Big Bend National Park with family. Our…
A crew of recent grads from Colorado College have shared their epic paddle down the Colorado River in a new video Mirror River. It’s the story of a 113-day adventure told in three minutes, featuring the river’s famed canyons and rapids, all the way from Wyoming down to Mexico. And it ends (spoiler alert) with…
The Treasures of Tursujuq: one of North America’s largest national parks
Posted by Jeff Wells on February 22, 2013 With little fanfare, the Inuit people of Nunavik in northern Quebec, the Grand Council of the Cree, and the Government of Quebec announced the creation of Tursujuq National Park—a 6.5 million acre protected area along the eastern shore of Hudson Bay. Not only is this remarkable for its size—it’s the largest protected area in eastern North America and one of the top 10 largest parks on the continent—but perhaps even more incredible is that the park is several million acres larger than it had been expected to be a few years ago.
The Quiet Birthplace of an Untamed River
Posted by Octavio Aburto of Scripps Institution of Oceanography in Explorers Journal on February 12, 2013 The Origin of a River from Octavio Aburto on Vimeo.
Follow Octavio Aburto and Jaime Rojo in their journey through the San Pedro Mezquital River, the last untamed river in Mexico.
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Allahabad is a city of 1.2 million people, and despite the proximity of its bigger, noisier neighbour, the Kumbh Mela, life goes on there—including death. The funeral ghats on the Ganges were moved away from the sangam—the confluence of the Ganges and Yamuna rivers—for the duration of the festival, but they are still within the…
If you climb up to high ground above the river plain, you begin to get a sense of the scale of the Kumbh Mela, especially at night. It stretches off in all directions. The sky above it is as light as the sky over a large metropolis, only there are no highrises here—nothing much higher than a lamp-post, in fact. The noise from hundreds of loudspeakers is incessant and very loud—like a human rainforest, technically enhanced.
The stars are aligned. The first aiders are on standby. The latrines are dug. And the city of Allahabad is waiting to see how many tens of millions of people will descend on it between now and March 10. One thing is certain: the Kumbh Mela, a giant gathering of Hindu pilgrims that takes place every 12 years in four cities in northern India, and that is celebrated this year in Allahabad, is unique.
The inauguration of President Barack Obama for his second term was viewed by millions and will be remembered in the history books. There is a lot at stake in this presidency; there always is. But I sat up and took notice when I heard Richard Blanco, the inaugural poet, read “One Today,” the work…
Photographer’s Journal: Up Close and Personal with British Otters
Posted by Guest Blogger on January 18, 2013 British photographer Charlie Hamilton James’s charming close-ups of otters grace the February 2013 issue of National Geographic Magazine. Here, he tells us how he captured such clear images of the shy creatures and their watery world, and explores the question: Can otters smell underwater?
