RiverSpeak: stories that ripple

In this episode, we hear from Monty Schmitt, senior project director of The Nature Conservancy’s Water Program. Monty’s years of creek hopping and frog chasing in his youth led him into a career as a water resources scientist and well-known specialist in salmon ecology. We’ll hear how his experience and expertise is translating into successful strategies for increasing flows and wild salmon populations in our California coastal watersheds. Monty began his career in river reforestat...

In this episode, we hear the story of Sharon Weaver, executive director of the San Joaquin River Parkway and Conservation Trust. Sharon’s story gets started with writing a term paper for an environmental politics class at U.C. Davis and evolves into her career leading an organization that is the catalyst for creating a regional treasure of protected lands, education programs, and recreational trails on the San Joaquin River near Fresno. Discovering the San Joaquin River Parkway includes ...

In this episode, we hear the story of Julie Rentner, president of River Partners and discover her work of bringing life back to rivers in California. Through projects like Three Amigos on the San Joaquin River, we’ll hear how her work with rivers’ natural systems is restoring floodplains and regenerating riparian forests.Julie’s story starts in the forest along Marsh Creek on Mount Diablo and evolves into leading fundamental redesign of California’s approach to water management. Her pas...

RiverSpeak Podcast makes its debut with the story of Sara Press, land acquisition program manager of Sonoma Land Trust. Through Sara, we'll discover the Russian and Gualala Rivers and learn about their vital importance to communities of the region. We'll also hear about a key project to help protect water, the scarce life-giving resource threatened by some patterns of use and a changing climate. Sara's story and her interest in land and water got started early in life on the Northern Californ...

RiverSpeak is devoted to inspire and inform river conservation. We explore rivers by telling the stories of people that would work to save them. Hi, I'm Dave Koehler, curator and host. In this welcome, I introduce myself and RiverSpeak Podcast, a new monthly series that debuts on September 27, World Rivers Day 2020. If you’re interested in rivers and our deep connections to them, please follow along.