In September of 2024 when Hurricane Helene arrived in the mountains of North Carolina, Tennessee and South Carolina, it landed where the ground and rivers were already saturated and swollen with rain. The result was “the storm of record” taking out thousands of bridges, sending thousands of landslides down the mountains and taking human life. This episode hosts the National Weather Service and the Lower Mississippi River Forecast Center to explore the storm and the river reaction, and then Dr Phillip Prince goes deep in describing landslides and debris flows and their impact. 

GUESTS

Trisha Palmer
National Weather Service 
Greenville Spartanburg, South Carolina

Matt Wilson
Lower Mississippi River Forecast Center
Slidell, Louisiana 

Dr Phillip Prince
Geo Models You Tube Channel

RELEVANT LINKS AND CONTENT

Read:  Hurricane Helene

Video:  French Broad River Flooding 2024 - Hurricane Helene in Woodfin, NC

Article:  Helene deals billions in damage to infrastructure

Article:  Reflections on loss and opportunity in flood ravaged Western North Carolina

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Denver Area Nissan Dealers
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2025 Symposium
@rivermgtsociety
FB River Management Society

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Dr Len Necefer opens up 2025 for The River Radius. Len is the mind and perspective I wanted to welcome me and you both into this 6th season of The River Radius. We talk through the relationship of rivers and elections, of books for this year, the work and impact of Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, and other river and life layers. Len is the founder of Natives Outdoors, the Sonoran Avalanche Center, runs rivers, is articulate and intelligently humorous. This is the 2nd episode with Dr Len Necefer and both are some of my favorites. 

1ST EPISODE: Part 1, Dr Len Necefer, Living in the Soup
Apple Podcasts
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GUEST
Dr Len Necefer website
Natives Outdoors
Outside TV: Running Dry
Dr Len Necefer personal IG account 
Sonoran Avalanche Center IG account 

RELEVANT LINKS
Office of Indian Energy Policy and Programs
Honold Foundation
 

BOOKS
Surviving Autocracy by Masha Gessen
The NativesOutdoors reading list for the outdoor industry

SPONSORS
Denver Area Nissan Dealers
@nissanusa

River Management Society
2025 Symposium
@rivermgtsociety
FB River Management Society

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To move from 2024 into 2025, we have one guest in two episodes for you. Our guest is Dr Len Necefer. This is the first episode. We talk through life wrapped in intellect and self facing humor, 6th grade reading levels, native art and the modern retail market, an upriver bike ride, and river runs at the northern most reaches of the North American continent. Len is the “star” of his Outside TV show where he is riding his bike up the Colorado River from Mexico to Colorado.  He is the founder of Natives Outdoors. He served the Obama Administration in the Dept of Energy. And Len is part of the founding crew of the Sonoran Avalanche Center. Len and I sat on top of a small mountain, on a park bench looking down on the deep desert river and ski town of Tucson, Arizona on a Sunday morning in the end of November to laugh and learn, and talk life and rivers. 

GUEST
Dr Len Necefer website
Natives Outdoors
Outside TV: Running Dry
Dr Len Necefer personal IG account 
Sonoran Avalanche Center IG account 

RELEVANT LINKS
Bogs in collaboration with Natives Outdoors
Honold Foundation
Returning Rapids 
Returning Rapids of Cataract 2021
Autopsy of a Post Reservoir River

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Do rivers have rights? Should they have a set of rights that guide how they are used? In September of this year, 2024, the Biobio River in Chile was assigned a Declaration of Rights. This non binding document allows for work to be done towards making the Declaration influential and even binding at a later date. We speak with International Rivers and Malen Lebu in Chile to understand this more. 

SPONSORS
Denver Area Nissan Dealers
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GUESTS

Monti Aguirre

International Rivers

Evaluna Morales
@azulcordillera

Malen Lebu
Facebook
@malenlebu IG

Kayakimun
@kayakimun

Rios to Rivers

Biobio River

Declaration of Rights for the Biobio

Earth Law Center

Maranon River, Peru, Declaration of Rights
 

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Darby McAdams holds many places in the river world: kayaker, film maker & instructor of both kayaking and film work for young paddlers. In November of 2024 her new film NEAR THE RIVER went public. In this episode Darby moves through her kayak path, her film path and talks about NEAR THE RIVER and its story about the people of the Zambezi River in Africa. 

DARBY MCADAMS
Near the River film
IG
River Roots Film Production
NRS Dirtbag Diaries:  “Darby McAdams & the Evolution of Passion” by Chandra Brown

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Denver Area Nissan Dealers
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Georgia has rivers and streams running from the mountain country of the Southern Appalachians to the Gulf of Mexico, totaling about 70,000 total miles of waterways.  Whitewater and flatwater.  Clear water and Black water.  And a long history of publicly accessible rivers and streams.  That access is being debated by the State of Georgia and bills have been proposed that would curtail access for the public.  We talk with Georgia Rivers to learn more about this topic and about the public meeting and comment process. 

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GUEST

Georgia Rivers

Freedom to Float

Joe Cook

PUBLIC MEETING
Wednesday, Nov. 13, at 9 a.m. in Newnan Donald W. Nixon Centre for Performing and Visual Arts in Newnan, GA.

Email your comments / Georgia Residents

Email your comments / Non Georgia Residents 

THUMBNAIL IMAGE

Pic credit, Joe Cook, Georgia Rivers
Flint River, Georgia, Fall 2024

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25 years ago the Edwards Dam was removed from the Kennebec River in Maine allowing alewives and sturgeon to return to their spawning grounds in force, revitalizing the ecosystem and delighting the paddlers and local communities with the sturgeons’ explosive breaching displays. In the summer of 2024, 2 separate source to sea trips ran the lengths of the Sandy and Kennebec in Maine. Contributing host Clark Tate was part of the Sandy trip and tells the on river story of both source to sea trips.

CONTRIBUTING HOST
Clark Tate
@lclarktate

RIVERS FOR CHANGE 
@riversforchange
www.riversforchange.org
2024 Sandy to Kennebec Confluence

GUESTS

Stuart Hickey, raft guide 
@freeheelinghickey

Jessica Sterling, kayak instructor and web designer 
@jester1ing

Chris Morgan 
@ccmorgan8

Jennifer Noll 
Maine Department of Marine Resources

Saige Purser 
@saigelinsay
River Radius Podcast - Native Teen Guide In Training Program

Joe Klementovich, Photographer
@klementovich   klementovichphoto.com
River Radius Podcast - Source to Sea on the Saco River

Matt Palmariello 
@mattpalmariello    
www.mainepaddling.com

Amy Borch, Tattoo artist  
@amy.wildhand
@melontrout.tattoo

Eli Studer, Tattoo artist 
@elistudertatto
www.elistudertatto.com

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Denver Area Nissan Dealers
@nissanusa

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promo code, free shipping: riverradius

SANDY RIVER INFORMATION

Sandy River Northern Forest Canoe Trail Map

Environmental Geology Along the Sandy River, Farmington Maine, Field Trip from University of Maine at Farmington. Dr. Tom Eastler, Mr. Andy Buckland, Mr. Joel Sproul

Indigenous Land and Water Acknowledgement by the University of Maine at Farmington

The Rangeley Area: A Geologic Tour by Emma Stattelman and Katarina Dickson

SEA-RUN FISH INFORMATION

Finding the Next Sebasticook - National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Map of Atlantic SalmonHabitat - Maine Department of Marine Resources

Kennebec River Management Plan Diadromous Resources Amendment - Maine Department of Marine Resources

Historical Fish Trap Counts - Maine Department of Marine Resources

KENNEBEC DAM RELICENSING INFORMATION

Draft Environmental Impact Statement

The written comments are posted on the FERC elibrary website under docket P-2322.

World weighs in on fate of 4 Maine dams blocking passage of endangered salmon - Bangor Daily News by Lori Valigra

Conservation groups cheer decision preserving state authority in Kennebec River dam relicensing - Maine Public by Robbie Feinberg

DEP says Sandy River dredging violated Maine laws - Maine Public by Murray Carpenter

4 dams, the future of Kennebec fish runs and salmon’s survival at stake in federal licensing battle - Press Herald, Colin Woodard

State agencies are reporting more salmon returning to the Kennebec and Penobscot Rivers this Year (2023) - Maine Public by Robbie Feinberg

We Can Turn a River in Maine into a Paradise for Salmon - The New York Times by John Waldman

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In the summer of 2024, the Chilcotin River in British Columbia had a landslide that completely blocked the river creating a natural dam.  For the next 6 days the river water backed up behind this dam until the waters finally worked over the top the of the landslide, creating a breach that would exceed the previous historical flows by 5 fold. 3 people share their experience and knowledge of the landslide in this episode.

EPISODE GUESTS

TŜILHQOT’IN National Government
Jenny Philbrick, Executive Director
State of Local Emergency Declared for Tŝilhqot’in Territory due to Tŝilhqox (Chilcotin River) Landslide
Tŝilhqot’in National Government initiating Emergency Salmon Task Force

ROAM  Rivers, Oceans and Mountains
Brian McCutcheon

British Colombia Ministry of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship
Natasha Cowie, Hydrologist, River Forecast Centre

TIME LAPSE IMAGES OF LANDSLIDE AND BREACH & other info on landslide
Scroll down to "Timelapse..."
 

YOU TUBE VIDEOS

Short: "...helicopter view of landslide..."

Short: "...building washed away..."

Landslide breach video

"Water begins moving past landslide damming Chilcotin River"
 

River Radius Instagram and Facebook has videos also.  
Links below.  

EPISODE SPONSORS

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Why have cases of reported bat encounters at the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon drastically increased in the last several years? What are the chances of contracting rabies from a bat encounter? How is the safety of helicopter crews wrapped up in the physical location of a bat encounter? What does the vaccination process look like? In this episode, we utilize the personal story of a river runner's bat bite in the Grand Canyon, the expert perspectives of 2 ecologists, a CDC rabies expert, and the woman who oversees Search and Rescue in the Grand Canyon to provide insight into that real bat encounter that played out in the fall of 2023.

GUESTS

Beppe Amodio 
Brandon Holton 
Anya Metcalfe 
Dr. Ryan Wallace 
Lisa Hendy

RESOURCES

Rabies surveillance in the United States during 2022 
Bat Citizen Science in the Grand Canyon
Radiolab episode on Rabies
Novartis Pharmaceuticals Patient Assistance Program
Grifols Patient Assistance Program
RX Assist

SPONSORS

River Management Society
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Denver Area Nissan Dealers
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THE RIVER RADIUS

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Working as a commercial river guide is one of the best jobs, day after day on rivers, helping people enjoy rivers, seeing beauty, having fun, chasing adrenaline. Creating incredible friendships, some of which might last a lifetime. And there can be a dark layer. Sexual Harassment continues to percolate, as it does in many places, in the layers of river guide culture.  This episode goes there and learns about sexual harassment in the river guiding culture. We talk with Dr Maria Blevins, long time river guide, who has conducted research on this topic. We hear from guide warehouse and staff manager, Bryant Baker, about how he is working to eliminate sexual harassment from the company he manages. And we talk with Respect Outside and Jim Miller to gain clarity about sexual harassment definitions, when sexual harassment is assault, how and why it percolates in river guiding, and resources available for guide companies to shake free of sexual harassment. 

SPONSORS

Denver Area Nissan Dealers
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promo code, free shipping: riverradius

GUESTS

Dr Maria Blevins
University of Utah
Paddling Magazine article by Dr Blevins

Bryant Baker

Jim MIller
Respect Outside
Sexual Harassment Trainings


RESOURCES

A-DASH website
Instagram
Facebook
You Tube

Strand Squared Solutions

Engage Coaching & Consulting

EEOC 
US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
Harassment

GRAND CANYON RIVER DISTRACT 

Men's Journal: Rough Water: A River Guide Tells Her Side of the Story

High Country News: Grand Canyon park's 15 year failure on sexual harassment
High Country News: Grand Canyon abolishes river district in response to sexual harassment allegations

Outside Magazine: Hostile Environment
Outside Magazine: The Woman Ending Sexual Harassment at the Grand Canyon

Huffpost: Out Here, No One Can Hear You Scream

US Dept of Interior: Investigative Report of Misconduct at the Grand Canyon River District

SEXUAL HARASSMENT & ASSUALT IN ROCK CLIMBING

New York Times: Rock Climber Gets Life in Prison for Sexual Assault
Climber Convicted on all Three Counts of Sexual Assualt

Safe Outside / American Alpine Club

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