The River Radius Podcast

Our 3rd Annual episode of "What is a River" comes to you from a plane flying above the flooded Yampa River Valley in northwest Colorado. In May 2023, River Radius host Sam Carter joined two geomorphologists and a hometown river guide to fly above the Yampa River when it peaked at 20,000 cfs. This flight and episode learns about the deep value of an un-dammed, free flowing river spreading its waters across the flood plains and pounding down deep sandstone canyons.  

EPISODE IMAGE 
Kent Vertrees 
@powdercatkent
(more info below)

SPONSORS
Use Promo Code: riverradius

Nyce Kayaks
@nycekayaks

Over it Raft Covers
@overitraftcovers
 

GUESTS

Kim Lennberg
@albawatershedconsulting       
Alba Watershed Consulting
Yampa River Scorecard Project

Kent Vertrees
@powdercatkent     
Steamboat Powdercats

Mickey Means-Brous
          

@ecoflight
Eco Flight
@friendsoftheyamp
Friends of the Yampa
@americanrivers
American Rivers
@oars_rafting
OARS Rafting

RIVER RADIUS PODCAST 
@riverradiuspodcast
 

WHAT IS A RIVER EPISODES
2022
2021
 

THE RIVER RADIUS

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The Native Teen Guide in Training Program held its 12th year of training teenagers from various tribal nations how to work as river guides. This year was the first year that the guide staff for this program was all Indigenous. The River Radius joined the NTGIT program at the boat ramp, campground and river warehouse to hear this story.  

SPONSORS

NRS Website
LEAD Program
PFDs
NRS Duct Tape Diaries
Instagram

Denver Area Nissan Dealers
Instagram Nissan USA
Instagram Nissan Worldwide 

GUESTS

Native Teen Guide In Training Program
Canyonlands Field Institute website
NTGIT Video on You Tube
Instagram

RIVER RADIUS PODCAST
Giveaway Entry for Nyce Kayak
River Radius Website
Instagram
Facebook
Email

THE RIVER RADIUS

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Instagram

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Spotify

Link Tree

SPONSORS

Denver Area Nissan Dealers
Instagram

Over It Raft Covers
Instagram
Promo Code (free shipping):  riverradius

GUESTS

Scott Armstrong with All Outdoors
Scott Underwood with Mother Lode River Center 
Jann Dorman
Ron Stork
Keiko Mertz
Stan Dodson
Amy Stroud
Colton Johnson
Tim Lasko
Friends of the River

EPISODE CONTENT RESOURCES

The Last River Lost Episode

Restoring the Stanislaus River 

Cadillac Desert

THE RIVER RADIUS

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SPONSORS

Denver Area Nissan Dealers
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Over It Raft Covers
Instagram
Promo Code (free shipping):  riverradius
 

GUESTS

David Brown
Book for sale
Book on Facebook:  The Whitewater Wars
 

American Whitewater
40th Gauley Fest
Instagram
Facebook
 

Animal Upper Gauley Race
Ace Adventure Resort
 

Dylan Pennick 
River Company Outfitters
Instagram
Tik Tok
River Company Outfitter's: My Favorite River Podcast with David Brown
Paddle West Virginia Shirt
 

OTHER INFO

Gauley River
Gauley River National Recreation Area
Summersville Dam
West Virginia

THE RIVER RADIUS

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EPISODE SPONSORS

Over It Raft Covers
Promo Code:  riverradius

Wholesum
Promo Code:  riverradius

GUESTS
Mark Dubois
Kevin Wolf

RESOURCES
The Stanislaus River Archive
Restoring the Stanislaus River
Tim Palmer
Tim Palmer’s book:  Stanislaus: the Struggle for a River
Friends of the River
Episode Cover Photo by Tim Palmer from the Stanislaus River Archive

PICTURES OF ITEMS MENTIONED IN EPISODE

Shark's Mouth

Proposition 17

Chainings

THE RIVER RADIUS

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The South Platte River runs right through downtown Denver and as you might imagine, this river catches a lot of trash.  There are hordes of people who clean this river several times a year and have been doing so for 17 years.  Today this clean up is led by Protect Our Rivers, and the South Platte is lined up for a $350 million dollar upgrade.  This is a story of urban river people and the river they love. 

SPONSORS

Denver Area Nissan Dealers

Wholesum
Promo Code:  riverradius

GUESTS

Protect Our Rivers
Future Clean Ups
Instagram
Facebook

Down River Equipment
Instagram

Confluence Kayak and Ski
Instagram

Denver Department of Transportation and Infrastructure
Instagram

OTHER CLEANUPS

Will and Harriet’s clean up
The Confluences
Instagram

American Rivers 
National River Clean Up

THE RIVER RADIUS

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Have been using a groover this summer?  Have you cleaned one....or need to clean one?  This episode is a Re-issue of our "History of the Groover" episode from 2021.  For many overnight river trips, the groover has become as common a tool as the PFD.  Where did this groover come from, and why is a portable river toilet called a groover.  This episode finds the people who were there 50 years ago when the need for the groover emerged, and when the groover itself was created.  

EPISODE SPONSORS

Selway Fabrication
 

Wholesum
Promo Code: RIVERRADIUS
Instagram

EPISODE GUESTS

Helen Howard
Desert River Kayak, Canoe and Float Tubes

Jeff Ingram
“Hijacking a River”
“Lifetime Achievement Award”

Steven Carothers
“Steve Carothers”

LuVerne Grussing
“Guest Opinion: Congress must reauthorize Land and Water Conservation Fund”

MORE CONTENT

“Picking the Best River Toilet” from RiverBent.

“They call me Groover Boy” by Kevin Fedarko, a story of carrying the groovers on commercial river trips in the Grand Canyon. 

“Your guide to the Groover” by OARS.

THE RIVER RADIUS

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THE RIVER RADIUS

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While many river runners see Lake Powell and Glen Canyon Dam as the leading threat to the Colorado River overall and to the Grand Canyon, there is a voice that wants to keep Lake Powell in place and full of water. To understand this viewpoint and reasoning, this episode explores this topic with the BlueRibbon Coalition and Powellheadz. This episode is the companion to our recent publication of “Glen Canyon is Again Being Submerged Under Lake Powell.” 

EPISODE SPONSORS
Denver Area Nissan Dealers

Wholesum
Promo code:  RIVERRADIUS

EPISODE GUESTS

BlueRibbon Coalition
Website
Instagram
Fill Lake Powell and Path to 3588'

Powellheadz
Instagram
TikTok

EXTRA CONTENT FROM THIS EPISODE

High Flow Experiment National Park Service

Comments for 2023 Bureau of Reclamation High Flow Experiment (scroll down into the letters and look for BlueRibbon Coalition letterhead

Mandalorian / Star Wars at Lake Powell

Navajo Generating Station
Closure Article
Video of Smokestack Demolition

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Is there a relationship between forest fire scars, floods and debris flows? This episode will explore  landscapes denuded by fire and these massive storms creating floods in the fire scar zone. Is this a normal pattern? A new pattern? Coincidence? And how does understanding this correlation further our relationship with these changing landscapes? This episode explores these questions and more through the tools of western science, personal narrative, and traditional ecological knowledge.

SPONSORS
Denver Area Nissan  Dealers Website & Instagram
Wholesum Website & Instagram & Facebook

GUESTS
Bryan Maddox, author of A User’s Guide to the Wild and Scenic Cache La Poudre River
Camille Stevens-Rumann and Allison Rhea from the Colorado Forest Restoration Institute 
James Calabasa from Trees Water and People
Shayna Jones (at the time of recording) 
Megan Maiolo-Heath from the Coalition for the Poudre River Watershed

SUPPORTING INPUT
David Lasky
Rob Addington
Kara Dohrenwend of Rim to Rim Restoration 
Daniel Lay from the US forest service

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
Northern Colorado Fireshed Wildfire Risk Assessment
Video on the recent floods in Moab, UT
Article : Prioritizing Fuels Reduction for Water Supply Protection
Article : Fires Behave Differently in Different Forest Types

THE RIVER RADIUS

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Glen Canyon was home to the flowing Colorado River until 1963 when Glen Canyon Dam closed its gates creating Lake Powell.  Over the past few years, water in Powell has dropped to levels not seen since the 1960s.  The River Radius went onto Lake Powell and up into the canyons to see what has returned in these canyons as they restore to their pre Powell eco-systems and to ask the questions of what is next for Powell and Glen Canyon.  Guests are the Glen Canyon Institute and Eric Balken.     

SPONSORS

Denver Area Nissan Dealers

WHOLESUM
 

GUESTS

Glen Canyon Institute
Instagram
Facebook

FURTHER READING

Econ Report for Glen Canyon National Recreation Area

Glen Canyon National Recreation Area

Glen Canyon Dam

Lake Powell

Lake Powell Levels

Lake Powell Real Time and Historical Data

Colorado River

Colorado Compact

THE RIVER RADIUS

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