Programs

Yadkin Riverkeeper works to provide a clean and healthy river, whose benefits are shared in a sustainable and equitable way.  Please support the following programs designed to protect the river and educate the public.

Tour de Yadkin 2012

Tour de Yadkin seeks to:

  1. Celebrate the river by encouraging public participation in on the water recreation, such as kayaking, canoeing, fishing, hiking and camping;
  2. Increase public awareness about ecotourism opportunities throughout the Yadkin River Basin.
  3. Raise the profile of the Yadkin River and its importance as a public water supply, as it provides water to over one million people in and around the Triad region.
  4. Celebrate the 40th Anniversary of the Clean Water Act by educating the public about the numerous threat facing the Yadkin River, and incorporating the Clean Water Act’s primary goals of fishable, swimmable, and drinkable water.

Dean Naujoks, our Riverkeeper, will paddle the entire length of the Yadkin River from June 6th to 23rd, beginning at the tail waters of the Yadkin below W. Kerr Scott Lake and ending at the river’s confluence with the Pee Dee River at Morrow Mountain State Park. Please sponsor a mile of Dean's trip, to help us continue to be able to monitor the status of the Yadkin!

Operation Medicine Cabinet

Operation Medicine Cabinet Overview

Operation Medicine Cabinet is a collaborative effort of law enforcement, health and safety, substance abuse prevention, environmental organizations and others. We are working together to protect our kids, communities and waters from the dangers of leftover prescription drugs. Yadkin Riverkeeper is proud to participate in this collaborative effort.

OMC has two goals: to stop pharmaceutical flushing that pollutes water and to eliminate unused medications unsafely stored in households, which can cause unintentional poisoning or be misappropriated. OMC partners law enforcement with the public through Take-Back events that provide a safe, anonymous opportunity for the public to dispose of unused medicines. Through events and education, OMC increases both public and organizational participation to reduce the harmful practice of pharmaceutical flushing.

River Protection Program

Riverkeeper Dean NaujoksThe Yadkin Riverkeeper® River Protection Program sponsors a full-time Riverkeeper licensed by the National Waterkeeper® Alliance. The role of the Yadkin Riverkeeper is to protect water quality throughout the Yadkin River basin through routine patrols, analyzing sewage discharge permits, and working with regulators and elected officials to enforce compliance with the federal Clean Water Act and NC pollution control laws.

The Yadkin River Story


UPDATE:
The Winter/Spring 2011 issue of North Carolina Conversations, a publication of the North Carolina Humanities Council, included a lengthy article by Pheobe Zerwick on the Yadkin River Story, accompanied by Christine Rucker's photos. Click the publication's title above to read the entire article on the NC Humanities Council website. The North Carolina Humanities Council is a statewide nonprofit and affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
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Yadkin River Story is a multimedia documentary project about a stretch of the Yadkin River near the East Bend and the people who have made the river a part of their lives. Photographer Christine Rucker and writer Pheobe Zerwick combined their talents for the project. They partnered with the Yadkin Riverkeeper to obtain grants from the N.C. Humanities Council, the John W. and Anna H. Hanes Foundation and the Arts Council of Winston-Salem/Forsyth County.

Muddy Water Watch

Muddy Water Watch (MWW) is a state-wide initiative to reduce stormwater runoff from construction sites by providing training workshops and materials developed specifically for citizens on the NC Sedimentation Pollution Control Act of 1973 and the NC NPDES General Permit for construction stormwater runoff. MWW was developed so that trained volunteers will be able to properly identify sedimentation and erosion violations from active construction sites, as well as document poorly maintained Best Management Practices (BMP’s).

Floating Classroom

floating classroom exampleThe goal of a Floating Classroom Program is to educate and motivate our youth to become more responsible stewards of our state's water resources, not only by experiencing estuarine water quality research firsthand, but also by learning about the policy issues that affect estuarine health, and by understanding how each person can contribute to protection of our state's public trust aquatic resources.