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About American Whitewater
American Whitewater (AW) is a national organization with a membership of almost 8,000 individual whitewater boating enthusiasts--and more than 160 local paddling club affiliates. It is a non-profit organization whose work is done by lots of volunteers such as the regional coordinators, a few paid staff, and a board of directors.
Activities fall into five main areas.
Education: Through publication of its magazine, American Whitewater, and by other means,
AW provides information and education about whitewater rivers, boating safety, technique, and equipment.
Conservation: AW maintains a complete national inventory of whitewater rivers, monitors threats to those rivers, publishes information on river conservation, provides technical advice to local groups, works with government agencies, and --when necessary -- takes legal action to prevent river abuse.
Events: AW organizes sporting events, contests and festivals to raise funds for river conservation, including the Ocoee
Games in Tennessee and the annual Gauley River
Festival in West Virginia, the largest gathering of whitewater boaters in the nation.
Safety: AW promotes paddling safety, publishes reports on whitewater accidents, and maintains both a uniform national ranking system for whitewater rivers (the International Scale
of Whitewater Difficulty) as well as an internationally recognized whitewater safety code.
See the latest report.
River Access: To assure public access to Whitewater Rivers AW arranges for river access through private lands by negotiation or purchase, seeks to protect the right of public passage on all rivers and streams navigable by kayak or canoe, and resists unjustified restrictions on government-managed whitewater rivers.
In the East Tennessee area, AW's current focus is on the following areas:
The Obed/Emory - gauges, cleanups & access...particularly
Devil's Breakfast Table (DBT)
Caney Fork - a proposed dam & access
Big South Fork - access, trails and conservation
The Smokies - check the Tapoco
Project Citizen's Resource page with TCWN and read a new
aricle on Cheoah/Topoco hydro re-licensing process
Nantahala Gorge - hydro re-licensing process
& access
Pigeon - water quality and access to "the drys"
River Safety
Increasing AW Membership
The AW Regional Coordinators for this area of Tennessee are Jason Darby
and Dale Robinson
Volunteers are always welcome to help on these and other issues and projects. Input is appreciated to help advance the mission of AW.
For more information about American Whitewater, check out their
website. To identify the Regional Coordinator in other areas of the US, visit the listing
at the AW site.
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