At Riverkeeper, we value:

We envision a future in which the Hudson River, its tributaries and watershed, and the New York City drinking watershed are:

Our 2020-2025 strategic plan set Riverkeeper on a course for deeper and greater impact on the Hudson River, its tributaries, ecosystems, watersheds, drinking water supplies and the communities that depend on them. Our goal is for the Hudson River and our drinking water supplies to be valued and stewarded by all. For the Hudson and our communities to thrive, in the years ahead, we must all become riverkeepers.

The river was dying. Run-down factories choked it with hazardous waste– poisoning fish, threatening drinking water supplies, and ruining world-class havens for boating and swimming. Sadly, America‘s “First River“ had become little more than an industrial sewer.

It was 1966 and the Hudson River fishermen decided they’d had enough. The Hudson was their environment, their workplace, their home — in short the centerpiece of their communities. When their catch reeked from oil spilled daily into the river, they decided to band together, forming the Hudson River Fishermen’s Association (Riverkeeper’s precursor), and use a decades-old federal law to turn the tide from ruin to recovery.

Their first public meeting was at the American Legion Hall in Crotonville, New York. A standing room crowd, hung from the rafters and pressed against the rifle racks, whooped and hollered wildly when newly-elected president Ritchie Garrett promised his new followers, “I‘ll be the last to let you down.“

Men and women rose to take the microphone and extol the River. Rivermen from Verplanck and Claverack, some descended from generations of commercial fishermen, spoke of the great runs of striped bass, blue fish, and shad; of giant sturgeon bursting with caviar; of herring and alewives so numerous they turned the tributaries to quicksilver; the succulent blue crab and lucrative eel; or the gefilte fish fishery that peaked during Jewish holidays. Recreational fishermen boasted of the trout, black bass and perch they caught on plugs, the youngsters who would net shrimp, goldfish or herring for bait in the marsh at the mouth of the Croton, and how most of Crotonville congregated on its beaches in the summer months for beer and barbecues.

But each of them fretted about what was happening to the River – the polluters were effectively stealing it from the public. New York City was dumping 1.5 billion gallons per day of raw sewage into the River, the paint from Tarrytown‘s GM plant dyed the River a new color each week, the Indian Point power plant was killing millions of fish each day, the National Guard was filling tidal wetlands at Camp Smith, and Penn Central Railroad was discharging oil from a pipe at the Croton Rail Yard. The oil floated up the Croton on the tide, blackening the beaches and making the shad taste of diesel.

Then Bob Boyle, an ornery fly fisherman and outdoor writer for Sports Illustrated, rose to speak. In the course of researching an article about angling in the River two years earlier, he‘d stumbled across two little known laws: the Rivers and Harbors Act of 1888 and the Refuse Act of 1899. These statutes forbade pollution of American waters and provided a bounty reward for whoever reported the violation.

After listening to Boyle with escalating excitement, the American Legion crowd agreed to organize themselves to track down and prosecute the Hudson‘s polluters one at a time until they were all eliminated. They were as good as their word. Two years later they shut down the Penn Central Pipe and collected $2,000, the first bounty ever awarded under the 19th-century statute. They were soon collecting even larger bounties against Standard Brands, Ciba-Geigy, American Cynamid, Westchester County, Anaconda Wire and Copper and many others. The Fishermen also had joined with Scenic Hudson in a lawsuit to stop Con Edison‘s proposal to build a hydroelectric facility on Storm King Mountain. It was, in large part, the discovery of a striped bass spawning ground near the project site that ultimately derailed the deal. The Fishermen used winnings from these cases to build and launch a Riverkeeper boat, which today patrols the Hudson searching out environmental lawbreakers and bringing them to justice.

Today, Riverkeeper continues its fight, seeking out polluters and teaming with citizen scientists and activists to reclaim the Hudson River. And, we also work to ensure that over nine million New Yorkers have clean, safe drinking water. Today, pollution levels are down, and swimming and boating are back.

But the Hudson‘s recovery is still fragile, still incomplete. Some fish species have not recovered, and many remain too toxic to eat; pollution levels spike with every rainfall. Mammoth cuts in government spending threaten to reverse a half-century of water quality gains, and we face the challenges of antiquated power plants, climate change, and emerging, harmful pollutants.

Riverkeeper‘s vision is of a Hudson teeming with life, with engaged communities boating, fishing and swimming throughout its watershed.