Friends of the River was founded in 1973 by Mark Dubois and Jerry Meral during the struggle to save the

Stanislaus River The Stanislaus River is a tributary of the San Joaquin River in north-central California in the United States. The main stem of the river is long, and measured to its furthest headwaters it is about long. Originating as three forks in the high ...

from

New Melones Dam New Melones Dam is an earth and rock filled embankment dam on the Stanislaus River, about west of Jamestown, California, United States, on the border of Calaveras County and Tuolumne County. The water impounded by the dam forms New Melones ...

. Some believe that the campaign to save the Stanislaus River marked the end of massive dam building in the United States, making the Stanislaus River the "last river lost". Many photographs, documents, and other materials relating to this failed campaign are available online at the Stanislaus River Digital Archive. Following that campaign, the group branched out to work to protect other California rivers. The mission of Friends of the River is to preserve and restore California's rivers, streams, and their watersheds; as well as to advocate for sustainable water management. Today, Friends of the River, a 501(c)3 organization, has nearly 6,000 members, 12 staff members, and a 12-member Board of Directors. The organization's 2009 budget was $1.06 million. The organization's flagship publication, ''Headwaters'', is published bi-annually, and has a distribution of 6,000. Friends of the River is based in

Sacramento ) , image_map = Sacramento County California Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Sacramento Highlighted.svg , mapsize = 250x200px , map_caption = Location within Sacramento ...

with field offices in

Monterey Monterey (; es, Monterrey; Ohlone: ) is a city located in Monterey County on the southern edge of Monterey Bay on the U.S. state of California's Central Coast. Founded on June 3, 1770, it functioned as the capital of Alta California under both ...

and

Valencia Valencia ( va, València) is the capital of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Valencian Community, Valencia and the Municipalities of Spain, third-most populated municipality in Spain, with 791,413 inhabitants. It is ...

. In 2005, Friends of the River joined with the

Sierra Club The Sierra Club is an environmental organization with chapters in all 50 United States, Washington D.C., and Puerto Rico. The club was founded on May 28, 1892, in San Francisco, California, by Scottish-American preservationist John Muir, who be ...

and the

South Yuba River The U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed March 10, 2011 South Yuba River is a left-entering tributary of the Yuba River originating in the northern Sierra Nevada at Lake Ang ...

Citizens League to file a motion with the

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is the United States federal agency that regulates the transmission and wholesale sale of electricity and natural gas in interstate commerce and regulates the transportation of oil by pipeline in ...

(FERC) to require the managers of

Oroville Dam Oroville Dam is an earthfill embankment dam on the Feather River east of the city of Oroville, California, in the Sierra Nevada foothills east of the Sacramento Valley. At 770 feet (235 m) high, it is the tallest dam in the U.S. and serv ...

in California to lay concrete on the emergency spillway. The motion was rejected, and approximately 12 years later the emergency

spillway A spillway is a structure used to provide the controlled release of water downstream from a dam or levee, typically into the riverbed of the dammed river itself. In the United Kingdom, they may be known as overflow channels. Spillways ensure tha ...

was used and began to erode, threatening the dam with potential collapse. Oroville and the surrounding area were evacuated.

Evaluations

Charity Navigator Charity Navigator is a charity assessment organization that evaluates hundreds of thousands of charitable organizations based in the United States, operating as a free 501(c)(3) organization. It provides insights into a nonprofit’s financial s ...

gives the organization four stars out of four for accountability and transparency and three out of four stars overall. In fiscal year ending 12/2014, the organization spent 69.5% of its revenue on program expenses, 13.9% on administrative expenses, and 16.6% on fundraising expenses.

References

External links

Friends of the River web site
* * Non-profit organizations based in California Environmental organizations based in California {{environmental-org-stub