The River Radius Podcast

Atmospheric Rivers are bands of water vapor in the sky, sometimes a few thousand miles long, bringing winter moisture to the west coast of North America and delivering it all the way to the Rocky Mountains. The Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes flies research planes above these storms all winter tracking the details and forecasting the coming storm and this episode hosts their director to learn about Atmospheric Rivers.  

SPONSORS

Down River Equipment
Raftopia 2024 Sales Event
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Denver Area Nissan Dealers
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GUESTS

Marty Ralph
Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes
Scripps Institution of Oceanography
University of California San Diego

AR short video (great graphic diagram)

Thumbnail pic credit:  Scripps Institute of Oceanography, Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes

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American Whitewater published their Top 10 List of Stewardship issues in January 2024.  This is a mix of dam removal projects, legislation and policy pushes, Wild and Scenic options, all encompassed in the work from American Whitewater to keep rivers clean and accessible.  This episode is an interview Kevin Colburn from American Whitewater learning about each river on this list and the positive end goals. 

SPONSORS

AED One Stop Shop

Over It Raft Covers
@overitraftcovers

GUESTS
American Whitewater Website
@americanwhitewater
Facebook
AW Membership
@kevincolburn42

 

THE RIVER RADIUS

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The river guiding and river running world are sometimes perceived as idyllic and welcoming.  When is it something different?  Our guest today is an openly gay man, and he share’s his story of working as a river guide and guide company manager for the past decade and how some of that is idyllic, and other parts are full of discrimination. 

SPONSORS
Denver Area Nissan Dealers
@nissanusa
www.nissanusa.com

AED ONE STOP SHOP
Volume and Outfitter Discounts

THE RIVER RADIUS

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The Mountain Hydrology Lab at West Virginia University has defined the density of whitewater river runs in the United States and cross referenced this data with how climate change will alter those flows, and how changes in river flows, to include low flows and floods, will impact the people living along those rivers. This episode talks at length with the Director of the Mountain Hydrology Lab, who is also a stout river kayaker, Associate Professor Nicolas Zegre about this work his students are doing, how West Virginia has the most dense collection of whitewater runs, and where students can gain excellent river based educations.  
 

EPISODE SPONSORS

AED One-Stop Shop

Denver Area Nissan Dealers
Instagram

EPISODE GUESTS

Nicolas “Nico” Zegre, Associate Professor Forest Hydrology
Mountain Hydrology Lab
West Virginia University
Instagram

A note from Prof. Nico Zegre about the research work:  
“sincerest gratitude to whitewater boater and recent graduate student of the MHL, Melissa “Mel” Shafer, who conducted the future boatable days analysis for the lower 48 states”

ORGANIZATIONS FROM EPISODE

Friends of the Cheat
@cheatriverfriends

WV Rivers
@wvrivers

Highland Outdoors
Facebook   

River Management Society River Studies & Leadership Certificate
@rivermgtsociety

Climate Central    
@climatecentral

Center For Resilient Communities


EPISODE CO-HOST

Dylan Penick
River Company Outfitters
Instagram
Tik Tok

THE RIVER RADIUS

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In the first episode of 2024, a commercial river guide tells his story of having a massive heart attack while guiding a trip in May of 2023 on the South Fork of the American River in California. This episode is recorded with an audience of river guides and outfitters. Beyond the story is the question of the role of AEDs in commercial river guiding. 

SPONSORS
AED One-Stop Shop Bulk Order Discount

Covered With Carrie website
 

CONFERENCE
American Outdoors Association
Instagram

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There are numerous authors and media professionals doing work to explore river topics.  To close out the 2023 river and podcast year, this episode hosts two of the best.  Heather Hansman is an author writing books and magazine articles.  Teal Lehto, a.k.a., “Western Water Girl” is a social media content creator.  We talk through their respective crafts, leadership in river conservation and trending topics.  

SPONSORS
Covered with Carrie

Denver Area Nissan Dealers
Instagram

GUESTS
Heather Hansman
Website
Instagram
Link Tree

Teal Lehto
Instagram
Tik Tok

THE RIVER RADIUS

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The Klamath River 2nd episode. In the Spring of 2025, a group of teenagers from several Tribal Nations of the Klamath River Basin and greater region will descend the newly undammed Klamath River from source to sea. These teens began learning how to kayak in 2022 and 2023, began learning about river policy and fish science, and are bringing their family stories to the river with them. In the summer of 2023 The River Radius spent a week with these young paddlers on the water and on the microphone capturing their story. 

SPONSORS
NRS LEAD Program
NRS website
NRS Instagram
Mighty Arrow Foundation
Virga Foundation 
American Whitewater   @americanwhitewater

GUESTS
Students of PTW
Danielle Frank, aka Ducky, Instagram, Vogue Magazine interview
Rios To Rivers  Instagram
Paddle Tribal Waters
Klamath River Renewal Corporation, Ren Brownell

FURTHER CONTENT
Upper Klamath Lake
Klamath River
Klamath Dams
Fish Kill
Story Map: History of Klamath Irrigation
Klamath River Renewal
Dam Removal News
LA Times

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After 100 years of dams stagnating the flows of the Klamath River and killing the Salmon runs, a group of teenagers from the tribal nations of the Klamath Basin will paddle the Klamath from source to sea to usher in the post-dam Klamath.  In this 1st of 2 episodes on the topic, the founders of Rios to Rivers & Paddle Tribal Waters explain how their own paddle experiences and time travel, brought the inception of this powerful passage. 

SPONSORS
NRS  @nrsweb
Mighty Arrow Foundation
Virga Foundation 
American Whitewater   @americanwhitewater

GUESTS
Ashia Grae Wolf Wilson  Rios to River bio
Paul Robert Wolf Wilson  Instagram  Rios to River bio
Weston Boyles  Instagram  Instagram  Rios to River bio
Rios To Rivers  Instagram
Paddle Tribal Waters

FURTHER CONTENT
Upper Klamath Lake
Klamath River
Klamath Dams
Fish Kill
Story Map: History of Klamath Irrigation
Klamath River Renewal
Dam Removal News
LA Times

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Payson Kennedy at 39 was a career academic, and with his wife Aurelia had four kids, a house, and two cars in Atlanta.  After working on the stunt team for the film Deliverance in 1971 and a summer running a raft company, he and his wife decided to leave it all behind and with a good friend, started the Nantahala Outdoor Center.  Today, 50 years later, the Nantahala Outdoor Center is one of the most important and successful river guide operations and instruction schools in the river world. 

SPONSORS

Denver Area Nissan Dealers
Instagram

Over it Raft Covers
Instagram
Promocode for free shipping:  riverradius

GUESTS
Payson Kennedy
Int'l Whitewater Hall of Fame
Books

Nantahala Outdoor Center, NOC
Instagram
Wikipedia
History of NOC
 

LINKS

Deliverance

The Flow State

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

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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
 

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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
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Facebook
Email

THE RIVER RADIUS

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SPONSORS

Denver Area Nissan Dealers
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Over It Raft Covers
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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

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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

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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.

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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

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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

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An exploration of unions in river guiding. Why aren’t they common? Why do some guides want them?  A guide forms a union. One outfitter assesses the viability of unions on multi-day rivers. A guide turned outfitter on the Ocoee River provides healthcare to her guides. A boater turned insurance agent teaches provides healthcare insurance to river guides.  

EPISODE SPONSORS:

Nissan Denver Area @nissanusa

Dolores Area Businesses

• High Desert Life Outdoors @highdesert.life
• Dolores Outfitters @doloresoutfitters
• Kelly’s Kitchen @kellskitchendolores
• Wild Edge Brewing Collective @wildedgebrewing
• Dolores Food Market 2doloresfoodmarkt
• Dolores River Brewery @doloresriverbrewery
• Montezuma Mexican Restaurant @montezumamexican

EPISODE GUESTS:

Contributing Host Greg Cairns

Greg's film website

BC Rimbeaux

Dustin Ahern @idahoriveradventures

Idaho River Adventures

Sara Beth @oarafting   

Outdoor Adventure Rafting

Carrie Soulliere      On Facebook

Covered with Carrie

Article about Executive Order to Raise Federal Minimum Wage for Contract Workers

THE RIVER RADIUS

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