Protect Our Rivers is a relatively young but tenacious and fast-growing organization. We had the opportunity to sit down with founder and executive director, Sarah Nelson to chat about the organization’s rapid success, meaningful impacts, and what’s on the horizon.

The idea for Protect Our Rivers began on a float trip. And ultimately, drawing people in by creating a passion for rivers has proven to be wildly successful.

“We started by picking up trash and getting people out on the river,” Sarah began. “And we saw quickly how well that model worked. Instead of just passing out information or telling people what was going on, we were able to show them first hand that our rivers need our love.

“We can point fingers at our government, who will point fingers at corporations, who will point fingers back at us, but that’s not how problems get solved. One of the best ways to fix things is to affect human behavior. And that happens when you get them to love something, when they become advocates. So our approach is to create that love. And out of that passion, we become advocates who can make an impact.”

According to Sarah, Protect Our Rivers has made a conscious effort to design its programs around shaping people’s experience through river cleanup events, conversations and recreation activities.

“What we’ve learned at our cleanup events is that those first-hand experiences give people a much higher level of care. And for an organization that’s only two years old, it just caught fire from there,” Sarah recounted. “To the point where now, groups are reaching out asking if we can host a cleanup for their company. It has grown organically, as sponsors have begun populating our calendar with more events, wanting to get their people out on the river as well.” 

Sarah has a background in marketing and in a previous role, she had the opportunity to take a trip down Cataract Canyon, which flows through Canyonlands National Park in Utah. That trip became the spark for what Sarah decided to do next.

“I had never experienced anything like it,” Sarah told us. “The whole river community, that level of care and camaraderie was very inspiring. I fell in love with the river and I wanted to do something to help preserve that.

“When I came back from that trip, COVID hit,” she continued. “I lost my job. And then my dad died around that same time. I had one of those moments when I realized that life is way too short. I wanted to do something big and that was starting a nonprofit.”

The year 2020 was a tough one for Sarah, just like it was for so many of us. She said that all that negativity was a big motivator to connect people to rivers, and to show them that they could do something.

“We’re only two years old and up to this point, our focus has been on that hands-on type of conservation work,” Sarah explained. “We do on-water and off-water cleanups. In addition to that, we are now working to introduce a greater education component into what we do. For example, we’re working on getting kids actively engaged in what happens with point-source and non-point-source pollution, as well as collaborating on boater education projects.”

And according to Sarah, access is going to be another big pillar for Protect Our Rivers as the organization continues to grow. 

“One of the access efforts we want to focus on, is opportunities for under-privileged kids,” she explained. “We will be launching a fundraiser that will allow kids to go experience a river for a day and learn some new skills. We want to help facilitate those experiences for those who may not otherwise have the opportunity to engage in a river activity.”

Looking ahead toward the future, Protect Our Rivers will continue to organize cleanup events. And according to Sarah, the organization is finding new ways to create partnerships in the community, which will in turn help scale that work to create even larger impacts.

“For example we have some Boy Scouts events on our radar this summer, where we can have all these Boy Scout groups join up together in an effort. And then we have the South Platte Cleanup coming up later this month.”

The South Platte River Cleanup will happen on Saturday, April 29th in Denver. This is a great example of the broader community and multiple organizations coming together to make things happen. Click here for more information and to RSVP for that event.

“It has been so exciting to see people of all ages have an experience like this,” Sarah added. “And it’s definitely having ripple effects. We’ve had kids reach out to us who are interested in doing their own river cleanups. People send us pictures while they are out working to clean up their own waterways.

“Two things that have been most impressive to me are the partners that we’ve had the privilege of working with, and our volunteers,” Sarah told us. “I feel so lucky to be able to work with the people we do. It’s insane that our partner organizations have gone above and beyond to support us as a young nonprofit. So I guess that means we’ve done something right. And then our volunteers are just absolutely relentless.

“Come join us on a cleanup!” Sarah concluded. “Go to our events page and be a part of this incredible community.”

We’d like to extend a big thanks to Sarah for taking the time to share with us her experience and the passion behind Protect Our Rivers. And we would encourage anyone to come join us for the South Platte River Cleanup on April 29th! It’s going to be a great event and a great way to show some love for our local river.