Preface
The Hudson Valley has long been considered the birthplace of the modern American environmental movement. In the 1960s a small group of scientists, fishermen and concerned citizens led by Robert H. Boyle, author of The Hudson River, A Natural and Unnatural History and a senior writer at Sports Illustrated, were determined to reverse the decline of the then-polluted Hudson River by confronting the polluters through citizen enforcement of public use rights and democratic ecological governance. Riverkeeper grew out of "a blue-collar coalition of commercial and recreational fishermen" who organized to reclaim the Hudson River from polluters. While Riverkeeper aids national and international networks guard local waterways, their grassroots actions are unique. Where many local efforts use protests and high-risk defiance of authority, Riverkeeper seeks citizen empowerment in environmental law. After filing claims with government agencies such as the Army Corps of Engineers, this mobilized body politic saw how business interests clouded government actions. They believe ordinary people should be able to defend public resources from abuse and it was by such actions to protect communal watershed quality that legal standing was given to United States' citizens in environmental disputes.
Read more about this topic: Riverkeeper
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