Chasing the Channel- Blog No. 36

Long summer days make for plenty of opportunities to enjoy the Kansas River!

I love spring in Kansas, but more directly, I love the month of June.  The longer days, native flowers are blooming, the Kansas River flows are usually pretty good for our work, and the most amazing sunrise and sunsets anywhere in the world.  If I could bottle up one month and hold it all year, for me it would be June. 

Like all spring seasons, we are very busy.  This is the time to get everyone outside to engage with the river and to educate young people about water quality.  We held educational paddle trips with college level groups to use the Kansas River as a living classroom.  Joey also enjoyed a busy yet fun spring season with our water quality education program in the schools.  One of the most impactful programs that we do is teaching young people about how macro-invertebrates are indicators of water quality.  You don’t need fancy water testing equipment, you just need a good understanding of macro-invertebrates and which ones are indicators of good water quality – and what the absence of those macros means for water quality.

Did you see the podcast about our work, UP FROM DUST, from KCUR?  We were so thrilled to be invited to participate in the Podcast!  Celia Llopis-Jepsen joined us on the Kansas River last March when we were removing tires near De Soto.  I also did an in-studio interview earlier this year.  Celia then interviewed all our Kaw River Guides that were on the sandbar for the cleanup.  The result was so good – because it tells our story and the story of the Kansas River.  Please go and listen to the Up From Dust Podcast from KCUR, then reach out and let us know what you think.  If you feel inclined, please consider a donation towards this important work.  It is expensive work!  Pleases consider a donation here: https://kansasriver.org/donation/?did=1

Spring and fall are by far the best seasons for river cleanups.  Spring is a good time for the land-based cleanups and fall is best for in-river cleanups.  This spring we held cleanups in Lawrence, Manhattan, and Topeka.  Thank you to all of you for helping us keep the river clean, because all trash is one windy day away from a river or stream.  Mark your calendar to join us for the 2^nd Annual One KC Cleanup in Kansas City, Kansas coming on Saturday, September 13, 2025.  Links to sign up are coming soon, so stay tuned to our newsletter and social media.

Our Kaw River Guides are back in full force this year – cleaning up the river, assisting with river checks, and helping the public learn how to paddle on the Kansas River. Our season is packed and we could not do this important work without them!  If you are interested in joining the group, we’d be glad to have you.  Reach out to me at riverkeeper@kansasriver.org.

We have held a host of events so far this year – including Beginner Wednesday’s; Beginner Camping; Themed Paddles such as Birds and Rivers, Bones on the Kaw, and Geology of the Kaw; and Kaw Currents, our educational series to learn more from our partners about a variety of topics relating to the Kansas River.  Thank you to everyone of you that joined us for one of these events. We have had so much fun getting to know you and sharing our love for the river! 

Switching gears, the Kansas Water Authority met twice since I last wrote this blog post. We met in April in Deerfield, KS and in June in Hutchinson, KS.  We have been working to restructure our committees to align with the State Water Plan. Each committee will be responsible for making budget recommendations and policy recommendations as we work to inform the Governor, the Legislature, and the Director of the Kansas Water Office on these issues.  Budgets are due from the agencies in September and our policy recommendations are included in the Annual Report to the Legislature that we approve in December each year.  In other news, the Water Planning Task Force is underway as detailed in House Bill 2172. The appointments have been made along with legislative leadership.  Their goal as outlined is for the task force to evaluate major risks to the quality and quantity of the state’s water supply, identify steps that the state must take to define and achieve a future supply of water for Kansans, and evaluate current funding.  The meeting dates have been announced with the first two on July 21 and 28 via online platform and then a two-day meeting in Dodge City on August 11 and 12. These meetings are open to public and you can find the information on the legislative YouTube channel.  We will also post any information announced to our social media.  Finally, on a sad note, one of our dear friends and members of the Kansas Water Authority passed away suddenly.  Our dear friend John was a champion for the public, for the long-term future water supply, and for the need to regionalize and combined water systems for the benefit of the public.  We will continue to carry John’s message and we will miss his voice and friendship. 

For my last update, but certainly not the least, I wanted to take a moment to publicly say THANK YOU to the Evergy Green Team for the donation of a “new to us” truck!  We are so very grateful for the partnership with the Green Team for over a decade to remove tires and heavy trash from the Kansas River.  We use our truck for river cleanups, educational events, and to haul our trailers full of kayaks and our jon boat.  We keep the truck busy…thank you Evergy Green Team for this incredible gift! 

In closing, the season is not over.  We have many more events coming up this fall and we hope to see you out there.  Also mark your calendar for Beers of the Kaw on Sunday, November 2, 2025 at Abe & Jake’s Landing in Lawrence.  Tickets will go on sale in September! 

In the meantime, I hope that you have sand in your shoes.

For the river,
Dawn Buehler

Kansas Riverkeeper & Executive Director

Chasing the Channel- Blog No. 35

Tires, River Checks, and the Start of our Season!

If you were to take a survey of our Kaw River Guides, you would find that many have a favorite section of the Kansas River. Maybe they grew up there, maybe it was the first time they were on the river, but regardless they would tell you that they know it like the back of their hand. That’s how I feel about the stretch of the Kansas River from Eudora to DeSoto. I have spent countless hours on the river there during my childhood and into my adult years…fishing, canoeing, and camping. We had a jon boat that we motored up to our favorite fishing hole to catch big catfish when I was young.  We had a sandbar just off the farm where we would camp for the night. We had a huge family and friend canoe float back in the late 70’s and early 80’s that included my husband and his family and many of our friends. This was our stretch of river and I’ve known it my entire life. I know every curve, every sandbar, every tributary.  When I started this job over 10 years ago, I was ready to clean up the river.  I knew the old dump sites, tires, and scattered debris. I was ready to do my part to leave it a better place for my family. My family has been deeply rooted in the Kaw River Valley in DeSoto for over 150 years and I am proud to call it home. 

We have removed over 4,000 tires from the Kansas River in the last five years. The tires are often what we call “failed bank stabilization projects,” meaning that the tires were placed to protect the farms along the river as bank stabilization. What we now know is that tires do not hold the bank – only native trees and deep-rooted grasses do that work.  So here we are decades later and all these tires are pushed out of the banks and into sandbars every time we get a big flood. Think about 1993 and 2019 as examples of tires shifting and moving with the force of the river. So that’s how we got here.  Now how to fix it.

About six years ago, I made a bold goal that Friends of the Kaw would remove all the old trash and dump sites from our river. I knew it was a heavy lift – literally – but I also knew that our Kaw River Guides and partners were up to the challenge. We are well on our way, but the site of tires in my home stretch has been a challenge. We have so far removed 467 tires from this one site between Eudora and DeSoto. We have about another 250 to be removed and we estimate another couple hundred that we have not even pulled out of the river yet.  It is hard to imagine that one site could have close to 1,000 tires! 

Cleaning up rivers is physically hard, logistically challenging, and expensive. Thank you to everyone that has sponsored the events or donated – every dollar makes a difference, just like every tire makes a difference. A heartflet thank you to every volunteer Kaw River Guide that has pulled tires out. Thank you for making our work happen! 

Spring is here….and that means cleanups, water quality education, restoration work, and educational paddle trips!  We love spring here at FOK….don’t get me wrong, we are all exhausted beyond exhausted at the end of October each year, but around February we begin to recover and we are ready to go again! Often, we get asked if winter is our slow season, and the answer is NO – there is never a slow season but the seasons are vastly different. We just spent the winter planning for the season, writing grants, fundraising so that our work can continue, getting our first aid and wilderness training up to date, repairing gear, did I say write grants?  The work of a non-profit is never done, but we do find great purpose in our work and our mission.  We sleep good at night knowing we are doing good work.

Joey hosted our first water quality education workshop in March and we are thrilled to have some new volunteers ready to go. This education program is one of our sources of pride, knowing that we are educating the next generation about water quality. Joey kicked off the season at Eudora and has many classes lined up this spring. We are excited to hear from the students!

Our annual Kaw River Guide Workshop is coming up on May 3^rd.  If you have ever thought about joining us as a Kaw River Guide, just come to this workshop to learn more. This is not a commitment, but an opportunity for you to see if you wish to volunteer and give back in this way. We have a very welcoming and inclusive group and I hope you will consider joining us. You can learn more here, including the link to RSVP: https://kansasriver.org/get-involved/volunteer/kaw-river-guide/.  Please reach out to me at riverkeeper@kansasriver.org if you have questions. I’m happy to help! 

We are wrapping up the final work days for our Riverbank Restoration Project! The last work day is May 15 in Eudora.  It is hard to believe that this project is coming to an end.  I remember starting the first Riverbank Restoration Project in 2018 with Courtney of Native Lands.  We met at a networking event and hit it off instantly and started brainstorming about how we could work together.  We decided that native plants and rivers go together – protecting water quality – and from there our work began.  It has been a great ride!  Kim has done an amazing job of taking this project and others in ways that have greatly benefited the Kansas River. While we do not have a new project of this kind coming up anytime soon, we do hope to incorporate work like this into future projects. When we protect the watershed of the Kansas River, we protect the drinking water source for over 950,000 Kansans. 

If you’ve made it this far – thank you for hanging in there with me on my rambling blog posts. Our big cleanups are coming up and we hope you can join us.  Each of our big river cleanups has a river portion for our Kaw River Guides and a bank cleanup for the public. We welcome both families with young children and those that like to climb steep areas and get filthy.  There is always something for everyone to do to help.  Save the dates – April 19 we will be in Lawrence to celebrate Earth Day; May 10 in Manhattan; and June 14 in Topeka.  You can learn more here and RSVP:  https://kansasriver.org/cleanup-schedule/

Lastly, I must mention our Spring Day of Giving, scheduled for Earth Day on April 22, 2025.  We hope that you will consider a gift to Friends of the Kaw to support all this important work that we have scheduled this year.  As always, it is because of you that we can do this work.  If you want to donate early, you can do so here: https://kansasriver.org/donation/?did=1

Well…are we ready for river season?  Ready or not, let’s go!  Please join us for Beginner Wednesday or Beginner Camping (https://www.eventbrite.com/o/friends-of-the-kaw-17751155327), a river cleanup, or just drop by the boat ramp when we have an event and say hello! Honestly, that is one of our favorite things is when people stop us to say hello. We always have our FOK gear on, so you should be able to spot us.  Say hello, tell us a story about your connection to the Kansas River!

As we start the season, I truly hope that you have sand in your shoes.

For the river,
Dawn Buehler

Kansas Riverkeeper

Chasing the Channel- Blog No. 34

2025, Legislature, and Forward Progress

Friends…welcome to 2025 at Friends of the Kaw.  The end of the year marked great progress in our work for the Kansas River, thanks to you!  We successfully helped people discover the Kansas River while providing educational and outdoor experiences.  It was a successful year and we are proud of our accomplishments that included 31 river and cleanup trips with 4,581 volunteer hours, 15 restoration events with 305 volunteer hours, 106 water quality education classes to 2,523 students, 17 media opportunities, 10 events to 10,313 people, and 30 presentations to 2,630 people….whew!  All of this with four full time staff, thirteen board members, 705 volunteers, and YOU!  Thank you for the gift of your time, membership, and donations that make all this work possible for the Kansas River. She deserves our efforts!

I spent my time as Chair of the Kansas Water Authority (KWA) in 2024 working towards an implementation framework for the Kansas Water Plan.  Together with the water related agencies, Kansas Water Authority, Regional Advisory Committees and YOU, we showed up for public meetings and shared our perspective about how water touches our everyday lives.  I am proud to share that the KWA’s final report was delivered to Governor Laura Kelly and the Kansas Legislature in January.  You can read the final report here.

The Kansas Water Authority also completed our statutory requirement to complete the Annual Report and it was also delivered to Governor Laura Kelly and the Kansas Legislature in January.  I also presented this report to three committees during our legislative visits.  You can read the Annual Report here.

In the KWA’s Annual Report, we made policy recommendations that include a request to increase funding to the State Water Plan.  If you support long term water funding, please reach out to your legislator, and share why it is important to you. 

I also was honored to attend the State of the State Address by Governor Laura Kelly.  We are grateful for her continued leadership on water issues, as outlined in her Address, which you can find here.

If you follow us on social media, you may have already seen that we did a river check in late December to check on the status of the illegal dump on the Kansas River with the contents of the former Docking Building.  We were very pleased to see and report that the debris had been removed.  We are thankful to the many agencies, neighbors, and FOK that advocated for the removal of this dump site. 

In late 2024, I was accepted to the newly formed Regional Advisory Board for the cleanup of the former Sunflower Army Ammunition Plant in De Soto, KS.  As many of you know, De Soto is my hometown where I was raised on the Kansas River.  The committee has met once and the meetings are open to the public.

Who is ready for spring?  I am not a snow fan, but I do love the moisture.  Some of my favorite parts of the winter season at FOK include planning for the coming year.  We have mapped out our entire 2025 calendar, which you can find here, so start planning how to make 2025 your RIVER YEAR!

Just yesterday, I loaded all our Beginner Wednesday Paddle events as well as one Beginner Camping event.  Signups are open, so get your reservation and reserve your spot here!

We have six big cleanups planned this year, with four offering public opportunities to participate.  Those details and signups are coming soon, but for now you can mark your calendar by getting the dates from our calendar: https://kansasriver.org/eventcalendar/. We hope you can join us – we have some big work to do together.

We are bringing back our educational event series this year so stay tuned for more information.  Topics this year include Climate Change and the Kansas River, Water Quality in the Kansas River and more!  These fun and informative educational events are a great way to socialize and learn more about the river that we all love!

If you have ever wanted to join our Kaw River Guide Program, our workshop will be coming up in early May.  We hope you will consider joining our inclusive group of river rats that love to get dirty, pull-out tires, help me with river checks, and help the public.  Even if you can only volunteer once or twice a year, it is worth it to spend a day on the water with these river stewards and become a part of the group! 

Kim and Joey have been busy with our water quality education program.  They are working on curriculum for our online program including creating a groundwater module with the Kansas Geological Survey.  We can’t wait to share this new program with all of you when it is finished.  In the meantime, they are also getting ready for the spring season in the schools.  Joey can’t wait to get back into the classroom and along the local stream to teach students about macro-invertebrates! 

Thank you to each one of you that supports our work for the Kansas River.  We could not accomplish so much with so few staff without your support and the 700 volunteers that commit to the Kansas River every day.

Join me to slide into spring…sunny days ahead and warmer temperatures make for beautiful river days. 

May you always have sand in your shoes…

For the river,

Dawn Buehler

Kansas Riverkeeper