Georgia Rivers Alive

Rivers Alive is held annually each October and is sponsored by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources Environmental Protection Division’s Georgia Adopt-A-Stream Program and the Georgia Department of Community Affairs’ Keep Georgia Beautiful Program, in cooperation with Help the Hooch.

Georgia’s 70,150 miles of streams and rivers provide fresh drinking water as well as great recreational opportunities like canoing and fishing. Everyone contributes to pollution in streams, and this is your opportunity to help by giving something back to the environment!

History of Rivers Alive

The idea of a Georgia river cleanup event was conceived in the early 1990’s and the first cleanup was organized in 1992. This “statewide” cleanup focused attention on the Oconee, Ocmulgee, Satila, and Alapaha watersheds. In 1993, organization of the cleanup was divided among the various divisions within DNR: Wildlife Resources, Environmental Protection, Coastal and Water Resources.

In the mid 90’s, Georgia Adopt-A-Stream became the lead program spearheading the annual river cleanup. It is important to note that throughout the 90’s other government and non-government organizations also conducted cleanup events at different times of the year, focusing on particular regions or watersheds within the state. However there was no collaboration between government and non-governmental entities.

In 1999, a significant change occurred — the various cleanup organizations throughout the state unified for the first time to form Rivers Alive. The rationale was that there would be many advantages to forming a single, unified cleanup: the primary advantage being the solicitation of private donations from corporations to support our cleanup organizers and volunteers.

Rivers Alive’s success is a direct result of the event organizers from across the State who take the time to arrange a cleanup and Rivers Alive Advisory Board who put in countless hours assisting with the program to make it successful. Continued success of the Rivers Alive program is dependent on a strong volunteer base that is concerned about and prepared to take action to clean and protect their local waterways.

To find out the date and location of your local cleanup, visit the Rivers Alive website.