a complete listing of access points,
red eye bass on the Little Cahaba
or mountain bike along the trail
in Helena. This site also provides
helpful maps and even photo
galleries. It will tell you where the
closest river gauge is and what the
current water levels are. It even
helps you plan for the weather.
Another tool to help with
Cahaba Riverkeeper launches
Cahabapedia, we will all be able to
With this tool, paddlers and other
recreational users will be able to proactively tour
sections of the river before setting out. Plus, it
will offer a centralized platform for area agencies
to share information about the river with other
agencies and academic researchers.
SWIM GUIDE
Anyone wishing to swim in the Cahaba can
be updated on the water conditions every Friday.
“Waterkeepers are citizen scientists at heart. And
one of our core missions is to answer questions
that people have,” Butler says. It’s with this in
measures the quality of the water at all locations
Friday in the summer. Levels of E. coli and
other bacteria measurements are monitored to
as a volunteer and Board Member for Cahaba
Riverkeeper also owns a canoe and kayak rental
business serving the Cahaba. He says families
who come out ask about the pollution of the
river, wondering if it is safe to swim. “We’ve been
able to educate people on when its most likely to
be unsafe to swim, and what we’ve seen is that
people appreciate having the ability to make plans
18 Bham Family August 2020
based on this guide,” Butler says.
RESPONSIBLE RECREATION
This “social distancing summer”
is a perfect time to head to the
river for recreation; in fact, Cahaba
Riverkeeper encourages you
to take photos and share your
they are currently unable to host
regular large group cleanups due
to coronavirus precautions, every
family can still do their part.
In some ways, clean up is even
more essential than ever when
you consider that the river is
trash pick-up days. “If everyone just picked up
a little, it doesn’t create a burden,” Butler says.
Plus, it’s a great way to teach your kids about
preserving nature. Join in Cahaba Riverkeeper’s
virtual clean ups, whereby families can submit
photos and descriptions of their clean-up efforts
online to share with the larger community.
the greatest threats to the health of the Cahaba
is development pressure. “We’ve built so fast in
Birmingham that we are pushing stormwater into
the river, causing erosion and bank collapses,”
is that mud pushed into the river then smothers
the riverbed and insects living there, depriving
adopted low-impact development like some states
development is not something that people
will naturally choose, so it has to be actively
encouraged. “We aren’t against development—we
are for responsible development,” Butler says.
However, individuals can do a lot on to aid
property drains somewhere, and what we do on
our personal watershed has a big impact on the
larger watershed,” Butler says. For instance, he
recommends removing invasive plants like privet
from our properties so they don’t re-seed along
waterways and minimizing fertilizer usage. Butler
reminds us that we can all be good stewards of
the river, even from our own homes: “Whatever
you do upstream has an impact downstream.”
To learn more about Cahaba Riverkeeper and
visit
cahabariverkeeper.org.
/cahabariverkeeper.org