​Preserving Our Exceptional Places

Kentucky is home to extraordinary places, from the Mississippi River to the Appalachian Mountains. The exceptional beauty and diverse wildlife of our natural areas and the opportunities for outdoor recreation and quiet places where we can recharge, enrich our lives, our families, and future generations. Preserving these landscapes is essential to our well-being and vital to our ongoing economic prosperity.

We are proud of our work in 2009 with the US Forest Service and the Kentucky Division of Water to win strong, permanent legal protection for four of Kentucky’s waterways in the Daniel Boone National Forest as Outstanding National Resource Waters. Because of that work, no new pollution is allowed into those waterways.

We continue winning better protections for clean waterways across the state through our antidegradation work. Most recently we helped protect the Green River and the underground waters at Mammoth Cave National Park from potential pollution from a new limestone quarry.

In the coming years we will focus on the Red River Gorge watershed in eastern Kentucky’s Daniel Boone National Forest, partnering with the Forest Service on the Red River Gorge Watershed Protection Plan and Implementation project to protect this important area from illegal dumps, runoff from towns and agriculture, and recreational overuse. We are also currently working hard to protect the Rockcastle River and its surrounding area through a conservation program formed to conserve land and species and enhance the overall quality of life throughout the watershed.

Kentucky Waterways Alliance works with partners across the state to identify and preserve the places we all hold most dear. Through strategic partnerships with The Nature Conservancy, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and countless others, we’re making a difference in the future of the state’s waterways.
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Please join us in protecting Kentucky’s most exceptional places by becoming a member or getting involved with your local watershed group.
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