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Changing Our Rivers
Look almost anywhere people live, and you can see how people change rivers. We build dams to control floods, store water for drought, and provide electricity. We draw water from rivers in canals and aqueducts for domestic, public, industrial, and agricultural use. We straighten and line river channels with levees to control flooding and erosion. These things are part of modern life; people will always change the environment. Practicing conservation means making sure that the benefits of a change outweigh the damage of that change.
Activities

Grades K-4
“Down the Drain, Into the River”
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Student

Grades 5-8
“There’s What in My River?”
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Student

Grades 9-12
“Big Dams, Big Dilemmas”
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Student

Photographs (left to right): Lower Monumental Dam, Snake River, Washington, by Richard S. Durrance; near Rio Grande River, Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas State, Mexico, by Bruce Dale; Cricket Frog, Maryland, by Bianca Lavies

© 2001 National Geographic Society. All rights reserved.

Cricket Frog
Near the Rio Grande River, Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas State, Mexico Lower Monumental Dam, Snake River, Washington