People Stories

Long-time protector of Ottawa River, Patricia Tait, offers tips on how to preserve local water resources

How can an ordinary person become a change maker? One step at a time.

Check out these tips: A river can be a place to go for a weekend camping trip, a venue for a day excursion or a backdrop to an afternoon spent reading outdoors. For people like Patricia Tait – who find happiness in these liquid landmarks – the river is home, and the zeal to protect it is a strong current flowing through them.

Patricia is a volunteer river watcher for the Ottawa Riverkeeper, a program licensed by the international Waterkeeper Alliance, which preserves and protects water by connecting local organizations worldwide. Like the alliance, Ottawa Riverkeeper’s central goal is swimmable, drinkable and fishable water. Having lived on the river for more than 30 years, Patricia’s life and the river are intertwined. Her connection can be traced back to childhood. “My first real encounter with the Ottawa River was in Norway Bay, a beautiful beach area on the Quebec side of the river, where we had a cottage. I learned to swim there when I was about six years old,” she says. Today, Patricia lives upriver from the site and spends as much time […]

Water Warriors and Other People Stories

Recent Posts

Scathing report released detailing Navy’s handling of Red Hill fuel spill

The Inspector General of the Department of Defense released some scathing reports Thursday over the…

6 days ago

Growing Food Instead of Grass Lawns in California Front Yards

Photo: Morgan Boone, a volunteer with Crop Swap LA, harvested lettuce at the La Salle…

2 weeks ago

LA River restoration connects us back to ‘the life force of our city’

Los Angeles residents at a section of the Los Angeles River cleanup in Los Angeles,…

3 weeks ago

LAist: New study raises questions about heavy metals in fire retardants

Over the past decade, about 67 million gallons of fire retardant have been dropped on…

3 weeks ago

Meadow and watershed restoration in the Golden Trout Wilderness

Photo: Golden Trout Wilderness Seeking blue, seeing gold The Kern Plateau features a chain of…

3 weeks ago

First sighting of salmon in 100 years marks key milestone for California dam removal

For the first time in more than a century, a salmon was observed swimming through Klamath…

4 weeks ago