Last Chance to Buy Advance Tickets to Wild & Scenic Film Fest!

Online registration closes at midnight tonight - Tuesday, March 3

Get your tickets now for the Wild & Scenic Environmental Film Festival, March 4-5, at the Tara Theater in Atlanta. Each night’s program offers a different selection of short films - you’ll see a softer side of sharks, experience the world’s great and endangered rivers, and witness the perils of mountain top removal in Appalachia. These films inform, inspire and motivate, and the proceeds benefit Georgia ForestWatch, Georgia River Network and UCR.

The show runs at 7:00-9:30 pm each night (box office opens at 6:00). Tickets available until midnight tonight, and at the door based on availability; $10/night. As a special treat, film festival patrons 21 and up can enjoy complimentary SweetWater beer inside the theater! Click here for more information and to purchase tickets.

Online Art Auction, March 12-21

Local broadcast studio Riot Atlanta will be holding an online art auction to benefit UCR from March 12-21. Last year Riot staff constructed a conceptual art mosaic made from recycled materials and refuse from a UCR river cleanup, assembled with eco-friendly paints and gules.

Twenty self-standing sections of the collage will be offered for auction - click here to learn and see more.

UCR 101, March 14 – Learn to Table for UCR!

Interested in becoming a UCR Tabling Volunteer? What is tabling you may ask? To “table" is to attend an event as a UCR representative and staff a table where UCR information is available—talking to people about UCR and engaging them in our mission. We are seeking eager and outgoing volunteers (that’s you!) who aren't afraid to step out in front of the table and initiate conversation with passers-by.

If this sounds like you, then register to attend UCR’s first Tabling 101 Seminar on March 14th at the UCR office – starting at 9am. We will provide you with the necessary information and tools to represent UCR to the public. RSVP to Tammy Morrissey at tmorrissey@ucriverkeeper.org.

Waterkeeper Alliance Takes on Coal Industry

Waterkeeper Alliance has launched an innovative web-based campaign, The Dirty Lie, to counter the “clean coal” con and to inspire an energy policy that rejects this archaic and dangerous source of energy and embraces safe, renewable sources instead.

From cradle to grave, coal pollutes our water, poisons our fish and children, destroys our forests and wild lands, and is grossly accelerating climate change. Exposure to coal mining and combustion waste causes a long inventory of illnesses, including asthma, kidney and heart disease, cancer, and even premature death. In addition, Georgia uses more coal mined through the devastating practice of mountain top removal than any other state (this practice is the subject of the Wild & Scenic Film Festival selection, Mine, showing on March 5 – see story above).

It is our belief that no matter what the coal industry does, coal can never be clean. Visit www.thedirtylie.com to learn how you can make a difference in your community and join the fight against coal.

UCR was the 11th licensed Waterkeeper program and is one of 182 members of the Waterkeeper Alliance.

Four More Days to Vote for Ogeechee-Canoochee Riverkeeper!

Deadline: Friday, March 6, at 5 pm PST - please vote online today!

Ogeechee-Canoochee Riverkeeper has been chosen to compete with a handful of other groups to receive a grant to get volunteers to collect fish for mercury monitoring. But in order to get this grant they NEED YOUR VOTE! Please take a few seconds to VOTE OGEECHEE-CANOOCHEE RIVERKEEPER today - click here .

Your voice can help our neighboring riverkeeper show the DIRTY LIE about COAL (see story above). The Ogeechee River is laden with toxic mercury from coal fired power plants, and right now riverkeepers are fighting a new proposed coal plant in the watershed. Please vote today, and ask your friends to do the same.

The Chattahoochee: To Fall in Love with a River Airs Tonight and 3/11

Set your Tivo's!  Bob Selwyn's documentary on Paddle Georgia airs tonight on WGPB at 2:00 a.m on, Channel 8 in Atlanta, and at the same time on March 11.  Your can see a 20 minute version of this film this Thursday at the Wild & Scenic Film Festival (see top story).  Learn more about the film and see the trailer here.