Waterkeeper Alliance is the international center of a network of Waterkeeper programs. The Alliance approves new Waterkeeper programs, licenses use of the Waterkeeper names, represents the individual Waterkeepers on issues of national interest, and serves as a meeting place for all the Waterkeepers to exchange information, strategy and know-how. The Alliance and its member Waterkeeper groups meet at least once a year, rotating between regions. They communicate regularly in the interim, supporting and empowering member Waterkeeper organizations to protect communities, ecosystems and water quality.

Waterkeepers take personal responsibility for the water bodies they represent, actively patrolling and protecting over 100,000 miles of rivers, streams and shoreline. There are 177 Waterkeeper organizations on six continents employing more than 400 full-time and 200 part-time environmental activists, attorneys, educators and scientists.

The Waterkeeper Concept
Each Waterkeeper program reflects the needs of the water body and community it represents. The common thread is that for each waterbody and community there is a full-time person who serves as the Waterkeeper, the public advocate for that body of water. Waterkeepers are part investigator, scientist, lawyer, lobbyist and public relations agent.

A Waterkeeper's "clients" are all the users of the watershed for which the Waterkeeper advocates. A successful advocate has a diverse bag of tools that allows her or him as the Waterkeeper to get the job done. All Waterkeepers have some kind of boat, ranging in size from canoes to research vessels, but sometimes a pair of hip boots is more important than a boat. Sometimes a legal brief is more important than either. Each water body has its own unique set of challenges requiring its own unique strategy.

To start a new Waterkeeper program