Keeping the Chattahoochee, Sally Sierer Bethea
Keeping the Chattahoochee, Sally Sierer Bethea
List: $19.99 | Sale: $13.99
Club: $9.99

Keeping the Chattahoochee
Reviving and Defending a Great Southern River

Author: Sally Sierer Bethea

Narrator: Rosemary Benson

Unabridged: 8 hr 2 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 12/26/2023


Synopsis

Sally Sierer Bethea was one of the first women in America to become a "riverkeeper"—a vocal defender of a specific waterway who holds polluters accountable. In Keeping the Chattahoochee, she tells stories that range from joyous and funny to frustrating—even alarming—to illustrate what it takes to save an endangered river. Her tales are triggered by the regular walks she takes through a forest to the Chattahoochee over the course of a year, finding solace and kinship in nature.

For two decades, Bethea worked to restore the neglected Chattahoochee, which provides drinking water and recreation to millions of people, habitat for wildlife, and water for industries and farms as it cuts through the heart of the Deep South. Pairing natural and political history with reflective writing, she draws listeners into her watershed and her memories. Bethea's passion for the natural world—and for defending it with a strong, informed voice animates this instructive memoir. Offering lessons on how to fight for our fundamental right to clean water, Bethea and her colleagues take on powerful corporate and government polluters. They strengthen environmental policies and educate children, reviving the great river from a century of misuse.

About Sally Sierer Bethea

Sally Sierer Bethea is the retired founding director of Chattahoochee Riverkeeper. She served as executive director and riverkeeper for two decades and continues to assist Chattahoochee Riverkeeper as a senior advisor. Bethea also publishes a monthly column, Above the Waterline, in Atlanta Intown. She lives and writes in midtown Atlanta.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Mark on October 03, 2023

It is not often that we are treated to an ecological success story, but this is one. By sheer tenacity, investigative resourcefulness and an ability to reach across ideological boundaries, Sally Sierer Bethea and Chattahoochee Riverkeeper have engineered a remarkable turnaround story, transforming t......more

Goodreads review by Kristina on September 27, 2023

Sally Bethea’s book is an engaging read for nature lovers and those concerned with our environment as she recounts stories of her fight as Riverkeeper to preserve and protect the Chattahoochee. Sally’s descriptions of her walks along the river make us want to slow down and take notice of the natural......more

Goodreads review by Jack on May 03, 2024

A joy to read this book outside by the waters that drain into the Chattahoochee. An invaluable collection of anecdotes to learn from as I continue to hike the string of pearls along the river.......more

Goodreads review by Jeff on May 27, 2024

Environmental memoirs seem to be all the craze right now. “Keeping the Chattahoochee” is another entry in the subgenre. In this one, retired Riverkeeper, Sally Bethea, recounts her team’s (successful!) efforts at cleaning up and preserving the Chattahoochee River. Each chapter starts with an introsp......more

Goodreads review by Jen on October 21, 2024

Pros: • The author has done very important work to restore environmental health to the Chattahoochee River and was one of the first female riverkeepers in the country; • The book contained nice nature writing, with scientific names for all the key species along in the river. I especially enjoyed that......more