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Northeast ChapterMaryland, Washington, DC, Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey and New York up through the New England states: Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine.
Our goal is to further the RMS mission by providing a network for members to expand their knowledge of river management through participation and involvement in RMS Northeast Chapter activities. We represent a variety of professionals in the private and public sectors, from federal, state and local agencies to educational non-profits and consultants. The impressive range of expertise among our members includes geomorphologic design, economic modeling, hydropower relicensing, and whitewater course development. RMS-NE has partnered with the Northern Forest Canoe Trail, hosting webinars in support of their effort to educate water trail users about aquatic invasive species, and has offered annual chapter trips that have served as the basis for lasting professional partnerships. The most recent RMS Journal with a Northeast Chapter focus was Fall 2025. All Journal back issues are archived online, available with other RMS members-only publications.
Chapter Officer Candidates for 2027-2029Reach out to your officers via the Member Directory or by submitting the contact form. Voting for Northeast Chapter Officers is open through Nov. 10, 2026. You must be a Lifetime, Individual, Student, or Organization staff member to vote. Vote for NE Officers
President: Michael Crane
He believes that RMS fills a unique niche in the world of river organizations and wants to contribute to its long-term sustainability. He values how RMS strengthens skills, increases capacity, illuminates research, inspires ideas, and builds fun-loving camaraderie among river professionals throughout North America. He sees helping strengthen RMS as a way to help protect and manage rivers across North America, and considers that an honor. Vice President: Rex Gamble
He is passionate about all aspects of water resources, but especially rivers. He wants to promote the appreciation, stewardship, and responsible use of rivers through all aspects of his life, including his professional work, personal interests, and, hopefully, through greater involvement with RMS. Secretary: Liz Lacy
She is eager to help reinvigorate the NE Chapter, bringing institutional knowledge, networking skills, and the time and flexibility to support the chapter and its members. Events Coordinator: Leila Desotelle
She is excited to participate with the river management community. She will bring her deep knowledge of river science and her love for river protection and recreation. She is excited to create experiences for river lovers to learn more about river protection.
Chapter LeadershipChapter Bylaws explain how the RMS-Northeast Chapter guides our operation. Chapter accomplishments are many and we think you'll be interested in attending chapter activities such as those we have hosted in the past (see below). Chapter Officers are volunteers from northeastern states and the District of Columbia who organize activities, represent the region in national discussions and support an active chapter membership. They serve for three-year terms. Learn about chapter governance by reviewing the RMS Northeast Chapter Bylaws. To plan trips or other initiatives, your fellow members need a crew to channel members' energy for meeting peers and imagining the chapter’s future. If you are interested in serving as President, Vice President, Secretary or Events Coordinator please contact Risa Shimoda, RMS Executive Director to discuss and ask any questions about the roles, or just go ahead and fill out the officer nomination form. Any Individual, Lifetime, Student, or Organizational RMS member is eligible to run for office. Candidates should be willing to take an active role and be knowledgeable of the Chapter Officer Roles.
Past Northeast Chapter Trips 2026 Northeast Chapter Trips/EventsOct. 24 Anacostia Boat TourRiver Management Society members and friends in the northeast are invited to participate in a free 1-hour motorized boat tour on the Anacostia River. The Anacostia Watershed Society organizes the tours, where attendees will hear stories of the history of the river, challenges it's faced and restoration successes. This date coincides with a community event called Late Skate hosted by the Friends of the Anacostia Park and the National Park Service, where community partners will gather for roller skating, music, and other community activities. Please sign up below, and arrive at 12:30 for our 1:00 p.m. tour. September 5-13 Allagash Wilderness WaterwayJoin RMS for a basecamp-style week exploring the Allagash Wilderness Waterway, a designated National Wild and Scenic River and one of the premier wilderness systems in the eastern United States. Participants will learn about the history, ecology, recreation, and management of the Allagash while hearing directly from Superintendent Mark Deroche and Allagash Rangers. The trip includes day explorations to lakes, wetlands, waterfalls, historic logging sites, and wildlife-rich areas throughout the waterway. Expect campfire cooking, wildlife viewing, paddling opportunities, and lively conversations about wilderness stewardship and recreation management in Maine’s North Woods. July 10 Deerfield River - 40 More Years!NE Chapter members and friends ran the Fife Brook section with kayaks, packrafts, OC1 and paddle rafts with support from Zoar Outdoors, now Berkshire Whitewawater. Afterward, several attendees shared their perspectives as precedent-setting hydropower stakeholders in the 1980s-90s whose tireless volunteerism rewaterd the river, and whose 'next generation' of practitioners have secured recreational releases for the next 40 years. We also learned about the project that inspired the trip, a capstone (anthropoloy) paper written in 2025 by one of our paddlers, Pablo Pineda Perez, titled Dwelling with the Deerfield: settle into your chair to read this thoughtful treatise whose insights apply to the role a river may play in each of our lives. The story of the Deerfield is one of a program of negotiated water releases and related river-related management practices that set the nation's gold standard for its impact on the river, its local community and regional economy. Learn more about the history and significance of this relicensing settlement on American Whitewater's website.
2021 Northeast Chapter Trips/EventsAllagash Wilderness Waterway Trip - September 3-12, 2021Please see the AWW Trip Information Packet for more information.
2019 Northeast Chapter Trips/EventsAdirondacks Paddle - September 6-8, 2019 The Northeast Chapter enjoyed an early fall paddle along a portion of the Northern Forest Canoe Trail (NFCT) from Long Lake to Tupper Lake in the Adirondacks. The trip included ~30 miles of paddling, a 1.3 mile portage, and volunteering for the 37th annual 90-miler Adirondack Canoe Classic race. Chapter members helped hand out water, gatorade, and snacks to ~600 paddlers in 235 boats in the race. The group also had great campfire discussions about river management topics with staff from the NFCT and NY State Department of Environmental Conservation.
2018 Northeast Chapter Trips/EventsWashington, DC Environmental Film Festival Evening Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of Wild and Scenic - March 21, 2018 These films represent a unique partnership among the national river organizations American Rivers, American Whitewater, River Network and River Management Society and Wild and Scenic Rivers administering agencies – Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service, US Fish and Wildlife Service and US Forest Service. • Wild Olympics (9 min) - Dir. Colin Arisman Sudbury, Assabet, and Concord Wild and Scenic Rivers 50th Anniversary Paddle - October, 2018
2017 Northeast Chapter TripsPotomac River Mather Gorge - September, 2017
2016 Northeast Chapter TripsAnacostia River, MD/DC - October 23, 2016 Bronx River Trip - NY, Bronx River Alliance
2015 Northeast Chapter TripsNational Board Meeting Piscataqua River Trip - NH, October 11-12 Missisquoi River Trip - VT, June 27-28 (after Pedal / Paddle Race) “Celebrate the Mississquoi!” with the Northeast Chapter! The Missisquoi River in northern Vermont recently became Vermont’s first Wild and Scenic River. It is also one of the rivers that comprise the Northern Forest Canoe Trail (NFCT). On Saturday, June 27 the NFCT collaborated with the Town of Richford’s Conservation Commission to put on a River Fest and a Paddle & Pedal Race. The Paddle Pedal Race involved a 6 mile paddle and a 5 mile bicycle ride on the Missisquoi Valley Rail Trail. The local library hosted a BBQ afterwards, and RMS Executive Director Risa Shimoda was the guest speaker at the River Fest event. After the race the NE Chapter, led by member Walter Opuszynski paddled downstream and stayed at an official Northern Forest Canoe Trail campsite, enjoying a campfire and cameraderie as we learned about the river improvements that have been completed, challenges that have been overcome along the way, and future river management efforts. On Sunday we paddled approximately 8 miles to the town of Enosburg Falls.
2014 Northeast Chapter Trip - Connecticut River (NH, VT)
Thomas J. Christopher, RMS Member - Mr. Christopher is a founding director and current Secretary of New England FLOW, the first organized coalition of recreational boating groups in the northeast. In addition, he is a former board member of American Whitewater, serving for 14 years and was its Conservation Chair from 1997 until 2004. He helped to organize the Hydropower Reform Coalition (HRC) in Washington, D. C. in 1991, and sits on the HRC Steering Committee, pursuing changes in hydropower policy and rulemaking through the FERC relicensing process. He is a signatory to multiple FERC relicensing settlement agreements throughout New England and is currently working on the relicensing of five dams on the Connecticut River in Vermont and Massachusetts. Andrew Fisk, Ph.D., Executive Director, Connecticut River Watershed Council - Prior to joining CRWC in 2011 Andy served as Director of the Land and Water Quality Bureau at the Maine Department of Environmental Protection for seven years. As Maine’s land and water quality director, Andy worked with municipalities, industry, and citizens to develop, finance, and implement clean water requirements that eliminated algae blooms, sewer overflows and maintained stream and river flows. He was also actively involved in enacting and implementing scientifically-based protections for hundreds of thousands of acres of significant wildlife habitats for tidal and inland waterfowl as well as protections for vernal pools. Norman Sims, Ph.D. - Norman recently retired as an honors professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He was a founding member of New England FLOW in 1988 when dams on the Deerfield River in Vermont and Massachusetts came up for relicensing. He later spent 12 years on the Board of Directors of the Appalachian Mountain Club, including several years as chair of the AMC Conservation Programs Committee. Along with Tom Christopher of FLOW and Ken Kimball of the AMC, Norm has worked on several hydropower relicensings in New England. As a volunteer, Norm currently represents the AMC in relicensing five hydropower facilities on the Connecticut River. He is also writing a book on the history of the North American canoe. Thank you Lelia Mellen, Paul Beaulieu for coordinating the trip, and others for attending!
2013 Northeast Chapter Trip
2011 Workplan & EventsFall Paddle – Great Egg Harbor, New JerseyWith beautiful fall weather and high seasonal flows, the Great Egg Harbor River in New Jersey's coastal plain provided an ideal setting for two days of paddling on October 15 and 16, for 15 RMS members, family, and friends. This was a two day trip featuring an exploration of different segments of the “Great Egg” each day. Overnight, the group camped at Atlantic County's special group camp, Camp Acagisca. The first day's trip was an exploration of the reach of the Great Egg just upstream of Lake Lenape, and a tour of the lake itself. The river leading into Lake Lenape has a mix of forested high banks on one side and forested wetlands and bays on the other. The upper end of the lake has many small islands and bays, and the middle and lower lake has forested county park land on one side and a few private houses and a county park on the other. There was a festival going on at the county park. The group stopped in for a close up look at the life‐ size lighthouse replica on the shore, some music, and a couple of big bags of kettle corn. After a brief brisk paddle against the wind and across the lake, the group shuttled back to Camp Acagisca. After setting up camp, everybody enjoyed a fine barbecue and great evening of making acquaintances, networking, and sharing river tales. The second paddle trip started Sunday morning after a quick breakfast. The group launched at Weymouth Furnace Park, an old historical site upstream of Saturday’s float. Everybody enjoyed a leisurely paddle down some of the winding and remote reaches of the Great Egg Harbor River that have attracted recreational paddlers for over a hundred years. The fall colors were beginning to show. The river was beautiful, with a canopy of yellow, orange and red hardwoods over the river. The paddlers fully appreciated the scenic, natural, and recreational values that lead to the federal designation of 129 miles of the Great Egg Harbor River into the Wild and Scenic River System in 1992. The Great Egg is a designated river very different from most rivers in the national system, because there is no federally‐administered land along the entire river corridor. Note from RMS Staff: A tremendous chorus of thanks goes to Judi Zuckert for initiating and coordinating the chapter trip, and to Fred Akers for his generosity and expertise as host and planner of this great trip!
2010 Accomplishments
2009 AccomplishmentsFederal Stimulus Roundtable ‐ Washington, DCJanuary 15 Washington, DC roundtable discussion about how the Federal Stimulus Program would affect members’ businesses and programs. Representatives from the BLM, National Park Service, Hydropower Reform Coalition, and National Hydropower Association attended. Our invited guest Pope Barrow, Chief Legislative Counsel for the US House of Representatives, shared his perspectives on the process at that point in this ambitious process. Mixing it Up with NARRP in Pittsburgh!April 30 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania RMS‐NE set up a display and conducted a networking walking tour during the National Association of Recreational Resource Planners Conference to meet members of this group, with whom we will partner for our biennial symposium in Portland, OR in 2010! The conference took place April 27‐30. Attendance at this mixer was free. Low Impact Hydro on Our MindsMay 1 The Mariners House, Boston, MA RMS‐NE hosted a meeting to network, learn about each others’ projects and interests, and enjoy a wonderful lunch. Our keynote speaker was Fred Ayer, Executive Director of the Low Impact Hydropower Institute. Fred’s talk was excellent and we hosted a healthy crowd of interested river‐based professionals. If you attended this luncheon and would like RMS to hold another luncheon format‐type event, please suggest a speaker or location you think would be of interest to fellow RMS members and our colleagues! |
Michael started his career as a BLM river ranger on the Green River, Utah. He moved to Burlington Vermont and for the last 24 years he was the president of Crane Associates, Inc, a consulting firm specializing in river economics. He is an environmental economist and has advised government agencies throughout the United States and in 20 countries in environmental policy, water economics, resource valuations, recreation management, environmental benefit-cost analysis, and sustainable economic development. Michael served on the national board of RMS as a member-at-large in the early 2000’s. He is an avid OC1 paddler and sea kayaker currently living in the Adirondacks.
Rex Gamble is a Water Resources Engineer and Project Manager at GZA GeoEnvironmental, Inc. He joined GZA in June 2021 with a master’s degree in biological systems engineering specializing in stream restoration. The majority of his work at GZA consists of hydrologic and hydraulic numerical modeling for dam safety, dam removal, and stream restoration projects. Mr. Gamble has been the staff engineer and/or project manager on numerous dam rehabilitation and removal projects throughout New England, the Mid Atlantic, and the Midwest with his portfolio ranging from small, unnamed streams to iconic systems like the Charles River.
Liz has been an RMS member for more than 20 years and served as NE Chapter President for several years. Before retiring, she worked for 24 years as a River Manager/Community Planner with the NPS Partnership Wild and Scenic Rivers program. She has attended numerous RMS symposia and assisted with many trainings and events.
Leila Desotelle has a background in ecology and river research. Her research started on the Upper Mississippi River and moved to prairie rivers with the University of Kansas. She came back to the Midwest where she studied river ecology at Michigan State University. She briefly worked with the National Park Service at Wind Cave and the Student Conservation Association. She now lives in Baltimore, Maryland where she works with local nonprofits and the Potomac Mountain Club.
RMS-NE Chapter paddles the Connecticut River! On Saturday, October 4, paddled 7 miles from Cornish, NH Boat Launch to Wilgus State Park, VT. Along the way and at a group dinner, heard from the RMS members and other regional experts about the river management topics that both define the river today and which will impact the watershed immensely in the years to come. Here are our special guest experts:
River Management Society
P.O. Box 5750
Takoma Park, Maryland (MD) 20913-5750
(301) 585-4677
[email protected]
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