Jeff Opperman

#WaterYear

A few days ago was National Random Acts of Kindness Day...

#WaterYear

There are some gulls on the Cuyahoga River

#WaterYear

A major thaw after a month of cold…ice breaking up on the Chagrin River

Bridging the gap to system-scale planning for rivers and energy A perspective from WWF on how the Hydropower Sustainability Standard and HydroSelect can bridge project-scale to system-scale planning for rivers and energy.

Blog post about opportunity to use tools from Hydropower Sustainability Alliance -including the Hydropower Sustainability Standard & the new tool Hydroselect - to deliver some of the insights & benefits of system-scale planning to promote sustainable power systems
www.hs-alliance.org/blogs/system...

In honor of Valentine's Day, a short romantic comedy for #NatureBasedSolutions (below)..

and a blog post on Forbes on how maybe the best example of a large-scale, effective #NBS has been right before our eyes this whole time...

www.forbes.com/sites/jeffop...

Final EIA-860 is out, and 2025 really did it: 54 GW of new U.S. electric capacity, 96% clean. Solar again carries the offense, and we built more storage in 2025 than the cumulative total through 2023. More and more and more additions... but also record low retirements.

For Valentine’s Day, A Rom-Com For Nature-Based Solutions Proponents of Nature-based Solutions need to make the case NbS can be effective at large scales. For this, there may be no better demonstration than the Yolo Bypass in California's Central Valley.

Proponents of #NatureBasedSolutions need to make the case that #NbS can be effective at large scales. For that, there may be no better example than the Yolo Bypass (CA). As it's almost Valentine's Day, I make that case with the language of rom-coms. #floodplain

www.forbes.com/sites/jeffop...

#WaterYear celebrates International Day of Women & Girls in Science!

Wren studying benthic ecology, Chagrin River 2013

#WomenInScience2026

#WaterYear

HAPPY WORLD WETLANDS DAY 💧🙌

Canoeing with the family through Okefenokee Swamp in Georgia.

#WorldWetlandDay

Frozen #WaterYear

Small stretch of flowing water on otherwise frozen Chagrin River, while snowshoeing.

Frozen #WaterYear

Snowshoeing on the frozen Chagrin River

YouTube video by Kyle Matteson Bruce Springsteen + Tom Morello - The Ghost of Tom Joad

Right, okay, so, Springsteen and Morello playing Ghost of Tom Joad at First Avenue in Minneapolis at a concert for the resistance. Just saying. You got time for this right?

Now: Bruce Springsteen sings “Streets of Minneapolis” in Minneapolis

#WaterYear

The falls of the Chagrin in Chagrin Falls are nearly frozen

YouTube video by Bruce Springsteen Bruce Springsteen - Streets Of Minneapolis (Official Lyric Video)

youtu.be/GDaPdpwA4Iw?...

Someone needed to write this…Powerful, angry and moving words from Springsteen.

Improving How We Track Progress For River Protection Rivers have relatively less protection than do land or oceans and we lack effective mechanisms for measuring protection. A new study offers an improved mechanism for tracking progress.

River need greater protection, but to date our methods for tracking protection status have been limited. In this post I describe a new method from @oldenfish.bsky.social @americanrivers.bsky.social and Conservation Science Partners - the Protected River Index

www.forbes.com/sites/jeffop...

#WaterYear

A swan in a small area of open water in a pond mostly covered by thin film of ice. Pond is in the park behind the Karlsruher Schloss (Karlsruhe Palace) in Karlsruhe, Germany.

Record heat is the new normal, says WWF's @stephanieroe.bsky.social, as 2025 ranks among the three hottest years ever. The good news? Climate solutions are breaking records too. Rapid emissions cuts are possible. More here: t.co/Ph4h3mU6i8

#WaterYear

I love the boardwalk at @audubon.org Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary in SW Florida. Such a great way to experience a range of wetland habitats and to see wildlife close up

“Saruman believes it is only great power that can hold evil in check, but that is not what I have found. It is the small everyday deeds of ordinary folk that keep the darkness at bay. Small acts of kindness and love.” - Gandalf (Tolkien)

#WaterYear

White ibis at @audubon.org Corkscrew Swamp near Naples, Florida. Took the photo with iPhone lined up with binoculars.

Image of river protection status in the United States

National assessment of river protection in the U.S.

Article: doi.org/10.1038/s418...
Policy Brief: doi.org/10.1038/s418...
Rivers Explorer: map.myriver.americanrivers.org

Collaboration b/t American Rivers, Conservation Science Partners, Univ WA @americanrivers.bsky.social

Thread 👇 | DM for PDF

#WaterYear

Alligator and Great Blue Heron at @audubon.org Corkscrew Swamp near Naples, Florida

#WaterYear

The Pillar of History statue along the Miami River

Looks like no white Christmas so we’ll settle for a white-ish December 23

New album just dropped

Qianjiadong Reservoir in southern Hunan, China, produces a double harvest: solar energy and yellow carp. The solar farm produces up to 80 megawatts of power while the fish forage beneath the panels. With a massive scale-up of solar and wind at home and cheap exports of the technology, China is driving a worldwide surge of renewable energy—Science’s 2025 Breakthrough of the Year.

Science has named the seemingly unstoppable growth of renewable energy worldwide as the 2025 Breakthrough of the Year.

Learn more about this year's #BOTY and other big advances in science: https://scim.ag/493Tpgx

Waiting for Santa