By Jane Ellen Leibert, SCLA
A River Worth Protecting
The Kansas River, known locally as the Kaw, is one of three public rivers in Kansas, stretching 173 miles from Junction City to its confluence with the Missouri River in Kansas City. The river provides drinking water to more than 950,000 Kansans and is the largest prairie-based river system in the world. In 2012, it became the second river in the U.S. to be designated a National Water Trail—a recognition by the National Park Service that highlights its natural beauty, public accessibility, and the ongoing efforts to promote recreation, education, and environmental stewardship along its waters.
Since its founding in 1991, Friends of the Kaw (FOK) has worked to keep the Kansas River healthy, accessible, and valued. Advocacy has been central to its mission from the beginning. In 1995, the organization led a successful campaign to block a sand dredging permit that would have harmed the river’s recreational values, setting a precedent for future protections. Beginning as a grassroots effort, FOK has grown into a robust network of advocates, educators, and volunteers.
Education and Advocacy in Action
Through its advocacy, education, and cleanup programs, FOK manifests the Vincentian spirit of service, protecting one of Kansas’ most vital natural resources for both present and future generations. FOK ensures river protection remains a priority in public policy by advocating on issues such as water quality, pollution, habitat preservation, public access, and responsible development. This includes speaking at city commission meetings, the statehouse, and with local stakeholders.
Education plays a powerful role in the FOK mission. Guided paddle trips offer participants the chance to experience the river’s beauty while learning about its ecology and the challenges it faces. Off the water, FOK’s Water Quality Education Program reaches students in grades six through twelve with hands-on, science-based lessons on watershed health, pollution, and stormwater management.
Restoring Dignity to the River
Cleanup efforts reflect a commitment to restoring dignity to the river and its surrounding communities. Since 2016, FOK has removed more than 5,000 tires, 30 tons of battery cases, and countless discarded items from the river’s banks and sandbars. These ambitious cleanups rely on the support of 800+ volunteers and the strong relationships with community groups, businesses, nonprofits, municipalities, and other river allies.
Connection Where Protection Begins
At the heart of the organization’s work is the understanding that connection is where protection begins. When people paddle the Kaw, learn its history, or take part in a cleanup, they begin to see themselves as part of the river’s story. That connection sparks care, and care leads to action.
FOK’s mission extends beyond environmental stewardship; it’s about transforming how people value and interact with nature, seeing the river not as a commodity to consume but as a shared, sacred resource to cherish.
Systemic change is about looking upstream to prevent harm, downstream to promote healing, and strengthening the relationship between people and the Kansas River through reverence, trust, and shared responsibility.
Faith, Humility, and Love
FOK is not a religious organization but their work is grounded in faith—faith in the strength of communities, faith in the dedication of volunteers, faith in the resilience of nature and in the belief that environmental stewardship can bring about healing, renewal, and sustainability.
Guided by humility, the work begins with listening to scientific data, to community voices, and to the natural rhythms of the Kansas River. Each decision grows from a sense of responsibility and collaboration, grounded in the understanding that no river is protected alone and no effort succeeds in isolation.
At the core is love. Love for the Kansas River, for those who rely on it today, and for the generations to come. Every river cleanup, every guided paddle, and every effort to influence policy reflects this love, made visible through steady, hopeful action to protect a shared and sacred resource.
The mission of FOK is not just environmental; it is value-driven, lived out along the banks of the Kansas River and carried forward by all who are moved to join the current.
To find out more about Friends of the Kaw, click HERE.
