Wild and Scenic Film Festival

The South Yuba River Citizens League (SYRCL, pronounced 'circle') started the Wild & Scenic Film Festival in January 2003 to promote community building within the Yuba Watershed as well as a way to explore environmental issues through an exciting and influential medium.

SYRCL is a watershed advocacy group that was started in 1983 by a small group of concerned citizens who banded together to fight against several proposed dams. The festival's namesake is in celebration of achieving Wild & Scenic status in 1999 for 39 miles of the South Yuba River. After twenty-eight years, thousands of supporters and 700 active volunteers later, SYRCL is one of the largest single-river organizations in the nation and the Wild & Scenic Film Festival is the largest film festival of its kind in the United States. January's annual 3-day event features over 110 award-winning films, plus speakers, celebrities, and activists who bring a human face to the environmental movement.

The tour allows SYRCL to share their success with other environmental groups nationwide. It is building a network of grassroots organizations connected by a common goal - to use film to inspire activism. The festival's national partners have joined together to support this campaign. By showing the Wild & Scenic Environmental Film Festival to diverse audiences across the country, we collectively want to inspire more individuals to take environmental action.