( CNN ) -- Leave it to an old naturalist to make rivers sound sexy . `` The rivers flow not past , but through us , '' John Muir wrote in the 1870s , `` thrilling , tingling , vibrating every fiber and cell of the substance of our bodies , making them glide and sing . '' If only we still felt that way in 2014 . Today , rivers are n't thrilling much of anybody . They 're invisible . We do n't travel by river , rarely visit their banks . We do n't know their stories . That 's most of us , at least . I 've discovered as part of my reporting on rivers for CNN 's Change the List project , that there remains a vital sect of pleasantly anachronistic River People . They 're folks who do n't mind smelling like mildew ; who affix clips and carabineers to everything in sight ; and who still value adventure over efficiency . Related : My trip down 'Apocalypse River ' I learned many of you are among them . When I put out a request for readers to send in photos and stories about their favorite rivers , I wondered if anyone would respond -- if anyone still took photos of rivers , still cared about them . But , to my delight , 89 people have submitted stories on CNN iReport -- and dozens more have uploaded images to Instagram . You 're people like Darren Palm , who sent in black-and-white photos of his grandfather catching salmon on California 's Kings River ; like Julee Khoo , who wrote that her trip on the Yangtze River `` will forever link me to my grandmother who was born and raised in China '' ; like Maureen Moore , who 's photographed the Hudson River in New York when it 's covered in ice and when it 's teeming with boats ; and Sandi Kubbs , a Polio survivor , who wrote that , `` who I became is intrinsically tied up with my life rowing up and down the Little Wabash . '' If anyone is going to save our rivers , it 's you . The good people at CNN iReport have compiled these submissions into a list of `` Our favorite rivers . '' This list is n't clickbait , nor is it nature porn . For many , it 's nothing short of a protest -- an assertion that a river-first view will lead to a better world . As rivers have become invisible , they 've started to dry up -- and without much public alarm . The Colorado , the Rio Grande , the San Joaquin ( which I recently spent three weeks kayaking ) . These mighty waters often fail to reach the ocean . And many others are gunked up with pollution . The Mississippi -- which one of you , Neal Moore , traveled from source to sea -- dumps so much fertilizer into the Gulf of Mexico that it creates an aquatic dead zone the size of Connecticut . We 've strangled that river with so much concrete that it ca n't bring enough life-giving sediment to the coast . A football field of wetlands floats away each hour . We 're trashing our rivers , but there is an antidote : Telling their stories . Thanks to all of you for honoring these precious waterways . And , if you see one that 's missing , there 's still time to tell us about your favorite river .
CNN compiles a list of `` your favorite rivers '' from submissions . The list includes the Tunga , in Italy ; the the Hudson River , in Illinois ; and the CNN , in Vietnam . iReporter Sandi Kubbs : `` Who I became is intrinsically tied '' to CNN in Illinois . What rivers are we missing ? Nominate your favorite waterway at CNN iReport .