Wild river

Wild River
An example of a wild river, the Franklin River, protected as part of the Franklin-Gordon Wild Rivers National Park in Tasmania

A wild river (United States, Australia, & New Zealand) or heritage river (Canada) is a river or a river system designated by a government to be protected and kept "relatively untouched by development and are therefore in near natural condition, with all, or almost all, of their natural values intact."^[1]

Within some nations including in the United States of America, Canada, New Zealand, and the Commonwealth of Australia, governments have opted to focus on rivers and river systems as a kind of "unmodified or slightly modified" landscape feature to protect, manage and preserve in near 'natural' condition – variously labeling or formally declaring such areas to be "wild rivers" (or "heritage rivers").

The term "wild river" may also more generically describe or identify free-flowing rivers without dams.