American Heritage Rivers Updates

Volume 2 Number 6
October, 1999

The last couple of months have been very busy ones for everyone working on the American Heritage Rivers Initiative. Below are few highlights summarizing our recent activities.

For information on individual rivers, click on:
BLACKSTONE-WOONASQUATUCKET, CONNECTICUT, CUYAHOGA, DETROIT, HANALEI, HUDSON, MISSISSIPPI, LOWER , MISSISSIPPI, UPPER, NEW, POTOMAC, RIO GRANDE, ST. JOHNS, UPPER SUSQUEHANNA-LACKAWANNA, WILLAMETTE.

In this update:

(1) New Navigators Named: Since our last update in August, four new River Navigators have been named. They are:

• Cuyahoga River - Steve Davis, an employee of the Forest Service in the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), which is sponsoring the Cuyahoga River Navigator position. Steve’s offices will be housed at the National Park Service’s Cuyahoga Valley National Recreation Area.

• Hudson River - Eric Scherer, an employee of the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), which is sponsoring the position. Eric previously served as the facilitator for the Connecticut River. His new offices are located with the New York State Parks, Taconic Region.
• Upper Susquehanna-Lackawanna River -Alex Rogers, an attorney who has worked extensively on matters relating to northeastern Pennsylvania. Alex’s position is sponsored by the NRCS, with office and staff support from the Pennsylvania Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Consortium a non-profit organization led by Wilkes University and King's College, PA.
• Willamette River - Paul Jeske, an employee of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) who has lived and worked in the Willamette Valley for more than 20 years. The position is being cosponsored by the USDA Forest Service and the BLM. Oversight to the navigator position and AHR program is provided by the Willamette Restoration Initiative.

(2) Community Partners Hold Workshop: On September 9-10, a lively and productive meeting was held at the White House Conference Center with representatives of all the 14 designated American Heritage Rivers plus five from rivers that were nominated but not designated. Jeff Soule of the American Planning Association provided assistance in facilitating the group discussions. They discussed mutual issue of concern, which they shared with the American Heritage Rivers Interagency Committee at its bi-annual meeting the afternoon of September 9. They also met with representatives of foundations, corporations and non-profit organizations to learn more about opportunities for funding and technical assistance from the private sector.

		The next meeting, which will include both community partners and river navigators, will be held in Hartford, CT November 18-20. It will be cosponsored by the Connecticut, Blackstone-Woonasquatucket and Hudson Rivers.
New River Community Partner Patrick Woodie (standing) talks to Cindy Buchanan (Lower Mississippi)Karen Zachary (Potomac)Tom Williams (Upper Susquehanna)Kristin Pauley (Prince Family Charitable Trust)and Mark Breederland (Detroit).

(3) Interagency Committee Meets: It was standing room only on September 9 in the conference room of the Council on Environmental Quality when the American Heritage Rivers Interagency Committee held its second and final meeting this year (this century!). The committee was joined by more than 20 representatives of AHR designated and nominated rivers. They were greeted by huge flip-chart pages with large, hand written thank-you's to each of the agencies that had provided funding or technical assistance to specific rivers. It was quite an eye-opener! In addition to thanking the committee, however, Patrick Woodie from the New River and Ty Fain from the Rio Grande noted many of their continuing needs for support. Becky Champion from the Chattahoochee River in Georgia spoke eloquently on how the initiative had helped her community, even though their river was not designated.

Representative Paul Kanjorski described projects proposed for the Upper Susquehanna-Lackawanna River in Pennsylvania. Rep. Kanjorski announced that he and Senator John Chafee (R-RI), a strong supporter of the Blackstone-Woonasquatucket River, are launching a Congressional River Caucus to bring more congressional support to the initiative. The Interagency Committee agreed to publish in the Federal Register a Good Neighbor policy for federal agencies to follow in working with communities and guidance for communities within designated rivers to add or delete segments of a river. In honor of the second anniversary of Executive Order 13061, the committee members also signed a "statement of recommitment" to the American Heritage Rivers Initiative, pledging the continued support and assistance of their departments and agencies.

Rep. Paul Kanjorski (D-PA) speaks to American Heritage Rivers Interagency Committee and Community Partners.

(4) Institute Assists Three American Heritage Rivers: In the first regional, multi-community AHR effort, on October 12-13 the Canaan Valley Institute brought together representatives from the Potomac, Upper Susquehanna/Lackawanna and New Rivers for a meeting at the Fish and Wildlife Service training facilities in Shepherdstown, West VA. The Canaan Valley Institute is a non-profit organization whose mission is to inform, assist, and sometimes help to implement solutions to foster locally-driven sustainable communities.

They discussed potential joint activities and projects, ways to foster private sector involvement, and the roles of the community partners. Among other things, the three watersheds share common interests in training, National Heritage Areas, Teacher training and curriculum development K-12, Small town economic revitalization, water and sewage, hazard mitigation and trails. They are now planning a followup meeting in November to discuss what project might offer the best opportunity for collaboration.

(5) AHR Participates in Initiative to Improve Mississippi River Delta: Among the most exciting events recently was the series of "Listening Sessions" that Secretary of Transportation Rodney Slater sponsored on the Mississippi Delta Initiative, an interagency effort to improve economic, social and environmental conditions in the Delta region. These were held in West Memphis, AR, Baton Rouge, LA, Vicksburg, MS and Cape Gerardeau, MO on September 24, and October 1, 2 and 4, respectively. Lower Mississippi River Navigator Bob Innes attended the sessions in West Memphis, Baton Rouge and Vicksburg. Upper Mississippi River Navigator, Owen Dutt, attended the session in Cape Gerardeau. Loretta Neumann, Director of the American Heritage Rivers Initiative, attended the Baton Rouge session, met with Alliance partners and toured some of the sites being considered for work as part of the initiative.

	Baton Rouge Listening Session Oct. 1: Front Row (left to right): Loretta Neumann, Director, American Heritage Rivers Initiative; Angela Falgoust, Community Partner Ascention Parish; Secretary Rodney Slater, DOT; Captain Robert Innes, USCG, River Navigator, Lower Miss. American Heritage River; Thomas Bostic, Maritime Administration. Back Row: Dan Derbes, Mississippi River Road Commission; LCDR Mark Hamilton, LCDR Stephens Moore,; Linda Calvert, Director, Environmental Affaicrs, New Orleans; LTJG Petre Gilliam

The thrust of the listening sessions was to review the recommendations of the Delta Commission’s 1990 report, to determine what remains to be accomplished, and, most importantly, to decide what directions should be taken beyond the year 2000. The sessions were well attended by Alliance partners with Ms. Cindy Buchanan representing the City of Memphis, TN, during the West Memphis session; Ms. Angela Falgoust, Ms. Kitty Schwartz, Mr. Davis Rhorer, and Ms. Edie Michel and Ms. Linda Calvert representing the Louisiana Parishes and the City of New Orleans during the Baton Rouge session. During his remarks, Secretary Slater specifically cited the American Heritage Rivers Initiative as a very important vehicle for change and improvement in the community. The sessions were highly productive for the Alliance partners as they were able to meet personally with many key state and federal officials in an environment where they focused specifically on projects designed to improve livability of communities.

(6) Rio Grande Celebrates 'Dia del Rio' with Presidential Statement- The Rio Grande AHR celebrated its cultural heritage with a major event known as the Dia del Rio ('Day of the River'). In a Presidential Statement, President Clinton acknowledged the rich bounty of natural resources and stressed the importance of "human actions" to protect the "fragile and precious environment." He also stressed the importance of local initiatives and how AHR supports those initiatives. El Dia del Rio is a citizen-led event organized by a consortium of (binational) environmental groups know as the Rio Grande/Rio Bravo Coalition. This year's theme is "protecting our rivers at risk". Over 32 events were planned along the entire stretch of the Rio Grande with about 61 partners and supporters of the event ranging from environmental groups, corporations, individual citizens, Universities, National and state parks, federal agencies, the TX State legislature, etc.

(7) AEPI Produces Atlanta Symposium Proceedings: The Army Environmental Policy Institute, a cosponsor of the American Heritage Rivers symposium in October 1998, has produced and distributed copies of the symposium proceedings to all participants and speakers. It is a wonderful report, full of useful information about people and programs that river communities can use to achieve the goals of the American Heritage Rivers Initiative-- environmental protection, historic preservation and economic development. Many thanks to Ron Webster and Katherine Brigadoon of AEPI. Also to Bill Boyer of the Natural Resources Conservation Service who served as the Conference Coordinator, and the literally dozens of people who worked to make the symposium such a great success. The proceedings are dedicated to Joan Dupont, a very kind and hard working professional from the Environmental Protection Agency, who died several months go. A few extra copies are available for other river communities. Contact Katherine Bragdon at AEPI, Phone: 404-880-6649, email: kbragdon@aepi.army.mil.

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