Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, March 24, 1992 TAG: 9203240203
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV5 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: CATHRYN McCUE NEW RIVER VALLEY BUREAU
DATELINE: DUBLIN LENGTH: Medium
He wants to start raising support for a grass-roots effort to protect the ancient New for future generations to enjoy.
"I'm just concerned as to what's going on," Moose said. "I would like to participate, like a volunteer."
He was one of 35 people attending a New River Roundtable this weekend at New River Community College.
Others came from North Carolina, where the New begins, Virginia and West Virginia, where the New joins the Gauley River. Some were public officials, some representatives of environmental agencies or just plain environmentalists. And some, like Rick Scott, said they either paddled, fished or swam in the New, and were concerned about water quality.
"I'm tired of look at dead fish," said Scott, a scuba diver.
The round-table participants, some riparian landowners themselves, want to involve more landowners and others interested in protecting the river's health and beauty.
"This cannot, will not, and should not be a taking issue," said Randi Lemmon, one of the key organizers of the round tables and staffer of the New River Valley Planning District Commission.
Efforts to include rivers in the National Wild and Scenic Rivers program often meet with heated opposition from local landowners who perceive the designation as government takeover of their property rights.
"It will absolutely fail, miserably, big time," he said, if the landowners along the New River think "outsiders" are trying to tell them what to do, Lemmon said.
A North Carolina-based group, the National Committee for the New River, or NCNR, is emerging as an umbrella organization for the tri-state effort, Lemmon said. That group was formed almost 20 years ago in opposition to a proposed dam in Grayson County, Va., that would have flooded North Carolina land along the river.
Besides being the second-oldest river in the world, the New flows north, unlike most rivers.
Participants in Saturday's meeting set up an 8-member steering committee with representatives from all three states. The committee was charged with several tasks:
Organize the third round table, scheduled for April 25 at Radford University.
Discuss with the NCNR board of directors the possibility of establishing branch offices in Virginia and West Virginia.
Submit a grant application to the Virginia Environmental Endowment by May 15 for up to $35,000. Among other things, the money would be used for a part-time staff member of an NCNR branch office in Virginia, a conservation easement demonstration fund, and for planning assistance for local landowners, Lemmon said.
Seek help from the National Park Service for a river management study of the New.
Patricia Weber, head of the park service's National Rivers and Trails Program in the mid-Atlantic region, was a guest speaker at Saturday's round table.
"I'm not here to decide what the future of the river should be. You are. I'm here to help," Weber said.
The park service offers technical assistance to local groups and governments to set up river-management plans.
The park service could, if requested, consider the river corridor for federal scenic-river designation. But Lemmon said that the New River group is not focusing on getting designation in either the federal or state scenic-river programs.
Other ways to protect the river include establishing a green-way plan, land trusts, conservation easements, comprehensive river management plans, or a combination of these.
Weber said the park service can offer assistance on all those projects. Management plans identify important natural resources along the river, coordinate land-use regulations among the numerous local governments that have jurisdiction over the New, and coordinate public participation.
The agency chooses projects each year based on requests it receives, and then seeks funds from Congress. The process is extremely competitive, Weber said. This year, the park service was only able to help about a third of the groups seeking assistance.
Weber stressed the importance of cooperation among local citizens, governments and groups as something her agency looks for in reviewing the requests.
"People like you who are interested in the future of the river need to get other people interested, and that's the key to success," she told the round-table participants.
The process to choose projects begins in July for next year's budget. Weber said now's the time to start sending letters to the park service, as well as members of Congress who represent districts along the New.
The key to a river management plan is that it's put into action by local people and local government, Lemmon said.
Federal government involvement "doesn't mean they're going to control it," Lemmon said. "It means we, as taxpayers, are taking advantage of their expertise to do what we want to do."
by CNB