Watauga receives fresh Riverkeeper status
By Frank Ruggiero
ruggiero@wataugademocrat.com

A Riverkeeper will run through it.

On Tuesday, Harvard Ayers announced the Waterkeeper Alliance approved Appalachian Voices’ application for an Upper Watauga Riverkeeper.

Ayers, co-founder of Appalachian Voices, along with numerous other community members, helped spearhead the effort to protect the upper portion of the Watauga River, with the possibility of expansion in the future.

Riverkeepers is a program of the Waterkeeper Alliance, a national, nonprofit organization headed by Robert Kennedy Jr., which offers communities a voice for waterways through citizen participation.

The program is expansive, encompassing all bodies of water, from rivers to lakes to bays to creeks, to name a few. The local effort started in April with a visit from Rick Dove, North Carolina’s first Waterkeeper.

Dove explained the concept of a Riverkeeper to interested parties, including Ayers, Boone Town Council member Bunk Spann, Watauga County Cooperative Extension director Sue Counts, extension agent Wendy Patoprsty and facilitator Brenda Boozer.

A Riverkeeper, he explained, maintains a constant presence on the river through a variety of means – by boat, aircraft, office and, if push comes to shove, the courtroom. On foot, they meet with the citizenry to address complaints and encourage vigilance and community participation. Since a Riverkeeper can only be one place at a time, they often rely on citizens as their eyes and ears. Riverkeepers also work alongside regulatory agencies to enforce environmental regulations.

To establish a local Riverkeeper program, the concept must be backed by a nonprofit organization, which forms and funds the program. Ayers brought the idea before the Appalachian Voices board of directors, who agreed to support the initiative.

With the guidance of Dove, a task force was able to complete the application and submit it to the Waterkeeper Alliance. The process can oftentimes be long and enduring, but Ayers was confident the Watauga application would be approved. And he was right.

The local program will assign a Riverkeeper to the upper portion of the Watauga River, starting at its headwaters on Grandfather Mountain and extending to the dam at Watauga Lake. Ayers suggested the group, in the future, might try to place a Riverkeeper on the lower Watauga, from Boone Lake towards Johnson City, Tenn.

But before the river can find its keeper, Appalachian Voices must raise funds for the effort. With the Waterkeeper Alliance having approved the proposal, the program is now free to pursue fundraising from foundations, major donors and local efforts.

According to the proposal, the strategy will be built around local support. “The upper Watauga River is blessed to have a substantial base of solid funding support, some of it permanent and some of it from seasonal residents,” the proposal reads, noting there will be an Appalachian Voices fundraising event Oct. 7, along with a stand-alone social in May or June 2008.

The projected budget for the first year is $89,500, which will likely remain the same during the second year.

For this first year, Appalachian Voices will likely provide an in-kind donation of $12,500, leaving $77,000 to be raised, the proposal reads. The Appalachian Voices board has also pledged $10,000, and the proposal indicates “it is highly likely the Board will surpass this target very shortly.”

For more information, contact Harvard Ayers at (828) 262-6381 or email harvard@boone.net.

For more information on the Waterkeeper Alliance, visit www.waterkeeper.org.