Topic: Writing college paper on river conservation Posted: 15 Mar 2010 at 10:35am
I'm currently writing an issue paper on river conservation and community involvement. My thesis
will be something about how having community involvement and exposing
people to the beauty of rivers is the best way to get support to conserve rivers. I
want to use examples like the building of play parks at sites that need
to be cleaned up (thus getting the backing of the community for the
project) and how people care more about rivers after they take an
extended trip (like the MF salmon). I want to prove that river use and
conservation are directly linked. I need opinions from the community
and links to articles if you know of any on the subject. Scholarly
papers and studies would be ideal. What do you think the best way to
have our cake and eat it too is?
If I were you I would contact Tom O'keefe or a group that has had even a sliver of success in this process. Be sure to check out the Salida play park in CO because I know that one was build on an area of the river with old bridge debris and it was pitched as an improvement and now the local community of non-boaters loves the changes too. Good luck, that is going to be a hard paper to write if you focus on play parks. I might focus on rivers instead.
And the play park in Pueblo, CO. I think the local shop put that one together. I believe the one on the American river (in CA) was build with the remains of construction materials from the proposed and partially completed dam.
If you don't know where you are going, any road will get you there.
The stoneycreek playpark in PA was just finished. http://www.benscreekcanoeclub.com/wwpark.html When I lived on the east coast, it sounded like this was a total community effort from the beginning, although it may have been billed as "bring in the tourist dollars" kind of thing rather than a conservation effort. I'd post your question on the Bens creek forum.
"That boated a lot better than it looked." "It always does until it doesn't."
You might also contact the Arkansas Canoe Club about this. They have done a lot of work on saving Lee Creek and others from being dammed by bringing people from the community out there and getting involved in community meetings on the subject. Here's a short article describing it a little:
Also, at the annual ACC gatherings, the club holds a float where club members bring community leaders down the river. It's a way the ACC stays in the loop with local leaders and gets them to see what paddlers enjoy on the river. I believe it's recently been done on the Ouachita river where the city of Malvern is building a whitewater park and recreation area in what was basically a dirt pit before.
Primates tend to protect things they develop an emotional attachment to. You can find this well researched.
What would be really interesting is to determine which user group's activities resonate best with the general public. My guess would be fishing an general conservation.
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