| 02/09/2007 |
| Kreaemer: Many are catching on to the idea |
| By David Kraemer |
|
On an August day in 2000, I told my friend Gerry Rowland that I was leaving this state. It was a complicated moment. We were sitting on the banks of the Des Moines River in Van Buren County, watching a flotilla of a hundred canoes pass by. We both had a hand in the development of that big, now annual, event. And we had by then moved on to work with the state Department of Natural Resources to forge the beginnings of a program to wake up Iowa to the wonderful and neglected gift of its rivers. He was sad to hear I was moving. In saying the words, I realized then what I was about to give up. I had met Roland a couple of years earlier. I was working as editor in Ottumwa. He had finished a personal odyssey, paddling a plastic kayak the entire length of the Des Moines River in Iowa, from the northwest to the Mississippi River. The river defines his state, he realized, and it came to define his life. In the late 1990s, he wrote about the trip and began to shop it around to newspapers. I picked up his story. And I started paddling. In the following years, the seed of what Roland planted began to take root. His epiphany is that getting people out onto Iowa water is the first step - it's a huge revelation for most people that there are rivers here you can paddle at all. The second step follows almost instantly - people begin to care. Recreation entails stewardship. Thursday night, a group of 70 people packed into a restaurant in Des Moines to prove the point. It was the first annual meeting of the Iowa Whitewater Coalition, a four-year-old organization dedicated to improving Iowa's rivers. This group started out intending to leverage the Des Moines Riverwalk Project to include a recreational whitewater kayaking course through the city. It quickly expanded its mission to address rivers throughout Iowa, particularly their trouble spots, the low-head dams that prove fatal every year to not just canoeists or kayakers, but swimmers, fishermen or anyone else trying to enjoy Iowa's waters. The amazing thing is that at this first event of a fledgling club, the talk was not about gear or big trips, who you know, what you've done, the braggadocio of people new to a sport, feeling their mettle. It was about a massive project to remove trash from the Raccoon River. About building a portage trail around the dam on the Des Moines River north of Boone that claimed another life last year. About writing to lawmakers to provide funding for natural resources. About water quality. About volunteering. About stewardship. That's not all. Two weeks ago, another paddling group, Central Iowa Paddlers, met for its annual meeting. It's the 10th anniversary of that club. Close to another 200 people there have got religion. Spreading the word this year will include a massive boat march down the river and another trash cleanup. In other two weeks, the Skunk River Paddlers will meet for its annual meeting in Ames. A grant-funded effort to rebuild and extend a canoe trail along the Skunk from Story City to Askew Bridge is among its testaments to faith, including the first-ever project in Iowa to make a low-head dam safe for passage. And in March, the second annual Rivers Revival will convene - a kind of watershed weekend retreat of various interests that benefit from Iowa's waters. Special focus this year will be on economic development based on water. There are more groups out there also paying attention. Fishers and farmers. And happily, a few lawmakers. The need is great. Wastewater treatment permits in Story City and Ames illustrate the problems. Human contact demands the highest standards. No one wants to swim in a toilet. That's the simple fact that makes awareness lead to action. Six years ago, the chance to try to make a difference helped change my mind. I stayed in Iowa. On Thursday, I celebrated that decision along with Roland at the banquet. But the greatest thing was that there were so many more people there with whom to celebrate, people who have been active for decades, people who are brand new to the idea, people who now have a way to come together. Pools of people are collecting in momentary quiet spots around the state, then flowing out to bring life to an idea. Iowa's waters are more than a resource, they're part of its soul. It's gratifying to see so many people catch on.
|