“PASS THE PADDLE” COMPLETES NATIONAL TOUR OF AMERICA’S RIVERS THIS WEEKEND ON THE ANACOSTIA RIVER IN WASHINGTON DC
At 2:00 p.m. on Saturday, October 7th, Pass the Paddle, a celebration of rivers and watersheds will complete its national tour at the Anacostia Community Boathouse and the Capital Rowing Club in Washington DC. The Anacostia Community Boathouse is located on the Anacostia at 11th. and O Streets, next to the Navy Yard. Paddlers are encouraged to attend this event if at all possible.
Pass the Paddle was inaugurated on April 1, 2000 on the Potomac River, making its first “pass” from Thompson’s Boathouse in the District of Columbia and being presented to the Commonwealth of Virginia on the river steps of the Pentagon.
This first passage marked stage one of the official Rivers 2000 paddle’s journey across America, following some of our nation’s most beautiful and historically significant rivers. The paddle visited the Mississippi, Missouri, New, Snake, Hudson, Colorado, Columbia and Connecticut, and many others. The paddle traveled rivers that form state boundaries and rivers that flow from state to state, as well as those that form US borders with Canada and Mexico.
Over the past seven months, local, state and national officials and individuals engaged in river conservation from all 50 states passed the paddle as a means of highlighting the importance of rivers and watersheds. Pass the Paddle stressed that forests, croplands, wetlands, rangelands and
riparian areas are the building blocks of watersheds, and that public and private stewardship of these natural resources is the first step toward clean water and pollution prevention. It points out the shared responsibility we all have to protect these extraordinary resources.
The Rivers 2000 paddle completes its journey as its returns to Washington DC on the Anacostia River, where it will be presented to President Clinton. At 2:00 p.m., there will be a closing ceremony at the Anacostia Community Boathouse. Teri Lehr, Maryland Save Our Streams and the Maryland Rivers 2000 State Coordinator, will present the paddle to Rich Bowers, Executive Director of American Whitewater and the District Rivers 2000 Coordinator, Dianne Dale, OARS, and Nancy Marlow as representative to the White House.
Pass the Paddle is a part of Rivers 2000, an initiative of a broad and diverse coalition led by the River Management Society, a non-profit professional organization dedicated to the protection and management of North America’s river resources.
For more information contact:
Richard Bowers or Nancy Galloway, American Whitewater
(301) 589-9453 or richb@amwhitewater.org
Doug Carter, River Management Society
(517) 627-8362 or visit the Rivers 2000 Website at www.rivers2000.org.