River event celebrates region’s greatest natural assets in June 2011—register now
Staff Report
A River Gathering: There’s No Place Like Home, June 16-19, will celebrate our region’s greatest natural assets. The Four Rivers Environmental Coalition and Rock Valley College are hosting a four-day festival to highlight the ecological, recreational, cultural and aesthetic value of the rivers in our region and to offer ways in which people can work to preserve them as resources and places of inspiration.
A River Gathering Overview: Four days in northwestern Illinois and southern Wisconsin to learn about, explore and celebrate the wetlands, rivers, trails and woods and all that make their homes there. Participants will have opportunities to visit some of the Midwest’s highest quality and culturally significant rivers and surrounding habitat. Residents and visitors are invited to bring backpacks and enjoy four days of guided tours, hands-on workshops, distinctive art and music, and beautiful rivers. Rock Valley College’s Stenstrom Center will be River Gathering headquarters for opening night reception, art exhibit, keynote speakers, presentations and exhibitor/vendor booths, and workshops. Field trips, clinics, demonstrations and performances will be held at various sites on the Rock, Kishwaukee, Sugar and Pecatonica rivers. This event is family-friendly, and children’s entertainment and activities will be geared for children age 4 and older.
“No Frills” fee for the opening reception and Saturday workshops is $25, with additional fees for clinics, field trips and dinner cruise. Complete registration and form are available at www.fourriver.org. Don’t wait, space is limited. River event celebrates region’s greatest natural assets in June 2011—register now.health, visualization and Reiki at Rock Valley College since 2003.they were at the time of its founding.
From June 1-7, 2011 issue
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One Comment
It would be nice to have Rock River canoe and boat trips from Oregon to Roscoe, but the Fordham Dam that used to make electricity, makes it impossible to make the trip without taking your boat out of the water and around the Dam. The way back you would have to do the same again!
If we removed the Dam, we would be able to clean up the Rock River and repair and build sea-walls where there are none. This would curb flooding and unwanted soil erosion into the river. When the river and it’s banks are clean and safe again, we could work on making a useful hydro-electric dam with locks to allow boat and craft traffic.
Not a lot of people remember that the Rock River used to be very shallow in a few places so that you could almost walk across the river and not get your feet wet!
The bridges across the Rock River were also toll bridges until they were paid for.
There are ways to pay for everything we do that will bring us into the times that we should be in. We have a huge recourse that we can’t even fish out of. We say that we want to use the river as a plus, but we ignore it and it’s possibilities.
So, as you enjoy this opportunity, think a bit ahead of those around you that say we are on track. Imagine what maintenance we can do to our River lands and bridges when the water is low and the garbage is found and removed!
We could have an On The River month and get a lot done if we had the right people working in the same direction.