"The Yadkin calmly fascinates."
--The Rev. Douglas L. Rights, 'A Voyage Down the Yadkin-Great Peedee River,' 1928.
By Andy Matthews
Editor
www.yadkinvalleynews.com
Amatthews2007@yahoo.com
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Environmental group plans trip down The Yadkin River
More than three quarters of a century ago, a writer traveled down the Yadkin River from North Wilkesboro to Georgetown, S.C. where it empties into the Atlantic Ocean. The purpose of the trip was to chronicle life along the Yadkin, leaving behind a journal that told about the river's abundant natural resources, flourishing wildlife, its newly industrialized cities, and a host of characters that populated the river basin.
In 1982, a second group of environmentalists decided to duplicate Wrights' trip, updating readers of The Winston-Salem Journal about the changes along the Yadkin, describing in vivid detail the environmental threats posed by new development and reminding those who depend upon the river that it is an economic lifeline and way of life.
"Individuals can only do so much to protect the river; an individual, for example, has little power to stop an industry from dumping toxic wastes into it," Floyd Rogers, a reporter for The Winston-Salem Journal said in his 1982 book, 'Yadkin Passage.' "But an individual can put his beer can in a trash bin, not in the river."
Now, as residential, industrial and commercial development continue to encroach upon the Yadkin River and its tributaries, a new coalition of environmentalists are poised to paddle their way down the Yadkin. Their mission is the same — to observe the abundant wildlife, take in the majestic scenery, camp along the riverbanks, and determine the immediate and long-term threats to the river's water quality.
“This is part documentary and part activist in its efforts,” said Dean Naujoks, the Yadkin Riverkeeper. “It is designed to capture people’s interest and raise awareness about the river among people in North Carolina who depend on it for drinking water – including more than 200,000 people in Winston-Salem alone."
Like those before him, Naujoks and members of the Yadkin Riverkeeper association, will begin their journey at the headwaters of the Yadkin in Blowing Rock. From there, they will travel roughly 185 miles and 25 days, from the rolling hills of Northwest North Carolina, past the populous Piedmont Triad, to Lake Tillery near the North Carolina/South Carolina border. There will be numerous stops along the way, giving volunteers and observers a chance to see how the Yadkin unfolds from a relatively small stream in the Blue Ridge Mountains to a large waterway by the time it becomes part of the Yadkin Pee Dee River basin.
Naujoks said he hopes the trip will educate the estimated 1.6 million people who live along the river basin how important it is to preserve a vital natural resource like the Yadkin, which is the state's second largest river, including 5,862 stream miles, 22,988 lake acres, spanning 21 counties and 93 municipalities, and totaling about 7,221 square miles.
Naujoks has been an outspoken critic of plans for Fibrowatt's LLC's proposed power plant, which would be built in southwestern Surry County, near Elkin along the Yadkin. Naujoks worries that pollutants from the plant will damage the river's water quality. Naujoks has also lobbied against Alcoa's proposal to receive another 50-year federal license for a hydroelectric project, which he says has already led to multiple contaminations in the water and land around the company's dams.
In addition to environmental education, the 'Tour de Yadkin' will feature festivities along the way, including an April 6 kickoff date in Blowing Rock and other events at the Kerr Scott Reservoir, Carolina Heritage Vineyard and Winery and Crater Park, both in Elkin. Participants can also 'purchase a mile' of the Yadkin River, saying they sponsored that part of the journey. The trip concludes May 1 with a family picnic at Lake Tillery.
For more information on the trip, go to
http://www.yadkinriverkeeper.org/riverkeeper.
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