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March 19, 2010
For Immediate Release
For more information:
Dan Plummer, FUDR chairman
catskilldan@mac.com
1-607-363-7848
Stream Advocacy Group
Hosts Meeting to Update
NY Creek Restoration Project
Friends of the Upper Delaware River will hold a public meeting next month to update the community on restoration of flood-ravaged Sands and Cadosia creeks in Delaware County, N.Y.
The meeting will be held at 7 p.m. April 5 at Emory United Methodist Church, 89 W. Main St., Hancock, N.Y.
The two creeks, important tributaries to the Delaware River, have been the subject of a stream restoration project that began in November 2008. The creeks were severely damaged in a 2006 flood in which homes, roads, bridges and spawning habitat were damaged or destroyed. FUDR, the O’Connor Foundation and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation funded the first phase, which focused on damage assessment. The second phase, set to begin this spring, is again being led by LandStudies Inc., a Lititz, Penn., firm that specializes in flood plain restoration, in cooperation with the Town of Hancock and the Delaware County Public Works Department.
Hancock Supervisor Sam Rowe and Wayne Reynolds, the county’s public works commissioner, have been important partners on the project, said Lee Hartman of Equinunk, Penn., the FUDR vice president who is leading the project for the nonprofit river advocacy group.
“Sam Rowe and Wayne Reynolds have been instrumental in helping push this project forward,” Hartman said. “Without their support, this work would just be sitting in a pile of papers on someone’s desk. Sam and Wayne are keeping this thing alive.”
The April 5 meeting will include a showing of a short film about the damaged tributaries made by FUDR member Dave Morris. In the film, Commissioner Reynolds says, “We thought we could teach Mother Nature a thing or two. Well, guess who got taught?”
LandStudies president Mark Gutshall explains in the film that the typical short-term flood “solution” of digging streams deeper and straighter, then fixing damaged bridges, culverts and roads, makes no financial sense. The sensible long-term solution is “preventative work,” he said, including building overflows into the creek systems so floodwater isn’t simply running down a shoot toward bridges and personal property when the inevitable heavy rain or snowmelt happens.
Hartman said the film is a great tool for educating the public about the persistent problem of creek flooding. It includes interviews with local residents and officials expressing their concerns.
FUDR continues to seek additional funding partners for the creek restorations, said Dan Plummer, the group’s chairman.
“We have found a number of partners who are excited about the project and who have been more than willing to help,” Plummer said. “FUDR plans on seeing this through, but we’ll need continued financial support to complete the project. And when it is finished, the entire community will benefit. Hancock has paid its dues and needs a break
