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By Dan Plummer
One good turn leads to another. That’s the nice life lesson I’ve learned
from a recent incident involving our rivers. Please allow me to tell you the
story.
I serve as board chairman of Friends of the Upper Delaware River (FUDR), a
non-profit organization that looks after the welfare of the river system. A
little more than a year ago, I got a call from John O’Connor, mayor of Deposit,
N.Y. He was looking for a little help.
The Oquaga Creek needed some bank stabilization work just upstream of where
it dumps into the West Branch of the Delaware River. He knew that our
organization has donated money and workers to various efforts to preserve and
protect local streams and rivers. Mayor O’Connor asked whether FUDR was able to
do anything to help with the Oquaga issue. He told me that the problem spot was
often used by fishermen to launch boats.
I met there with O’Connor and Jim Serio, another local conservationist and
river guide who had helped connect me to the Mayor. Standing at the West
Branch-Oquaga junction, we immediately saw that there was a larger problem. The
bank was indeed in need of repair, but the boat launch issue quickly became a
secondary concern.
The section of Oquaga Creek that was eroding was only yards away from the
Deposit sewage treatment plant, which seemed imperiled by potentially
devastating flooding if the bank erosion were allowed to worsen. I laughingly
told the mayor that maybe we should worry about the boat launch after we were
certain that the plant was not going to fill the West Branch with sewage, or
words to that effect.
With the help of Serio and the Al Hazzard Chapter of Trout Unlimited, FUDR
stepped in and followed the Department of Environmental Conservation’s
recommendations to restore the flood-ravaged stream bank. Local contractor Donny
Wheeler came to the rescue and did the work at a deeply discounted rate to help
the non-profit groups get the job done. (Wheeler explained that he loves to
fish, too.) Mayor O’Connor was gracious in thanking the groups for helping out
since the town was short on funds to make the repairs.
A few weeks after the work was complete, O’Connor called me to say that a
Deposit native named Kent Joscelyn owned a small piece of property on the West
Branch that he might want to donate to FUDR. I checked with my board members,
who asked me to pursue the lead.
The parcel, just downstream from the West Branch Bridge in Deposit,
includes about 300 feet of river frontage. Kent Joscelyn’s father, Ray M.
Joscelyn, and brother, John D. Joscelyn, who were Deposit fishermen, had also
owned the property. He told me that he wanted to donate the land to a group that
would use it to benefit the local community and visitors to the area. It seemed
like a perfect fit since his goal mirrors nearly verbatim the FUDR mission
statement.
He had a couple of reasonable requests for the property, such as the
creation of a good view of the river as the property was developed. The
transaction is now complete, and FUDR is the new owner of this very special
piece of land.
This was a great gesture of appreciation from the donor. We are following
through on his idea that the property should be shared by all of us—locals and
visitors, fishermen and –women and sightseers. We’re planning a small park
there, giving Joscelyn the “view for all” that he hoped for.
We live here amid the natural beauty of rivers and mountains. Kent Joscelyn
has provided all of us with a lovely vantage point from which to view this
majesty.
As I said, one good turn leads to another.
Dan Plummer, FUDR chairman
catskilldan@mac.com
1-607-363-7848
1-607-363-7848
