From WXXI news.

This is connections.

I'm Julie Philipp filling in for Evan Dawson.

Our connection this hour was made a little over a decade ago when the Genesee River Watch was launched.

It's a small organization with a few part time staff who rely on volunteers to do much of the work.

Its main objectives are to improve the water quality of the river, connect people to the waterway, and inform and educate them about it.

But now the Genesee River is getting.

Forgive the pun, a boatload of attention in downtown Rochester.

The city, with help from New York State, is investing millions in its riverfront.

There are new and improved parks and gathering spots, trails and infrastructure all along the urban banks of the Genesee.

After years of turning its back toward the river, the city is now making it front and center.

But how healthy is this star attraction?

The Genesee River has long been a polluted waterway.

Where do things stand now, and how might the warming climate affect the waterway in the years and decades to come?

For that, we go back to the small but mighty Genesee River Watch for answers.

My guests today include Steve Orr board president of Genesee River Watch.

Thanks for coming in, Steve.

Sure.

Mike Haugh I'm going to get that right.

Board member of Genesee River Watch Caroline Kilmer, assistant executive director of Genesee River Watch.

Thanks for coming in.

Hi.

And on teams, we have Dan Zelazny, also a board member of Genesee River Watch.

Welcome.

So I want to start with just a good description of what it is we're talking about.

You know, you look at a river on a map and it's kind of a wiggly blue line, but that's sort of misleading that a river is really more of a system isn't so.

So what is in your mind the Genesee River.

And I don't know who wants to take that question.

Well, you know, it's it historically and today is it really is the heart of this community in a literal sense.

I when I moved here many years ago, I was struck by the fact that the city of Rochester was divided so neatly in half by the Genesee.

And it, you know, it snakes its way through, the two counties south of us.

Its tributaries extend out like fingers in both directions.

It's there are four finger lakes that are part of the Genesee system.

So.

But to me, I always think of it, in the present day, in, in history, it's always been the centerpiece of the community.

And as you say, there was a, there was a time when it was not the most desirable centerpiece in the sense of water quality.

You know, there were a lot of problems, and we're going to get into those, but.

And I loved your answer, but I almost want to go even a little bit farther back into the, the the ecology of a river.

It's more of a system.

It's a, it's a network.

And the Genesee River doesn't just run through Rochester.

It starts a long way away and it's connected to a lot of things.

Are anyone else able to share that?

It's basically the watershed.

And what a watershed is, is an area of land that drains to a particular water body.

And as we move north and we head to Lake Ontario, where everything eventually is discharging.

But as we move south down the river to the state, a little starting point, which is, in Potter County, Pennsylvania, which is, the initial start of the Genesee River, where it's just a little spring.

And as it moves north, all these other, tributaries are discharging into it.

So the impact of the activities going on in the land, that are part of the watershed are going to impact what's going on in the river itself.

So what passes through the city of Rochester is really just a small piece of the entire Genesee River basin.

The whole thing, which starts hundreds of miles away in Pennsylvania, about 160 miles away.

Okay.

And it drains in areas.

As Carolyn mentioned, the watershed, area is about 20 400mi of western New York.

Hilly.

The the tail end of the Appalachians, when it comes across the border, from from Pennsylvania to Wellsville, New York.

But then, with the exception of Letchworth, it's it's pretty flat farmland.

And the river makes that farmland possible.

The river and its history.

And that affects a great deal of what we do.

It's history is heavily, colored by our glacial history.

The last glaciers left here, 10,000 years ago and left us with a legacy of wonderful farmland, but also, very unconsolidated soils that easily erode.

And if you look at the Genesee from an overhead map, you'll see it snaking back and forth.

Some parts of the river are more snaky than others, if you will.

But that erosion causes us to lose about 450,000 tons of farmland every year.

We're going to get into into all of that in a minute.

But I want to bring us Real is back in.

You talked about the history of the river, but when you go downtown and you see all this excitement, you know, all the new things happening and there are some placards that talk about the history, but, in general, they're talking about the human use of the river, the history, as humans see the river in the city of Rochester.

Is this all the excitement and attention right now on the Genesee River?

Is this an opportunity for Genesee River Watch?

Who, you know, one of the parts of your mission is to connect with people and to inform them and educate them about the history.

That may not necessarily mean the human history of the of the river.

Yeah, absolutely.

The New York State Department of Parks is planning, to create a High Falls State Park right in the city of Rochester.

That certainly will bring a lot of attention, to the part of the city and to the Genesee River in this area.

So is this an opportunity for Genesee River Watch to to build on the our understanding of the ecological history of the river.

I think it is.

Yeah.

Because more people we hope we trust will be paying attention to the river or asking questions about it.

They'll be visiting it in the all the new parks and trails that are being developed or have been developed in the city.

And so it, you know, a good part of our mission is to educate and inform and advocate for the river.

And so I think we will.

We have been and will continue to, to try and, and once they take advantage of the new interest in the river.

But but, but act on that to, to inform people and, and to try and engage people in helping us with our work of keeping the water as clean as we can get it and removing trash and, and that sort of thing.

Okay.

And I want to bring Don in because we've got him on teams.

Don Zelazny and you know, Genesee River Watch was launched about a dozen years ago.

And could you talk about some of the major differences?

Have you seen a lot of change in the river, the quality of the river since the founding of Genesee River.

Watch?

Well, I wasn't, part of the founding of the River Watch.

I wish I were.

It's been a wonderful organization.

But, you know, you keep referring back to the environmental aspects of the river.

And to me, the river actually has several different qualities and characteristics to it.

Serve the far upstream portions in Pennsylvania.

It's a wonderful trout fishery.

And, and, and bass fishery.

And, a lot of local people enjoy that aspect of it.

Then you get into the middle section around Letchworth Park and you have the incredible, the gorge and the firefighter falls or waterfalls.

And let's remember that, that area, the central Genesee River, was also a major, home to the, Seneca Indian Nation for hundreds of years prior to, further civilization.

So, and then downriver again, the fisherman, the lower, you know, Genesee River consists of, a number of salmon coming up from Lake Ontario.

It's become a very, healthy, lake sturgeon, breeding ground now.

And, the Seneca Park, Seneca Park Zoo has been doing a wonderful job working with us Fish and Wildlife Service, and other organizations to help restore, the, the sturgeon.

So there's a lot of different aspects to the river ecologically.

And it's changed it, you know, like, like any life cycle, it kind of goes up and down.

It gets better, it gets worse.

But the, the common threat to it, if the common impact is the water chemistry and the quality that results from the chemicals that are reaching the river, as well as the, the sediments that, are dissolving and working their way down the river, which is why many people look at the river and, you know, they it looks like chocolate milk, especially as you pass over the Genesee River and the Thruway.

So when you talk about water quality, what are we talking about?

What factors to consider when you're talking about the health of a waterway.

Well if you look at the health of a waterway writ large, it varies enormously as, as you look at the country as a whole, in the, in the case of the Genesee, I think Steve alluded to, how poor the water quality was in, let's say, up to about the 1960s.

And if you look at the old, stone collection photographs in the, Museum and Science Center, you can see them online.

It's it's pretty dramatic.

Well, the degree to which we use this river as a dumping ground, but in the mid 60s, with the water quality acts, clean water acts, a lot of that toxicity, deliberate toxic dumping, got stopped.

So we are lucky in a sense, compared to some of the other rivers in this country that we don't have a major, toxics issue or a residual toxics issue.

We've had some in the sense of silver, that was dredged out and in, in 2021, the most recent activity in that area, what we have is sediment, and we have phosphorus that comes down partly naturally eroding from the soil, partly from a legacy of, of farming.

Fertilizer applications and animal husbandry.

And phosphorus doesn't present that much of a problem in the river as long as the water is flowing.

But when it gets to the lake, where the water then becomes more still, you start to see growth of algae and and, beachfront closings and that sort of thing.

So it one of our, one of the thrusts of our water quality activity is to try to reduce the amount of phosphorus that comes down river along with the sediment.

Other than that, although the river looks like I think, Don mentioned chocolate milk.

It's on times.

It may not look terribly attractive.

But it is not a, the toxic mess that other rivers in this country are so swimming, fishing, getting in it is is okay.

It's okay.

You know, there are relatively few places where people normally swim in the river.

Not because necessarily the water quality, just because it's, it's, you know, it's maybe inaccessible.

It's parts and the, the current may be strong.

I mean, there are places that people do take a dip, I think more upstream than around here.

But but it's, you know, but it's swimmable.

It it's, you know, the there were toxic issues as, as, Mike mentioned, but also there were huge problems with, with poorly functioning sewage treatment plants.

Before that, there were no sewage treatment plants, and the sewage went straight in the river and there were plants and a lot of them didn't work.

But then that was all addressed.

As Mike said, starting in the 60s and into the 70s and 80s, by closing down a lot of the malfunctioning, municipal plants and, and building that deep tunnel system that I'm sure you talked about in the show before, that captures all the storm water and sewage, in the city that used to just go straight in the river.

So sewage, or you know, human waste that used to be such an issue is largely gone.

I mean, not entirely, but largely.

So you have the wonder.

The water quality is good for those uses for certainly very fishing and boating and so on.

And you could swim in and if you could find a spot where it's, you can safely get in and out, but but that's my, that's the phosphorus is the thing that we're concerned about.

And a government official, everybody's concerned about that because of its impact on, Lake Ontario.

Okay.

What are some of the efforts underway to to lessen the amount of phosphorus?

Well, specifically with Genesee River Watch, one of the, big things we've been, working on is stream bank stabilization.

Upstream, we find a lot of stream bank erosion as, the water comes up after a big rainfall, and, we've engaged in a lot of projects to help farmers stabilize their stream banks to protect the loss of their agricultural land, but then also to protect our waterways, too.

So that's one of our big focus areas.

And there are.

We both are, we've received grants to do work and many others have done the same, to work with, farmers directly to help them implement, land management practices, if you want to call it that, that reduce runoff.

I mean, that's the big that's the big bugaboo is that, you know, there there will be fertilizer or manure spread on the land.

It's I mean, that's just the fact a lot of farmland, a huge amount of farmland and a lot of big dairy farms that generate a lot of manure.

But, you know, that's okay.

As long.

But if you can keep it from washing away when, when there's a heavy rain or snow melt washing into a, you know, little creeks or drainage ditches and then little creeks go into big creeks and the big creeks go in the river, and the river goes in the lake, and then the beach close is closed.

So, there are a lot of there have been a lot of undertakings, both by us and by other, parties to, to work with farmers and try and, and implement practices to lessen the runoff and erosion on their property.

But it's a huge job.

I mean, we've done, I think, calculated most recently, almost 8000ft of stream bank we've restored since we started.

So that's you know, a mile and mile and almost two miles.

But that's just a what's what's involved.

Like, what are you doing to restore?

I mean, there are different techniques that we've used over the years.

I mean, we've done some where, where rocks have, you know, riprap.

That's the right trace.

Has been installed to just sort of prevent further erosion.

You know, other places we've used, natural material like tree trunks, tree roots, you know, material like that, and it's sort of buried along the riverbank, to prevent any further erosion.

You know, then there's plantings done of, of, natural, you know, grasses and shrubs and trees that would to try and, hold the soil down to, to lessen erosion down the line.

But it's, you know, we're always looking for different ways to approach that issue.

There are a lot of different ways you can stabilize a stream bank.

And but we, you know, we've, we've done quite a bit of it, and the farmers willing to work with you in most cases.

So this, you know, that's an interesting story going back to our founding, our actual founding as an environmental organization goes back to 1974, when we were the center for Environmental Information and an expert national expert in global warming.

But in 2014, we launched River Watch, because we looked at the region and we saw over 100 separate stakeholders in, in river activities, ranging from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation to, county, soil and water, agencies and nobody spoke for the river as a whole.

Looked at the river beyond geographic boundaries, beyond specific funding streams and so forth.

And the Genesee was the only significant river in New York that did not have a Riverkeeper organization working on it.

So we set out to, to bring attention to the river to try to help prioritize activities, to try to bring more funding, to issues.

And, it should be said, because I think it's key to what we do, that, it's never been about Genesee River Watch, per se.

Genesee River Watch has always been a partner organization, because that's how you get things done in, in development, in general and specifically in New York State, as I have come to see it in the course of my career.

We're all about partnering with other people and other organizations to achieve, including the agricultural, including the agricultural community.

So coming back to your original point, when we did some, some early investigation to see whether we ought to embark on this project, we went down to Allegheny County and, there was an attitude there of, Rochester tree huggers going to come down and tell us how to do things.

Yeah, I couldn't understand that.

So, we, we partnered up with, a farmer down there who was a major, force in the county was on a lot of different, boards in the county, and he knew a member of our board knew and trusted him, and suggested to the folks down there that maybe they ought to give us a listen.

And all of a sudden, we got one project, our first stream bank stabilization project, and then our executive director started getting calls from other farmers saying, hey, we've got this problem.

We don't know what to do with it.

We we partly we don't know physically how to do the job, but we don't know how to access the money, necessary to get the job done.

And in some cases, they were losing up to an acre a year of valuable farmland.

And if you've ever been down to Allegheny County, there are a lot of folks down there who can't afford to lose an acre of farmland.

But we knew from our prior experience as an environmental organization how to tap the funding streams to fund those kinds of projects.

And we've done that.

Steve alluded to, these projects that we've done, which have been funded by about $900,000 worth of federal grants, largely, but they've also untapped, another million dollars worth of landowner, in-kind services, where they have come and worked with us, used their own equipment, to get things done.

That's a great story using the abilities that they have.

Now, when you get to Rochester, it becomes even more of a partnership activity because there are many, many, activities or organizations within the city of Rochester and Monroe County, that have an interest in the river for one reason or another.

We happen to be, focused on bringing, if you will, clean water to Rochester, clean up the water by doing water quality work and bringing attention to the river itself.

But we've got Downtown Development Corporation, we've got, City of Rochester, we've got, Genesee River Alliance, we've got the Waterways Center.

And I could go on and on about how many people you need to partner with to achieve the results within the city.

Okay, hold that thought.

We're going to take a short break.

And then when I come back, I do want to go back to Dan because he's been sitting there patiently and I have some questions for him too.

So, when we come back, we will continue our conversation about the health of the Genesee River with Steve or board president of Genesee River Watch, Mike Haugh, also a board member of the Genesee River Watch.

Caroline Kilmer, assistant executive director.

And Dan Zelazny, a board member, will be right back.

I'm Evan Dawson, coming up in our second.

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I'm Julie Philipp sitting in for Evan Dawson.

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It's quite a list.

So we have dans la Disney on the line.

He's a board member with the Genesee River Watch, and I want to shift the conversation just for a few minutes over to climate change and how that might be affecting, the river and the issues surrounding the river now and even looking ahead, what what concerns you?

Do.

Yeah.

I mean, that's a great question.

And we could probably spend all day talking about it.

But I think the biggest changes that we're seeing here in, the central western New York is, increasing storms, the severity of the storms, duration of storms, the differences in temperatures, you know, from warmer summers to colder winters.

So we are seeing those extremes, and those extremes really take a toll on the environment and the ecology of the river itself.

And I think one of the things that we have have observed, and I know you've, dealt with this in the Rochester area is just flooding increased the amount of flooding and not just along Genesee River, but in the watersheds, like the Black Creek watershed, a White Creek watershed.

A lot of these areas are have experienced considerable flooding in the last several years now.

And, you know, scientists have attributed that to the climate change.

And we're concerned we're concerned about the flooding, the impacts of the flooding, increased sediment, and erosion, that results, the dangers of water sludge to people, who want to try to, go out paddling on the river to enjoy the river, and just the economic cost to our communities to respond and to mitigate the damages from, that type of, climate change, induced flooding.

So we've been very fortunate.

We've just been, talking to a number of municipalities, and working with them to try to improve their flood, flood, prevention programs and, to identify, the types of projects that perhaps communities can undertake, to better bolster their defenses, if you will.

So flood mitigation, we have a cleaner river, but a sometimes a bigger river to deal with.

Yeah.

And the, and the a lot of times it's the, it's the smaller tributaries that where there are big problems with localized flooding that that ensue from, you know, a heavy downpour or, rapid snowmelt or that kind of thing.

And in particular, there is a state program that, provides funding.

It's through part of the state's response to climate change that provides funding to municipalities, local governments that want to address flood risk, particular problems on particular water bodies.

We found our executive director, found in his field work, that Livingston County has no plan in the snow access to that money.

It's just hasn't happened yet.

And so he's convening.

We are.

He is on our behalf, meetings in Livingston County, starting next month to bring together, local officials and, landowners, affected landowners to talk about how they can, how they can begin the process of accessing the state money.

And again, as Don said, you know, there's a there are risks from flooding to people's, you know, people's homes to their health and safety.

If they're out in the wrong place at the wrong time.

But it also, you know, when a gusher of water comes down, one of these little creeks, it the, the erosion that takes place is enormous, and a lot of soil is lost and dissolved into the river and helps make the chocolate milk, even chocolate, the earth downstream, but also takes with it a lot of phosphorus.

And so so our goal is to work to address water quality are, addressed when you address flooding.

And so we're pleased to be, beginning the process of working with Livingston County.

To, you know, it's a long it's a long road.

It won't happen overnight.

But, to begin the process of trying to undertake some projects to reduce that kind of flooding and, and reduce, you know, improve water quality.

And, Dan, you mentioned temperature of water that the water's, I'm guessing I might be getting a little bit warmer.

How does that impact the health of the river and the community?

Yeah.

Well, I, I don't have specific, facts and examples for you on Genesee River water temperatures, but just, from an ecological perspective, the warming, does in, in, it does affect the, timing of the fish.

Fish, movements, fish spawning in the spring.

It affects, the ability of the lower food web organisms like the crayfish, and, and some of the minnows and some other organisms.

It affects how they respond and where they're able to live.

Because they have they require certain, range of water temperature, for optimum living conditions, so that as the water temperature, as the air temperature warms, the water temperature will warm and that will have, changes.

And what we see is the natural resources along the river.

And one of the things that happens is in warming waters is that native species tend to sometimes give way to invasive species.

Are there some, I believe water chestnuts is one of them.

And you're you're nodding.

Yeah.

We just, recently partnered with, the zoo and, others to clean up an area near Turning Point Park, in kayaks to remove water chestnuts.

We remove, what, 700 pounds of water chestnut in one day?

Which sounds like a lot, but there's a lot more to remove.

So that's something that we're actually looking more into getting involved in.

And how can we do this on a larger scale?

I mean, going out and pulling, let's start with what our water chestnuts.

What do they look like?

They're, you know, they're aquatic plants that were brought over, probably intentionally, by well-meaning people in the 19th century, to, to, you know, to display in their gardens.

But they, they're in there, mature stage.

They're, they're very pretty.

They're they're just a mats of bright green, leaves on top of the water.

Kind of like a lily.

Well, except denser.

Okay, if I know a lot of listeners, have gone or will go to Turning Point Park to walk on that lovely, causeway over the water.

It used to be that to the side you would see cattails.

Now, if you.

Now what you'll see is this dense mound of bright green, vegetation.

And those are water chestnuts.

They pushed the cattails almost back entirely.

They outcompeted them, if you will.

And but the, it's a new it's a new issue on the Genesee.

They've been in North America for decades, more than, you know, centuries, probably a couple.

But their new to relatively new to the Genesee.

And so there are, you know, the federal agencies state D-e-c, various others, and we joined the discussion or are talking about how one would go about, addressing them on a major, major level, you know, which has been going on in Braddock Bay and Salmon Creek out in Greece for a number of years.

I know, but but it's it's difficult to do.

You need a lot of people or you need a mechanical harvester.

Caroline was about to give us a description of what it's like to get rid of this stuff.

I mean, yeah, a mechanical harvester would probably be the best way to do it on a large scale.

In Wayne County, the, the Soil and Water Conservation District there, they actually own a mechanical harvester, and they go out into these lakes and they just, pull up all these invasive weeds.

But when you're at Turning Point Park, well, what are you doing without one?

Well, we had, was the barge, right.

Well, we had our they were little mini barges that you towed behind the kayak.

Oh.

Really?

So, I mean, I think the.

And we're to really attack them properly.

It sounds like there will need to be bigger barges, more people in kayaks.

Maybe a harvester, maybe.

Apparently they.

There are herbicides that are used for this to kill them.

That you that they apply with a drone, which I guess would be something to see.

But it's not known yet.

How what what the approach is going to be.

There's been just a beginning discussion among all these parties about what to do, and haven't gotten to the point yet of who's going to pay for it.

You know, we did a paddle now three weeks ago, in conjunction, it was actually organized by the Seneca Park Zoo, and we did it with the Waterway Center and ourselves, and promoted it, to get people to come down and participate.

And we did it with kayaks, which can't hold a whole lot of material and these small barges that we towed behind us and, and we stuck pretty much to the harbor area.

We didn't get up into the Turners little calmer and.

Yeah.

Well, and it wasn't that long a paddle.

Okay, to do that work.

And we brought 700 pounds of material back, which didn't really take all that long to gather.

But it was pretty energy intensive.

If you had to battle somewhere to do it.

And I know Steve has done this.

I was down in Turning Point to update myself, because it's been probably a year since I've been there.

And I went down Sunday with my camera, because I wanted to document what this looks like now compared to the pictures that I've taken in prior years, and the turning point area and the area between the shore and the causeway is now solid.

Oh, wow.

Water chestnuts.

Some of them are new.

They're there's a visible dividing line between those that are new and those that have been there for several years.

As Steve says, they have pushed the reeds back, almost to the shoreline and out competed, taken over that that area.

They are in dense mats anywhere where the water is not moving rapidly.

I suspect, that this will turn out to be more than, individuals in boats will be able to just won't be able to keep up.

We'll have to find them again.

And I would imagine it's getting harder and harder to paddle through this kind of stuff.

But how does that affect, I'm guessing wildlife.

You know, what's the impact of having all this water chestnut?

Maybe I have to throw that question to give it to Don, because I'm not a biologist, but I could hazard a few guesses.

But I could be likely as wrong as is correct.

I think both Mike and Julie, you've here already alluded to it a couple of times, but what happens is these invasive plants, they force out the natural plants and that changes the the ecology along the river.

So those species of wildlife that depend on, let's say the cattails, your redwing, blackbirds that, that live in nest in the, in the cattails, your, the the fish that will, seek shelter, in the little areas within cattail growth areas, the ducks and water birds that, like to hide up, against the cattails.

Those are all displaced because those cattails now have been either pushed back or no longer able to grow.

So, an invasive species like water chestnut could have profound change, could cause profound changes to all the other, wildlife, characters that depend on the river that we are familiar with and that we you know, want to try to preserve and, you know, and, fish as well underneath.

Because the problem with the water chestnuts is when they mature growth, it's like a dense mat and no sunlight can get through.

None.

And so the plants below that would, you know, when they grow in relatively shallow water, not deep water, certainly.

The plants below that depend on sunlight to live.

They die if things die out at other, you know, and that then affects the zooplankton and and all the other or little organisms that live under there, who have difficulty surviving.

There can be oxygen depletion which kills the fish, or the fish just have to leave because there's not they can't.

There's nothing to eat.

I mean, it just totally changes the, the immediate, ecosystem, the environment there.

And it's, you know, and they're they're a natural plant.

I mean, they're they grow wildly, in Europe and Asia.

I guess the difference is that there are natural predators in those places, insects that keep them from spreading too much.

But those, predators are absent in North America.

And so they grow, really, without the only the only predators, in play here are kayakers.

Yes.

We're the ones with the little barge and deck.

Paul was going to pull together a meeting involving quite a number of organizations, including River Watch.

About two weeks from now.

But I think they found that that was not a good time for a number of the other organizations they wanted to have present.

So they're working on setting up, meetings to discuss how we're going to do this, because, as we have said, this has been a problem in Braddock Bay for a number of years.

It's relatively new to the Genesee, and while it's relatively new, it has been explosive in its growth.

So that that just underscores, all of the things we've talked about today.

You have a lot of work.

There is no way that it can get done in anyone's lifetime, I don't think, but you oh, go ahead.

I was just going to say we've only scratched the surface of what we do.

So, yes, there is a lot of work, a huge amount of work.

Okay.

And so that we I want to go back to what you talked about a little bit before, Mike, about, partnerships in the community, all the different stakeholders and how it's important to work with one another and not in silos.

And is that happening?

And can you, can you talk about some successes in that area or things that you have underway in terms of partnerships?

Yeah, I think so.

It's true all over Rochester.

I did a lot of work outside of Rochester during my paid career, but the last thing that I did in Rochester that was paid was running the manufacturing consultancy for high tech Rochester, which is now next door, and that gave me a chance to see what went on in this community in terms of the number of organizations that are out there, each of which has its own particular set of skills, and the degree to which you can move this community forward by creating partnerships among those organizations and leveraging those skills to achieve larger goals.

So as we look at the river, I came here 45 years ago from Richmond, Virginia.

If you ask anybody in Virginia, what's the James River?

Everybody in Virginia knows about James River.

In Rochester we have an embarrassment of water.

We have the Genesee, we have the Finger Lakes, we have the big lake.

We have the Erie Canal.

There's a lot of competition or interest in water bodies, but we also have this unique asset, really a unique probably too strong a word, very unusual aspect with with a river that runs right through the middle of the city is, as Steve was saying, and has a very rural component of it to the south of us, with different characteristics.

And, there are a lot of entities, economic development, recreational, commercial, that we could tick off, all of whom, if you're in the city of Rochester, can contribute something to, to, getting people interested in the river and the preservation of the river, its water quality and that sort of thing.

And then kind of harking back to what I alluded to as my earlier experience, which was economic development.

The city has an enormous number of smaller, fast growing, high tech, industries that will be the future of Rochester, and will guide its success in the future.

And all those industries, with with knowledgeable people.

Those people want something to do with their recreational time.

They can go to the Finger Lakes, they can go out on the big lake, they can go to the Genesee River.

They can enjoy it.

On the river.

They can enjoy the fisher people.

They can enjoy it for hiking.

They can enjoy its history.

They can study its history.

There's a great deal that the river, can do to make life better for quality of life.

And and attract people to fill those industrial jobs.

Retain our graduates from U of R it.

Nazareth and, Saint John Fisher rather than have them go off somewhere else.

It's not that the Genesee is the be all and end all of that, but it is a significant way people have recognized the fact that a river is running through the city with beautiful waterfalls and recreational opportunities that have been missed.

And we have High Falls, Park, a brewing here.

If you look at any other city in the country, High Falls Park would have had commercial developments in it years ago.

It wouldn't be available to be a park, because back then we wouldn't have seen.

It's, it's up to see corporate interest in partnering, with Genesee River Watch.

Absolutely.

I'm so glad you brought that up.

We've been, working a lot lately on developing a new corporate partnership program.

This program is really exciting.

It gives businesses a meaningful way to invest in the Genesee River and the communities around it.

Partners can engage, their employees in hands on activities like river cleanups.

But but while also receiving recognition for their commitment to the environment and to our community.

So what we really like about, our corporate sponsorship program, it's not just about asking a company to donate or to write a check.

We want to build a partnership with companies that care about the communities and where their employees live and work, and actually have them actively involved in conservation and helping with the Genesee.

So what are some of the activities that that corporations that are involved now do besides writing a check?

Well, I mean, the activity, the primary one so far has been, cleanups, of which I, for better or worse than the coordinators, and we've we've been doing more and more of them in recent years.

Some of them we have partnered with other nonprofits, with the South Edge Planning Committee working for Rochester, the Genesee Waterway Center, doing one with the U of our in a couple of weeks.

So what's involved in a cleanup?

It's it's do you have to you know, you know, sometimes dirty water in the water or.

Well, we do in a kayak.

Yes.

Sometimes we are.

We do we do cleanups from kayaks, to grab all the trash that builds up along the, along the shore, using, you know, grabbers or nets to snag the bottles.

And last time I was out, I got two basketballs.

That was very proud of them.

So.

But then on the shore, there are many places, where you can walk along and you can reach down in the water with, and we we we got a a grant from Dezi Maki Jones Foundation last year to buy a bunch of equipment.

So we have, like, 12ft long nets and, or nets on 12ft poles and a bunch of grabbers and a lot of other stuff, so you can walk along and pick up things.

You can haul it out of the water if, if need be.

We've got grappling hooks and have hauled things that we can barely budge out of the water.

So it's sometimes but a lot of it's just kind of going along and picking up, you know, fishing line and bottle caps and bottles on the ground near the river.

So it's, you know, we do as much of it as we can.

It's it's, you know, it's it's not just a matter of beautifying the river, although that's a good part of it, because it's.

We make the point.

You have the, you know, the city and the state are investing untold millions of dollars and all these new facilities on the water, and you really don't want the water to be full of bobbing plastic bottles.

And I don't know that there's your plan to do the garbage cleanup, right?

That's.

Yeah.

So we're we're filling that void or trying to, but also, you know, when you get plastic in the water, even is something as simple as a plastic bottle of cola.

You know, that plastic degrades.

And that's one of the sources of the microplastics that are in our drinking water and, and other, liquids that we consume.

And so every one of those bottles we haul out of there is a small victory, in in that regard.

So, you know, something that we're glad to do.

We're we're very happy that there are companies and other institutions that, want to partner with us and, and, engage their employees in that work.

And we've done a couple of those this year.

And they've been very successful.

We had I don't know how many tons of or pounds of trash, several hundred that they pulled.

So, and we hope to do more.

Yeah.

And this is not, something that River Watch is pushing.

This is actually in response to calls that we've had for a number of years from corporate HR department saying we'd like something for, a team of our employees to do, what might they do with you?

And up to now we've said, well, we we've got a plant, planting activity at our latest stream bank restoration project.

That's 50 miles up river one way.

And then and they've said, wonderful idea, but, thanks, but did you could you think of something that we might be able to do in an afternoon?

Okay.

And, and this is the kind of thing that, can be done with a minimum amount of, commitment taking time away from their either their business lives and their family lives.

And it sounds like a job by community kind of take over, not something I undertake over.

So we got a couple minutes left here.

We've talked a lot.

And as Steve said, it maybe just the tip of the iceberg of how much work is out there to be done.

But Genesee River Watch has ways to get involved that are fun to do.

You want to talk about those are kind of on a minute or so.

Well, I think locally the the most obvious thing is every summer we've been running a paddling program in conjunction with the Waterways Center.

The summers usually start out with a free learn to paddle, activity right around the waterway center, where it's flat water and it's easy to learn.

And then, we've done things off the waterways center docks.

We go up Red Creek, which is a wonderful little, creek that runs parallel to the Genesee but exits into the canal.

So we go a couple hundred yards and get into Red Creek and go explore up there.

On the 12th, we've got our paddle up the canal and through lock 33 to lock 32.

If you've never been in a lock in a kayak, that's an an.

It is an experience.

Okay.

So real quickly, where can people find out information about these activities or to contribute volunteer.

Yeah.

Genesee River Watch for our website.

You can also follow us on Instagram.

On Facebook.

Okay.

We have all our, information available.

All right.

So to donate, thank you very much to my guests in studio Steve Orr, board president of Genesee River Watch.

We've got Mike Haugh, a board member.

Caroline Kilmer, assistant executive director.

And Don Zelazny on teams.

A board member of Genesee River Watch.

Thank you all so much for being here today.

It was a great discussion.

Also, thank you to you guys back there making this happen.

And our listeners, please join me again tomorrow at noon.

We'll see you then.

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