Buffalo Niagara RIVERKEEPER's Birthday Bash: Turning Legal

By Larry Brooks:

Come and celebrate our 21st birthday with a party for clean water, this Friday, the 12th, 5:30 - 8:00 p.m. at Pearl Street Grill and Brewery. There will be liquid refreshment, hors d-oeuvres, a silent auction and music by Neville Francis and the Riddim Posse. Tickets are $45 at the door or $30 if you're under 30.

Come have fun and benefit RIVERKEEPER, an organization that was founded in 1989 (as "Friends of the Buffalo River") by five citizens who wanted to clean up the Buffalo River. The organization has increased capacity and project responsibility for 22 employees and a multi-million dollar budget. Through unique RIVERKEEPER partnerships and a twenty-year organizational commitment, the founders' vision will reach a major milestone in 2011 as the Army Corps of Engineers will begin dredging contaminated sediment out of the navigation channel within the center of the River.

In addition to this first phase of cleanup, over the years RIVERKEEPER has played significant roles in saving Old Bailey Woods, in the development of four pocket parks along the River, and coordinating the Federally-designated "Buffalo River Remedial Action Plan". RIVERKEEPER assisted in the development of the nation's first urban canoe trail, in the South Buffalo Brownfield Opportunity Area planning effort, coordinates semi-annual cleanups of the shoreline, and in year-long monitoring of the River and its water quality through our Riverwatch program. In 2011, RIVERKEEPER will implement two major habitat restoration efforts along the Buffalo River shoreline at "RiverBend" and "Seneca Bluffs', both projects funded by the USEPA-Great Lakes Restoration Initiative. 

There is a lot happening related to the Buffalo River and RIVERKEEPER has played a critical role in securing funding and partners to make things happen on our waterfront.