Dear River Friends,
This week we are officially launching our new name as the Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper. For nearly twenty years, the Friends of the Buffalo Niagara Rivers has played a pivotal role in improving access to our waterfront, ensuring clean water for our future, encouraging public education and ownership of the rivers and securing hundreds of millions of dollars in funding to protect our waterfront.
This summer, we officially joined the Waterkeeper Alliance as the Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper. The Alliance is an association of local organizations, like the Friends, working to preserve and protect the nation’s waters. The Alliance just received the Sierra Club’s 2005 National William O. Douglas Award, which recognizes superlative use of the legal/judicial process to achieve environmental goals.
Our association with the national Waterkeeper Alliance will enable us to:
- Increase our presence on the water and increase the level of reporting to the public on the state of the health of our rivers.
- Push for greater public access from water and land in support of YOUR public trust rights to fish and swim in our waters.
- Develop watcher partnerships with users such as boaters, anglers, hikers, and birders to improve the number of “eyes” on the waters.
- Make better use of the legal tools such as the Clean Water Act, to combat continuing pollution problems.
Please join us at the following events to learn more and celebrate this exciting partnership:
Press Event: announcing the launch of Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper. Friday, September 16th at 10am. Event @ Broderick Park (Foot of West Ferry in Buffalo).
Fall Beach Sweep: is this Saturday and Sunday, September 17th and 18th. Join over 800 volunteers at 30 sites taking action to clean up our waterways. To sign up contact Robbyn at 852-RIVER or rdrake@fbnr.org.
WE hope you can join us for these exciting events!
-Julie Barrett O’Neill, Esq.