October 8, 2009
The ‘Friends of the Chemung River Watershed’ want everyone to know what the Chemung River has to offer. Recently, they were awarded a grant from New York State to make improvements and now with their collaboration with Steuben County they are on their way to making the Chemung River an outdoor attraction.
A bus of representatives from both counties, the New York State DEC, and architects, toured boat launches, and existing and proposed trails along the Chemung River to see what's working and what needs improvement.
“When people get on a trail they're going to want to keep going,” said Jennifer Fais of STC Planning, “we want to create a system so people have a great access to the outside.”
The ‘Friends of The Chemung River Watershed’ say they've seen an increase in people visiting the river for the past several years and they hope that continues, but they are also aware of the environmental impact people have which is why they closely with the DEC.
“We're looking at trails that go along the river and obviously a lot of them will be within our flood protection systems,” explained Scott Rodabaugh, Flood Control Engineer - NYS DEC, “our role is to work with the communities the different entities that want to build the trail and make sure that's safe.”
The hope is one day there will be a trail that extends to the Chesapeake Bay. But for now the group is working out a plan that will extend the trail from Painted Post to the Steuben County line and possibly after that to the Susquehanna River in Athens, Pennsylvania.
