RIVER GROUP WINS AWARD FOR EFFORTS

By ELIZABETH PEZZULLO

The Free Lance-Star

For years, Friends of the Rappahannock has worked to bring down Fredericksburg's Embrey Dam and

promote other measures to preserve the Rappahannock River.

Now the area's nonprofit river restoration group and its upstream partners are being rewarded for their

efforts.

CF Industries, one of North America's largest agricultural cooperatives, will present the National

Watershed Award to the Rappahannock-Rapidan Watershed Partnerships today at the U.S.

Department of Agriculture in Washington.

Sen. John Warner, R-Va., who advocates removal of the 90-year-old Embrey Dam, will be the

keynote speaker.

"We are particularly honored because this national award recognizes ... the partnership efforts among a

wide range of local stakeholders, who are taking a sense of personal ownership in the river," said John

Tippett, executive director of the Friends.

The CF Industries awards, administered by the Conservation Fund in Washington, are presented

annually to groups that protect the country's increasingly endangered watersheds.

The Sun River Watershed Project in Montana, the North Branch of the Chicago River Watershed

Project in Illinois, and Dow Chemical Co.'s volunteer efforts in the Saginaw Bay Watershed will also

receive awards.

The awards come with $1,000 and recipients are selected "for their successful use of economic

incentives, voluntary initiatives and community outreach to restore water quality," according to the

Conservation Fund.

The Rappahannock-Rapidan Watershed Partnership was selected for bringing preservationists,

businesses and localities together to improve the river's quality. One of the Friends' key programs has

been working with landowners along the river to build streamside buffers, which reduce the amount of

harmful nutrients entering the Rappahannock.

Despite its reputation as one of the mile Rappahannock has stretches that are among the most

degraded waterways in the state, the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality reports.

Tippett is hoping the partnerships' efforts will improve the situation.

"Awards are nice," he said. "But my biggest reward will be to pass on a fishable and swimmable river to

my grandchildren."