White House designates National Blueways

In May 2012 the Obama administration designated the Connecticut River and its 7.2 million-acre watershed as the first segment of a new National Blueways System. This new system was created to improve several things in river systems across the country:

• help conserve natural amenities
• help conserve wildlife habitat
• preserve or enhance healthy recreational opportunities

The administration created America’s Great Outdoors Initiative to establish a community-driven conservation and recreation agenda for the 21st century. The National Blueways program is part of that larger initiative. Large blueways such as the Connecticut River watershed are very important in several ways, inmcluding:

• nurseries for biodiversity
• filtration systems for fresh water supplies
• outdoor recreational outlets for millions of Americans.

Some 2.4 million people across almost 400 communities live within the Connecticut River’s watershed. The non-profit Trust for Public Land estimates that 1.4 million of those residents enjoy the watershed’s natural beauty and wildlife and add about $1 billion dollars to local economies each year.

“The Connecticut River Watershed is a model for how communities can integrate their land and water stewardship efforts with an emphasis on ‘source-to-sea’ watershed conservation,” said Secretary of the Interior Kenneth Salazar upon announcing the new designation.

According to the U.S. Department of Interior, the National Blueway designation “differs from existing federal designations for rivers (e.g., Wild and Scenic), which generally cover only a segment of a river and a narrow band of the riparian corridor.” In contrast, a National Blueway includes the entire river from “source to sea” as well as the river’s watershed.

A National Blueway designation doesn’t establish any new protections for the watersheds in question, but it does open the door to some federal support for existing and/or new local and regional conservation, recreation and restoration projects. In the case of the Connecticut River, the new designation will help by improving coordination between local/regional planning entities and federal agencies such as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The designation should also mean more funding for trail building and forest restoration projects.

• America's Great Outdoors Initiative

Source: Based on an article in "EarthTalk"®, a registered trademark of E - The Environmental Magazine (http://www.emagazine.com/). You may be interested in the online archive of past EarthTalk articles or in the EarthTalk article news feed.