WARREN — In the year-long celebration of the Allegheny River’s 2017 designation of River of the Year, the Penn Soil Resource Conservation and Development Council awarded mini grants to 11 celebration proposals and was able to host 24 days or events of celebration.

“Since our organization serves an eight county region of northwest PA and we only have part time staff managing our projects, one of the challenges we faced was planning and carrying out the River of the Year Celebration for the entire Allegheny River which begins in Potter County and flows 325 miles to Pittsburgh,” said Wes Ramsey, executive director of Penn Soil RC&D.  

These events attracted 1560 participants which either were educated about water quality and other benefits of the river to the community, or helped clean up the river by donating their time to plant riparian buffer trees and remove a total of 449 abandoned tires, 105 cubic yards of trash, and 5,350 pounds of recyclable metal and steel to improve water quality, public safety, and the overall health of the river.

River of the Year celebration events were held in Potter, McKean, Warren, Forest, Venango, Clarion, Crawford, and Allegheny counties.

A total of 3046 hours of volunteer time was reported for all River of the Year Celebration events.  For the purposes of the River of the Year Grants, volunteer time is valued at $21.25 per hour See the entire River of the Year Grant report for more information at www.pennsoil.org/blog.