This Slideshare presentation details what RiverLink is all about, offering information on our The Wilma Dykeman RiverWay Plan, our educational outreach, our water quality efforts and our recreational outreach, including the French Broad River Paddle Trail and our festivals. Get to know us and you'll love our work.

2. RiverLink is a regional non-
profit spearheading the
economic and environmental
revitalization of the French Broad
River and its tributaries as a
place to live, work and play.
RiverLink is often referred to as
the ―go-to‖ organization for water
quality and urban riverfront
issues and concerns.
RiverLink provides a wide array of
services focused around water quality,
the environment and sustainable
economic development within the region
that no other non-profit or agency is
providing on a regional or local level.
Get to know us and you'll love our work.

3. The Wilma Dykeman RiverWay
And Urban Plan
Linking Our Rivers and Our Region

4. At the heart of RiverLink’s work is the Wilma
Dykeman RiverWay Plan, a greenway linking the
French Broad and Swannanoa Rivers into a 17-
mile continuous greenway with separate walking
and biking trails anchored on the south at the NC
Arboretum and on the east by the Blue Ridge
Parkway and on the north by UNCA.
RiverLink raised over $250,000 to
develop The Wilma Dykeman
RiverWay Plan from the
NCDOT, Buncombe County, the City
of Asheville, The Asheville
Merchants Association, The
Tennessee Valley Authority and
Progress Energy. The plan took over
two years to complete and involved
numerous focus groups and public
meetings, that encouraged a broad
cross-section of our community to
share their ideas.

6. BE THERE
B – Balance – Something for everyone - environmental
protection, balancing modes of transportation, arts and
industry.
E - Economic Development --- mixed income, mixed use,
low impact sustainable development
T - Transportation – a 17 mile greenway with separate
walking and biking trails
H - Health – the RiverWay offers a comprehensive approach to
health care and wellness
E – Environment – Clean air and water are essential to our
sense of place and total well being.
R - Recreation –walking, biking, paddling, etc.
E – Education – knowing about our rivers and our history
through an artistically interpreted RiverWay

7. The Wilma Dykeman RiverWay and
Urban Riverfront Plan
Linking Our Rivers and Our Region

9. Artist rendering of the future RiverWay

11. Development of our unique River Corridor
can have a significant
impact on our
―Quality of Place.‖
Developing our Communities
“Quality of Place”
is key to attracting
entrepreneurs, companies, jobs, and economic
development.

12. Next Steps
 Work with city, county DOT, State &
Federal agencies for funding
 Create joint city-county-chamber-CIBO-
RiverLink Commission
 Award $600,000 RFP for study area
 Keep getting Brownfield Agreements
 Keep master planning
 Watch this space!

13. RiverLink Volunteer Programs
Volunteers are a critical
link in helping to achieve
RiverLink’s mission of
revitalizing the French
Broad River watershed.
Our small staff just
couldn’t do it without help
from the community.

14. RiverLink volunteers at work
…

15. RiverLink Volunteers
by the numbers:
 RiverLink has over 600 active volunteers
In one year, volunteers accomplished all of this!
~ Conducted 150 river cleanups ~
~ Collected over 2,000 bags of trash and 500 tires ~
~ Presented 600 Watershed Education lessons for over 4,000 K-12
students ~
~ Offered 8 Riverfront Bus Tours for more than 80 people ~
~ Contributed over 300 hours in RiverLink’s office ~
~110 Volunteers Graduated from RiverLink’s Muddy Water Watch
Program~

16. Volunteer Opportunities:
Indoors
• Office Assistant
Filing, data entry, archiving, mailing
• Media assistant
web, PR, etc.
• Special Events
Help plan, organize, and volunteer at events

17. Volunteer Opportunities:
Outdoors
 River Cleanup Coordinator
Organize and/or participate in river clean-ups
 Adopt-a-Stream
Recruit a team from your business, neighborhood, church, school, etc.
Conduct a minimum of two cleanups a year on your adopted stream
and one visual monitoring session
 Adopt-a-Greenway
Same as Adopt-A-Stream, but group maintains a stretch of our
greenway system
 Environmental Education
Help conduct Watershed Education for K-12 students in the FBR
watershed
includes Enviroscape, art and poetry, and water quality testing
 River District Bus Tour Guides
Two hour drive explores the past, present, and future of the river
 Outing guides
Design and lead interpretive hikes and field trips in and along the river

18. Interested in getting
involved?
Contact RiverLink’s
Director of Volunteer
Services Dave Russell
(828-252-8474, ext. 11;
dave@riverlink.org)
for more information
and come join the
Team!

19. FRENCH BROAD RIVER
K-12 WATERSHED
EDUCATION PROGRAM
EDUCATING AND EMPOWERING THE NEXT GENERATION OF WATERSHED
STEWARDS

20. Programs are FREE for all K-12 students in the French Broad
watershed!
All public, private, charter, and home schools, as well as youth
afterschool and camp programs, are
invited to GET RIVERLINKED!
Our programs will focus on:
 French Broad River ecology
 Water quality and quantity
 Student engagement in scientific investigation
 Science as a link to personal decision making
 Environmental awareness, appreciation, stewardship,
and activism
 National curriculum like Project WET (Water Education
for Teachers)
 Links to NC Standard Course of Study

21. Kids in the Creek
Students will be active participants in
catching and identifying
aquatic insects—based on the types of
bugs and their pollution
sensitivity, we will calculate a Pollution
Tolerance Index for the stream we are
studying.
Older students can conduct chemical
water tests for pH, turbidity, nitrates,
phosphates, and dissolved oxygen.
EnviroScape™
Enviroscape is a plastic model of a
watershed which demonstrates the roles
of roads, buildings, animals, factories, and
farms, and how their pollution affects
water quality. Students will create a
rainstorm to visualize how storm-water
runoff carries pollution such as sediment
and chemicals into our waterways. We will
also address ways to help prevent
pollution.

22. Voices of the River
RiverLink annual program, Voices of the
River, would like to invite all schools and
classes (K-12) to participate in creating art
and poetry based on our local rivers.
Submissions will be judged by local artist
and poet celebrities and be displayed as a
several month art exhibit. Winners will be
awarded prizes from various local
sponsors. All the Way to the Ocean
A lesson with the sound of rain, brightly
colored pictures, and googly-eyed puppets,
students learn that everything entering
storm drains, into rivers, streams, and
eventually the ocean. Students utilize rain
sticks, trash and aquatic life puppets to act
out effects of pollution. They also simulate
a stream clean up. "Volunteers" use pick up
sticks to put trash puppets in a big orange
bag. The lesson ends with a river free from
trash, and happy sock puppets. Classes
have the option of locating a storm drain
near their school placing a real "No
Dumping" sticker on it.

23. Summer Camps
~ Environmental Education ~ River Recreation ~ Service Learning~
~ Kids in the Creek ~ River of Words & Art ~ River cleanup ~ Raft Trip
down the French Broad ~ Tour of River Parks, stream restorations, and
rain gardens ~ Nature Journals ~ Guest Speakers ~ Crafts ~ And much
more!
For rising 3rd-8th graders

24. To schedule a
program or for more
information:
Please contact
Nikki Bauman
(828) 252-8474 x18
RiverLink Education Coordinator
education@riverlink.org
To schedule a program or for more
information:
Please contact
Nikki Bauman (828) 252-8474 x18
RiverLink Education Coordinator education@riverlink.org

25. Water Quality Programs in the
French Broad River
Watershed
Building stewardship and improving water quality through community
education, outreach, program development and project implementation.

26. Stream restoration is becoming more prevalent within our urban
areas, due to recognition of water quality issues, desire for public
green space and environmental awareness in your own back
yard. Stream Restoration is the re-establishment of the form, function,
and behavior of a stream. This consists a broad range of
mechanisms including re-alignment, minimizing existing up stream
factors, installing structures and stream bank planting. These
features collectively support the stability of the stream, increases
habitat, improves water quality and recreational opportunities.
RiverLink’s Stream Restoration
Projects:
• Swannanoa River ~ Azalea Park
• Haw Creek ~ Charlie Bullman Athletic Field
• Robinson Creek ~ Arden
• Buttermilk Creek ~ Malvern Hills Park
• Rhododendron Creek ~ West Asheville Park
STREAM RESTORATION

27. Sedimentation is the largest water quality
issue within the French Broad River
RiverLink’s Water Quality Projects:
Watershed. We have localized pollution • Town Branch ~ LinkingWaters
issues which have been designated • Haw Creek ~ Evergreen Charter Community School
target sub-watersheds in efforts to obtain • Haw Creek ~ Jones Residence
funding to remediate the pollution issues. • Swannanoa River~ Black Mountain Well Lot
In efforts to remediate these issues • Swannanoa River ~ Riverside Park
RiverLink focuses on the implementation • Buttermilk Creek ~ Malvern Hills Park
of stormwater Best Management • Rhododendron Creek ~ West Asheville Park
Practices (BMPs), community education
and engagement, and development and
managing a residential stormwater
management program –WaterRICH.
WATER QUALITY

28. WaterRICH Program
Goals:
• Empower the homeowner The program will target the
• Improve water quality understanding, designing, regulations, permits, and construction
• Increase water infiltration of residential stormwater features. Designed as a community
• Reduce Use resource the program will develop an online layman’s guide to
• Build Incentive based stormwater management, training, project assistance, and
Certification Program certification.
• 75 Pilot homes The Homeowner’s on-line guidebook will take a resident step-by-
step through developing a Water RICH landscape. This process
WaterRICH Elements: starts with examining your site, then walks you through the
• Online Handbook ~ decision making process for options specific to your
resource for training and yard, highlights permitting and other regulatory requirements, and
workshops. then teaches you the techniques for implementation. The Water
• Worksheets RICH Program will help improve surface water quality in the
• Workshops French Broad River watershed by empowering residents through
• Site Assessment education, implementation and certification.
• Certification
WATERRICH Reuse Infiltration and Conservation for the Home
Water

29. The French Broad River Paddle Trail will serve to
protect the river as a resource for
recreation, environmental
stewardship, education, and economic
development. The trail will build long term
partnerships with local governing agencies and
private landowners to assist in the development of a
low impact trail with, Leave No Trace paddle–in
camping every 8-10 miles along the river corridor.
Paddle Trail Elements:
• Access
• Campsites
• Informational Kiosks
• Riparian Conservation
FRENCH BROAD
• Online/Printed Map and Guide
• Managed by a Friends Group
RIVER PADDLE
TRAIL

30. RiverLink has accepted over 90 acres in conservation
THE FOREVER OPTION… easements through the FOREVER OPTION. Why is
RiverLink interested in holding your conservation
easement? Conservation easements along a riparian
or steep slope area are wonderful tools for improving
RiverLink works in many ways to support the
water quality, and they may also be written to allow
environmental integrity, economic sustainability, and greenway trails and other recreational uses. Some
revitalization of the French Broad River Watershed. easements even allow public access, though this is
One of these ways is land protection through the not a requirement. Many new housing developments
FOREVER OPTION, RiverLink’s conservation are adding easements as an amenity for the
easement program. homeowner. You can also include a stream
restoration in your easement. All these benefits are in
line with RiverLink’s mission to make the French
Broad River Watershed a better place to live, work
and play.
CONSERVATION EASEMENTS

31. Special
Events
As part of our outreach,
RiverLink also hosts events to
draw people down to enjoy their
river, the French Broad. For
many years, the French Broad
was seen as a tool to drain away
the substances no one wanted
hanging around – industrial
waste, sewerage, even dead
cows. The River has enjoyed a
resurgence as it has become a
lot cleaner over the past three
decades.
Inviting people down to the River
helps to make them aware that
the River and its riparian areas
are a resource for recreation,
such as fishing, boating, biking,
walking, etc. and makes them
better stewards of their river.
We hope you will come join us at one of our
events and rediscover the French Broad River
and the opportunities it provides.

32. RiverFest
Our signature event is RiverFest, held in August at French Broad River Park.
RiverFest features a great lineup of music, local beer, arts and crafts, and food
from local restaurants. Groups from all around WNC put together watercraft for
the ―Anything that Floats Parade."
RiverFest offers lots of fun for kids, too, with face-painters, art supplies, and a
Kids Parade.

33. The Fins-n-Gills fishing tournament is designed
to attract fisherfolk of all ages and abilities.
There’s a floating fishing derby for adults, a trout
pond for kids, and prizes for almost everyone!
Fins-n-Gills Fishing Tournament

34. Find us, support us
…
We’re on the Web: www.riverlink.org
We hang out on Facebook: www.facebook.com/riverlink
Our blog is updated daily: www. theriverwhisperer.blogspot.com/
And if we are not hanging around the French Broad River, we’re at
170 Lyman Street in Asheville, right across the street from 12Bones.
Click here for a map.
Become a member or make a donation:
https://co.clickandpledge.com/sp/d2/default.aspx?wid=35189