August 27, 2003
River Jam celebrates Boardman
Boardman River Project sponsors day of live music, food and games
By Carol South
Herald contributing writer
Don't most areas have a beautiful bay in their front yard and lush forests and rolling hills in their backyard?
Well, in short, no.
So organizers of the Boardman River Project organized Sunday's River Jam to remind both residents and visitors that the jewel of the Grand Traverse watershed should not be taken for granted.
"I took this for granted, like a lot of people, when I was growing up here," said Steve Largent, director of the Boardman River Project. "But in the blink of an eye this all can be gone if we don't take care of it."
The River Jam festival was presented by Traverse City Light and Power with a two-fold goal: raise awareness of the Boardman River watershed and raise money for the Boardman River Project. The Boardman River Project is a program of the Grand Traverse County Conservation District.
Largent and a phalanx of enthusiastic volunteers hosted the festival Sunday afternoon, organizing music, food, games and children's activities that drew an estimated 1,500 attendees. An outdoor stage on the Riverwalk in front of the River's Edge development hosted bands ranging from the Jah Kings to Grasshoppah. Nine other acts performed at the Loading Dock, helping the event live up to its title.
Spectators lined the Riverwalk, the outdoor seating at the 310 restaurant and the Cass River bridge, providing the requisite music festival ambiance. Cass Road was closed between Lake and Washington Streets for the event, allowing attendees to meander among booths, mingle and enjoy a variety of food and music.
"We wandered around and listened to the music," said Kathi Mulder of Traverse City. "There was good music at the Loading Dock and I thought it was great having the outdoor setting to the music."
Other environmental related organizations hosted informational booths at the event, including the Michigan Land Use Institute and the Watershed Center. Kids activities and crafts featured glitter fish, button making and face painting; the rock climbing wall and moonwalk were canceled because of the afternoon's high winds.
Mulder, while not active in the Boardman River Project, said the event reminded her again to cherish the area's natural resource.
"This is a very, very necessary and worthwhile project," she said. "We've lived a lot of different places, places where there was not water, and certainly we are really blessed in having so many different sources of water, recreation and beauty in the area."
Since 1991, the Boardman River Project's mission has been to restore, protect and maintain the watershed, which begins in Kalkaska county and encompasses 182, 000 acres of land. Flowing into West Grand Traverse Bay, the watershed contributes 30 percent of the tributary flow into the Bay. The land surrounding the watershed is a mix of forest, agriculture, wetlands and urban development.
Situated in the heart of one of the fastest-growing areas in the state, the watershed is vulnerable to development; currently 17 percent of the land is in urban areas. Another issue that impacts wildlife in the watershed is the loss of habitat or its division into disjointed pieces. The Boardman River project partners with organizations such as the Grand Traverse Regional Land Conservancy to help preserve or recreate wildlife corridors.
"This is a watershed at risk when we have that kind of development pressure, especially at the rate we were growing," Largent noted. "Each and every one of us has a personal responsibility to make sure that this area stays a quality area because it all can't be regulated."
Stewardship is key to the watershed's vitality.
"If everybody is looking after the almighty dollar, we might as well fold up our tent and head for a different place," Largent noted. "That's why there's a lot of good landowners out there who are taking care of it."