The next Environmental Professionals Network (EPN) breakfast program features Hope Taft, former First Lady of Ohio, and Bob Gable, scenic rivers program manager for the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR), presenting “For Love of Rivers: Celebrating 50 Years of the Scenic Rivers Act” It’s from 7:15 to 9:30 a.m. Feb. 13 on Ohio State’s Columbus campus.
Protecting the Little Miami
Taft, who among other achievements is an Ohio Certified Volunteer Naturalist and honorary Master Gardener, will discuss “what it takes to keep a scenic river ‘scenic,’ ” according to the event’s website. Included will be details on her efforts to help protect the Little Miami State and National Scenic River near her home in the Dayton area.
Ohio’s scenic rivers
Gable, an Ohio State alumnus who previously has been ODNR’s Big Darby Creek stormwater education coordinator, Southwest Ohio Scenic River Program coordinator and Central Ohio Scenic River Program coordinator, will give a history and overview of the state’s scenic rivers program.
Registration for the event, which includes breakfast, is $10 for EPN members and the public and free for Ohio State students. Learn more and register.
50th anniversary
The National Wild and Scenic Rivers System, created by the 1968 Wild and Scenic Rivers Act, is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. Congress enacted the act, the system’s website says, “to preserve certain rivers with outstanding natural, cultural and recreational values in a free-flowing condition for the enjoyment of present and future generations.”
Ohio, for its part, has 14 designated state wild, scenic and recreational rivers, of which three are designated national scenic rivers.
About EPN
EPN, a statewide professional organization for anyone working or studying in an environmental field, is a service of CFAES’s School of Environment and Natural Resources. It’s free to join. (Photo: Big Darby Creek by Analogue Kid at English Wikipedia, CC-BY-SA-3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.)