Five Questions With: Alicia J. Lehrer

"Participants tell us they love our ride because riders are well supported with food, water, rest stops and a great after-party with live music."

Alicia J. Lehrer joined the Woonasquatucket River Watershed Council as executive director in March of 2008. In seven years at the council, she has led restoration of migratory fish passage on the river, worked with the government and community partners on cleanup efforts for the Centredale Manor Superfund site, and worked toward Woonasquatucket Greenway expansion, improvement and maintenance. Here, she shares the latest plans and focus of the council.

PBN: What is the sixth Annual Woony River Ride Bike-A-Thon and how will it boost your coffers?
LEHRER:
The 6th Annual Woony River Ride Bike-A-Thon, presented by the Foundry and Promenade, is the Woonasquatucket River Watershed Council’s annual fundraiser. It is our chance to introduce people from all over to the beautiful Woonasquatucket River, our bike path and the urban wildlife corridor. It also provides support to our ongoing programs.
We purposely offer rides and walks at many levels so anyone can join in. Families with young children enjoy an easy off-road five-mile walk and avid cyclists can challenge themselves with more difficult ride including 62.5 mile metric century. The ride takes place on Sept. 19 rain or shine, beginning and ending at Waterplace Park in Providence.
Participants tell us they love our ride because riders are well supported with food, water, rest stops and a great after-party with live music. This year, a local band, Oak Hill, will play at the after party, Julian’s will provide food and Revival Brewing will provide excellent local beer. New this year is a funky Woony River Hero bike jersey designed by the creative staff at Delin Design. The jerseys can be purchased for $70 each but all riders who raise $500 or more will get one as a thank you.
Our goal is to raise $50,000 through the 6th annual Woony Ride. This will support our work of expanding our bike path from seven miles to 10 miles through Johnston and our youth job training, education and camp programs.
To register, buy our unique jersey or learn more, visit www.woonyride.org.

PBN: How is the council involved in the Woonasquatucket River Greenway and what is the next milestone to be achieved?
LEHRER
: The council is the steward and advocate for the Woonasquatucket River Greenway, a seven-mile on-road and off-road bike path that begins at the Providence Place Mall near Waterplace Park and goes west following the Woonasquatucket River through Johnston. The greenway is Providence’s only off-road bike path and offers users surprising peace and beauty right in the heart of the city. It is also a major wildlife corridor. We often see great blue herons, kingfishers, painted turtles and all kinds of fish right in urban Providence.
The council actively maintains the greenway with our team of river rangers. Rangers patrol the greenway daily to assure safety, pick up trash, remove graffiti and maintain it. In addition, we beautify the greenway with murals, plantings, and benches.
We are working on three major milestones for the greenway. First, we designed a signage program that we will install in the next 18 months. Most people do not realize that the greenway begins at the mall. Flags, maps, and route markers will help users find and follow the greenway while highlighting wildlife and historic features. Second, we are focused building a stronger connection between downtown and the West Side of Providence. Our goal is to revamp the on-road path and make a separated multi-use path that features the river, protects habitat and improves water quality. We want to make it a destination.
Finally, we are working toward expanding the greenway into Smithfield, making the path 10 miles. Eventually, we hope to connect it to other paths such as the Burrillville and Blackstone bike paths.

PBN: How many kids are enrolled in your youth environmental education programs and what are the benefits you are seeing?
LEHRER
: Our biggest youth education program is the bike camp run out of our Red Shed Bike Shop in Riverside Park in Providence. About 90 young people ages 7 to 16 enjoyed the camp this summer. They received their own bike, helmet and lock to keep, learned bike mechanics, safe riding skills, went for daily rides and learned about the river. We are also teaching sixty 4th to 12th-grade students both in school and after school using age-appropriate environmental lessons.
The benefits we are seeing are many. First, we see a lot more kids riding their bikes daily on our greenway. They are having a great time, being safe and sharing their knowledge about the environment. We’ve spotted our bike campers teaching their parents about the fish ladder at Riverside Park and how it helps the native herring return to the river. Kelly Barr, a fourth grade teacher at the Paul Cuffee School, tells us that since we began the “Fish in the Classroom” program with her students, they have excelled on the science portion of standardized tests as compared with their peers. This is because hands-on environmental education including visits to the river makes a direct connection to the natural world they would not have made without it.

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PBN: How do you encourage paddling in the watershed and on the river?
LEHRER
: Our annual paddling program brings about 300 people to the river and the ponds in our upper watershed area every year. This year we have teamed up with some wonderful historians to make our paddles even more fun. We have covered topics such as how the Native Americans used the lower Woonasquatucket prior to European settlement, mill worker recreation, and post-industrial recreation.
All this is paired with enjoyable paddles through downtown Providence, or the beautiful ponds in the upper watershed. Our master paddlers lead the trips, ensuring safety and bringing canoes and kayaks for rent on every trip. There are still a few paddles left this year. Our paddle program this year was supported by the Blackstone Heritage Corridor, Inc. For more information, visit www.wrwc.org/paddle.php.

PBN: What is the most important aspect of preserving the watershed and how do you accomplish it?
LEHRER
: Preserving the parts of the Woonasquatucket watershed that are already swimmable and fishable is very important. For example, in Smithfield, Stump and Georgiaville ponds are great resources for boating, fishing and swimming. We have been implementing a plan to build buffers and improve wetlands around the river and the ponds to assure that these waters stay clean and beautiful.
We also hold annual cleanups around Georgiaville Pond and are installing a mosaic featuring the fish and wildlife that thrive in the area to show people some of the things worth protecting there.
In the more urban sections of the watershed, such as Johnston, North Providence and Providence, we have a much harder job working toward restoration. The industrial history in these areas means that the land and water has a long legacy of pollution. In those areas, we do river and bank cleanups throughout the year, plant buffers, install stormwater treatment features and install fishways that allow fish to travel around the many dams on the river.
In addition, we are working with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to clean up a Superfund site on the river in North Providence and Johnston that has been contaminated with chemicals such as dioxin. That process will take many years and cost upward of $60 million. All the time, effort and funding is definitely worth it. We are starting to see tens of thousands of fish return to the river and water quality is steadily improving.
Our goal is to make the Woonasquatucket swimmable within the next 20 years. It will take a lot of work but we are encouraged by our progress, so we know we can do it!

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