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Awards

RiverLink is proud to offer three award recognition programs each year as a salute to volunteers – the Critical Links Awards, the RiverBusiness Awards for new businesses on the river that conform with the Wilma Dykeman RiverWay and the RiverWise Awards given to conservation development projects.

Through these award recognition programs we seek to identify and celebrate good river stewards as well as the variety of interests, businesses and talents that must blend their energies to keep our waterways healthy.

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Critical Links

Last year we recognized Critical Links who donated conservation easements to RiverLink for the greenway on Azalea Road (Lee Towery, Art Streppa, Jeff and Cathy Laibson and Nancy Richards). We also recognized Ben and Becky Lewis for funding the soccer field development at the John B. Lewis Soccer Fields on Azalea Road. Shirley and John Berdie were recognized for their long term volunteer efforts for just about every event or happening over the past 10 years. RiverLink was especially grateful and proud to recognize the WNC delegation for working diligently to appropriate funds for flood damage reduction after the September 2004 floods. Typically these awards are announced the first of the year.

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RiverBusiness

The RiverBusiness award is our newest awards program and we are working with the Asheville SCORE organization to not only provide funds for start-up businesses in the riverfront area but also to provide business and technical resources for businesses that comply with the Wilma Dykeman RiverWay Plan. RiverBusiness award recipients receive up to $500 to use anyway they choose.

Our first award recipients - 12 Bones Smokehouse and the Clingman Avenue Café are two new eating establishments in the riverfront area that are attracting new visitors to the river, helping to fulfill the vision of the Wilma Dykeman Plan, are independently owned and are attracting residents, businesses and new interest in the riverfront area. Typically, these awards are announced in the spring.

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RiverWise

RiverLink&rsqou;s RiverWise awards recognize developments that protect the environment and demonstrate good stewardship of our water resources. RiverLink has three award categories for the RiverWise award program, institutional, individual and commercial projects.

Last year the Institutional RiverWise Award was given to the Evergreen Charter School. This is a RiverLink funded project to treat storm water runoff and integrate the BMP&rsqou;s (Best Management Practices) into the schools curriculum. RiverLink developed three rain gardens, a vegetative swale and a storm water wetland to treat run off from roofs, parking lots and other impervious surfaces. This integrated tertiary BMP system treats between 65% and 75% of all the run off from the school.

The Individual RiverWise Award was given to Constance Rauscher. The Rauscher&rsqou;s 2 ½-acre farm on Turkey Creek was badly damaged by Hurricane Ivan in 2004, when a 30-foot wall of water wiped out all her carefully tended crops. The Rauscher&rsqou;s utilized a cost share program developed by the Farm Service Agency to help restore their farm and the stream banks. They replanted nearly 2,000 feet of stream bank with riparian trees, installed jute matting to stabilize the banks and prevent further erosion and sediment load in the stream.

The Commercial RiverWise Award was given to the Drover&rsqou;s Road Preserve, a 186-acre residential conservation project designed specifically to protect the unique ecological features and historic past. The developers spent thousands of dollar inventorying the property for rare species and other significant cultural and natural resources and protected these areas with permanent conservation easements. The developers preserved trees, buffered streams, enforced design guidelines and clustered development sites prior to installing roads and trails.

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