RiverLink

Western North Carolina native Wilma Dykeman wrote the definitive history of the French Broad River in her 1955 book called The French Broad. She often joked about the title because New York editors initially assumed it was a risqué tale about a foreign lady of questionable character.

In addition to writing about the French Broad River and more than 200 years of historical events related to it, Dykeman uttered the battle cry in the fight to save the river. 

At that time, people were leaving rural areas in droves to work in the industries that were settling along the French Broad. Those industries were dumping waste into the once pristine waters at an alarming rate. Massive fish kills were occurring throughout the watershed, and in many places the water was white and foamy, visibly fouled. In her book, Dykeman argued that the destruction of the river was not the inevitable result of progress but a devastating and preventable byproduct. She acknowledged the economic benefits residents were reaping from industries but called on the residents to consider the cost of unchecked growth. 

“Pollution is not the price we have to pay for securing industries in our midst or for building great cities,” she wrote.  

Employing words like “rape” and “murder” to describe what was happening to the river, Dykeman hoped to jolt residents out of their apathy. She called for legislation to protect the river.  

The legislation Dykeman was calling for was still years away. It would be 17 years before the Clean Water Act of 1972 would be passed, but she became known as the river’s earliest, most ardent protector. Although she died in 2006, Wilma Dykeman lived long enough to see her beloved river restored and to celebrate the work of RiverLink. She even spoke to a crowd on the riverbank in French Broad River Park in 2003 and signed copies of her book.

The Clean Water Act of 1972 did bring about some changes in the quality of water in the French Broad. However, with the rapid growth and development of the following years, more needed to be done to protect the water. As late as 1986, no further legislation had been enacted, but residents were beginning to express concern about the river’s viability. In 1987, the Asheville Chamber of Commerce appointed a planning committee to examine the water quality of the French Broad. Fourteen years later, the planning committee incorporated, and RiverLink was officially born. Karen Cragnolin became its executive director.  

The mission of RiverLink is to revitalize the French Broad watershed by spearheading economic growth while at the same time advocating for environmental responsibility. RiverLink addresses development and water quality concerns throughout the French Broad watershed. This includes the French Broad and all its tributaries — beginning where the river originates beneath Court House Falls on the Blue Ridge Parkway and flows through Transylvania, Henderson, Buncombe, and Madison counties, traveling northwest to Knoxville, where it converges with the Holston River and flows into the Tennessee River.  

Look no further than the front steps of the RiverLink offices for proof that Asheville’s river district is thriving today. RiverLink is located in an old brick warehouse in the heart of the river district. Between the warehouse and the river is 12 Bones Smokehouse, which often has lines running out the door and spilling down the sidewalk during lunch. The crowds are representative of Asheville — construction workers in muddy boots, office workers in suits and ties, artists with clay residue on their jeans, and twentysomethings with tattoos covering their exposed arms.  

One day recently, 12 Bones had an unexpected customer — then Democratic Presidential Candidate Barack Obama — who was still in town after campaigning at a rally at Asheville High School the day before. The senator came in and ordered for himself, then mingled with the other customers for awhile. Afterwards, he paused outside the restaurant, still carrying a large paper bag full of barbecue and chatted with the people around him. As others gathered outside and snapped photos, a woman approached him and offered him a piece of pottery she had made.  

“Can you accept this?” she asked him.

He accepted, promising to give it to his wife.

Transformation

Ask most people who know anything about what the river district used to be like — before Karen Cragnolin and RiverLink stepped in — and they will say that a presidential candidate shaking hands with potters by the river is something they never thought they’d see. More than 25 years after Dykeman decried the condition of the French Broad, the river was still polluted, and surrounding areas were unsafe.  

Take, for example, Marty Black and his wife Eileen, potters who own studios contiguous with the Old Cotton Mill. Eileen Black is president of River District Artists, an organization of artists in the area. The couple first moved to the area about five years ago, but they have been coming to Asheville for 20 years.

“When we first started coming here, this was a great big slum,” Marty said. “Nobody would come down to the area. It was too dangerous.”

Likewise for Denise Snodgrass, chairman-elect for RiverLink’s board of directors, who says that when she first came to Asheville in the early 1980s, junkyards, abandoned buildings, and trash once lined the river. 

Today, however, the area is home to an array of artists — potters, jewelers, sculptors, painters, metal and glass workers, etc. — and the River District Artists association boasts more than 100 members. 

Developers are bringing other improvements to the area as well. Just a stone’s throw from one of Asheville’s largest housing projects off Amboy Road, a new live/work artist space is being planned. Also nearby, Mica Village, an eco-friendly residential development with ten loft apartments, will soon open. This is the goal of RiverLink — to create a community where the river is seen as an asset to the community, inviting growth and economic progress. People then recognize the importance of caring for the river, which is not only a valuable natural resource, but a vital part of the vibrant, local economy.    

Cragnolin adds that the river and the surrounding areas are becoming attractive, not only to local residents, but to tourists as well. She says that people used to tell her they were surprised to discover the river district.  

“They said things like, ‘I came here as a tourist, but I didn’t know you had a river,’” Cragnolin says. “We are making this a destination instead of an afterthought.”

Greenways: creating parks, linking the city

It’s not a new idea. Dykeman thought of it as well. Even in the early 1950s, tourism had long been an important part of the local economy. The river attracts both industry and tourists who want to fish, swim, and boat in the river. 

“It is obviously not good business, then, to put out of circulation even a single mile of good fishing stream in a countryside capitalizing on its assets as a tourist and sportsman’s paradise,” Dykeman wrote.

Cragnolin agrees, adding that economic development and sound environmental practices do not happen in isolation. Rather, they can and should coexist.  

“We have a new paradigm of what economic development is,” Cragnolin says, echoing Dykeman’s sentiments that “filth is not inevitable.”

Artists are drawn to the area, not necessarily because of the river, but because of the district’s alternative, artistic vibe. RiverLink helps foster this arts community by subsidizing rent for artists working in the district. 

For example, RiverLink plans to create mixed use spaces in the part of the old Cotton Mill, which belongs to the organization. Cragnolin said the building will include retail, residential, and commercial spaces for mixed income clients.

“We don’t want it to end up being Anywhere, U.S.A.,” Cragnolin says.  “We want to keep the funk.”  

In addition to its work in Asheville, RiverLink is also creating greenways along the floodplain of the French Broad River. The organization has done this by acquiring properties along the river, when possible, and obtaining conservation easements throughout the watershed. 

In 1994, RiverLink celebrated the opening of French Broad River Park, the first greenway in the city of Asheville. In 1999, RiverLink purchased the old Asheville Speedway to create a second park, Carrier Park, now the most used of Asheville’s city parks. Both parks are located on Amboy Road. RiverLink has since deeded these properties back to the city to manage with land use restrictions.

Recently, RiverLink bought the old Edaco junkyard site with plans to create a greenway connecting Carrier and French Broad River parks. Junk cars were piled on top of eight feet of concrete, and run-off from the junkyard was spilling into the river. The former junkyard is now under the direction of Brownfield, a federal program that works with property owners to clean contaminated sites.

In 2004, on the 10th anniversary of the Riverfront Plan, which created the first two parks, RiverLink decided to pause and consider how to proceed with developing the rest of the riverfront. After raising more than $250,000, it hired a team of consultants to study development in the area along the 17-mile stretch where the Swannanoa and French Broad Rivers connect. The consultants created the Wilma Dykeman RiverWay plan  to extend the original, riverfront development.  

RiverLink’s work in Asheville has a ripple effect throughout the watershed, both in terms of growth and water quality, Cragnolin explains, and she wants the Wilma Dykeman RiverWay to serve as a model for other communities in the watershed.  

“We need a greenway to make it the envy of others,” she says.

Throughout its history, RiverLink has worked closely with both city and county governments. The board was especially pleased when the city recently adopted the Wilma Dykeman RiverWay development plan as its own.  

Alan Glines, Asheville’s urban planner, says that RiverLink has offered continued attention and leadership in the area of the rivers. Buncombe County Manager Wanda Green agrees that RiverLink’s leadership has been invaluable to the city, the county, and the community.  

Creating spaces along the riverfront 

RiverLink has been acquiring other properties and creating conservation easements to allow for bike paths and walkways. Recently an additional set of buildings were acquired along the river between 12 Bones restaurant and the Smith Bridge. RiverLink is working with local artists to tear down and recycle the material from the buildings. The area will then become a permanent sculpture park, which will be visible from the Smoky Park Bridge leading into the city. 

Fundraising is an essential part of the work of any nonprofit. In addition to getting federal and local grants, RiverLink receives support from businesses and individuals who believe in the cause. In a further effort to carry out its mission, RiverLink created the French Broad River Yacht Club, with the playful motto: “Get in touch with your inner tube.”  

This past summer, RiverLink partnered with Southern Waterways to offer sunset cruises that traveled 10 miles along the French Broad through the Biltmore Estate. Fundraising events have also spread to neighboring counties. According to Cragnolin, public response to the work of RiverLink has been overwhelmingly positive.  

“It’s not often people say ‘no’ to us,” she says.  

The organization’s more than 300 volunteers are often retirees and transplants to the area who have lived in other places where they have seen river areas revitalized.

“They believe a transformation can happen,” she says.

RiverLink is a small organization with only six full-time employees — Cragnolin, an operations manager, a volunteer coordinator, two Americorps workers, and the French Broad Riverkeeper.  

Defending the French Broad River

Cragnolin often works long days which extend into evenings and weekends, but all the RiverLink staff and volunteers work hard and fervently believe in the value of the French Broad, both as a natural and economic resource for the community.  

“We love what we do, and it hardly seems like work,” Cragnolin says.

Clearly, her zeal is contagious. Marty Black, for one, credits the changes in the river district to Cragnolin’s determination and perseverance. She brings a vision, inspiring others to care for the river, he says. Buncombe County Manager Wanda Green adds that Cragnolin’s commitment will benefit the community for years to come. 

“She has given her life and her focus to the river,” Green says.

Karen Cragnolin’s foresight and tenacity have, by all accounts, taken the river district from a virtual slum to the lively arts district it is today. While RiverLink awaits public input on the best ways to use the old Edaco junkyard and for the go-ahead from Brownfield to continue development, the area sits abandoned, without trees, surrounded on all sides by a metal fence. On either side of the fence are the greenways and walkways of Carrier Park and French Broad River Park. Joggers with babies in strollers and older couples out for a leisurely walk and power walkers on their lunch breaks come up to the fence, then turn around and continue the way they came.  

One day, this area will also have a walkway that connects the two parks. In the meantime, posted on the end of the fence is a sign that reads, “Karen Cragnolin Park — A New Link in the Wilma Dykeman RiverWay.” RiverLink’s board recently decided to name the site in Cragnolin’s honor, a small but enduring tribute to the woman whose tireless efforts on behalf of the French Broad will have a profound impact on the river and on this community for generations to come. 

The French Broad Riverkeeper

Hartwell Carson, the French Broad Riverkeeper for the past three years, doesn’t have your typical job. As an official advocate for the French Broad River and its watershed, he works with businesses, governments, volunteers, and environmental groups to make sure the river remains alive and well. 

His RiverLink office in Asheville is surrounded by river maps, water quality charts, and drafts of development plans. The walls are filled with children’s artwork — a side view of the French Broad with a school of red fish swimming in the current, another view of the river through overhanging trees, a kayak filled with children heading up the river.  

Carson came to Asheville straight out of graduate school, with a master’s degree in Recreation Research Management from the University of Montana. These days, his work has become more urgent. The French Broad watershed is becoming less clean for the first time since the passage of the Clean Water Act in 1972. Between 2006 and 2008, streams with failing water quality increased 75 percent. Sediment run-off is the river’s primary culprit.

“People have taken it for granted, that it’s getting better,” he says. “and it’s always going to stay that way.” 

Everyone has a stake in the French Broad watershed, he adds.

His main task is to monitor the river, but looking out for the entire French Broad watershed, that’s a monumental task, so he often relies on the public and volunteers to point out areas of concern. He then follows up on these reports. This past year, RiverLink started the Muddy Water Watch program, which trains volunteers to inspect construction sites throughout Buncombe County for problems with run-off. The volunteers then report those problem sites to RiverLink, Carson investigates the problems further, and reports those issues to the county.  

Western North Carolina has only four inspectors for 18 counties — for thousands of construction sites — so this program provides a way for local residents to pitch in and help ensure that development in their communities is environmentally responsible.  

Carson works with the Southern Environmental Law Center to reclassify streams that are currently underclassified and to give those streams better protection. He also links up with businesses and other organizations to promote stream restoration and prevent run-off by creating rain gardens and wetland areas to filter water in areas where run-off is likely. He recently worked with Evergreen Community School to install two rain gardens to catch run-off from the site.

Carson’s responsibilities also include educating the public about the value of the river and what it will take to preserve the river for future generations. Last summer, he worked with children in RiverLink’s first summer day camp, a program the organization hopes to continue next summer. 

Carson speaks to various local groups such as Rotary clubs, garden clubs, and the River Corps Club at Asheville Middle School. In 2006, RiverLink sponsored the Tour de French Broad, an effort to raise money to protect the river and raise awareness about the challenges facing the river and its people. Carson put in his boat at the river headwaters in Rosman and traveled 219 miles, ending in Knoxville, Tenn. Along the way, he stopped to pick up trash and talked with school groups. Various elected officials joined him to paddle part of the way.  

Carson also took a trip along the Pigeon River, and this spring, he will paddle the Nolichucky River (both tributaries of the French Broad). During those trips, he’ll conduct similar programs designed to educate the public about the history and importance of the river and the challenges facing those who are working to maintain it.  

Carson has been working to have the Nolichucky classified as a Wild and Scenic River and has just been notified that the river does have the outstanding water quality values required for this designation. The distinction would offer increased protection through more stringent government regulation about its use. 

RiverLink is also hoping to create a “blueway,” a paddle trail along the French Broad. The paddle trail would have launching areas and campsites every six to 10 miles. RiverLink is currently working with private owners and businesses to obtain the easements necessary to make that happen.  

In his role as advocate for the river, Carson presses for stronger legislation protecting the river such as better drought laws throughout the city. According to Carson, existing city policies often don’t go far enough to protect streams. For example, the city recently received a $2 million grant to protect Ross Creek, which runs from Chunns Cove Road and along Tunnel Road. However, those funds will serve only to maintain the creek’s current status and do not address ways to improve water quality.  

“To me, that’s pretty frustrating,” Carson says. 

The grant should be used for improvements, rather than simply keeping the stream as good as it is, Carson adds. The creek which runs behind Malvern Hills Park is another example of a stream which needs restoration. According to Carson, the city used to drain the Malvern Hills’ pool into the creek at the end of every summer. Now, a dry cleaning business is leeching chemicals into the creek, and he is asking the city to put up signs warning people that the water is unsafe.

Carson likes looking at the big picture, seeing how to improve things in a big way. He says that many riverkeepers can take a rather hard line in trying to force businesses and individuals to comply with regulations protecting the water, but he prefers using a more diplomatic approach to motivate people to care for the river.

“Here, we try and work with people,” he says. “The mentality of RiverLink is not the beat-you-over-the-head mentality. We believe in offering both the carrot and the stick.”

Watching out for the Tennessee River

The Tennessee River used to be flanked by signs warning residents of the dangers of swimming or fishing in the polluted river. Today, thanks to the efforts of grassroots organizations like the French Broad Preservation Association, those signs are gone. 

But protecting a river is an ongoing struggle — especially when it crosses over county and state lines.

The authority of Asheville, N.C.-based RiverLink and its Riverkeeper extends all the way to eastern Tennessee, where the French Broad and the Holston Rivers meet. There, the two rivers converge to form the Tennessee River. The Tennessee River does not have its own riverkeeper, but residents and environmental activists are working to protect this vital link in the river system.  

The French Broad Preservation Association advocates for environmental responsibility along the French Broad River corridor and is particularly concerned with preserving the farms that have existed here for generations. 

The organization, which began in the late 1990s as the Eighth District Preservation Association, officially gained its nonprofit status and its current name in 2001. Elaine Clark, president of this organization, estimates it now has about 200 members. The French Broad Preservation Association’s main fundraiser is a county fair, which is held annually in September. This year’s event raised more than $3,500. Clark says one of the organization’s goals for this money is to help farmers obtain conservation easements on their properties. Clark and her husband recently obtained an easement on the 35 acres they own in East Knox County in Tennessee, and she says that most easements cost approximately 10 percent of the property value plus appraisal fees. For most local farmers, that means spending $6,000 to $10,000, she says, something many farmers cannot afford.    

Downtown Knoxville is a few miles from the headwaters of the Tennessee River, so it is especially important that growth along the corridor be carefully planned, according to Clark. For example, one business would like to place a sewage treatment plant along the river in Knoxville, but the French Broad Preservation Association is strongly opposed to that plan. 

Many ridges throughout Knox County have been developed even though there are ordinances against ridge development. Clark says developers have gotten exemptions and rezoned areas “at will.”

“No one has really enforced the rules on the books,” she says. “Urban and suburban sprawl has just taken over.”  

Clark also says that the city of Knoxville has a clear ordinance against clearcutting, but developers in Knox County have found ways to bypass clearcutting limitations. People buy property and cut all the trees before applying for the building permits which would restrict the number of trees developers could cut. Because people move to Knoxville for the scenic vistas and green spaces, this practice will eventually inhibit, rather than fuel, economic growth, Clark explains.

Clark currently serves on a task force designed to look at regulations limiting ridge top and slope development. This task force is comprised of the Metropolitan Planning Commission, Knoxville City Council, the Knoxville County Commission, and members at large from organizations such as the U.S. Forest Service, grassroots neighborhood organizations, and the Tennessee Clean Water Network.

The Tennessee Clean Water Network is a policy watch group, according to Executive Director Renee Hoyos. The organization ensures that land use permits are properly issued and that alerts are issued to the public when chemicals and other pollutants are being discharged into the rivers. The Tennessee Clean Water Network has also worked with the French Broad Preservation Association to protest a planned industrial park along the French Broad corridor.

“That is farmland, and it should stay farmland,” says Renee Hoyos, executive director for the Tennessee Clean Water Network.