GREENVILLE, PA. Canoe and kayak trip explores treasures of Shenango River

The trip featured a part of the river many people never see.
By PETER H. MILLIKEN
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
GREENVILLE, Pa. -- A coalition of environmental conservation groups wants the Shenango River to be seen as a treasured natural resource.
To showcase the river and promote environmental awareness, members have launched their canoes on it for the annual Rivers Day on the Shenango -- an environmental workshop on the water -- for the past 15 years.
With the water level higher than usual because of heavy spring rains, about 45 people in 23 canoes and kayaks paddled about six miles down the winding river under sunny skies June 1. Making a complete escape from roads and motor vehicles, the group, which included families with children, floated from the 1868-vintage Kidd's Mill Covered Bridge to New Hamburg, disembarking twice for commentary by a naturalist on plant life along the river banks.
The secluded, wooded and relatively unspoiled course of the guided canoe trip, which had hardly a sign of human activity in sight other than an occasional piece of trash, was in sharp contrast to the industrial area canoeists would encounter downstream in Sharon, Farrell and Wheatland.
Dedicated to conservation
The trip was organized by the Shenango Conservancy, an organization dedicated to conserving the nature and history of the river's watershed.
"It's a beautiful river -- beautiful scenery, a lot of wildlife, some endangered species," said Jennifer Barborak of Sharon, president of Shenango River Watchers, a nonprofit organization dedicated to monitoring water quality, cleaning up and preserving the river and its watershed.
Barborak rated the water quality along the course of the trip as "very good to excellent." The river is a drinking water source for communities along it from Greenville to New Castle, she added.
"The Shenango River is an excellent natural resource for Mercer County. There are a lot of rare species" along it, said Robert B. Coxe, ecologist and research specialist with the Pittsburgh-based Western Pennsylvania Conservancy, whose mission is to help save the state's ecologically valuable places. Founded in 1932, its motto is "Saving the places we care about."
"This [river] is a quality-of-life factor. What is firing the engine of economic development these days is quality of life," said Dennis Puko, Mercer County Planning Commission director and Shenango Conservancy treasurer.
The plants and animals
Lining the riverbanks, the canoeists passed through a forest dominated by sycamore, silver maple and slippery elm trees, giant ostrich ferns and abundant wildflowers, with raccoon and deer tracks readily visible in the soft ground. Visible along the river were deer, turkey vultures, orioles, great blue herons and an osprey nest.
"The water course is a measure of the health of our community," said Matthew Stefanak, a native of Pulaski, Pa., who serves as Mahoning County Health Commissioner.
Stefanak said he had always previously thought of the Shenango River as a polluted "industrial corridor. I never thought of it as a recreational water source. This is relatively pristine up here." He and his son, Matthew, 5, and his wife, Dr. Cynthia Bearer, canoed the river for the first time on the conservancy trip.
Bearer, a neonatologist and research scientist at Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital in Cleveland, said she enjoyed "being out in the wilderness so close to home."
milliken@vindy.com