From staff reports
State Department of Conservation and Natural Resources Secretary Cindy Adams Dunn on Saturday joined the French Creek Valley Conservancy and the Pennsylvania Organization for Waterways and Rivers to celebrate French Creek as the 2022 River of the Year.
Dunn joined a group on a 9-mile paddle on French Creek, beginning at Bicentennial Park in Meadville to Shaw’s Landing in Crawford County.
“Special thanks to the French Creek Valley Conservancy and its volunteers for protecting the creek throughout the year,” Dunn said. “That work is critical to community leadership driving conservation and providing valuable recreation opportunities to the public.”
French Creek is one of the most biologically diverse waterways of its size in the U.S., meandering 117 miles from its headwaters in southern New York through four Pennsylvania counties to the Allegheny River.
“The creek is a common thread that joins so many small communities in northwest Pennsylvania with a sense of pride and passion, and we are grateful to the thousands of people who voted for French Creek,” French Creek Valley Conservancy Executive Director Brenda Costa said.
As a part of winning the River of the Year award, the French Creek Valley Conservancy received a $10,000 Leadership Grant to help fund a slate of yearlong award activities. DCNR and the Pennsylvania Organization for Waterways and Rivers worked with conservancy to create a free, commemorative poster celebrating the French Creek River as the 2022 Pennsylvania River of the Year.
