April 9, 2008

Contact:  Brian Cowden   201-230-3383
      TU Musconetcong Project Coordinator
 
      Erin Mooney  703-284-9408
      TU Press Secretary

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Trout Unlimited Announces Annual Musconetcong River Clean-Up on April 19
River is Site of TU's Newest Home Rivers Initiative

HACKETTSTOWN, NJ--Trout Unlimited, in coordination with the Musconetcong Watershed Association, announces its annual river clean-up on the Musconetcong River on Saturday, April 19 from 9:30 a.m. to noon.

Volunteers from nine New Jersey Trout Unlimited chapters will work to clean up the river and several of its tributaries. Students from local schools will also volunteer and will remove trash near the river. Volunteers will meet at 9 a.m. at the Hampton Borough Park in Hampton, New Jersey. There will be a barbeque in the afternoon after the clean-up takes place.

In February, Trout Unlimited named the Musconetcong River its newest “Home Rivers Initiative.”  The effort will protect and restore the lands and waters of the Musconetcong River watershed from Lake Hopatcong to its confluence with the Delaware River below Philipsburg, more than 43 miles.

“The Musconetcong, much of which is a designated Wild & Scenic River, deserves to be kept clean for our generation and those that follow us,” said Brian Cowden, Trout Unlimited’s Musconetcong Project Coordinator. “This annual clean up is a great outreach to the local communities that live within this watershed and to engage them to keep it clean.”

TU’s work on the Musconetcong will include efforts to improve awareness of land use practices that promote water quality and habitat benefits among landowners and local communities. TU will also work to complete a series of land use protection and riparian restoration projects that can be used as models throughout the watershed.
 
 

Date: 4/9/2008