300 gather to celebrate Little Miami preservation
25 years ago, stretch of river won federal status

By Dan Klepal
Enquirer staff writer

LOVELAND - Dylan Cahalan, a fifth-grader at Cincinnati Waldorf School, hadn't
thought much about the rivers running through his hometown, until Saturday.

That's when he attended the 25th anniversary celebration of the acceptance of
Little Miami River's lower 28 miles into the federal Wild and Scenic River
program that protects it from any development that would substantially hurt the
waterway. The event was held all day at Nisbet Park.

"I learned how important rivers are. There's just not lots of pools of water all
over the place," Dylan said.

The Little Miami is particularly important.

One of only two streams in the federal program that runs through an urban area,
it took the effort of thousands of people to clean it up enough for acceptance
into the program in 1980.

The anniversary was celebrated with kids' games, storytelling, music and several
booths and displays that were green in nature - fly fishing demonstrations,
collecting river bugs and a "pedal paddle," where folks could bike four miles up
the bike trail then canoe back down the river.

About 300 people were there to see the dedication of a boulder-sized rock,
memorializing the event, which now sits outside the Little Miami, Inc. Center at
the park.

"Twenty-five years ago, people came together to create a conservation ethic that
we all take for granted now," said Eric Partee, executive director of Little
Miami Inc.

His organization coordinates most of the conservation work on the river, which
is still being threatened by sewage plant expansions and construction, and a
proposed highway and bridge that would be part of a transportation project for
the eastern suburbs.

Little Miami Inc. and other conservation groups have been fighting that project
because members feel it will be destructive and violates the protections
afforded by the Wild and Scenic River program.

"People from all up and down this corridor worked very hard to attain this
designation," Partee said. "That's what makes it so hard for a lot of people to
say that it's OK to tear it up now."

Peggy Hogan, of Loveland, brought her twin 6-year-old boys and her 3-year-old
daughter to the event. She didn't know much about the river, or the protections
afforded it, but just wanted to see "What it's all about."

That's the kind of thing that made Partee smile Saturday.

"There are a lot of families and youngsters out here, and they are the future of
this river," Partee said.

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