Three Rivers Waterkeeper’s 2nd Annual Summer Kickoff
Join Three Rivers Waterkeeper at the Allegheny RiverTrail Park for a kickoff to the summer season and celebration of Pennsylvania’s River of the Year! This event is family-friendly and free to the public!
We’ll have light refreshments, games, live music from The Wolf Tones, free kayaking (first come, first serve), fun and educational watershed activities, a door prize and raffle items, and more! Food and alcoholic beverages for purchase will be available on-site with Farmer X Baker, Trace Brewing, and Kona Ice. A portion of the proceeds from Trace Brewing and Kona Ice purchases will be donated to Three Rivers Waterkeeper!
Bring your lawn chairs, yard games, family and friends, and join us for a fun time and celebrate Pennsylvania’s River of the Year, the Allegheny River (Ohi:yo’, The Good River).
Registering for the free tickets allows us to prepare for the crowd! Those who pre-register here will get entered into our door prize upon arrival at the event. Get your tickets now!
The Allegheny River | The Ohi:yo’
The historic Allegheny River starts as a stream in Potter County, meandering through a field of wildflowers before crossing briefly through New York and then through six counties in Western Pennsylvania. The 325-mile river ends in Pittsburgh where it meets the Monongahela River and flows into the Ohio River, providing drinking water to more than one million people and acting as an ecologically and economically precious water trail.
The fertile valleys and abundant biodiversity have led many communities to call this place home, including the O-non-dowa-gah (Seneca Nation) who call the Allegheny Ohi:yo’ (beautiful river, the good river), the Lenni Lenape (Delaware Nation) who named it welhik-heny (most beautiful stream), and French settlers who referred to it as La Belle Riviere.
A series of locks and dams were constructed in the early 20th century to make the Allegheny River navigable for barges to transport goods, and now swimming, boating, and fishing are profoundly enjoyed by residents and visitors. The river includes the Allegheny Islands Wilderness, a seven-island, 372 acre preserve that boasts old-growth hardwoods and prolific bird populations. The US Forest Service has documented over 50 mammals, 200 birds, 25 amphibians, 20 reptiles, 80 fishes, and 25 freshwater mussels in and around the Allegheny, including the threatened Salamander Mussel (Simpsonaias ambigua), who help improve our water quality by filtering out sediment and pollutants.
Whether you are bird watching, island camping, or traveling through the locks, you are sure to find that the Allegheny River is rich with life, history, and beauty.
