2009 Clif Bar Flowing Rivers Campaign - Winners

American Whitewater is proud to announce the two Affiliate Club recipients of the 2009 Clif Bar Flowing Rivers Campaign: The Jackson Hole Kayak Club of Jackson Hole, Wyoming and the Genesse Waterways Center of Rochester, NY! Each club will receive a $1,250 grant to go towards their respective projects.

This year's grant process saw some excellent entries, but these two stood above the rest.

The Jackson Hole Kayak Club's proposal was to install a set of stairs to access a section of the Snake River near the Kings Wave Rapid. This section of river has some excellent play features and is also a popular Class II/III run for beginner and expert boaters alike. The necessity for these stairs is brought about by the steep banks in this area (1200 feet per mile gradient) that make river access there very difficult. They've already completed the first section of these stairs at a cost of approximately $8,000.

Genesee Waterways Center's proposal is based around rehabilitating an existing low-head dam feature into a potentially usable whitewater feature and improving the surrounding area for multiple types of users. Their goal was to "Eliminate a hazard that exists in an area with a lot of recreational boating use, including an upstream whitewater park, a downstream rowing facility, an increasingly used canal park that attracts many hikers, bikers and other users and a very popular fishing spot."

Several other club's submitted some great proposals, however, we could only pick two. Some other proposals included:

Bluegrass Wildwater Association: A cleanup this fall on the Southeast classic Russell Fork River during one of the scheduled releases.

Tennessee Scenic Rivers Association: A river cleanup on the Bledsoe Creek in Tennessee.

Tennessee Valley Canoe Club: Efforts to improve access to Rock Creek in Georgia.

Thanks again to all the club's who participated in this year's grant process. Most of all, a huge thanks goes out to Clif Bar for sponsoring this wonderful opportunity for our Affiliate Club's to try and do their part in saving our rivers!