Earth Day 2013 is Monday, April 22. One great way to celebrate is to help make a positive impact in your local community. The Erie Canal Clean Sweep state-wide event is one easy way families can help. The Erie Canal is a landmark historic site in New York and the US.
Erie Canal History
During the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, the new nation known as the United States of America began to develop plans to improve transportation into the interior and beyond the great physical barrier of the Appalachian Mountains. A major goal was to link Lake Erie and the other Great Lakes with the Atlantic Coast through a canal.
Many surveys and proposals were developed to build a canal but it was ultimately a survey performed in 1816 that established the route of the Erie Canal. The Erie Canal would connect to the port of New York City by beginning at the Hudson River near Troy, New York. From Troy, the canal would flow to Rome (New York) and then through Syracuse and Rochester to Buffalo, located on the northeast coast of Lake Erie.
When president James Monroe refused to sign a bill allowing federal funding for the canal, the New York State legislature took the matter into its own hands and approved state funding for the canal in 1816, with tolls to pay back the state treasury for upon completion. On July 4, 1817, construction of the Erie Canal began in Rome, New York. On October 25, 1825, the entire length of the Erie Canal was complete. Read more here.
Canal Clean Sweep
The 8th annual Canal Clean Sweep is coming Friday- Sunday, April 19-22. Your family can be part of this historic outreach event. In recognition of Earth Day and the 189th consecutive navigation season on the NYS Canal System and the summer tourism season, the NYS Canal Corporation, in partnership with Parks & Trails New York and the Environmental Facilities Corporation is again encouraging community groups and municipalities to participate in this “spring cleaning” event along the Canal System and the Canalway Trail. Last year over 115 organizations took part in 85 events throughout the Canal Corridor, including municipalities, not-for-profit organizations, civic groups, and businesses, engaged in clean up and beautification activities.
The canal needs your help to make sure the 2013 Canal Clean Sweep is the biggest yet. Whether it’s picking up litter and brush on lock grounds or in a local canal park, or helping to remove debris or preparing a section of Canalway Trail for the thousands of visitors that arrive each year, this event gives local volunteers an opportunity to work hand-in-hand with their neighbors and Canal Corporation employees to enhance and preserve this tremendous environmental, cultural and historic resource.
Create a group to clean up
Registration is easy! If you want to register a group to participate, click on this webform, or you can download the application and mail or fax it to: Canal Clean Sweep, Parks & Trails NY, 29 Elk St., Albany, NY 12207 (fax) 518-427-0067. Click here for more information.
Feel free to contact Elijah Yearick at canalsweep@ptny.org or (518) 434-1583 x208 with any questions, or if you need help finding a location.
Join a group activity
If you want to add your family to a registered event, here is a local one:
On April 20, you can join communities across the state for an Earth Day Community Clean-Up, by participating in the Statewide Erie Canalway Clean Sweep. Clean-Up is scheduled from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. rain or shine at the Vischer Ferry Nature & Historic Preserve. Park at the Whipple Bridge or Ferry Drive entrances. Trash bags will be provided. Please dress for hiking/walking and bring gloves. There will be a limited number of free event t-shirts available.
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