News-Press

September 10, 2016

Waterkeeper group launches Caloosahatchee dream(job) boat

BY AMY BENNETT WILLIAMS, AWILLIAMS@NEWS-PRESS.COM

Talk about a dream job (not for me, of course; I'm planning to simply drop in the traces here). How about spending all your working days on the Caloosahatchee and getting paid for it?

Not only that, but with the priceless benefit of knowing that your career truly makes a difference — not just to your fellow humans, but this part of the planet.

Earlier this week, the river's nonprofit watchdog group, the Caloosahatchee River Citizens Association launched its spiffy white boat from the Centennial Park ramp in downtown Fort Myers (The River District, fittingly) and just a stone's throw from where concerned advocates recently blessed and prayed for its troubled waters.

Prayer is one approach, but the weapon the CRCA intends to deploy is more hands-and eyes-on. So far, the group has been all-volunteer, but it's about to enter a new phase of its existence by hiring a captain for the boat and an executive director to help chart its course. They'll be aided by a band of volunteer scouts to extend their geographical reach.

Think of the person in the boat as the river's Lorax, the one in charge of watching over it and, if need be, making life tough for any Once-lers who might cause it harm. As environmental educator Bill Hammond told me this spring, "The river has to have a voice, because it can't speak for itself."

That's where that boat, piloted by the soon-to-be-hired Waterkeeper, comes in. Though Riverwatch has long championed the river's cause with education and advocacy, its recent formal affiliation with the international Waterkeeper Alliance, strengthens and deepens its reach.

As board member Phil Schwartz of Alva told me earlier this year, "With a Waterkeeper actually on the water, seeking out and documenting sources of pollution, testing the water quality, filming it, then showing that to our government entities, we can bring to the public — We the People — information they're not now receiving, and provide scientific solutions."

Not to mention making office-confined folk like me righteously envious.

About Riverwatch's new jobs

Founded in 1995, Riverwatch The Caloosahatchee River Citizens Association is a nonprofit organization dedicated to caring for the river and its watershed. Though it's been run by volunteers since then, it's now looking to hire its first two employees: an executive director and waterkeeper. The Executive Director will fuel the program through outreach and fundraising while the waterkeeper will be its public face and presence on the water. Both positions are posted at news.caloosahatchee.org/?do=emailbox&id=5367 and more information is at crca.caloosahatchee.org and waterkeeper.org.