Our satellite club's big news is we have secured a $150,000 grant from the Niagara River Greenway's Buffalo and Erie County Greenway Standing Committee for our Erie Canal Historic Site Revitalization project. The existing site is on River Road in the Town of Tonawanda. The Shoreline Trail/Empire State Trail is built atop the old Erie Canal where it was originally built to avoid the swift waters of the Niagara River in 1825 between Canalside Buffalo and Tonawanda Creek in the City of Tonawanda.
Now, the site is well overgrown with dead ash trees and invasive plants. The project is intended to clear about 3/4 of an acre for ADA accessible pathways and add historic interpretive signs telling about life as it was along the canal in this area. Additional biking facilities like racks, bike repair station, a small pavilion and benches will be installed.
Native pollinators, trees and shrubs will be planted to help interpret the waterway and other natural materials intended to represent the outline of packet boats in the narrow and shallow canal will be strategically placed.
Some of the grading and site work will be contracted out and the planting and other amenities will be installed by Rotary volunteers.
PHOTO: Thomas Sgovio's 1976 painting of the Erie Canal, precisely where our project is located looking northward.
This year is the bicentennial of the Erie Canal, and the World Canal's Conference is being held September 21-25 right in Buffalo and we are working to have the Rotary project featured at this international event. The project site is part of Erie County's Isle View Park/Shoreline Trail. Our project partners include Erie County Parks, the Historical Society of the Tonawandas, the Buffalo Maritime Center, the Niagara River Greenway, and the Rotary Greenway Partnership members.
PHOTOS:
1) Site Plan concept. North to the right
2) Typical section rendering of the project site looking southward.