Former and current members of the National Committee for the New River gathered on the Osborne family farm in Mouth of Wilson Saturday afternoon to honor local preservationists with a slew of awards during the 2009 Annual Meeting.

The NCNR holds their annual summer meeting to recognize recipients of the Wallace and Peggy Carroll Vigilance Award and to discuss the election of future board members and the retirement of current ones.

“The Wallace and Peggy Carroll Vigilance Award honors the spirit, dedication and perseverance that former Winston-Salem Journal publisher and editor, Wallace Carroll and his wife Peggy, brought to the battle to save the New River,” NCNR Executive Director George Santucci said. “His journalism experience and their national connections convinced newspaper editors and ultimately members of Congress, from all over the country, to prevent the damming of the river.”

Santucci and other members of the NCNR made frequent reference to those who worked to thwart the efforts of developers who wanted to construct two dams on the New River during the 1970s. NCNR was actually formed in 1974 for the purpose of prevention the dams’ construction.

Cynthia Hancock was awarded this year’s WPCVA Individual Volunteer of the Year Award. This particular award recognizes an individual who has participated in a significant way to preserve, protect and restore the New River. Hancock is directly affiliated with the Skyline Soil and Water Conservation District, Santucci said.

“Cynthia is indispensable,” Santucci said. “She plays a major role in the Cleanup in Radford each year, she has qualified as a certified New River Water Watcher and her participation and leadership through the New River Watershed Roundtable has been critical to our successful partnership with them.” W.C. Parker from Hinton, W.Va. was awarded this year’s Lifetime Achievement Award. Parker was a founding member of the NCNR and actually participated in the inaugural New River Expedition with Proctor Kirk. He also played a role in the fight to prevent developers from constructing dams on the river, NCNR Assistant Director Chris Arvidson said.

Like preservationists and conservationists of the 1970s, NCNR members were engaged in a similar fight recently to prevent the construction of another project that could have spelled doom for the river’s ecosystem. Buster, Bobby, and Norma Osborne were also awarded a WPCVA for their role in preventing state contractors from constructing a prison on the banks of the New River, the very location where the NCNR Annual Meeting was held Saturday near Cox’s Chapel.

Arvidson explained the construction of a prison in proximity to the river would have adversely affected the watershed’s scenic beauty as well the surrounding area’s ecosystem. Light pollution from the prison’s lighting system would have been detrimental to the area’s nightline and the pending construction of a river bridge to the prison would have negatively affected the river’s aquatic wildlife, Arvidson said. Construction in general could have resulted in bank erosion as well. After learning of the Commonwealth’s planned construction, Buster Osborne purchased the 177 acre tract of land for the purpose of a conservation easement to ensure that no one could ever use the land for any type of development.

“It will be an agriculture place forever,” Arvidson said. Osborne also owns the surrounding property from Ferry Valley Lane that leads up to the property.

“You would have to drive right by his house to get to the prison if they did in fact build it there,” Santucci said.

State officials eventually found another location for the prison, just off Hwy 58 in Virginia, Arvidson said. Santucci said that the NCNR will combat any project, such as a proposed prison or dam that affects the river.

“Anything that can harm the river in anyway, we’re going to fight that,” Santucci said. Santucci explained that the key to preserving the river and protecting it from commercial development may rest within direct dialogue with local and state officials.

“I think the best thing to do is to meet with politicians and county officials early enough to have a conversation with them before anything crazy happens,” Santucci said.

For more information on the NCNR, please visit www.ncnr.org.