Friends of the Chemung River Watershed

Founded in 2009, the Friends of the Chemung River Watershed is dedicated to protecting and promoting the Chemung River and its tributaries and riverside trails in Steuben and Chemung counties in New York and Bradford County in Pennsylvania. We work with our municipal partners and community residents to weave our waterways into future development.

The streams and nature trails offer hands-on outdoor classrooms for environmental education, and a means to reconnect our residents, especially youth, to nature and our natural resources. Chemung River Friends partners with youth and school groups in Elmira to use the river as a hands-on environmental classroom and source of expeditionary learning. The community is discovering and accepting its role in protecting and preserving our waterways and environment.

Since our inception, we have removed more than 20 tons of trash from the watershed and formed a dedicated network of community volunteers, River Guardians, who regularly monitor the river and trails for signs of distress. We provide our volunteers with all the supplies they need, including safety gear, training, and coordination with the local DPWs.

Safety is a top priority for our group, so we also provide the means for local emergency crews to receive river rescue equipment, training, and supplies. Our hands-on board of directors helps to host multiple free river safety courses for the public, open to ages 3+, during which certified instructors demonstrate proper safety techniques for any river outing. We give away more than 200 life jackets each year to our community, while providing the instruction needed to make sure they are used most efficiently.

We also host workshops all year: composting, water quality testing, macroinvertebrates, recycling, watershed management, riparian buffers, and more.

The Chemung River Watershed

The Chemung Basin sits at the top of the watershed that drains into the Chesapeake Bay. Thanks to strict enforcement of anti-pollution laws, the Chemung River Watershed has become a clean source of drinking water. Its topography features scenic tree-covered palisades, shady islands, sunny lowlands and farms dotted about a steep and lush river valley. The federal Environmental Protection Agency said that the Chemung River contains some of the cleanest water in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed. That’s important as the river provides most of the drinking water for customers of the Elmira Water Board.

Promotion and increased use and knowledge of the river have helped the community develop a greener attitude toward our environment. Thousands of people from schools, scouts, civic groups, businesses and organizations have volunteered to help with trash cleanups, tree and flower planting, and trail and river maintenance.

A source of more than 60% of our drinking water, the Chemung River is the center of regional recreation including guided paddles, fishing, riverside hikes, cross-country ski trips, bird watching, nature photography and river festivals. The clean water makes for great fishing for walleye, bass, sunfish, and scores of other game fish. Many residents fish the river as a source of food, and fishing derbies draw both locals and tourists to the area.

Accessible and Varied Outdoor Recreation

The Chemung River is accessible through almost a dozen boat launches, built by Chemung River Friends and its municipal partners, making it easy to take a paddle trip of a few hours to a few days. Plenty of river islands make great places for primitive camping under the stars.

We helped plan and continue to maintain the 8-mile Lackawanna Rail Trail that runs along Newtown Creek and the Chemung River from Elmira to the Town of Ashland. Long-term plans call for connecting the trail to the 13-mile-long Catharine Valley Trail that begins at Seneca Lake in Watkins Glen.

Continued river promotion and public education have brought thousands of people to the river since 2009, to paddle the waterway and hike or bicycle along the river trails. The river has become a fun and easy way to promote and improve the community’s health.

Our future river plans include building more trails and increased recreation and education. Counties upstream and downstream from us are developing river use plans to make the entire region a river community.

The secret to our success is simple: We are all on this paddle trip together. Let’s keep our paddles in the water and paddle in the same direction.

Who We Are

Chemung River Friends is everything rivers.
We are an 11-year-old nonprofit organization that works to protect and promote the rivers in the Chemung River Watershed in upstate NY. We encourage the public to better use, enjoy, respect and protect our waterways.
We lead guided paddle trips, guided hikes and educational programs on and along the rivers and on river trails.
We build and maintain boat launches (10), fishing access sites, trails and outdoor classrooms...