BEACH LAKE, PA — It was a day of anniversaries as the Upper Delaware Council (UDC) held its annual awards banquet on April 22 at Central House Family Resort in Beach Lake.

There were so many anniversaries that Earth Day (also April 22) wasn’t even mentioned. It was the 30th annual awards banquet, and UDC Chair Aaron Robinson drew applause from 115 persons in attendance when he offered them the opportunity to wish UDC a happy 30th birthday.

It was the 40th anniversary of the 1978  designation of the Upper Delaware as one of the rivers covered by the Wild & Scenic Rivers Act, now celebrating its 50th year. Keynote speaker and Northeast Regional National Park Service Director Gay Vietzke noted that after another 40 years, 2018 would be remembered as the date NPS finally won funding for a visitor center at the Zane Grey Museum in Lackawaxen.

“The fact that NPS has not had to acquire any land [to enforce compliance] demonstrates the success of the UDC and the River Management Plan,” Vietzke said. Vietzke did not comment on the NPS funding shortfalls that twice threatened the council’s existence last year, but Rep. John Faso (NY-19) was lauded as UDC’s “dogged champion” in restoring withheld funding on those occasions, as well as his winning $5 million to finally fund the Delaware River Basin Restoration Act.

Shohola’s George J. Fluhr, who was also honored, recounted the hard-won efforts to get people and agencies working together. “It took many years, many meetings, many dedicated public officials and many private citizens traveling to meetings all over the 73-mile corridor for many years… I remember the disruptions, the threats, the guns, the hate and the fear that permeated the area for many years. It was the UDC that began the road to peace.”