Jamestown’s restoration of the Chadakoin River highlights both the biological and historical importance of the river. The city is working to keep the water clean and make a positive impact on the environment and the wildlife population. P-J photo by Timothy Frudd

Jamestown has developed a comprehensive plan for restoring the natural beauty and functionality of the Chadakoin River.

The City Council has designated ARPA funding for improving the river, which has allowed Twan Leenders, an ecological restoration manager with the Chautauqua Watershed Conservancy, to begin the process of restoring the river and making it a central part of the community.

“We live in a world where everything needs to be fixed overnight and there’s always an engineering solution for everything,” Leenders said. “Honestly, what we really need is just to take a few steps back and really think about what this river used to look like and how it used to function best.”

Leeenders’ approach is to allow nature to do a large portion of the work itself. He said not only is it cheaper than spending thousands of dollars on man-made solutions, but it is also a longer-lasting solution.

The city’s plan includes removing debris from the river, replacing invasive species of trees and plants with native trees and plants, redirecting the river in places where it poses a threat to people’s homes and businesses, adding educational components to the river walk and maintaining a healthy ecosystem for animal life.

“There’s a lot of work to be done,” Leenders said. “This is going to be many years worth of work to get to where we ultimately would like to go.”

Leenders said the Chadakoin River has earned a poor reputation in Jamestown as a result of the crumbling infrastructure surrounding it.

“But the great thing about this river is that the water quality is fantastic,” he said.

Leenders said the river runs from Jamestown to the Gulf of Mexico. Situated at the top of the watershed, the portion of the river running through Jamestown remains incredibly clean.

“We have the cleanest water going into the system,” Leenders said. “That is our greatest asset.”

While Leenders said the river quality is good, he said there are several ways that the city can make improvements.

“We can fix the appearance of it,” he said. “We can fix the infrastructure around it. We can certainly improve upon it to make sure that the water quality stays good.”

The Chadakoin River is deeply connected with the history of Jamestown and the area’s economy. The river used to power saw mills and factories and was used to transport lumber downstream.

“This river is the reason why Jamestown is here,” Leenders said. “There’s amazing historical accounts.”

While the Chadakoin River is an important part of the city’s history, Leenders believes the river is vital to the future of Jamestown.

“Half the country doesn’t even have any kind of water anymore and we have just a surplus of this amazingly clean water right here,” he said.

Since Jamestown has this important resource, Leenders said people need to properly manage the river.

“We need to be good stewards of this,” he said. “We need to take care of this. We need to appreciate it for what it is, for what it’s done for the city, for what it’s done to build this economy here, and there’s so much to enjoy about it.”

Leenders hopes to include educational signs in future phases of the city’s river project, which would help both children and adults learn about the importance of the river. His goal is to encourage people to work together to improve the Chadakoin River throughout the city and to take advantage of what it has to offer the community.

“I think we need to make a concerted effort to make that happen,” Leenders said. “First of all, make sure that we’re not inadvertently or advertently impacting the river in a negative manner, and then secondly, find ways to truly enjoy this and make this and integral part of economy and community again.”