Learning to love the Salmon River got a little easier Saturday.

The Friends of the Salmon River unveiled two guideboards along the waterway.

“If the people love the watershed you really don’t need a lot of hard-nosed regulation,” said Gray Merriam, a retired professor and ecological researcher. He’s now both president of the Friends and chairman of the Frontenac Stewardship Council.

Signs were unveiled in two places: in Lonsdale at the Marysville Road bridge over the river and at the Roblin boat launch just off Highway 41 in the hamlet’s south end.
Each contains geographic, ecological and historical information about that particular area of the watershed.

Merriam said the signs match the Friends’ main goal: teaching people to appreciate their natural world so they will preserve it.

“We believe that’s the strongest conservation measure anyone can take,” Merriam said.

“It’s actually a pretty healthy river and we’d like to keep it that way,” said Susan Moore, the group’s publicity director.

“If we all take care of our little piece of it and tread lightly on all of it we’ll have a wonderful Salmon River for many generations to come,” said Moore.

“It’s possible to provide good stewardship to a place that doesn’t have a lot of problems and it’s a hell of a lot easier to fix if you start there,” Merriam said.

The signs were created in concert with local businesses, the Hastings, Frontenac and Lennox and Addington Stewardship Councils, Quinte Conservation and others.

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Dignitaries from those groups as well as area politicians praised the Friends’ efforts to conserve the area and inform the public.

The Friends formed in 2004 and now have several projects underway.

A third sign will be unveiled July 3 at 2 p.m. at the crossing of Regional Road 506 over Story Lake south of Cloyne.

The organization is trying to increase the availability of the area’s natural history to people using the watershed and last spring held several trial wildflower walks, something Merriam said may be expanded.

A partnership to archive the group’s files with Queen’s University is in the works and members are considering reforesting selected shoreline areas through the Trees Ontario program.

They are also in talks with a developer to suggest guidelines for the creation of a subdivision in the watershed.

The approach is to work with the company, not oppose it, said Merriam.

About 75 people attended the Lonsdale unveiling. A few dozen were present in Roblin; several of them paddled canoes ashore for the ceremony.

Harvey Scott, an Edmonton resident whose family has roots on the river, just happened to be visiting. He spoke enthusiastically with the volunteers and commended their work.

“They’re struggling to restore the river — it’s such a wonderful thing,” he said.

There are nine directors of the Friends and only a small budget.

“The biggest help we can have is for ordinary people to become members and those members to get their concerns to us,” said Merriam.

“Even if they live in the bottom end they should have an interest in the top end. That’s where your water comes from,” he added.

Memberships are $30 per year per family or $20 per person.

Members can attend the annual general meeting each fall; it normally includes a special lecture from a guest speaker.