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By Sarah L. Greenhalgh
Rappahannock News Wnter
For the past 18 years, the Rappahannock River has had a guardian angel.
Members of the Friends of the Rappahannock, headed up by John Tippett, have made it their mission to get more people interested in canoeing and exploring the Rappahannock River safely.
“By getting people out in the water, teaching them about the river and the habitats," we get them to,respect the river,” Tippett said.
The FOR has many programs throughout the year. In conjunction with Earth Day, members sponsored a big river cleanup last Saturday.
This much-needed project helped rid the banks of the unsightly trash left by litterbugs or what is carried down by other counties during flooding. Tippett said they find all sorts of things on an adventure of this kind.
“Everything from beer cans, tires to the kitchen sink,” Tippett said. “We find enough junk to fill a roll-off dumpster. In the fall, we have another cleanup when the river is lower. That one is directed more toward tire removal.”
But FOR isn’t just about river maintenance. One of its biggest projects has been the removal of the Embrey Dam.
This 93-year-old structure was originally built to help generate electricity for the town of Fredericksburg. But the dam has long since lost its usefulness.
Now the dam is an impediment to fish spawning. Shad and herring have not been able to swim upstream for almost 100 years. When this dam comes down, Rappahannock anglers are going to be in for some great fishing.
“People should be able to do a little shad fishing in Remington,” Scott Carter of Clark Brothers in Opal. “They will see the American and hickory shad, both are quite different species.
“The shad and the herring have been trapped below the dam for a great many years. There are some real monsters in the pools, like 24-30 inch
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