Sara Bell – Green River Adventures

Partial Transcript: Sara introduces herself and gives some background about her business and how she became involved in Kayaking. Kayaking brought her to Western North Carolina. She loves living in this area and finds it a humbling experience. Sara describes how she feels on the water. She talks about traveling through the Narrows. There are other areas she goes on to describe after she passed the Narrows. Sara relates a funny story about how she and her husband get through a trip to the dentist.

Keywords: Narrows; Western North Carolina; gorge; sliding rock.; white water; Kayaking

Subjects: Sara talks about her passion for Kayaking and living in Western North Carolina.

Partial Transcript: Sara talks about what is now the typical evolution of a whitewater kayaker. Her experience has changed now that she has kids; there is that What If Factor that pops into her head. She is no longer as intense.

Keywords: What If Factor,; Typical evolution of a white water kayaker

Subjects: Sara is no longer as intense as she once was.

Partial Transcript: Sara talks about when she was younger and going kayaking on Sunday mornings rather than going to church in the South East. Sara feels her spiritual connection is never more felt than when she is sitting at the bottom of a giant gorge. Everyone experiences white water rafting at different degrees and it all depends on the risk you are willing to take.

Keywords: risk; spiritual connection

Subjects: Everyone experiences white water Kayaking in a different way.

Partial Transcript: Sara talks about as a community their fundamental concern is clean water. As a community many times during the year they participate in river clean up. They value how clean the river is. There was an instructor from New Zealand who scooped up river water in his water bottle and drank from it. Everyone was shocked that he would assume all water was as clean as his back home.

Keywords: New Zealand; Community

Subjects: The value of clean water.

Partial Transcript: Sara talks about how as a family business they depend on people coming to enjoy the beauty of the area. If the river was no longer clean people would stop coming and that would have an effect on business. Not only do they have a business on the river they also live on the river. The river is a healthy resource for tourism and it makes no sense to not take care of it.

Keywords: tourism

Subjects: Why Sara wants to keep the river clean.

Partial Transcript: Sara talks about her early days with kayaking, when she was in college and taught at a white water camp in Brevard. She talked about the Green River and the lush green all around but there have been days she can say maybe it should be called the brown river. She attributes this to what is happening upstream. There is some correlation to development in the area.

Keywords: Green River; White water camp in Brevard

Subjects: The change in the river condition over the last 10 years.

Partial Transcript: Sara discusses the number of people who could be on the Green River on any weekend in June or July. From an economic and tourism stand point the river is a huge part of what the area has to offer. If the water quality went down it would defiantly have an effect on the economy.

Keywords: effect on economy.

Subjects: Tourism and water quality.

Partial Transcript: Sara talks about kayakers as a community and how they are motivated to keep the waters clean. Even if it is to just keep the access areas clean. Kayakers will often talk about the waterways after they have come off the water. It is often the first topic of conversation when people get off the water. Often the kayaking community will find themselves cleaning up after the people who have been on the water. The kayakers are always on the lookout for any changes in the river. It is a never-ending battle to keep the areas clean. Sara feels leading by example helps to educate people on how to treat the waterways.

Keywords: educate.; motivated

Subjects: How the Kayaking community is trying to the waterways clean.

Partial Transcript: Sara discusses why it is important to protect the Green River, an amazing resource. Sara talks about the Tuckasegee River how the erosion problem was fixed and the problems the fix created. Sara feels that hindsight is the best educator and we should learn from the mistakes other areas have made along waterways.

Keywords: Tuckasegee River; erosion problem; Protect the Green River

Subjects: What we can learn from other communities and how they have approached protecting their waterways.

Partial Transcript: Sara talks about taking her 2 children out on the river the oldest is starting to realize the amazing sites of the surrounding area. Her hope is that her kids will appreciate that they live in the middle of this amazing wilderness and will want to protect it. Daily they talk about the fact that they have been given a gift and it is their job to give it back in better shape. Sara hopes that leading by example will be a better way to educate her kids about how to treat the river rather than telling them.

Keywords: leading by example

Subjects: The beauty of the area and how to educate kids on how to protect the area.

Partial Transcript: Sara talks about Nature Deficit Disorder. Her parent's and grandparents' generation were always outside. Growing up Sara spent every day outside playing, catching fireflies, and at the beach. She worries that today kids are happy to stay inside and watch TV, never catching a firefly.

Keywords: catching fireflies; Nature Deficit Disorder

Subjects: Sara worries kids today do not know the joy of Nature.