The Lackawanna River Valley is undergoing a metamorphosis as we enter the 21st Century. The community initiatives which have developed for River restoration, the Lackawanna Valley Conservancy, the rail trail programs, and the Lackawanna Heritage programs all offer opportunities to create new processes, technologies and relationships with our valley environment. The opening of the Robert P. Casey Highway offers a challenge to our communities to create new economic opportunities.

How can we reach a balance to conserve the essential natural resources, restore the damaged landscape of the valley and promote beneficial growth to insure useful employment for the future? Understanding the value of the Lackawanna River watershed is crucial to maintaining a long term quality of life for our children.

Our responsibilities as stewards of the Lackawanna River watershed include guiding our economic activities while we conserve and restore our resources. The need for informed public decision making is paramount. The active participation of citizens and the socially and ecologically responsive involvement of public agencies, private institutions and businesses can insure that a collective democratic wisdom will guide our decision making.

The Lackawanna is more than a stream that sustains us, in many respects it is our connection to the global village. On this blue planet water is a carrier of messages. What messages do we send downstream? Yesterday and tomorrow are present in the decisions we make today. Perhaps we can share a tradition with the people who named our River. Shall we look ahead through the next seven generations? What will the River tell us then?