Sticks of Fire: a Tampa blog

Friends of the River is a citizen support group concerned with promoting health and environmental policies that affect the quantity and quality of water in the Lower Hillsborough River and the Tampa Bay by actively promoting the development and implementation of natural resource management strategies which will improve and enhance the current and future health, recreational, environmental and proprietary values of the Lower Hillsborough River, the Tampa Bay, and adjacent lands and bodies of water, and promoting general public awareness of the issues with which F.O.R. is concerned.

The Friends of the (Hillsborough) River hosts an annual holiday boat parade on the Hillsborough River. They hope to have more than three dozen boats and hundreds of spectators. Held at dusk, boaters sometimes have elaborate set-ups powered by car batteries, while others may have a couple strings of 10 lights run with four C batteries.

As you might guess, this parade is for those of you with smaller craft. It’s easy to be in the parade, and they encourage anyone with any type of boat to get in on the fun. Kinda sounds like the redneck yacht club. I’d fit right in.

All boaters with kayaks, canoes and traditional motor craft are invited to join the Annual Hillsborough River Holiday Boat Parade, Saturday December 8, sponsored by Friends of the River. Boaters meet at the Lowry Park ramp at 5:30 p.m. and travel upriver from 6-8 p.m. past the illuminated Sulphur Springs Tower to the Harbor Club on the river at Nebraska Ave. Incoming tides will be favorable that evening for this trip. Free entry.

This is the boat parade for the rest of us - yacht ownership NOT required. Decorate whatever you have that floats and join the fun!

Spectators can gather to view the parade at the riverfront park by the Sulphur Springs City Pool and historic Gazebo, where they will find plenty of parking and room for viewing.

This year’s parade theme is A New Day in Tampa Bay, celebrating the coming rebirth of the Lower Hillsborough River. New Year’s Day 2008 fresh water starts flowing down the river every day from now on, something our community has not seen for 36 years. This daily minimal flow will provide good conditions for the River to once again function as Tampa Bay’s estuary, the nursery where fish are born & raised. Friends of the River advocated the river’s restoration for the past 9 years, winning its case when Swiftmud set the River Recovery Plan in motion this fall. As a result, scientists expect fishing in the Hillsborough River and Tampa Bay to improve dramatically next year, along with birds and manatees, and to get even better every year from now on as conditions necessary for fish to spawn continue to improve.

This sounds like a great time on the river. Grab your rafts, and head out to Lowry Park at 5pm. The parade ends at the historic Harbor Club at Nebraska Avenue, and rumor says their waterfront bar will be open!

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