Times Observer photo by Josh Cotton Piper VanOrd speaks about the Allegheny River during a Thursday presentation held by the Warren County Historical Society

There are a litany of things in the community that are taken for granted, things that are assumed will always be there.

The Allegheny River can often be one of those things. The Warren County Historical Society has sought through a pair of programs this spring to bring the river to the forefront.

That, obviously, includes the history of the river in shaping the community.

On Thursday night, that meant the present and future of the river.

“The truth is, as long as we’re loving on the river, continuing to clean the river… that’s what matters,” said Piper VanOrd, Thursday’s speaker.

The goal?

So “generations long after we’re all gone can go out there and enjoy it like we do. That’s my hope for any sort of future for the river. That’s the hope I have.”

VanOrd’s connection to the river runs much deeper than just her business, Allegheny Outfitters. Thursday’s presentation was a series of photos, first of each season.

“I always love the light in the morning,” she said. “Spring starts to bring what we have today: a lot of mush, buds on the streets. (I) start to get a little excited.”

As the seasons change, VanOrd stressed that “the only thing constant on the river is change.”

But the river is more than just the scenery. VanOrd presented photos of all kinds of wildlife she’s seen from the heron, deer and bald eagle down to less prominent species like the caddis and dobson flies.

But it’s the people who make the culture of the river what it has become.

For VanOrd, that included a woman in her 90s that would celebrate her birthday each year with a paddle, to a trip with representatives of the Seneca Nation of Indians as well as a venture with a group of refugees that were resettling in Erie.

“They were not excited to get on the river,” she said, “and then as we… got our paddle on, by the end, they were pretty proud of what they had accomplished and they should be because it was a big deal.”

The human stories also include the Allegheny River Cleanup which has pulled untold tons of junk out of the river over the years.

She ended the presentation with a photo of her daughter taken on a camping trip on one of the river’s islands.

“Sometimes we need that reminder to slow down and that reminder to just take a break,” she said. “(There is) nothing that reminds me and helps me to do that more than this river.”