Proposed by: The Tuckahoe Garden Club of Westhampton, Zone VII

With dedication and unflinching determination Ralph R. White has shown the nation how a river suffering from decades, even centuries, of abuse can be restored to such an extent that the city through which it runs was named “Best River Town” in the country. That happened in 2012 when “Outside Magazine” named Richmond, Virginia the best river town in the nation. The James River, which flows from the Blue Ridge Mountains to the Chesapeake Bay, forms a surprisingly wild and rugged seven-mile ribbon through the heart of Richmond. For more than a century it held the dubious distinction of being one of the most polluted waterways in the country. That changed with the arrival of Ralph White 33 years ago. As the James River Park manager he realized that the river could become a magnet for wholesome recreational activity. In lieu of adequate funding, he empowered hordes of local volunteers and woke up the heart of downtown to an unmatched urban wilderness where whitetail deer, bald eagles and great blue herons coexist with Class IV boaters, rock climbers, trail runners, anglers, bird-watchers and mountain bikers. This miraculous turnaround has led to the return of a small, but genetically distinct, population of Atlantic sturgeon (Acipenser oxyrinchus kennicotti), a fish nearly extinct for almost 100 years and found nowhere else in the world. The James River is not just any river. It is the nation’s Founding River. People from all walks of life have been brought closer to the majesty of nature in a park on an urban waterway that is now the best in the nation, thanks to Ralph White.