The Schuylkill Canal Association (SCA) is a non-governmental organization that maintains the Oakes Reach and Lock #60 of the Schuylkill Canal as a public recreation area and historical site. Organized in 1982 as the Schuylkill Canal Advisory Board, the Association, in cooperation with Upper Providence Township, Montgomery County, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, maintains the canal reach, associated structures, parks and trails. The area extends along the canal and left bank of the Schuylkill River, from Mont Clare past Port Providence. The area makes up a large part of the Schuylkill Navigation Canal, Oakes Reach Section Historic District (#88000462).
Non-governmental organizations, nongovernmental organizations, or nongovernment organizations, commonly referred to as NGOs, are usually non-profit and sometimes international organizations independent of governments and international governmental organizations that are active in humanitarian, educational, health care, public policy, social, human rights, environmental, and other areas to affect changes according to their objectives. They are thus a subgroup of all organizations founded by citizens, which include clubs and other associations that provide services, benefits, and premises only to members. Sometimes the term is used as a synonym of "civil society organization" to refer to any association founded by citizens, but this is not how the term is normally used in the media or everyday language, as recorded by major dictionaries. The explanation of the term by NGO.org is ambivalent. It first says an NGO is any non-profit, voluntary citizens' group which is organized on a local, national or international level, but then goes on to restrict the meaning in the sense used by most English speakers and the media: Task-oriented and driven by people with a common interest, NGOs perform a variety of service and humanitarian functions, bring citizen concerns to Governments, advocate and monitor policies and encourage political participation through provision of information.
Schuylkill Canal is the common, but technically inaccurate, name for the Schuylkill Navigation, a 19th-century commercial waterway in and along the Schuylkill River in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. The "canal" was actually a system of interconnected canals and slack-water pools in the river, which is called a navigation. Chartered in 1815, the Schuylkill Navigation opened in 1825 to provide transportation and water power. At the time, the river was the least expensive and most efficient method of transporting bulk cargo, and the eastern seaboard cities of the U.S. were experiencing an energy crisis due to deforestation. It fostered the mining of anthracite coal as the major source of industry between Pottsville and eastern markets. Along the tow-paths, mules pulled barges of coal from Port Carbon through the water gaps to Pottsville; locally to the port and markets of Philadelphia; and some then by ship or through additional New Jersey waterways, to New York City markets.
Upper Providence Township is a township in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, United States. As of the 2010 census, the township population was 21,219.
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As its first priority project, SCA repaired the Lock 60 lock tender's house at Lock 60 that had been abandoned in the 1950s. The lock tender's house was eventually restored to habitable condition. The restoration of Lock 60 itself to operating condition was another major SCA project that was completed in 2005. The house and lock are both contributing structures to the historic district.
In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing property or contributing resource is any building, object, or structure which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic district, listed locally or federally, significant. Government agencies, at the state, national, and local level in the United States, have differing definitions of what constitutes a contributing property but there are common characteristics. Local laws often regulate the changes that can be made to contributing structures within designated historic districts. The first local ordinances dealing with the alteration of buildings within historic districts was in Charleston, South Carolina in 1931.
SCA maintains the area near Lock 60 as a public park and periodically opens the lock tender's house and operates the lock for small recreational craft. The Canal Park has a river launch area and a floating dock in the canal. An association maintained portage trail at the other end of the canal reach, which with the park, creates a 5-mile (8.0 km) canoe and kayak loop. SCA also maintains the towpath trail and other adjacent trails. Plans to route the Schuylkill River Trail along the canal towpath will likely shift towpath maintenance from SCA to the county.
Portage or portaging is the practice of carrying water craft or cargo over land, either around an obstacle in a river, or between two bodies of water. A path where items are regularly carried between bodies of water is also called a portage.
A canoe is a lightweight narrow vessel, typically pointed at both ends and open on top, propelled by one or more seated or kneeling paddlers facing the direction of travel using a single-bladed paddle.
A kayak is a small, narrow watercraft which is typically propelled by means of a double-bladed paddle. The word kayak originates from the Greenlandic word qajaq.
