Karen Kustafik is a City of Columbia Park Ranger. She and her friend, Margaret Clarkson, met and bonded over their love for Columbia’s natural resources, and in particular, its system of rivers, which flow through the heart of the city.
In 2024, they sat down with StoryCorps to discuss their passion for nature, conservation, and recreation in and along Columbia’s Three Rivers Greenway, Saluda Riverwalk, and Riverfront Park.
TRANSCRIPT:
Clarkson: Karen, I think I just want you to talk a bit about how you found your way to that Riverwalk, and some of your experiences out there.
Kustafik: It was a circuitous path, really. I started whitewater kayaking with my son Ian when he was 10 years old. But you cannot be a whitewater paddler and not turn into an advocate for our rivers, for water quality, and for access as well. I'm interested in pairing environmental education and recreation. You know, I believe very much that standing on a soapbox is a bit ridiculous. But if you can get somebody out playing outdoors and then show them the trash eddy or the polluted sewage outfall, you know, that you then engage a lot more. If we get people outside, you connect them and make them part of that community. They care more. And so in 2000, I began working for Parks and Recreation as a kayak instructor.
Clarkson: On the front page of the paper today, there is a story about two alligators, and Karen has been quoted, “luxuriating.”
Kustafik: We've got alligators, and we've got deer and otters and beavers and muskrats and great blue herons and nesting bald eagles and osprey and all the migratory birds in the spring and the fall, it's glorious out there.
Clarkson: It's really beautiful. One of the things that I love that's happened in the last 10 or 15 years is the ability for almost anybody from any walk of life to get on the river in some capacity. You can just sign up to go on an inner tube. They put your inner tube on a bus, they drive you to another part of the river, and you walk your inner tube down and you plop yourself in and you can go down. It can be a four or five-hour trip, depending on how fast the current is or how slow or fast you want to go. But there's a turn in the river that you go around, and when you go around this turn, there's the skyline of the city, and people go, (gasp) “Oh, my God!” Because they completely forget they're actually in an urban area. Because you get totally taken into the nature of the area. And then you get swept into, “Oh, my goodness, there's the building I work in!”
Kustafik: Right.
Clarkson: So, it's a really fun thing. And there are people swimming and doing all kinds of things out there.
Kustafik: I'm so glad that people are connecting with the river because, you know, as we mentioned earlier, the more you play on the river, the more stake you have in protecting it and enhancing it for the next group of users.
Clarkson: Water is a healing thing for so, so many people. And I think people are naturally drawn to it.
Kustafik: You're absolutely right. There's lots of research showing that even passive recreation, even if you're just coming out, all you can do is drag yourself to a bench and sit for 15 minutes and look at nature. Your stress hormones, your cortisol lowers, your blood pressure lowers. This is healthy for people who are often just overstimulated, oversaturated, stressed. It's really important that we've got these green spaces. It's part of living in a healthy city. You know, having these amenities helps us really to grow as a city when we're recruiting other businesses. I mean, it's part of being a vibrant community and a healthy community. For those who are hearing this and curious, I encourage them to come out and see these spaces for themselves: The Three Rivers Greenway, the Columbia portions of it, Saluda Riverwalk, and Riverfront Park are phenomenally beautiful.
