I’ve raised my daughters next to the San Lorenzo River, but we’ve only touched it once. I walk my dog next to it every day, I cross its bridges to downtown. My drinking water comes from the river, which I only learned about recently. Like most people in Santa Cruz, I cross this river all the time, but never give it much thought.

I have never had a picnic on its banks, skipped pebbles in it, fished or canoed. I never brought my daughters to play in it. I have never been in it. Until last year.

That’s when I got to participate in one of the boating days on the river organized by the Coastal Watershed Project. For two giddy hours, I stood on a paddleboard going down the San Lorenzo, and rode in a canoe on the way back up. I had never seen downtown from that vantage point. For the first time, I sat in a canoe besides my daughter, in the river she grew up next to. We touched the San Lorenzo.

My view of the river changed after that day. I began to pick up more trash on my walks. I went down to the river banks. I had a picnic once. I developed a deep longing, when the river was high, to get into a boat and paddle slowly to the sea. But I couldn’t — yet.

This Tuesday, at 2:30 p.m., the Santa Cruz City Council is voting on whether to permit a pilot boating project, where for two months out of the summer, limited paddleboards and kayaks would be allowed from the Soquel Bridge to the ocean, all overseen by a biologist to study the impact on the wildlife population. It should help determine what impact boating may have on the river and help draft rules that will permit the cohabitation of this space safely. It’s time to write your council members and let them know if you support this studied trial.

My own experience was so profound, that I think that if others were given this opportunity, we might go a long way towards restoring the San Lorenzo to a thriving river. One that invites the next generation to have a picnic on the shore, toss a pebble from its banks, float on it, appreciate it — touch it once again.

Debora Wade lives in Santa Cruz.