Consider it an early Christmas present, a river of gifts flowing your way, gifts that will go on giving well into the future, gifts you can enjoy and still leave to your children in better shape than those gifts are today.

And it cost you only $5 million, plus interest.

Fourteen projects will share the proceeds of Maine's unique voter-approved river bond in cities and towns from Biddeford to Fort Kent. They all have one thing in common -- a Maine river flows through them. The money is dedicated to development and revitalization along Maine's rivers.

The entire bond was spent in this single round of grants. It is only a drop in the river bucket, but it's a great start to an economy that rebuilds itself from the water up.

"Our rivers are the lifeblood of Maine," said Gov. John Baldacci at a Statehouse press conference last week to announce the project awards. "They have always been vital to the state's economic development and remain so today."

Neglected and trashed in the past, he might have added, but cleaner and more inviting today.

A lot of those despised lobbyists (including your humble correspondent) and selfish special interest groups (including two groups I am associated with) championed this new program, with special assistance from the Baldacci administration, especially Department of Economic and Community Development Commissioner John Richardson, and a host of legislators too numerous to mention.

Come on now, you have to admit, based on this exciting new rivers initiative, that all of these folks do get something right now and again. You must agree because you endorsed this in a November 2007 referendum vote.

The bond money was awarded through a special process at the Department of Economic and Community Development, and each project was required to raise $2 in other funding for each $1 received from the rivers bond. The way it worked out, more than $41 million will be spent on the funded projects.

Augusta and Gardiner combined to share a $495,000 grant, most of which goes to Gardiner. It's nice to see this collaboration -- the antidote to consolidation.

Andy MacLean, Gardiner's dynamic mayor, reported that about $1 million will be spent in 2009 on that city's riverfront development project, including improved parking and lighting. Many of the river bond projects will use the money to improve access to, and use of, the rivers.

Augusta Mayor Roger Katz, another strong river advocate and creative thinker, told Kennebec Journal reporter Meghan Malloy he is working to "make the downtown riverfront the centerpiece of our community." Augusta gets $50,000 for signage and riverside seating.

Richmond got $330,000 for its waterfront park, Skowhegan received $110,000 to develop access to its river park and trails, and Pittsfield snagged $32,000 for trails and habitat improvement.

Clearly, the mighty Kennebec is getting its share of attention and funding, good news for those who lead the Kennebec River Initiative, an exciting project that brings all of the river's assets and advocates together in a long-term partnership to make the river all it can be for the citizens of Maine.

If you've visited Bangor in recent years, perhaps for the city's outstanding folk festival, you've seen how that city has smartly redeveloped its riverfront land. That effort was rewarded again with one of the largest river bond grants, $675,000 for the next phase of the city's project to develop a 12-acre park along the downtown waterfront.

There may be a greater message here than the simple vitality and potential of Maine's rivers. The state's future may very well be dictated by its past, using our natural resources more wisely perhaps, but using them nonetheless to sustain and grow our economy.

We are just beginning to understand that we can have it all, cheap energy, a healthy and vibrant economy, a quality of life that most of the world's citizens envy.

Yes, this is my Christmas message!

Take a quick peek at your DeLorme's Gazeteer this morning, focusing on those blue lines, the arteries Baldacci was talking about, flowing through every community. Brooks, streams, rivers, waiting to be rediscovered.

I'm looking at one right now, Hopkins Stream, that once provided a wealth of job opportunities from commercial cranberries to leather goods. Now, it simply carries kayakers and canoeists five miles through undeveloped forests. It has the potential to do so much more.

As you unwrap this wonderful gift of rivers today, think about more such gifts in the future. We've only just begun to tap this magnificent resource.

George Smith is executive director of the Sportsman's Alliance of Maine. He lives in Mount Vernon and can be reached at george@samcef.org.