BRCS - 2014 Post Event Reports Norm, Wow, what a wonderful day for the BRCS – the River and the Volunteers!!!!!!!! First, my thanks and my appreciation for dedicating your life to ensure that the rivers in Northwest Lower Michigan are handed down to future generations in better condition than when we became stewards of them! Second, I failed at the chain of command. You gave me two radios and a good camera – no longer the cheap disposable cameras you started us with. I returned one radio and no camera. As I told you when you called me, I gave the other radio to Jocelyn, as she was the designated lead paddler and I was the sweep. I, also, have a very good quality water proof camera and I am too busy to take a lot of photos. Jocelyn does a great job with photos. So, I gave her the camera. She, also, had a very good camera and took lots of photos. So, I don’t know whether she handed it off to another member of our crew or kept it. But, she would be the one to contact about the other radio and the camera. I will take responsibility for returning what you gave me in the future. You have way too much to coordinate to chase down all the equipment – I understand and appreciate that. BTW – we had trouble when we tested the radios at Scheck’s. Jocelyn could hear me, but I could not hear her. One of our radios was on 78A, which I changed back to 78, but I did not have time to figure out why we weren’t able to communicate, which is so important when we are spread out from almost the Kalkaska line to West Bay. I did use my cell phone to maintain contact with Donna and Will walking the banks of the old Brown Bridge Pond. And, Jocelyn was able to contact you about the arrangements that we made with Boone about taking out our trash. Thanks for the river clip-on folding knifes that you gave every volunteer – amazing – very good tool for the river clean-up volunteers. Impressive !!!!!!! My crew consisted of myself, Jim Heffner, Jocelyn Trepte – who is very skilled at paddling her solo canoe aka the “trash barge” – she can paddle upriver against a very strong current for a second or third chance and has a “frog gig” for the stubborn debris on the bottom of the river (or trip leaders that cross her), Dan Wittkopp (a first time BRCS volunteer, but a vital member of our team who mined one log jam for a goldmine of debris), Tracie Lord, Kati Flees – both very experienced river clean-up crew from the Paddling Club - that I learned a lot from about how to set-up my kayak for river clean-up – milk crates fastened to the back of their kayaks, and Will Jacobs, a college intern, and Donna Hagan, my wife, who did a fantastic job of walking both sides of the new river channel in the old Brown Bridge Pond – Steve Largent spotted them at the handicap parking lot for the eastern overlook platform. Most of us arrived by 8:45 AM and did not get to the picnic till 1:30-2 PM – we are always the last crew in – which I take great pride in! Unbelievably, the walking crew and the paddling crew arrived at the Brown Bridge Landing about the same time +/- 10 minutes. Due to the efforts of Steve Largent and his crew volunteers and Mother Nature leafing the trees out, the water level was back to normal stage and we had no difficulty navigating this stretch with experience paddlers – a key for this fast, twisting, turny section of river. The good news is that in spite of intensive scouring of the river banks, the river bottom, and the log jams and sweepers, we found only a moderate amount of trash, due to 10 years of the BRCS cleaning up this, now, free flowing river that is the jewel of the Traverse City area! We have before and after photos of our crew and the debris collected. You make the volunteers feel appreciated with the SWAG (folding river knife), good quality t-shirt with a nice design, and a great picnic! With my sincere appreciation and thanks, One of many of your loyal volunteers, Jim Heffner 938-9764 Home Jocelyn, BTW, if you photos of us taking out that twin trunk white pine, I would appreciate seeing them – that was the reason my left, arthritic knee was “cranky” today. Steve, I brought the “grabbers” to the picnic expecting to see you. I ended up giving them to Norm, who said he would make sure they got back to you. Thanks for spotting us today! Norm, you probably should consider graduation day when you are planning the schedule of the BRCS – I believe their were three graduations, today. ********************************************************************************************************************************************************** Norm - The downtown crew removed 3 canoefulls of trash from the Boardman yesterday. I'm glad I had the knife you gave me because we encountered lots of fishline and lures in the low trees and on stumps. The shore walkers were a tremendous asset to the effort. They got stuff that the paddlers would have had to get out of our boats to collect. Hooray for the shorewalkers. John Mesch *************************************************************************************************************************************************************** The River Pitch to Shumsky section was done with 5 adults and 5 KHS teens. We had one flip but it was early and only a few bags were lost into the river and they were quickly recovered. It was the usual stuff but not much of it. We found a washing machine inner tub that we recovered. Our entire haul filled one "HUGE" bag which was deposited at the dumpster at GTCD. We did see 15 pieces of large constrcution lumber that we will mark with GPS and photograph and then remove later this summer. It would have been smart to have taken a GPS to mark the large debris and that would have saves us an extra recon trip. Norm Fred *********************************************************************************************************************************************************************** Norm, The Brown Bridge to River Pitch section was led by Mike and Barb Rodenberg and myself. We were joined by five individuals in three canoes representing the KHS and the ODAC. The rest of the group was made up of paddle club members, mostly in kayaks along with two more canoes. As you know, the day was perfect and spirits were high. We collected several items, nothing too unusual, but more than we thought we'd get. We had one flip which was handled quite nicely; nobody hurt. I'm always impressed by how people are willing to help each other on an event like this, and the examples of teamwork today were plentiful. Since the River Pitch property was locked, we selected an alternative takeout, river left at the train trestle. The area was small but worked nicely and provided another opportunity for the group to help each other as we left the river. The BRCS reunites old friends and acquaintences and along with providing first meetings for some of us. Everyone enjoyed the event while engaging in an act valuable stewardship. See you on the river and, of course, next year at the BRCS. "A heart is not judged by how much you love, but how much you are loved by others." Jim Batsakis ********************************************************************************************************************************************************************* It went swimmingly from our perspective on the upper downtown/lake section! Thanks for providing the boats and gear - that is always a HUGE help for our Coast Guard group of 21, tackling the dirtiest section of the river. The Boardman Lake will be in good hands with Coasties Kara and Tom Davis! v/r, Kyle Young V/r, LCDR Kyle Young Assistant Engineering Officer USCG Air Station Traverse City W: 231-922-8340 C: 231-463-8802 ********************************************************************************************************************************************************************** We had fourteen people on our section: John Heiam, Lois Goldstein, John Walton, Susan and Jeff Kessler, Martha Bressi, Glenn and Mary Bier, Marvin Ison, Michael Roberts, and four students from Kingsley – Jeremiah, Zack, Noelle, and Ray. Of these people, seven were very skilled: John H, Lois, John W., Jeff, Glenn, Marvin, and Michael. The Kingsley kids were not as skilled as last year, but they made up for it in enthusiasm. They tipped once because they were jumping out of the canoe to get a can. Everyone had a great time. With fourteen people we were only able to find one large bag of trash. There just wasn't much that we could see. Perhaps the high grass hid some of the debris, or maybe the river just started out clean. We had more people than we needed, and perhaps some of the skilled people could have been used more effectively by Jim and Jocelyn's crew. If you like, next year I can go over the registrant list ahead of time, and tell you who is skilled so you could think about how best to allocate them ahead of time. Since Lois and I go on so many trips, we know everyone in the club. It would also have helped if we knew ahead of time how many drivers we had for our section. We had pre-staged our van at the takeout, but we had nine drivers to bring back, so five people had to ride in back without seatbelts which is a safety concern. Submitted by John Heiam ************************************************************************************************************************************************************************* Hi Norm, Sorry I have been lazy about my report. Although there were only six walkers, and 3 of us over 60 (making the climbing up and down the banks a bit challenging), I think we did quite well. Denny Banks was most helpful in providing grabbers and extra garbage bags - which we needed. Also helping were a young father with his son who was about 10 years old. Regretfully I do not know their names as they cleaned on the opposite side of the river. Everyone worked hard and I believe we had about 8 bags of garbage. We had to pack and consolidate because there was more “stuff” than we expected. Didn’t find anything very exciting, just the usual empty bottles, fast food cartons, lots of cigarette butts, etc. Unfortunately, because there were so few of us we were not able to get all the way to the Bay - we picked up from Hull Park to Front Street (by North Peak) . But we had fun and I think will have more help next year. No real complaints, except the MOSQUITOES! and we missed Larry, who in the past cruised around providing extra supplies, water, transportation, etc. My only suggestion, therefore, is to make him help again or find his clone. Thanks, Norm, for all your work and I really appreciated your son, David, who sent us off from Hull Park. You do good work. Julie Fernandez ************************************************************************************************************************************************************************* Boardman River Clean Sweep Raffle June 7, 2014 The BRCS Raffle was held on June 7, 2014 at the Kingsley Library Adams Fly Festival. Our raffle is shared with the KHS-ODAC club whose members assist us at two major river cleanups. It is shared with the Grand Traverse Conservation District who provide the BRCS with generous assistance in many ways. It is shared with the Benzie Conservation District who do cleanups on the Betsie River and clear the Upper Platte River for us. The Betsie and Platte are river which we have adopted as our own. This year, we sold more tickets than ever before and had more prizes that ever before. We want to thank our sponsors for their generous donations and also we want to thank those of you who bought raffle tickets. Whether you win or lose, you make a donation to one of these worthy river stewardship organizations and your money will come back to you in the knowledge that our rivers are being cared for. Have a great summer! Submitted by Norm Fred *************************************************************************************************************************************************************************