Boardman River Clean Sweep - 2011 - June 11th-2011

The 2011 BRCS was held on a cool and cloudy June, 11th after a night of heavy rain (1") and thunder.

Several people didn't show up because of threatening weather but about 50 people got to Schecks
and 16 got to Hull Park on time. After the meet and greet, pictures were taken and waivers signed.
The separate groups were assigned and headed out with the 5 shuttle drivers. Mike Wyckhoff brought
a big trailer and hauled all the upstream trash back to the GTCD where it was sorted and disposed of.

The river was high and fast but yielded up quite a bit of trash but not as much as in previous years which
is a very good sign. The downtown section yielded as much or more than in past years and that is not a
good sign. We need to try to contact the city to put a stop to dumping of tires and other heavy trash in
the river like the 70 pound safe they found and the numerous tires and rims.

One group found a plastic can filled with syringes and bottles of drugs. The drugs were picked up by the police
a few days later.

The picnic and raffle went smoothly. There was no grill there when the cooks arrived but they found
one and all was well. There were volunteers that were friends of the Somers who helped cook and serve.

The US Coast Guard presented the BRCS with a CITATION of APPRECIATION for its work on behalf of the
Boardman River. A whole contingent of Coasties arrived to help out on the river, 9 in all.

The Home Depot sent 7 people to clean Boardman Pond off Cass Rd. They used 3 YMCA canoes, one of which
leaked. Norm repaired it later that week as a sign of gratitude for loaning it to the BRCS. The HD crew found
just 2 bags of trash on the pond, in the 2 parking lots and along the trails around the pond. This was far less than
was found in previous years.

The rapids were full and fast. They were quite clean also. I was told that the whitewater paddlers pick up small
amounts of trash every time they go paddling the whitewater and it shows. Now that the lake is drawn down,
the rapids are considerably faster and more dangerous and fewer people use them. Also, CAUTION signs have
been placed along the river to warn people not to attempt the rapids because an accident can now have dire
consequences.

A local downtown canoe livery (The River, Traverse City, LLC) sent 6 people, boats and a trailer to the event
and worked with Steve Sormers on the downtown section.

A group of 4-H folks from the St Clair River area come up to help out. They were very helpful. This is their third
time helping with this project. Last year, they used the Clean Sweep idea to clean their local BELLE River.

Julie Fernadez led a group of downtown office workers who did a downtown stream bank cleanup on foot.

All in all it was a good event, well attended with new people and several new groups joining in.

There were appreciation awards given at the picnic to the Kingsley 4-H, The St Clair 4-H, and Steve Somers.

The raffle was held on schedule and everyone was excited about that.

The TVC Record Eagle published a nice ARTICLE on the Monday after the event.

To see photos of the BRCS look on the Homepage link to All Photos at the bottom of the page.

This page Copyright © 2011 - Norman R. Fred & BRCleanSweep.org