Open river from Holly to Owosso ????

There is a strong possibility of getting the Shiawassee River cleared from Holly to Owosso in 2011
- enabling paddlesports recreation via kayak or canoe along almost 50 miles of waterway.

----- Forwarded Message -----
Fenton Area Paddlers Yahoo Group

From: Chuck Julian
Sent: Thursday, August 11, 2011 8:12 AM
Subject: River cleanup success

The river cleanup on August 7, 2011 was a big success.  The group starting at Waterworks Park cleaned up all the downed trees between Holly and Fenton's Strom Park.  The group starting at Bird Road was able to push on to Duffield Road.  Recent rains have caused the river level at Bird Road to come up substantially from the levels two weeks ago.  We ended up taking out some overhanging trees that were not a problem in the lower water, in the area previously cleaned.  The high water also means that we will probably need to take out more trees that are currently under water, at a later date.  We passed over some that our boats only barely cleared, but were too deep to saw out.  After pulling out of the river, most of us ate a lovely meal, courtesy of Maggie Yerman and Debbie McCarty, at Maggie's house.

The day was warm and sunny for most of the day.  The water was nice and warm.  We did get a few minutes of hard rain as we were taking our stuff out of the river but the rain was warm and a good time was had by all.  If you have never participated in one of these events, you are missing out.  The people are fun to be with, they work together and it almost seems as though this was a pool party going down the river with river cleaning being one of the party events.

The next and last major river cleanup for the year will be Sunday August 28.  We will meet in Linden just below the dam at Bridge Street and the river.  We want to clean from Linden to Duffield Road again to make sure that that stretch is still open.  We will cover a lot of ground in that group, so you will need to ride in a boat.  We have a report of a few trees being down and a few others being low enough to be a problem.  This cleaning will be maintenance cleaning, clearing trees and picking up trash.  If we get in some scouting reports before then, we may only need to send a few people down each stretch and have the remaining people go from Duffield to the Byron Mill Pond.  This will be a great achievement.  The river will be open all the way to Owosso at that point.

If you will be attending the next cleanup, please let me know in advance, especially if you will need to borrow a boat.  If you are willing to host a group of tired and hungry volunteers after the cleanup, that also would be much appreciated.  Let me know as soon as possible so that I can tell potential participants.

I want to thank the people who helped with these last two cleanups.  They include:
Doug Lanyk
Dave and Sue Lossing
Maggie Yerman
Debbie McCarty
Jimmy Manning
Willi Guttmann
John Macbeth
Rex Mathewson
Dennis Terry
David Spaine
Wendy Pinter
Chuck Gosh
Steve and Shae Hoffman
Burt and Jasmine Bilbrey
Karen Monetta
Bruce Allen
Ricky Ostrowski
Joetta Zalewski
David Spencer
Doug and Kristy Fairbanks
Terry Bretzlaff
Carol (don't know last name)
Sue Julian

Your participation and effort are greatly appreciated by me and by the growing number of people who love the Shiawassee River as a recreational destination.  It is time to get out there and enjoy the river.  Much of the Shiawassee has fewer houses per mile than better known rivers like the Boardman River in the Traverse City region.  There is a lot to see and the river is fun to paddle.

If you helped and I didn't mention your name or if you recognize yourself as the one that I don't know the last name of,
or if, heaven forbid, I misspelled your name, please contact me.

Chuck Julian

Links to the organizations that make this all possible - much of it done by volunteers !!!!

HeadWatersTrails Inc.
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Keepers of the Shiawassee
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Friends of the Shiawassee
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Shiawassee National Wildlife Refuge
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