Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Billion dollar sewage boggle « Red Run

This article relates to many communities all across Michigan

Billion dollar sewage boggle « Red Run

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Monday, August 29, 2011

Upcoming group paddles Fall 2011


Keepers of the Shiawassee
September/October Paddling

Saturday 3rd            Downtown Linden to Argentine (Shiawassee River) 9:30 am

Monday 5th             Byron to Geeck Rd. Park (Shiawassee River) 10:00 am

Monday 12th                Moonlight Paddle, (Linden Mill Pond) 6:30

Tuesday 20th               Fisherman’s Landing Mott Lake (Flint River) 6:00

Friday 23rd                    Richfield Park to Mott Lake (Flint River)
 
Saturday 24th            Bush Park to Linden Autumn Festival (Shiawassee River) 12:00

Saturday Oct. 1st    Headwaters Trails annual Color Tour from Holly to Fenton 1:00

Saturday Oct. 15th  Heavner’s Moonlight Paddle Proud Lake in Milford 7:00 

Sunday Oct 16th     Sandhill Cranes on Lobdell 1:00  
                                                
Trip Details
Saturday 3rd. Downtown Linden to Argentine (Shiawassee River)
9:30 Meet in the parking lot behind Down the Hatch Pub to spot vehicles. We’ll paddle to Argentine’s Mc Caslin Lake Rd. Bridge. This is about a 3 hour paddle with one portage around a farm bridge. All other obstructions were cleared August 28th. The water is at a great paddling level and has a good flow. If you haven’t done this beautiful stretch join us or make sure you fit it in sometime this fall. Boat rentals through Fairbanks 810-287-9618.

Monday 5th Byron to Geeck Rd. Park near Bancroft (Shiawassee River)
10:00 Meet at the Byron HS athletic/ball field on Bath Rd. to launch and spot vehicles. We’ll paddle to Walnut Hills Campground to pick up/drop off paddlers then continue on to Geeck Rd. Park at the corner of Exchange Rd and Geeck Rd near Bancroft. Each section is about 2 hrs paddling. You can do the entire trip or get out or join us at Walnut Hills ($1 parking fee). Kayak rentals are available at Walnut Hills through Cheff’s Canoe Rental 989-288-7067. Call early since this is a holiday weekend. We should be at Walnut Hills around 12:30.

Saturday 10th Heavner’s Moonlight Paddle Proud Lake in Milford
7:00 For more information and pre-registration call Heavner Canoe Rental at: (248) 685-2379 or go to http://www.heavnercanoe.com/proud-lake

Monday 12th Moonlight Paddle, (Linden Mill Pond)
Meet us 6:30 for dinner in the Crow’s Nest in the Linden Hotel. (Full menu with a $.75 Coney dog special) We’ll launch at the mill pond around 8, paddle up to Lake Ponemah then back to town. Bring lights & PFD’s Boat rentals through Fairbanks 810-287-9618.

Tuesday 20th Fisherman’s Landing Mott Lake (Flint River)
6:00 Join the East Coast Paddlers for a nature filled paddle on Mott Lake. Meet at the DNR fishing launch on Genesee Road south of Stanley Road.  See Bald Eagles, cormorants and a variety of ducks.

Friday 23rd FRWC (Flint River)
Join the Flint River Watershed Coalition for their Fall Equinox Paddle. Come enjoy the last days of summer and the colorful hints of fall as they paddle along the Flint River from Richfield Park 6322 N. Irish Road, Davison, MI 48423 to Mott Lake. For more information, contact Sue Lossing at slossing@flintriver.org
Saturday 24th Bush Park to Linden Mill Pond (Shiawassee River)                          Meet 12:00 at the Keepers launch in Bush Park (off Lincoln St.) We’ll paddle to the Linden Autumn Festival to enjoy some music and a "Taste" of food and beverages from different civic groups and restaurants. We will be crossing Lake Ponemah and Tupper Lake so there may be some boat traffic. You must wear a PFD for this crossing.

October

Saturday 1st Headwaters Trails annual Color Tour from Holly to Fenton       Launch time 1:00, $5 fee for spotting vehicles. You will paddle from Holly Waterworks Park to Fenton’s Strom Park or portage the dam and continue on to Bush Park for the Shiawassee River Festival. The festival will be from 2:00 – 6:00 and open to the public. There will be food, water related demonstrations, exhibits and the dedication of the two new launches at 4:00. 

Saturday 15th  Heavner’s Moonlight Paddle Proud Lake in Milford
7:00 For more information and pre-registration call Heavner Canoe Rental at: (248) 685-2379 or go to http://www.heavnercanoe.com/proud-lake
 
Sunday October 16th Sandhill Cranes on Lobdell                                                   1:00 launch from Navistar on Silver Lake Rd in Argentine.  We’ll paddle into Bennett and Hoisington lakes to see the sandhill cranes gather for migration. We’ll then paddle back to Navistar for an early dinner.

Join Keepers of the Shiawassee on facebook or yahoogroup/fenton-area-paddlers. For more info on the color tour go to www.headwaterstrailsinc.org, for the Linden Autumn Fest www.fentonchamber.com and the Shiawassee River Festival www.slpr.net or call Maggie @ 810-735-9570
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Continued progress on Shiawassee River

Groups went out this weekend August 28, 2011 and continued making the Shiawassee River passable.

One group went to Bird Road to work toward the Byron Mill Pond
and the other started at Bridge Street in Linden.

The Bird Road group discovered that with the lower water level,
there were some pretty big trees that emerged and required clearing.
They didn't make it all the way to Duffield and returned to Bird Road mid afternoon.


The Linden group also worked diligently making it to McCaslin Road..

It's tough work slogging around in the river and many calories were burned..
Pizza was available at Maggie's house with her usual hospitality for volunteers.

Punching all the way thru to Byron will have to wait till next year,
with great progress being made along the river once again in 2011
These efforts simply don't happen without volunteer effort and all who participated
are sincerely appreciated and applauded by those that recreate in and along the river.


Headwaters Trails has its Fall, Canoeing in Color tour coming up October 1, 2011.
A perfect opportunity to get out on the river and enjoy all its splendor.
Details will be posted in the near future .

Consider stopping by a meeting of  Headwaters Trails Inc.
These are normally held the first Wednesday of each month,
meeting in the Holly Village Council chambers at 7:00 pm 


Monday, August 22, 2011

River maintenance Sunday August 28, 2011

There is a river cleanup this coming Sunday August 28, 2011

Meeting at 9 am at the parking lot just west and south of Bridge road and the river.

Fallen trees will be cleared, miscellaneous debris out of the river.
Please come prepared to get wet, standing in 4 to 5 feet of water.
Gloves and sturdy shoes that can get wet and muddy are recommended.

The goal for that weekend is to clear from Bridge Road in Linden to Bird Road near Argentine.
As water levels fluctuate, different logs become visible and are easier to work upon.
Mother nature always seems to knock down a tree or two during heavy thunderstorms as well.

Click on the map link below to see where the next focused cleanup effort will occur.
Zoom in and out as needed to see the roads and river in detail.


View Shiawassee River - Bridge Rd to Bird Rd. in a larger map

The river is fairly good shape from a prior clearing
between Bird Road and Duffield Road on August 7, 2011.

Clearing from Duffield Road  to the Byron Mill pond will eventually occur as well,
perhaps next spring/summer in 2012. People will keep chipping away at it.
 

Friday, August 19, 2011

Comments, suggestions, feedback, etc.

Been posting on this blog for years - almost never get any feeback.

Are there things I've missed,  you're interested about,  need additional info,
--- let me know if I can be assistance.

With almost the archives going back to Thursday, April 20, 2006
there is quite a bit of stuff I've posted over all those years.

Use the search feature - built into the blog - to find stuff
Here is how the web page looks to me at home - can you find the search feature ?
If not, drop me a comment




 

 

 

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Sunday, August 14, 2011

Another genius drowns - No Vest


A completely trained and badge carrying New York Police Department cop is DEAD
because he simply did not wear a vest on the water. His son watched him die !

Eight feet of water killed this genius - Eight feet of regular water at 70-degrees

His body was recovered with his NYPD shield and revolver still on him

Drowned NYPD cop Patrick Luca's five-year-old son recounts kayak horror: 'Wake knocked us over' - NYPOST.com


PLEASE wear your vests while on the water---- even when it's """"not deep""" and even when the water is """"warm""""

There are literally dozens of these stories every week in the United States - let's not read about you or a friend in Michigan
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Saturday, August 13, 2011

Plastic rotomolded kayak fix

For a small pinhole in the rear of the kayak :

A.)  Use razor to slice slivers a few inches long
from the inside of the cockpit coming

B.)  Use a heat gun to briefly heat the area of the hole
holding the slivers in there ( needle nose pliers )

C.)  Slice off some excess with the razor when cool

P.S. - the cockpit coming is the lip where the spray skirt snaps around








Thursday, August 11, 2011

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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Stream barrier removal monitoring guide

 Perhaps helpful to those projects where a weir or dam is removed or planned for removal

Stream-Barrier-Removal-Monitoring-Guide-12-19-07.pdf (application/pdf Object)

http://www.sustainabletechnologies.ca/Portals/_Rainbow/Documents/NCD%202%202009.pdf


LinkedIN has a group that discusses projects involving water flow and habitat :

""""The Dam Removal and Fish Passage Network"""

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Monday, August 08, 2011

Increasing navigable waterway on the Shiawassee River trail

Chain Saw crews went out in 2 locations on the Shiawassee River increasing navigability.
One crew started in Holly at Waterworks Park and cleared debris toward Fish Lake Road.
Another crew went north to Argentine / Byron at Bird Road and cleared 2 miles to Duffeld Road.
This should greatly increase paddling enjoyment among neighboring communities as temps cool off a bit.


View Shiawassee River at Bird Road in Argentine in a larger map



Wednesday, August 03, 2011

Ducks Unlimited Receives $1.5 Million For Shiawassee

The funds will  restore emergent wetlands to 940 acres of land
currently in agricultural use at Shiawassee National Wildlife Refuge.
 
Ducks Unlimited Receives $1.5 Million For Shiawassee

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Tuesday, August 02, 2011

Sediment and Michigan water quality standards

Perhaps useful info when dams along the Shiawassee River are removed in the near future,

Water Quality Standards

The water quality standards in Michigan pertaining to sediment do not
include any numeric values to serve as a benchmark for assessing the
amount of sediment in a water body.

Example taken from Clinton River watershed plan numeric sediment target
Suspended solids provide an estimate of the potential magnitude of sediment
Huron-Erie Lake Plain ecoregion  90th percentile TSS values
• Headwaters (< 20 square miles): 50 mg/L
• Wadeable (20 < 200 square miles): 65 mg/L
• Small Rivers (200 < 1000 square miles): 75 mg/L

Total suspended solids is a measurement usually abbreviated as TSS
The TSS target value presented above serves as the numeric goal for
suspended solids in the subwatershed. To determine if the current
amount of sediment entering the subwatershed will meet or exceed the
TSS target value, it is necessary to estimate the current amount of
sediment entering the subwatershed from a variety of sources.
This amount is referred to as the current sediment load.

In addition to determining the current load, it is also necessary
to identify the target load– the amount of sediment that sources
can contribute without exceeding the TSS target value for the watershed.
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