Another successful clean-up maintenance day on the Shiawassee River

HeadWatersTrails / Keepers of the Shiawassee  had a very productive river-cleanup day Sunday August 29th.

With a crew of 20 people pitching in personal gear along with canoes from  Fairbanks Canoes & Kayaks;
a good deal of trash and deadfall woody debris was removed from the Shiawassee River.
Low water levels made for tough paddling conditions but allowed for easier chainsaw access to fallen trees.
Many, many thanks to Karen Monetta who graciously fed the crew back at her house after a very long day on the water.

I'll attach pictures as they filter in during the week.  Everyone was just plain beat and went to bed very late last night.
Many had to go into work this Monday morning.
Uploading photos from cell phones, cameras, etc. was just not happening from anyone until they got some rest and recovered.

Volunteers make it all happen ! They are the ones who have made the river into a beautiful paddling destination.

 Keepers of the Shiawassee  - and HeadWatersTrails     - are a great way to help out

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CleanUps: Volunteers make it all happen

A group of us attacked the debris in the river between McCaslin Lake Rd. and Bird road.  We got a lot done and had a good time at it.  Steve Hoffman thinks that there is only one major blockage in the river left in that stretch.  It is near McCaslin.  We started at Bird and worked our way up stream.  We also cleaned out the debris between Water Works Park and Fish Lake Road.  We started at 9 and finished at 6.  We could have used a couple of more canoes.  That flat bottom boat is a bear to paddle.  After that, some of us went to Maggie's house and she fed us.  I had to leave early because my legs were cramping from walking in the river.  There is more to be done down stream from Bird Road.  That will have to wait for another time.  I'm sure we will talk about it this Thursday at O'Mally's.  We would have finished that last blockage but we didn't want you to feel left out.  : )  Maggie did not find volunteers to clean out the section from Bush Park to US-23.  We will also need to tackle that.  The water was quite low, so we didn't have trouble reaching any of the trees and they weren't too far under water to make them impossible to cut.  There is also a lot more trash in the river.  We brought all we could carry.  We used the plastic wedges when cutting trees suspended over the river.  That worked really well.  The hard part was finding the wedges after the log dropped in the river.  We had to wait for the water to clear.  The water was also really warm.  We encountered a snake swimming in the river and after looking at photos on the web, I think it was a northern water snake.  There were several small mouth bass swimming near the bridge.  We thought they might be trout, but a fellow living on the river assured us that they were small mouth bass.  They were only around ten inches long.  With the condition of the river, I doubt that very many people have fished that stretch.  Four of the people who promised to come, didn't show up but we still had enough people, six guys, two women and two teens.  We only drowned one chainsaw, when Rex cut a limb, got the saw stuck in it and then dropped it in the river.  It didn't appear to be damaged, just full of water.

Chuck
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Put-In at Bush Park in Fenton

Shiawassee River -: Put-In at Bush Park in Fenton

Maps of Bush Park in Fenton, Michigan (click on the link below)

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?hl=en&ie=UTF8&source=embed&msa=0&msid=111387343905039436857.00045555eecc7eece4016&ll=42.799187,-83.705285&spn=0.014831,0.026157&z=16

http://www.co.genesee.mi.us/gcmpc-plan/Files/Maps/Trails%20Maps%20Updated/Fenton.pdf

Bush Park - Fenton,MI on Saturday July 18, 2009

Jim Wright, Tim Julian and I worked on cleaning up the Shiawassee River from Bush Park in Fenton out to US-23 on Saturday, June 27, 2009. We cleaned up around 15 trees blocking the river but there are another 11 to go. One of the trees is around 2 feet in diameter and has another sitting on top of it. Some additional ones may appear as the water level drops. A new one has also fallen from Bush Park since we were down the river. We are planning another go at it on July 18, 2009. We would greatly appreciate any help in doing the work. The water is deep in spots and we found that waders were more trouble than they were worth. They kept filling up and then becoming hard to move in, when the water got shallow again. We also spent time tying logs to the banks with wire to hold them in place. This took quite a bit of time. It appears that no one has cleaned this section of the river in at least 10 years. There is a tremendous amount of trash floating in the river through there, so trash removing people are also needed.

If you are interested in helping us, we are planning on meeting at Bush Park in Fenton at 8:00, Saturday July 18, 2009. Row boats to put trash and tools in would be especially helpful. Please contact if you are interested.

--written by Chuck Julian
chuck.julian@gcs3d.com