July 16, 2014 - 7th Annual South Branch AuSable River Cleanup
The day before this was taken it was raining hard here but today it was just beautiful!
We were excited to be able to paddle this favorite river on such a pleasant day.
The Anglers of the AuSable have sponsored this cleanup for several years and
hold one of their own in the early Fall. Due to the two events the S BR is
beginning to show signs of staying much cleaner and free of trash. We found
only 4 small bags of trash instead of the usual 10 to 11.
BUT:
We also found new large pieces of construction debris and dimensional
lumber which washed into the river due to spring flooding. These are not only
ugly and detract from the S Br's beauty but they are loaded with nails and
screws that are dangerous. We found between 5 and 7 of them.
We are trying to form a plan to remove this debris much as we have on the
Boardman River after the floods of 2012 and 2013. Stay tuned.
A special THANK YOU goes out to:
1. The Anglers of the AuSable who help us do this with extra funding to help with
our travel to and from the river. Thank you for all you do to protect the AuSable.
2. The Paddle Brave Canoe Livery who provided us free shuttle service, a free
kayak for a guest who had none and for picking up the trash at Smith Bridge.
Your kindness is much appreciated and your professionalism is unmatched.
3. The DNR for giving advice and assistance disposing 1/2 of the our trash which
we left midway at the Castle.
4. And lastly, to our loyal volunteers from the Traverse Area Paddle Club
who come to work and enjoy the S Br just becasue they love it so much.
We always meet many interesting people on the S Br and their pictures are mixed
in with our own so they can see them in this report.
My buddy, John met some nice feisty bass on our favorite lake over that way, too.
They are back in the lake waiting for his next visit.
Here are all the photos from the trip in no particular order.
Submitted by Norm Fred