Trip Reports

15th Annual Boardman River Clean Sweep

Saturday, May 25, 2019







Who could have imagined in 2005 we would be doing this event for 15 years? 

Not me.

As is often the case, it rained the night before and that reduced the
number of people who came.  Last year we had almost 100, total.
This year we had around 65.  But they were the right people and they
did a fantastic job as was expected.

It was not all candlelight and roses.  Problems arose but our leaders overcame
them and continued to a successful conclusion.  A few people got wet but no
one got hurt.  I stuck a sharp screw tip in my finger so that it bled and hurt for
a few days but it got better and no permanent harm was done.

The downtown leader thought the shuttle drive would come to the meeting
location but he was not supposed to.   That worked out ok.

The pond leaders wanted more safety people on the section because there
were kids there but they were all Coast Guard people and had been to many
previous BRCS events without incident.  That worked ok, too.

The shuttle for the Kingsley ODAC was a bit mixed up but that worked out ok.

The Shumsky to Beitner section was skipped due to high water.
It turned out that we could have done it but with only a few people.
Lois Goldstein will do that section on Saturday,  June 1.
Sadly, I will not be there.  I have raffle to do.

The picnic came off perfectly due to some detailed planning by David Fred
and the 5 other volunteers that helped.  Having the keys to the Nature Center
was a huge help to us.  It was a safer for the building for us to have the keys
plus we had access without an employee having to stay there all day.

The upper reaches of the river were fairly clean and the downtown section was not.

We had one  homeless volunteer who found a lot of heavy debris under the
railroad trestle which he loaded into canoes on the pond downtown.

That trash was taken to the Conservation District for disposal.

The City picked up the trash left at the boat ramp.

The upstream trash was left in the trash cans at the respective takeout locations.

One teenager's phone was lost.  There is always someone who takes his phone
no matter how many times we tell people not to take them.

I designed the T-shirt.






I left off one sponsor - sorry Jocelyn Trepte.

All the photos can be seen here:

All Photos

We wish to thank all our sponsors but especially, the Great Lakes Commission
for their continued financial support of this project.

Respectfully submitted,

Norm Fred
BRCS