Fourche Creek Cleanup March 8, 2014

[Cowper]

Mark your calendars, on Saturday, March 8, we're going to try to help clean up Fourche Creek in Little Rock. This is part of a larger city wide clean up effort, but the ACC has been specifically requested to help with the waterway and shoreline issues.

THIS THREAD WILL BE UPDATED as we learn more. But here is my current understanding of things:

Date: Saturday March 8, 2014
Time: Meeting time EDIT: 8 AM. 0800. Central Standard timezone.
Places of focus: Includes Hindman and Interstate Parks EDIT: Water based (that would be us) will focus on Hindman Park to Benny Craig.
Initial meeting place: EDITED: Hindman Park. 34 Windsor Drive, Little Rock, but a lot of variation depending on which mapping program I use. Want to be sure? Go to N34.6964 W92.3604 (it's the same place no matter what brand of GPS you use)

Craft of choice: In all probability, if we get on Fourche creek it will be low enough that we will need to wade/drag some. As always, "bring what you got", but if you've got a canoe and waders or muck boots, those would be excellent tools to pull out of the old tool kit.

Also of interest, one of the key organizers has promised "drop off" stations, that is, places where we can unload the boats to keep them light and make room for more as we make our way downstream.

[Tim Eubanks]

Thanks for posting, Cowper. Anyone interested can also shoot me an email (timeubanks@yahoo.com) to get on a group list for updates.

[Tim Eubanks]

Cowper, I think you meant registration is in the 8 -9 AM time frame. thanks!

[lalyle]

If it's not raining cats and possums, I'm in. I grew up playing in Hindman Park and have always wanted to explore and help preserve the creek.

I won't have internet access between now and then, so, someone please give me details at five one 5 three 7 tutu.

Grassyass and cypress knees.

Lee

[Cowper]

SEE ORIGINAL MESSAGE FOR EDITS!!!!

Yes, I did mean 8 AM, not PM!!!

[lalyle]

See you at Hindman Park at 8:00. The best route there is to take West 65th Street, west off of South University (opposite direction from RR crossing). Follow it until it "runs out" at the creek and bends hard right, following the creek right to the low water bridge that connects the park to the golf course.

[Cowper]

Great Lee! I tried to send you a message, guess your phone is not a texter. I'll change the designation in my address book.

Lupe is out scouting the creek for us as I type this. She reports good water levels from all the rain and/or snow melt! Between the fact that we actually have moving water, plus the usually "slipped on the bank" type of stuff, a change of clothes is recommended.

Forecast: Do not be alarmed by the predicted rain for tomorrow. As of ~ 6 PM Friday night, if you call up the hour-by-hour forecast, then at 8 AM the temperature is 49 degrees with only a 12% chance of rain, rising to 61 degrees with a 25% chance of rain by noon. In other words, we just need to stick to the plan and get off the creek around lunch time, and everything will be fine! In other words, TRUST ME!

[Lupe]

Some updates...

Where we are meeting at Hindman Park is actually super easy to get to: just turn on 65th from S University. If your GPS or map program tells you to turn into the neighborhood, just ignore that. Stay on 65th and it will enter the park and take you right to where we'll meet.

The heavy rains we had on Sunday and the final thaw of our sleet and snow has the creek pretty full of water. So in fact we likely will NOT have any dragging, but we will have a little bit of current right at the put in. The current lets up about .5 miles downstream. If any folks are not as comfortable negotiating current (with obstacles like trees and what not mixed in there), then we'll be sure to help you out. But not too far down it's just flat and bank full. Another option for some who can't stay until noon would be to meet us at Hindman and then run a car or two of ours down to Benny Craig and some could actually put in at Benny Craig and paddle UPSTREAM from there picking up trash. There is practically no current at Benny Craig.

It's also just a short 5 minute drive from Hindman to Benny Craig (which by the way, Benny Craig is I think a new name or informal name, or something because none of my map programs can find it). But from Hindman just drive back across University on 65th until you get to Patterson (it's at a light). Turn left on Patterson, and not far after you cross the railroad tracks the park is on your right. There is a sidewalk ramp of sorts that goes right into the creek there. If you want to start there and go "upstream" you would put in and go to the left (it may not be obvious which way is "up").

The good news/bad news is that with the higher water, there's not as much trash. Oh there's still PLENTY to keep us busy. The bad news is that lots more trash has already been washed further downstream and eventually to the Arkansas, and then to the Mississippi, and then to the Gulf, and then to the ocean.

But I do think we can make a good impact on this section in the morning time we have allotted. See you all there!

[Cowper]

Trip Report time!

Weather was FAR better than expected; staying warm and sunny until a couple of hours past our quitting time. In addition to the ACC, Audubon, and a group of UALR students tackled the water-based portion of this city-organized clean up. The ACC folks split into two groups, with 7 of us going from Hindman to Benny Craig (cleaning mostly from Hindman to University), and 2 going down to Benny Craig and hitting it in that immediate vicinity.

Trash wise, from Hindman to University was bad, but not as bad as we had feared. If we could get someone from the city or a ground-based neighborhood crew to tackle the large plastic tarps that were seen in multiple locations, we could get most of the remaining "small" trash with one more float, possibly excepting a few plastic bags hanging from the trees at "flood level" heights. We did get one of the tarps, but as you will see in the photos, that essentially filled one canoe and cost three of us about 30 to 45 minutes of our 3 hour clean up window for essentially "one" item.

From University down, it is a different and far sadder story. There is evidence of much dumping, ranging from mattresses thrown out behind an apartment complex, to actual "back your truck up in the abandoned factory site and shovel it out". There needs to be a significant commitment from the City to stop these activities and find/fine the violators if there is ever going to be any chance of making this section look good. In at least two cases, that shouldn't be too difficult, since there is a phone number on the gate that tells you who controls to the property, and the phone number for the apartment complex is at the entrance.

[Cowper]

And some more photos. I didn't get any photos of Heather, Stan, Mike, or Liz, but rest assured they were putting up the good fight just like the rest of us!

[Cowper]

Epilogue: I had a conversation with one of the organizers after the event. He had been picking up a few bags that were left along the way in Hindman Park, and a road sign Heather, Amy, and Debbie (?) had pulled out of the creek near the put in. He thought he was done, told me he was thinking to himself, "that was nice, guess we can go home now". Then he got a phone call about the pile of trash at University. He had no idea! Went down there with a pickup truck to get it, found he would need several loads. He told me they expect to be working on sorting the recyclables for at least a couple of more weeks. He was VERY impressed with what the ACC, the Audubon, and the UALR students had done.

[maggiepowell]

You guys did a FANTASTIC job! Sorry to have missed it.

Thanks for all of your hard work.

Mags

[Lupe]

I'm going to give a more blunt report of what I saw.

We barely scratched the surface. If that.

The Fourche handles a huge, urban drainage area. Because it flashes up much higher than even the very ample level we had on Saturday, much of the trash was along a high water line up along the banks. Not that there wasn't already more trash than we could handle in the water itself, but there was an ENORMOUS amount of trash up along the banks. The ground volunteers at Hindman did a great job near the park and along river right, but I don't believe they had enough volunteers to go along river left and so there is still a ton (literally, litter-ally) of trash along the banks just waiting for the next rain when it will all be shifted a bit further downstream...eventually to the Arkansas, eventually to the Mississippi, eventually to the Gulf, eventually to the Ocean.

Nonetheless, once we crossed under University it just became truly overwhelming. The words I would use to describe what I saw: Apocalyptic. Traumatic. Devastating. I would like to tell you that if you don't believe or can't understand the words I'm using or think they are hyperbole, then I would be willing to accompany you to see for yourself...except that honestly I found it so depressing that I don't know that I ever want to see it again.

The condition of this unseen and therefore forgotten and ignored area of our city cannot be changed with a few clean ups by a few good Samaritans, regardless of how Herculean their efforts might be. This is the devastating consequence of our society and the priorities (or lack thereof) that we have. Companies make billions in profits based on this packaged culture we have: bottled sodas, Styrofoam cups, everything throw-away and disposable...but we have no money to invest to manage these waste products to keep them out of our storm drains and then our creeks, and then our rivers, and then our oceans.

Sorry to harsh the mellow. It's not that I don't applaud the efforts of everyone who turned out, and the organizers of these events. But this problem is so much bigger. So much bigger.

Edited to add: Also wanted to thank Sara Hankinson who came out sans boat but shuttled all our drivers back up to our put in and then stuck around and helped support the ground pick up crew there at Hindman Park. Thank you Sara!

[Tim Eubanks]

Hey, big big big thanks to you guys who showed up and represented. I've heard the Fox 16 will have some coverage on their 9pm broadcast tonight. Again, thanks for all the hard work.

[Cowper]

Eleven states have container deposit laws. The main problem: People "smuggling" in containers from other states to claim a deposit. Even that "problem" means more containers were being recycled. That issue goes away if we go national, and decreases just by adding more one-state bans. I don't have the data for every one of the states, but I think it was Michigan that said since the law passed, they have seen recycling of these containers jump to 97%. Yes, 97%. Others are reporting dramatic reductions in roadside and beach litter. (the same would be true for our streams)

Over 100 municipalities in California alone have banned one-use disposable bags. Yes, the kind we call "Wal Mart" bags around here. The sky did not fall, unemployment did not skyrocket. Bangladesh (yes - the country, not just an individual state) has a similar ban, which came into play after clogged storm drains were blamed for making their record-setting floods even worse than they would have been with less litter.

Major cities around the country are looking at bag bans, Styrofoam container bans, and similar measures. Smaller governments are doing what our gridlocked federal and state federal governments can not.

People need to go out and see what we saw this weekend. And we need to demand a few things like container deposit laws and bag bans that will make meaningful differences on EVERY river, every stream, every creek, every roadside ditch, and not just the small sections that people like us "adopt".