Conway Cleanup Anyone?

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lalyle
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Conway Cleanup Anyone?

Post by lalyle » Sun Jan 30, 2011 11:11 pm

Took advantage of the awesome sunshine and warmth yesterday to explore the north end of Lake Conway where I always see wintering waterfowl when I'm on I-40. Put in at the 365 bridge over whatever slough that is that meanders down to the lake.

Couldn't believe how much floating trash was clogging that waterway! I took home 2 soccer balls, 2 baseballs, a Razorback basketball, a softball, and a shipwrecked Canadian goose decoy. There were dozens and dozens of tennis balls. Then there were all the plastic bottles . . . hundreds . . . maybe thousands . . . enough to fill 2-3 canoes to the gunnels.

Anybody want to take on that little cleanup project?

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Richard
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Re: Conway Cleanup Anyone?

Post by Richard » Mon Jan 31, 2011 8:58 am

I am willing. When the ice melts.
We are all afflicted with Cognitive Dissonance. The greater our religious, social, financial or political affiliation, the greater the affliction. We hear what we want to hear. We believe what we want to believe. Truth becomes irrelevant.

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Re: Conway Cleanup Anyone?

Post by lalyle » Mon Jan 31, 2011 9:04 am

Correction: That would be "gunwales", me thinks, not "gunnels", if my mind serves me better after a night's sleep.

I could use a refresher course on "Parts of a Boat 101". Time to renovate the Rampage and it'll be lots of fun describing to outfitters the "doodads", "thingamajiggers", and "whatchamacallits".

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Re: Conway Cleanup Anyone?

Post by Deuce » Mon Jan 31, 2011 11:02 am

I'm in if schedule permits. Give me a chance to splash my new to me square stern Ouachita and hopefully meet a few ACCers. Whenever I see litter of that magnitude I'm always overwhelmed with a mix of anger, disgust, and depression. I just don't understand how people can display such callous disregard for their world.
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Re: Conway Cleanup Anyone?

Post by Shark Attack » Mon Jan 31, 2011 7:39 pm

If you are talking about where Gold Creek enters the lake near Lim's store, don't go there for a few weeks. I live upstream from there (Gold Creek runs through my property), a neighbor (creek goes through his property too) just yesterday had sludge from the Conway wastewater plant applied to his hay field. But when it does clear up in a few weeks, I'm game!
Wes

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Re: Conway Cleanup Anyone?

Post by Cowper » Tue Feb 01, 2011 5:37 am

I want to help, but will be on night shift from about 3rd week of Feb through end of March. If you go before or after that, I'll likely be able to join in.

DeBo and I have also been wanting to clean the creek from the Lake Conway Dam down to the Wildlife viewing area. It's a surprisingly pretty little float, considering it's almost urban location, but you have to see past the large quantities of trash. The shoreline around the pool just below the dam especially needs some attention; too many of the fishermen apparently have given up and don't even pretend to pick up after themselves. Food wrappers, beverage containers of all types, empty styrofoam buckets that used to contain bait, and so on, line the banks. Some of this trash may also come over the dam from the upstream areas you visited, so if you organize, I'll help clean where ever you point me.
Trash: Get a little every time you go!

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Re: Conway Cleanup Anyone?

Post by Richard » Tue Feb 01, 2011 8:20 am

We are going to be doing this a lot with no lasting results unless we get the Lake Conway community involved. The chinese proverb,
"Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime." applies in this case. Lake Conway is an AG&F lake. They should be involved as well.
We are all afflicted with Cognitive Dissonance. The greater our religious, social, financial or political affiliation, the greater the affliction. We hear what we want to hear. We believe what we want to believe. Truth becomes irrelevant.

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Re: Conway Cleanup Anyone?

Post by ozarkin » Tue Feb 01, 2011 10:45 am

Getting the community involved is key, and getting the event some press will help also. I would try to involve the fisher folk, local businesses, and some other community organizations for a start.

good luck
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Re: Conway Cleanup Anyone?

Post by Deuce » Tue Feb 01, 2011 12:26 pm

Best place to reach the Lake Conway anglers would probably be crappie.com.
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Re: Conway Cleanup Anyone?

Post by lalyle » Fri Feb 04, 2011 11:46 am

I have no clue as to the name of the creek. I don't think it's Gold Creek, as there is no Lim's store nearby. I think that must be the next one to the south. This one feeds into the undeveloped north end of the lake right where I-40 crosses the convergeance. I'm sure most of the trash came downstream from commercial and residential drainage along Dave Ward Drive and the UCA sports fields.

As for the entire lake and surrounding area, I'm sure litter is a growing problem as the area grows in population. Much of the new population is the commuter crowd that thrives on drive-throughs with all of their wasteful practices, college students who are mostly of a new generation of mass consumption coupled with mass carelessness about anything other than themselves (that's the high school teacher talking), and then the ever-present rednecks who take nothing but wildlife and game and leave nothing but tracks . . . from ATVs, mud trucks, etc.

Coop, I've never even seen the dam and don't know how to get there.

If anyone knows your way all around Lake Conway and the adjacent WMA, I'd like a full driving, walking, and/or paddling tour at the earliest opportunity.

That might make a good presentation for a meeting even; images or maps of the lake, all of its tributaries, access points, etc. Urban paddling is on the rise, as is development and litter around all of our local waterways and I'd like to be proactive in the preservation of water quality and wildlife habitat.

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Re: Conway Cleanup Anyone?

Post by Shark Attack » Fri Feb 04, 2011 3:43 pm

That's Stone Dam Creek. It flows through UCA then under Dave Ward Drive then under South Donaghey to the water treatment plant where it gets most of it's flow before it gets to 365. It also has a tributary that flows "under" the bus plant. Nice water aye?
Wes

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Re: Conway Cleanup Anyone?

Post by Cowper » Sat Feb 05, 2011 2:02 pm

lalyle wrote:Coop, I've never even seen the dam and don't know how to get there.

That might make a good presentation for a meeting even; images or maps of the lake, all of its tributaries, access points, etc. Urban paddling is on the rise....
One thing making me nervous right now is watching gas just creep through the $3 mark; diesel near $3.50 in some areas, and this time it doesn't even seem to be worthy of any discussion in the news beyond an occasional mention. We may all need to learn to love and appreciate the things closer to home...

To get to the dam, take the Mayflower exit, go East on Ark 89, and then after about 0.3 miles turn right (South) on .... Dam Road (almost could have guessed that one, right?). Follow that as it winds around, you'll get to the dam. Not much to look at, just a local fisherman's access point and lots of parking.

A nice little float, about 2 miles long, is from there down to the Bell Slough Wildlife viewing area, which you access by heading South from Mayflower on Hwy 365, until you can turn left (East) onto Grassy Lake Road (a dirt road). Remember, you're going just to get out for a part of a day and maybe spot a few birds and spend some time paddling along through the trees; if you go expecting a Class II run or pristine water, you're going to be disappointed. The times I've been there, the current was slow enough to just put in at the bottom, paddle upstream, turn around, and go back. Several months ago a group of us put in at the Wildlife viewing area and went downstream to the boat ramp near where Palarm Creek joins the Arkansas. Like almost any day on the river it was a good day, but I think it is only fair to attribute a good portion of that to the quality of the company.

If you continue on Grassy Lake road past the Bell Slough Wildlife viewing area parking lot, bearing left at most turns, you’ll eventually end up at a boat lane that takes you through narrow boat lanes out into Grassy Lake, which is really just a large area of flooded timber but a great place to spot wildlife, especially birds. Don't be freaked out by the low quality of the water that sometimes backs up into the boat lane - it gets a lot better once you get out into Grassy Lake. When the flood control gate is open, you even get a brief run down a Class II channel, but be careful to take out before you get sucked through the gate at the levee, and portage over the levee into Palarm Creek, which you join about 0.25 miles downstream of the dam.

Summarizing the opportunities:
A - Grassy Lake Boat Lane ---- N34.9383 W92.3966
B - Lake Conway Dam --------- N34.9594 W92.4049
C - Bell Slough Access --------- N34.9389 W92.4185

A to C – about 4 miles, runnable when WMA is flooded, may have a Class II chute requiring some care, don’t get sucked into the gate at the levee. Only a 2 mile shuttle which you can walk if you have a cable lock for your boat. This is a great little introduction to flooded timber paddling.

B to C – about 2 miles, runnable all year, but may require minor wading during summer. Sometimes logs form jams that may require one or two short portages, but usually clear.

A and C are both good starting points for brief "in and out" explorations (no shuttle).

Getting back to the original question of this thread, helping with a clean-up: I hope someone does have time to work the community involvement angle; that would be a great thing for making a bigger, longer-term difference. But for myself, considering the other demands on my time, I’d just be happy to help with any smaller-scale efforts, and hope that somewhere along the way we’ll leave it better than we found it and maybe set an example that will change someone else’s behavior.
Trash: Get a little every time you go!

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Re: Conway Cleanup Anyone?

Post by Cowper » Tue Feb 15, 2011 6:01 am

Well, I watched gages, loaded WW boats, and hoped for a run on Upper Richland that didn't happen, at least not yet.

But I did get started on the Palarm Creek effort - in 1 and 1/2 days, two small motorboat loads of trash pulled from the stretch between Lake Conway dam and the Bell Slough Wildlife Viewing area. (Fryingsquirrel helped part of one day after he got free from work; DeBo helped some yesterday after she got free from meetings, but both days I did work alone for several hours.)

The final haul: about 24 bags of garbage of varying sizes, a tire with rim, a radiator shroud, most of a small wooden bed frame. Uncounted glass bottles, some broken. A large plastic washtub filled with more of the same.

If you go to the area, you won't know the difference if you don't get on the river, because we did not clean up around the access points, only down the river. Thinking was those can be cleaned at any time with a brief "drive in / walk in" visit, so wanted to use the warm weekend days to clean the portions that required a boat.

#1 litter problem on this stretch of creek is that fishermen are just leaving their styrofoam bait boxes and plastic minnow bags in the creek. Tied for #1 is of course that they are doing the same thing with their drink and food containers; beer cans, beer bottles, soda bottles, food wrappers and bags, and of course the Wal Mart bags that contained it all. This would be an excellent place for AGFC law enforcement types to hang out and write a few tickets, since I bet 90% of this stuff floats down from those fishing the small pool below the dam, making it practical to address the problem at the source. Some signage at this location might also help (and yes, I will make sure this suggestion gets to AGFC, and is not just a "complaint" here on this board). AGFC is already cooperating; their Watchable Wildlife Coordinator is arranging to have the pile of garbage I left at the take-out picked up later this week. (It was more than I could reasonably put in somebody's dumpster.)
Last edited by Cowper on Tue Feb 15, 2011 9:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Trash: Get a little every time you go!

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Re: Conway Cleanup Anyone?

Post by Shark Attack » Tue Feb 15, 2011 1:57 pm

Thanks for the effort guys :beer: This is my slow time of year at work so let me know next time & I'll be glad to help.
Wes

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Re: Conway Cleanup Anyone?

Post by lalyle » Sat Feb 19, 2011 11:16 pm

So that's the same one that runs through the industrial area, under the bus factory, and into the lake? That explains why it's just plain NAYUSTY!

I'm too lazy to catch and clean fish, but if anyone offers me any from Lake Conway, I think I'll politely decline.

Coop, thanks for all the details. I'll make use of them soon. Don't have plans to get on the water, but am ready to do so soon. A little fatigued and under the weather this weekend, otherwise I'd love to have gotten out today or tomorrow.

In the long run, yes, we need a coordinated and public effort, but it'll take time to put all that together and until then, there's way too much stuff out there to wait. It's ugly, shameful, probably toxic, and just plain NAYUSTY!

Did I mention it's NAYUSTY?

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