West Fork Creek Cleanup May 14th Report and Pictures

[Half Ton]

Hi All,

Nicole Hardiman with the Beaver Lake Watershed Alliance and Frances Hime with the West Fork Watershed Alliance are asking for ACC involvement with the Annual West Fork Cleanup.

Specifically, if there is water they would like for some folks to float a stretch and pick up-trash.

If you are interested in potentially doing this please let me know. If it happens to be a flood the cleanup will be called off, and if you later decide you would rather go catch some waves for recreation instead of cleanup - that's fine. So, no pressure!

Please look at the prioritized river reach sections in need of cleaning.

#1)Hwy 71 to Tilly Willy - 4 miles trashed out

#1) Winslow to to Brentwood - 4 miles trashed out

#2) Brentwood to Woolsey - 4 miles

#3) Riverside Park to Dye Creek Low Water Bridge - 1.5 mile

#4) Woolsey to Riverside Park - 4 miles

If you would like to take one of these sections or part of one of these sections or another section that is not listed that is also fine.

Bottom line, they would love to have our help however we can.

[nike54_la]

I'll consider helping out. Don't know the areas - I assume it's calm moving water? Never done a pick-up in my kayak, but I just might give it a shot. :)

[sugarmtngal]

Hey John,

Will be there to help out and possibly with other volunteers!

I'd like DOOR #4 please the stretch from Woolsey Bridge to Riverside Park.

Keep paddling,
gretchen

[Half Ton]

Linda, the west fork is class 1-2 except for the winslow to brentwood portion. Come on out if you can!

Gretchen, it's yours!

paddle on!

[hfunkhouser]

I will take Winslow to Brentwood I'll have a couple of helpers.

[Half Ton]

If you can take the time to pre-register.....

DRAFT News Release

For information call Nicole Hardiman at 527-0700

Volunteers needed for West Fork Cleanup on May 14th

For immediate release – April 21, 2011

The 6th annual West Fork Cleanup will be held from 8 a.m. to noon Saturday, May 14, at Riverside Park, located off state Hwy. 170 in quaint downtown West Fork. Volunteers will check in from 8-9:30 a.m. at the park, then fan out to stations along the river and clean up targeted areas. The cleanup will end at 11 a.m., when a burrito buffet will be served. In addition to the cleanup, a tour of the Brentwood Stream Restoration will be offered at 9 a.m. and a cardboard boat race will be staged at noon.

Volunteers are needed and may pre-register by calling 527-0700 or show up that day and register on-site. Children under 18 must be accompanied by an adult. Cleanup participants will be supplied with trash bags, maps to cleanup locations, gloves, and drinking water. All volunteers will be required to sign up and complete liability forms. Sites on the cleanup list include Baptist Ford, Tilly Willy Bridge, Dye Creek Road, Woolsey Bridge, Brentwood Mountain Road, and the Winslow Ballpark.

“The West Fork of the White River flows into Beaver Lake,” said Nicole Hardiman, who works for Audubon Arkansas, one of the event sponsors. “Beaver Lake is our drinking water, so we gather annually to clean up the West Fork and build awareness about our precious water resources.”

Mayor Frances Hime has been volunteering for the cleanup for several years, and she’s proud to be there once again, this time as mayor.

“When we clean up the West Fork, we are protecting our source of safe drinking water and caretaking wildlife habitat,” Hime said. “We love hosting this event and gathering local community members to help with this task. We have kids from the schools, scout troops, 4H members, canoe club folks, churches, business members, and whole families who come every year to help out. It’s a lot of fun and so important.”

As in years past, the event is being coordinated by the West Fork Watershed Alliance (formerly the West Fork Environmental Protection Association). Sponsors and partners also include Arkansas Earth Day Foundation, Arkansas Game & Fish Commission, Arkansas Stream Team, Arvest Bank, Bank of Fayetteville, Beaver Water District, City of West Fork, Keep Arkansas Beautiful, Pack Rat Outdoor Center, Tyson Foods, University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service, Washington County Environmental Affairs, and the Watershed Conservation Resource Center.

For more information, call 527-0700. To download a flyer, visit http://www.bwdh2o.org" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;.


Pre-registration does not commit you to the cleanup in case the water is better to float somewhere else on that day, but it does make the other organizers feel a tad bit better.

Give Nicole a call if you get a chance.

[ozarkin]

Just noticed that you had a typo....The initial post says that the cleanup is on May 15, that is a Sunday. The actual date is May 14, 2011

[Half Ton]

Ozarkin -Thanks for pointing that out!


The cleanup is indeed being held this Saturday May 14th .


Thanks again to those who are planning to participate, be a cleanup site leader, or claiming river stretches to clean up.

Right now though it looks like some sections will not be floatable, but I guess we'll have a better idea on Saturday morning .

If someone would like to be a site leader since your section may be dry, that is also an option since we could use one more site leader (easy and is a short job).

Just give a call if you would like to site lead 97o 355o

Thanks

Arkayou aka half ton aka yahoo aka john

[kru1]

What a great day for a great cause, and most importantly a great float. We did the Brentwood to Woolsy Bridge section.

Brought the 17'er with the intent to use it as a barge that we would have drag through shoals. Not the case, didn't have to drag it once, only had to line it through one strainer.

We had a kayaker with us who would bounce bank to bank grabbing anything w/i paddle's length and come back and drop it in the floating repository. At gravel bars we would all get out and load up.

With the help of two other folks on land we organized an impromptu drop-off location, which allowed us to grab another boat-load of trash.

I found this to be a real effective and efficient method to clean a stream from river level. We still had to leave a ton out there, there's only so much one boat can carry (we found this to be 6 tires, a sheet of steel and corrugated tin, misc. iron, a bicycle, a bible, and a whole lot of plastic trash and bottles.)

kru

[Half Ton]

nice pic!

Thanks for coming out and helping with the cleanup!

89 folk turned out to help cleanup the West Fork this past Saturday. The weather was like late winter instead of late spring. A hare over 10% were ACC or others from the boating community. Way to go guys and gals!

Just under 4,000lbs was cleaned up and unfortunately thats all we could get - as much much more trash remains from the recent floods.

Here are some more pics

Youth from the West Fork Stream Team and STAR club


Truck load # 1 for this crew of ladies




Boy Scouts meant business!



Funkhouser in style!


rust bucket recycle pick up with a $$$$ load



doorprize time!




Thanks again for all of the great help gus and gals! It's hard to get a river clean without some boat support.