Cadron Hwy 65 Pick Up and Paddle: Sat 1-19-2013

[Deuce]

We were driving home from the Buffy yesterday and saw the pile. Looked like a dandy. Sorry I couldn't make this one, but I was busy introducing a ten year old boy to the magic of the Buffalo in winter.

[Cowper]

Those of you who have "friended" me on Facebook have probably already seen this, but here's an epilog about our clean-up day:

When I turned in the "report card" so that we would get credit with the Highway Department for cleaning our stretch of road, I checked off the block for "much more trash than previous clean-ups". And when I talked with them on the phone to have them come pick up the litter we collected, I sort of "apologized" for the size of the pile, and mentioned that it was partly due to dumping of large items like the couch we found under the bridge.

I also mentioned that I wanted to talk to someone about the possibility of closing off this road, to stop the dumping, but later I decided to drop that project and not pursue it up the chain of command in the Highway Department because I was afraid the dumpers would only go somewhere else, so we would be "hiding" a problem or pushing it off on someone else instead of solving it. But apparently the seed of an idea I planted sprouted: on Feb 1 we noticed the south access road now has a gate. (The boating access on the north side remains open.)

This will be an interesting social experiment. Will they now simply dump under the North side of the bridge? Or will they find some other place to dispose of their tires and furniture? (I can only hope they will find a legal option; such things do exist.) Either way, the drug deals will have to move somewhere, and any legitimate fishermen will now have to park their car up on the highway where they can't watch it and walk down if they want to fish the South Bank. We'll also see how long it takes before there is a rutted track around the gate.

Regardless of the final outcome, I take this gate as a compliment to the ACC for doing "too good" of a job at the clean up effort!

New Gate at Cadron Creek

[Cowper]

And one final comment: This is a good example of how litter and dumping by a few can cause others to lose access. At least this time the boaters did not lose access, but others did.

If you want to help protect boater access, always pick up any litter you find at the put-in or take-out, no matter who left it. Landowners notice these things!

[Clif]

I remember huge dumps under the p springs bridge.. back in the day. I am sure a LARGE part of that gate. Other spots also